CHAPTER 43
Zarreth
Light erupts from the portal, so bright it blinds me. The first surge hits fast, heat rolling through the clearing, the air cracking like thunder.
“First one!” Graven shouts over the noise. “Be ready for the second!”
The ground quakes beneath us. The horses rear and toss their heads, hooves striking at the air. Frankie’s hand finds mine before the light fades, leaving us in heavy silence.
Then I smell him.
Smoke. Sulfur. The metallic rot of corrupted magic.
A slow clap echoes through the haze. “Oh, you didn’t start the party without me, did you?”
“Don’t look so surprised,” he says, voice smooth and amused. “You didn’t think I’d let all this power go to waste? After all, I’ll be an Elder soon enough, and when I am, every portal in existence will answer to me.”
Frankie steps forward, her voice steady despite the tremor in the ground. “The portal only answers to the Gods.”
Dante grins, sharp and sure. “Maybe once. The Gods may have built it, but I’m the one who controls it now.
Every creature I’ve sent through that doorway left a little piece of me behind.
The more it tore, the more it took, the more it fed me.
” His grin spreads wider, wolfish. “You call it unstable. I call it evolution.”
Rhea’s scream tears right through me. “You killed her!”
She bolts forward before anyone can stop her.
Dante’s grin doesn’t waver. He lifts a hand and Rhea’s feet leave the ground. She hangs suspended, choking, her boots kicking against invisible force.
“Let her go!” Frankie yells, rushing forward, light flaring around her hand.
That’s when the second surge hits. The portal erupts with blinding light, hurling sand and rock across the clearing. The ground fractures, a deep groan splitting through the earth. Wind slams into us hard enough to lift me off my feet. Frankie stumbles, but is back up before I can trace to her.
Jess screams, her body jerking forward like invisible chains are pulling her. “Dante…” The whisper slips from her lips as Graven’s shield flashes to life around her. She hits it hard, crumpling to her knees, the glow from the barrier flickering over her skin.
Dante’s head snaps toward her, eyes burning. “Protective, aren’t we?” he calls, voice dripping with mockery. “She already belongs to me.”
I take advantage of his distraction. Fire blasts from my hand and hits him square in the chest, sending him skidding through the dirt and breaking whatever hold he had on Rhea.
She crashes into the ground, rolls, and pushes up, lunging at the nearest shifter.
Dante rises slowly, smoke curling from his shoulders, the last of my fire fading against his skin. He looks down at himself, flicking off a fleck of ash, and grins. “Careful, handsome, you almost made me feel that.”
His grin sharpens, his bones cracking. Claws split through his fingers as the hellhound side takes over. His back arches, shoulders bulging as black veins crawl across his skin.
“Zarreth.” Frankie’s voice cuts through the noise.
I glance her way as black smoke bursts from her back. Lightning tears through it as wings unfurl. The air trembles under the force of them. Her magic floods our bond, fueling my own.
Dante falters, his grin fading into something close to awe. “Now that is art.”
Her light slams into his chest while I strike from the other side. Fire and lightning twist together, our powers feeding off the surge raging around us.
He lunges through it all, claws sparking as they scrape the stone. I meet him head-on, flame colliding with shadow. Every strike rattles the earth, every hit matched with her light at my side.
Frankie doesn’t hesitate. She’s everywhere at once, her movements sharp and sure, her magic finally hers.
Rhea charges in beside me, her spear blazing with light. Dante whirls toward her, claws cutting through the smoke, but she twists and drives the weapon clean through his side. Dark blood splatters across the stone, hissing where it lands.
He snarls, backhanding her with such force it sends her sprawling across the ash. I’m on him in an instant, flames ripping from my hands and slamming into his chest. The blast hurls him back, the ground splitting under the force.
He slowly rises, eyes hot with anger. “Three against one,” he sneers. “You think that makes a difference?”
Frankie steps forward as a bright light builds around her. “It will.”
Together, we close in: Rhea’s spear, my fire, Frankie’s magic. We push him back step by step as the roar of the portal fades.
The light behind us flickers, the wind dying down as the surge dies out.
“It’s time,” I say, forcing the words out, though my body is screaming at me not to.
Frankie meets my eyes across the chaos. I love you, she mouths. Then she runs straight for the portal, and watching her go is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
She’s so small, so gentle. She’s everything good about this world. It doesn’t deserve her. I should stop her, pull her back before it’s too late, and I almost do. But Dante lunges after her.
I quickly launch more fire into his chest, forcing him back long enough for her to reach the edge. She glances over her shoulder one last time, giving me a small smile, and steps through.
And then she’s gone, the light swallowing her whole.
The ground settles. The air stills. And for the first time in days, the portal is silent.
For a second, I can’t move. My chest feels hollow, the bond stretched thin until I can barely feel her at all. I want to trace after her, pull her back, but I don’t.
She’s in there, and I have to believe she’ll make it out.
If she doesn’t, I won’t be far behind.