Chapter 40 #3
“More than an army.” I turned to Logan. “This is the part where our little partnership ends.”
“What? No.”
“Go find Neverra.”
He looked at me like I was the crazy one. You would never know he had been charging headfirst into battle earlier. “I will, but we can do that together. There are way too many creatures here for us to split up.”
I raised my hand, keeping my voice as low but serious as possible.
“Logan, stop. I am not your friend or teammate, and I am not part of your little celestial family, but your family needs you right now. This is my problem, and I have to end it.” I reached into my pocket, pulling out a small obsidian stone.
I grabbed his hand and placed it in his palm. “Find her and use this.”
He glanced down at the small stone in his hand. “What’s this?”
“It’s something Camilla made. She said it could create a rift, but only for a little while. I think she hoped I would change my mind after I killed Kaden, but I never planned to use it for me. I was going to send Neverra back. If he were going to kill her, he would have already.”
Logan’s face scrunched as if he couldn’t believe what I had said. “Why?”
“Gabby liked you both. You were kind to her and protected her when I couldn’t. You gave her a home. I owe you.” I didn’t lie this time, and I hoped my voice didn’t break as much as it felt like it did.
“You were going to bring her back to me?” Logan nodded, closing his hand around the stone. “Gabriella was right about you. You are amazing.” He leaned forward, grabbed my face, and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
I pushed him away. “Ew. Don’t get emotional.”
He snorted as I wiped my cheek. “What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to destroy it all.”
Logan didn’t move, but I could see that he was torn, his protective instincts being pulled in two directions.
He looked past me, his eyes going distant and his expression twisting as if in pain.
He reached out and gripped my shoulders.
“Be careful, Dianna.” He ran past me, his footsteps fading down the hall.
I turned back, watching as more of the dead, controlled by Tobias, emptied another shipment of iron into the cauldrons.
I took a few steps back and stretched out my arms, inhaling deeply.
I pulled on that kernel of power deep within me, the part I had been feeding and fueling for months now.
The part I saved and honed waiting for this exact moment, and I let it burn.
Dark mist swirled around my feet and crawled up my body, scales replacing my skin.
As my form grew, my arms shifted into wings.
Thunder cracked, rage and ruin unleashed.
Light illuminated our small room in Eoria.
The storm hit just after our parents tucked us into bed.
I craned my neck to see out the window, watching the light dance across the sky.
I loved it, and Ain hated it. She hid under her covers, jumping when another large crack echoed across the sky.
I jumped out of bed and hurried to her side.
“It’s so loud.” She curled up even tighter.
“Dada says it’s the season for it.”
She yelped as another loud boom cracked. “Don’t you get scared, Mer-ka?”
Thunder ate up the sky outside. “Yes, but you know what I do?”
“What?” she whispered, her voice small.
“I imagine a room with all these doors where I can lock the scary monsters away. Then I’m not scared anymore. I imagine a stronger version of me locking the door and taking over. I pretend I am that, and then I can do anything.”
Rain beat against the roof, and she trembled harder. My hand reached out, moving the strands of her hair from her face as she glanced at me. I still remembered when Mama had her, how much smaller she was then. I remembered Mama asking me to watch over her, too, because I was a big sister now.
“It will be okay, Ain. I promise. No thunder will get you.”
She swallowed, hugging the covers tighter. “It’s not thunder. Dada said it’s the gods fighting.”
“He doesn’t know everything.”
She peeked out at the growing storm. “What if they are coming for us?”
“Don’t worry.” I said, her gaze snapping back to me “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you, and if they try to get you, I’ll kick their butts.”
“You can’t say that word,” she whispered, but I heard the giggle.
“I won’t tell if you won’t.” I tugged on her blanket. “Now, come out of there.”
Lightning flashed in the room, illuminating us both. She slipped her small hand out and extended her pinky.
“Only if you pinky promise to keep me safe,” she said.
I linked mine with hers and slipped into bed next to her. “Pinky promise.”
Fire erupted from my throat, blasting a hole through the roof.
I launched my body into the air, my tail whipping behind me, propelling me up.
My form was larger than before. Every kill, every drop of blood had created the damned beast Kaden had so desperately wanted. And the one he would soon regret.
The balcony railing fell, crushing all beneath it.
Wounded creatures screeched, their cries following me.
The steam and smoke billow around me, my wings forming eddies in the air.
This was the place he hid, the place he held her.
I threw my head back and roared before tucking my wings close and plummeting toward the ground.
I would leave nothing but ruin in my wake.
Flames made of wrath and agony blasted from my throat.
I incinerated the factory and everything inside it.
Creatures covered in flames ran, but there was no escaping me.
A few attempted to fly away, but they fell from the sky, screaming.
I was fury and desolation. Vengeance and hate.
Beginning and end. I was death incarnate.
Smoke billowed up in a dark, hateful cloud.
My wings beat against it, propelling me higher.
I circled and passed. The sound that left me surpassed my mortality, past my grief and pain.
It was a hollow, beckoning, wretched challenge that shook the world.
A war cry.