Chapter Thirteen #2
We couldn’t stop now. There was still work to be done, and I couldn’t wallow in everything I’d lost when there were still lives at stake.
I’d already given up everything for this key, and there was no getting those pieces of myself back.
If uniting these Divinity Keys and opening the Elven Gate destroyed me completely, then what was one last piece to lose?
We had to get these keys to the Elven Gate and be done with it.
I rose to my feet and placed my two keys back in my pocket. “It’s not over yet. Once the Elven Gate is open, we can ask the gods for help, and this war can be over with. Come on!”
We took off running toward the Elven Gate, which was hidden in the woods not far from here.
The Institute had been destroyed beyond recognition, but I still remembered this forest. Ava and I had snuck through these trees all those years ago during the Darke Games.
It was the day we discovered the Elven Gate, and I remembered it well.
Oberi guided me through the trees, and my heart pounded as we grew closer with every step.
Anticipation surged through me until I wanted to erupt.
The Warden was finally going to get what was coming to him.
We were mere seconds away from opening the Elven Gate and restoring our connection to the Blessed Haven.
If nothing else mattered, at least we’d finally be done with the Warden for good.
I could feel the magic of the Elven Gate pulsing up ahead. It couldn’t be more than twenty yards off. We were so close.
Then everything came to a screeching halt as my Air magic sensed a single feather fall to the ground.
The forest tilted around us. My stomach turned to bricks as a feeling of utter devastation replaced our near-victory. Leaves crunched beneath heavy boots, and the unmistakable sound of the Warden’s chilling laughter rang through the air as he placed himself between us and the Elven Gate.
Every muscle in my body contracted in his presence. The four of us skidded to a stop. Oberi began barking as if he was rabid, fury festering through our bond, and Rishi hissed.
Rage overcame me. I didn’t waste a second to stop and think. I threw my hands up to cast a spell, but Marcus shoved my arms to the side, and the deadly blast of Air I’d conjured spun off into the forest, toppling trees but leaving the Warden untouched.
“He’s got a hostage!” Marcus cried.
Only then did I assess what lay before us. A woman cried out in pain from beside the Warden, as if he were dragging her along by her hair. I didn’t recognize her voice, but I sensed the witch magic within her.
The hostage is a witch in her sixties, Oberi quickly noted for me. She’s covered in bruises, has short hair and cat-eye glasses, along with an eye tattoo on the back of her hand. Sound like anyone you know?
Not in the slightest.
“Who is she?” I demanded of Marcus.
“I— I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never seen her before in my life.”
I didn’t know what sick game the Warden was playing, and why he thought we should care for the life of an unknown woman. And yet, I found myself hesitating to deliver a blow, because this innocent person would surely be harmed by my spell.
Perhaps there was still some good left in me.
I had to hold on to that and fight for it, because I refused to go back to the monster I’d once been.
If we were going to die here on Darke Island, and that’s where our graves were always meant to be, we’d go down fighting the Warden.
I’d perish knowing there was at least some sense of dignity left in me.
“You think you can show up on my island and I wouldn’t know about it?” the Warden bellowed. “You tried to protect yourself from my Seer’s spells, but she knows everything that happens at the Darke Institute.”
So this was his Seer— the one Ava and I had overheard him speaking about all those years ago when we were investigating the Infernal Underground.
He’d been certain there were demigods at the Institute because a Seer had foretold it.
He’d been using this witch to obtain visions about the future, and by the looks of it, she was anything but a willing participant.
This deplorable man had tortured her, and now that she’d outlived her usefulness, he was using her as a shield.
I noticed that besides the hostage, the Warden had come alone. He was unaccompanied by his army of antidemigods, The Mission, or even the dark gods he’d been working with, which meant he was confident enough in his power that he believed he could kill us all single-handedly.
I knew he could. After the power he’d displayed at the camps, it would be all too easy for him to do.
“Hand over the Divinity Keys,” the Warden sneered.
“Or what, you’ll kill the witch?” I demanded.
