Chapter 50
Dianna
“W e have to go. There are more coming!” Neverra yelled.
We began cutting a path through the Irvikuva that had reached us.
I had never seen a horde as large as this one.
They swarmed, blanketing the sky and diving at us as we escaped the burning factory.
We ran down steps and through hidden tunnels, trying to find our way back to the cavern where we had entered.
I stopped, my side, my shoulder, my whole being burning.
Logan and Neverra flanked me, their weapons at the ready.
I tried to catch my breath, but I was weak, and my body was failing.
How could I kill Kaden and make him pay for what he’d done to her, to us, when I could barely even stand?
Hate and anger ran through my veins. Here I was, running down another tunnel, only this time away from him.
Something inside me cracked. No. I wouldn’t be her anymore. I wouldn’t.
“Where is the stone?”
Neverra and Logan looked at me, their skin glowing with celestial blue. The Irvikuva were all around us. They loved the hunt and were closing in.
Logan slid a hand into his pocket. His eyes went wide, and his face turned grim. “Uhh.”
“Logan!” I practically screamed. “You lost it?”
“What stone?” Neverra asked.
“Dianna had Camilla make a stone to transport her out. She gave it to me, so I had a way to get you out, but I guess it fell during battle.”
Neverra turned slowly and looked at me, her head tipped to the side. “You were going to save us?”
I rolled my eyes and pushed between them. “Let’s not make a big deal out of it. Without that stone, we’re stuck here with no way out. Not that it matters because we are also hopelessly lost!”
“There has to be another way,” Logan said, desperation filling his voice. He looked around as if there might be a secret door somewhere that would lead us back to Onuna.
I placed my hand on my head and turned in a slow circle, afraid to stop moving.
Neverra grabbed Logan’s arm. “What about a portal?”
“I don’t think Samkiel can hear us from here, Nev.”
The cries of the Irvikuva grew louder. Neverra lowered her voice and nodded at me. “Not him, her.”
“Me?” I looked at her in disbelief. “In case you all got hit on your heads very hard back there and forgot, I can’t open portals to other realms.”
Logan’s face lit up as if he heard whatever Neverra didn’t say out loud.
Neverra stood shoulder to shoulder with Logan, hope glowing in her eyes. “No, but you have Kaden’s power, and he can make them.”
I tried to ignore the way she said those words so casually. It burned my gut to know I carried pieces of his power and how they sought to make me like him. Worse was the suspicion that maybe I had always carried the seed of the bloodthirsty monster, and all his power had done was awaken it.
“You can do this, okay?” Neverra’s hand on my shoulder pulled me from my dark thoughts.
“You are equal parts him and yourself, and from what your sister said, you are stubborn and determined when you have your mind set on something. So set it to this, and we won’t need some magic stone.
We just need you. We need you, Dianna, just like Gabby did.
So there’s no dying today. Not for you, not for us. ”
“Well, I failed her, so—”
“No! No, you didn’t, and you won’t fail us either.”
Her words soothed the part of me that so desperately needed absolution.
“Even if I have the power, I don’t know how.”
Logan rubbed at his chin. “Samkiel always told us when training with his father that you have to picture where you want to go in your mind. Think of a door leading to a place you want to go. You open it not with your hands but with your power. Visualize it and want it more than anything.”
“That sounds stupid,” I scoffed. “I don’t even know where to take us.”
“Yes, you do.” Neverra met my gaze. “Think of the one place you would feel safe. Where we all would be safe.”
Logan nodded, and I got the impression they were having a secret conversation. “Think of home.”
“And quickly, please,” Neverra added.
The lines beneath her eyes shone brighter, but her gaze had focused past me.
I realized just how quiet the cavern had fallen and turned to look.
Several pairs of bright red eyes glared at us from the end of the tunnel, their mouths wide with large, gaping smiles.
The Irvikuva screeched and clawed their way toward us.
“Run!” Logan commanded in the same voice I imagined he used on the battlefield.
We barreled down the corridor, every muscle I had screamed in protest as I pushed my body past its limits.
Our feet barely touched the ground as we ran.
Logan threw a ball of cobalt energy at the same time I launched a fireball.
The tunnel shook as they collided, vaporizing the Irvikuva at the front of the horde and setting nearly a dozen more aflame.
They screeched and fell, only to have the ones behind trample their corpses. It helped, but it wasn’t enough.
