Chapter Fifty-Eight
Arianna
“I never thought I’d get to witness you in your full form,” Vairik said, watching the two with a cautious gaze.
Rion stood protectively before her, the world beneath their feet bathed in flame. Arianna was fairly certain Rion had intended to eliminate Vairik with that last blow, but the male remained standing in a single patch of uncharred grass. Perhaps that was the extent of his power.
Vairik cocked his head with feigned confidence. “Will you not even grace me with a final conversation? Perhaps you’ve been too consumed by your animalistic desires that you’re no longer capable of such things.” He shook his head. “A shame. And here I was expecting some earth-shattering revelation.”
Vairik’s magic rose in a mighty wave, surging forward, attempting to consume her mind. It had once been a mighty force, something they all feared. Now it had been reduced to nothing. Like a youngling attempting to retrieve a treat from an adult’s closed fist.
Vairik’s face scrunched. He nervously licked his lips. “Tell me,” his magic kept attempting to prod at her mind. “Where is our dear Evelyn? Did the shattering bond finally break her?”
Rion roared and Vairik winced from the sound, then molten rock exploded from Rion’s mouth, slamming against Vairik’s invisible wall, momentarily blocking him from Arianna’s view.
The fire faded and Arianna noted the way the fringes of Vairik’s robes smoked with tiny red lines all along the edges. His palms had burned too, the skin blistered and oozing.
The male looked at his hands in disbelief. He staggered back and stared up at the pair with wide eyes. The male fell back again, clearly ready to flee.
As if they’d let him.
A gentle pulse echoed through Arianna’s body. She turned her attention inward, noting the friendly presence that had been living inside her for her entire life. She’d once called it a creature. Now she called it a friend.
Laoirse.
The previous Divine.
A queen who hadn’t been able to rest because she’d failed in her task.
She sought permission now and Arianna granted it, letting Laoirse expand using her own power.
Vairik’s lips parted as he watched Laoirse materialize, a ghostly figure walking across the field toward the male who had tried to ruin their lives.
Vairik threw out his magic again. It did nothing.
He stepped back, his mouth gaping, heart beating fast.
“Why do you fear me?” she asked, voice ethereal and dream-like.
Vairik stopped moving. His mouth gaped, taking her in from head to toe. “Laoirse.” He didn’t say the name with malice, but rather with reverence. As if she were the center of his entire world.
Laoirse tilted her head, staring at him. Weighing her next words. “For years I wanted nothing more than vengeance,” she admitted. “I wanted to watch you suffer and burn for everything you’d done.”
“I gave you freedom,” Vairik countered.
“Freedom? Freedom from what?”
“From him,” Vairik bared his teeth at Rion. “From the bond the world forced you to accept. I set your soul free.”
“You tore it apart,” Laoirse said, sadness lacing her tone. “You stole the most important person in the world to me.”
“No—”
“Yes,” Laoirse interrupted, her voice forceful and laced with grief. “Yet, you are the one who has suffered in shackles of your own creation.” Her gaze softened and with it, her voice. “You are the one who couldn’t escape.”
Vairik trembled. Arianna found herself surprised the male could even experience fear. “You promised we were forever. We had dreams. You were everything and then he—he—”
“We were younglings,” Laoirse said. “My promises were from one with a youthful heart. One who didn’t yet understand what forever meant. You’ve held onto the promises of a child.”
“No, no, I didn’t—” Rage tore through his features again and his magic lashed out, whipping the ash up like dark flakes of snow. Power flared around Laoirse’s body, as bright and all-consuming as Arianna’s own.
The female was a part of her and not, all at the same time. She was ancient and unyielding. And finally accepting her fate as it had been dealt.
Laoirse collected herself and stepped forward again.
“I have been allowed to come here and exact my own revenge for what you stole.” Vairik backed away.
Laoirse drew closer, her hand out stretched.
Rays of light extended from her palms and latched onto Vairik as if they were tendrils of living rope.
He screamed, the strands burning through the flesh around his wrists.
“I was taught The Divine had the ability to heal a soul, even one as lost as yours.” She clenched her fists and Vairik fell to his knees. “Although sometimes, it is not healing a soul needs, but torment.”
Vairik’s entire body shook. “What are you doing?”
“Showing you how little your version of freedom meant to me.” His eyes grew wide again.
“The gods have sentenced you to ten thousand years in the deepest pits of hell. There, you will suffer. There, you will face the consequences of your actions. Once you finish your sentence, we’ll see if your darkness can be cured. ”
“Wait,” Vairik pleaded, his voice far too calm for someone about to encounter eternal punishment. “Are you free? Are you safe in the afterlife?” He sounded so … sincere. As if the idea of Laoirse suffering wasn’t something he could handle.
Laoirse smiled, but before she could answer, Ellie emerged from the ash like a wraith and plunged her blade straight through Vairik’s heart.
Arianna stared at her little sister. She looked so frail and yet so fierce.
She’d sensed her, but Arianna had never imagined—no, somewhere inside herself, she’d known.
Vairik’s face collided with the hard ground.
Ellie twisted the blade, extracted it, then shoved it through his heart again.
Again. Again. Blood splattered across Ellie’s face.
She withdrew the blade. Plunged it down again.
“Ten thousand years,” Ellie spat. “To hell with that, you can burn for eternity.”
Arianna’s vision flickered, wanting to run to her sister, yet in her current form unable to fathom how she might comfort her.
“It’s okay,” Laoirse whispered. “It’s almost done.”
Laoirse turned to Rion next. Another figure emerged, this one extending from Rion’s own power. He looked so much like her mate, yet carried himself with an air of confidence Rion had never displayed. Like he was meant to rule. A king who’d fallen too soon.
Laoirse ran into his arms and the male pulled her in so tight her feet left the ground. No one moved for several long seconds, then Laoirse turned slightly. “Burn him.”
Ellie stumbled to her feet and backed away, coming to stand directly beside Rion’s massive claws. Fire erupted from Arianna’s mate, consuming Vairik’s body until there was absolutely nothing left.
A ten-thousand-year-old legacy burned to ash.
Laoirse and the male held one another close, his head buried in her hair. Another moment passed, then Laoirse said, “This power belongs to you now. Use it wisely and bring this land back to its former glory.”
Arianna nodded, a promise from one queen to another.
Then light opened in the heavens and the two phantom beings rose, becoming one with a light that blinked out as quickly as it had come.
Arianna stared after them, praying that when she and Rion finally chose to fade from the land, they would experience far less heartache.