I was stalling, because I knew the Warden could’ve ripped us to pieces already, so he must’ve had some other motive in bringing this witch along.
He had to know I’d hesitate, because it was obvious we weren’t going to win this.
Either way, I was going to try and save the life of this unknown person, because it was the right thing to do, and I was sick of going down the wrong path.
The Warden laughed. “You think I brought her here to negotiate with you? She’s here as punishment for refusing to divulge the information I wanted from her. But it’s no matter— I got what I wanted, and now, you will hand over the keys. That isn’t a request.”
Ez’s words echoed in my mind. If you take his wings? Then he loses the source of his magic, and he dies.
The Warden was powerful, but without a magical source, he could do nothing to hurt us. I wasn’t leaving here without every last one of his feathers in my hands.
I attacked before the Warden could, blasting a spell so fast he didn’t have time to react. I melded my Air and Earth magic together, causing a column of wind and stone to spiral forward at the same time the ground snapped to form a crevice between us.
The Warden shoved the witch aside, and she landed with a heavy thud on the ground. She scrambled away from him, her hands trembling against the earth in terror.
He spread his wings and leapt into the air, but I commanded roots to whip out from beneath him and wrap around his ankles, dragging him back down. My roots clawed upward, reaching for his wings to rip them from his body.
The Warden flapped his wings with such immense power that he broke free of my roots like they were mere threads waiting to snap. He laughed manically, like he was nothing short of amused.
I ran forward, siphoning power from Oberi. A quick shift into a wyvern would give me the brute strength to get this job done. I’d rip the Warden’s wings out with my fangs. I felt Oberi’s shifter magic tingle through me, then immediately recoil, ripped violently away.
“Oberi, help!” I begged. “I need your magic!”
What do you want me to do? Oberi snapped. I can’t shift because of your dad’s stupid collar, and I can’t send any magic your way! The collar prevents that! I can’t help you!
For fuck’s sake. Cameron wasn’t even here, and he’d all but killed us. He couldn’t screw us over more than he already had.
I ran toward Oberi, attempting to yank the collar off or break it apart, but it just wouldn’t budge. It was stuck around his neck, and we didn’t have any time to figure out how to take it off.
Pivot, I heard my grandfather say, his lessons resonating from somewhere deep down. I changed strategies.
“Everybody hit him at once!” I shouted to my friends, and they sprang forward immediately to cast spells.
Kallie and Marcus used simultension to form an impressive battle orb that whizzed through the forest and exploded against the Warden’s chest. Despite the orb hitting him head-on, it didn’t faze him, merely disintegrated against his form.
Oberi raced forward in a mad rage, leaping upward off my roots to jump toward the Warden.
His teeth snagged the end of the Warden’s trousers, and fabric tore as Oberi dragged the angel out of the air.
Danny crossed the space between us and the Warden in a split second, and he used his superstrength to tackle the Warden and pin him to the ground.
I was there a moment later, my hands curling around the thickest bones of the Warden’s wings, right where they sprouted from his back.
I yanked with all my strength. Blood sprayed over Danny and me as a satisfying snap of bones filled the forest. Flesh tore and gave way beneath my hands as I ripped the Warden’s precious wings— and the source of his power— from his body, tearing them free.
The Warden gave a pained cry, and I relished in the satisfaction of causing him agony.
This was payback for every time he’d dared to harm someone I loved— every second the people I cared for ever crossed his mind, for through the Warden’s suffering, the suffering of others would finally end.
No longer would he run his sick experiments, nor would he rampage through the Earth taking lives and destroying everything he touched.
For the briefest of moments, the Warden would know the pain he caused.
His spirit would be ripped from his body at my hands, and the power he’d amassed in this life would be rendered useless.
He’d be nothing more than a shell of his former self, with no access to the demigod abilities he’d acquired.
Now that his wings were gone, we could finally defeat him.
His wings fell away from his body. Oberi growled as he took the feathers in his mouth and yanked the wings far from the Warden’s quivering form, so he couldn’t get them back.
“Looks like your request has been denied,” I sneered cruelly. I drew my hand back to deliver the killing blow.