We rounded a corner and emerged into a large cavern. I skidded to a stop, Logan and Neverra flanking me. More red eyes emerged from the darkness. We stepped back, but the Irvikuva behind us rounded the corner. They gathered in the opening but didn’t attack. We were trapped.
“Damn,” I breathed, actually looking at where we were. Now I know why the ones behind us had stopped. They didn’t need to move us anymore. They had been herding us, and we were right where they wanted us.
A slow hum filled the cavern, the song one I had grown to hate. Heavy footsteps landed against the stone, and the Irvikuva parted.
“Bravo, Dianna. You made it to Yejedin. I am so proud of you. Unfortunately, this is where your journey ends, pet.”
That voice. A chill went through me, goosebumps erupting over my skin. Kaden stepped from the shadows, and I saw red. Blood pounded in my ears, and the beast inside me roused, focusing on her prey.
I would rip him to pieces. I took a step forward, and Neverra and Logan moved with me. Reality snapped back into place.
“Oh.” His shoulders shook in mock fear. “They seem protective of you. Even after all you’ve done? How precious.”
Neverra and Logan flicked their wrists, and armor crawled over their bodies. They were protecting me. My heart ached.
“That’s what families do,” Neverra said, a blade spinning into her hand. “And you all are a poor excuse for it.”
Kaden sneered at her. “Oh, the whimpering bitch has a mouth now?”
Logan raised his blade and pointed it at Kaden. “And you’re about to lose yours for talking to her like that.”
Kaden’s laugh contained genuine amusement. “Please, put those away. You are insulting me, thinking you could actually fight me and win.”
“Only one way to find out,” Logan said, gripping his weapon tighter.
“We were just leaving,” I said, stepping in front of Logan and Neverra, drawing Kaden’s full attention. Even if my strength was waning and parts of me ached and rebelled, I couldn’t let him take them.
“But you just made it home.”
“Well, you know what they say. Home is where the heart is, and you kindly ripped mine out.”
“Such poetry. I miss that.”
I weighed my options: keep him talking and try to summon a portal or create a big enough distraction to get us all out. I settled on the latter. It would take every bit of strength I had left to do what I had planned. A part of me didn’t care if I burned up and died, but I wanted them to survive.
Flames erupted on my hands, illuminating the cavern. I hadn’t noticed the Irvikuva on the ceiling until then. We were so completely outnumbered.
“Let’s be reasonable here,” Kaden said, taking a step closer, his hands still in his pockets. “I can feel it. All you’ve used, all you’ve done incorrectly. Power, even as great as ours, has limits. You won’t last a second, Dianna.”
I shrugged. “Well, like Logan said. Let’s find out.”
I shot one hand out in front and the other behind me, trying to build a wall of flame on each side of us.
I just needed to hold it long enough to figure a way out for them.
The fire roared, filling the tunnel in both directions.
Irvikuva screeched and burst into flames when it touched them.
Body parts fell, their remains charred and falling to ash as I unleashed all I had left.
Logan grabbed Neverra and knelt beside me, covering her body with his own, but they remained untouched by flame.
The wall of flame surrounded us, reaching higher and ripping apart the rock ceiling, crushing more of the beasts.
You will have a choice. One you must make. Choose out of selflessness, and the path is set. Choose vengeance, and well, the outcome will be devastating.
Roccurem’s voice echoed in my head.
I glanced at Logan and Neverra. They remained still and focused on me, their hands clasped and waiting for orders. They were prepared to stay, to die, for me. The need to save them warred with the part of me that raged and clawed, begging for vengeance.
There was no way I could kill Kaden and save them. I had to make a choice: the revenge that I so desperately craved or the lives of two people Gabby had loved.
They’re my friends.
Gabby’s words whispered across my subconscious. For Gabby, I would try. It is the choice she would want me to make. I hadn’t saved her, but I could save two people she loved.
I glanced back at Kaden, and something inside of me snapped.
A lock on a door in a house rattled, and I let it open a fraction.
“This is it, Dianna, your defining moment. I’m right here.
A target for all that rage and hate you’ve been drowning in.
I am what you have been hunting, so come and get me!
” Kaden shouted over the noise of the flames and tumbling cavern.
He was stalling, looking for an opening.
I knew if he reached me, I’d never leave.
I knew it with every fiber of my being. “You won’t get another chance. This is it.”