Chapter Sixty-Eight
Castor Aegaeon
“No!” was all I could think to say, all I could fathom, as my premonition unraveled in a devastating tragedy.
Witnessing this nightmare felt like a dagger spearing my chest, the tip piercing my immortal heart and forcing it to cease beating. Scorching burns from smoldering embers of the magma chamber would be a welcome pain compared to witnessing this scene unfold.
“Not without you by my side, Skylar!” Daxton roared.
The panic in his voice teetered on sheer madness. I tensed as Daxton summoned every drop of strength his body could muster and hurled it at the veil of magic separating him from his mate on the inside.
Fuck, here we go.
I attempted to brace myself, but I’d seen the inevitable. Daxton’s magic ricocheted against the barrier and exploded inside the volcano’s chamber, blasting us with the full force of his powers.
I closed my eyes and braced for the impact as my body was thrown backward, colliding with Shaw in his panther form. Thankfully, I was not underneath him, or else I would have died from the impact of his body weight against the rocks.
“Fucking gods-dammit!” I cursed as I rolled onto the ground next to Shaw. “Fuck!” I was so angry I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
How could she do this? How delusional was she? I thought I’d taught her better than this. I thought she’d understood…
But how could I be so furious with a sacrifice such as this? Willingly giving her life so others could carry on. Was there a more noble or brave cause?
Skylar was going to die.
And… And, somehow, I was responsible for keeping my brother from following her.
“I will always find you,” Skylar cried out.
I trembled, my heart racing, knowing this was all the time they had left together.
My brother remained silent as Skylar’s life force began drifting into the cursed stone destined to save us. I moved onto my hands and knees, shielding myself from the blinding vortex of magic building around her.
“Daxton,” Skylar whimpered, and I knew… Gods above, I knew this was it.
My brother needed to answer her. He would never forgive himself if he didn’t. I willed myself to glance at Daxton, praying for him to find the strength to answer her. To do the unthinkable and say goodbye.
I didn’t hear my brother’s final words to her over the thundering waves of magic, but I watched his lips move as he said farewell to his mate.
The sorrow in Daxton’s expression broke my heart.
What was the point of all this power if Daxton couldn’t use it to save the one who mattered most? The one who completed his soul, his very essence. I knew my brother would give anything, everything, to keep her. But he knew he couldn’t.
Shaw moved beside me, tucking his massive head next to my shoulder as we braced against the spiraling winds. No words could be said to comfort Daxton. All we could do was watch this unfold, helpless to do anything to break this thread of fate.
A blinding white light sprang from Skylar’s chest, filling the cavern with a flood of magic that raised the fallen stones from the floor and churned the magma beneath our feet.
It was indescribable.
Magic flooded my center, and I felt alive. More alive than I had been in the last five hundred years. My magic surged through me like a river breaking free of its dam, its untamed power awakening a dormant piece of my soul—something I hadn’t known was missing, let alone lost.
And then I heard him, no, correction, I felt him.
As the flash of light settled in the cavern, Shaw and I gazed toward the inevitable sacrifice that would threaten to shatter the fabric of our worlds.
“Gods above,” I cursed as silver tears pooled in my gaze.
Daxton stood with Skylar cradled in his arms. His ironclad grip on her lifeless body held her upright, refusing to allow her to fall.
I helplessly watched as my brother collapsed onto his knees, pulling Skylar into his chest. His stare locked onto the motionless body of his mate, refusing to believe the reality of what his eyes beheld.
Shaw forced himself to stand on shaking legs as a stray tear trickled along his whiskers.
Lowering his head, Shaw’s lips pulled back in angst, revealing ivory teeth contrasting against his black coat.
His claws extended and scraped the stone.
Arching his back, Shaw released a loud, mournful roar into the chasm.
The cry rattled my bones, filled with so much grief and emotion that it was hard to breathe.
I strained against the pain in my own heart as I willed myself to crawl toward my brother. I couldn’t imagine the grief tearing him apart, how it felt to hold…
Gods-fucking-dammit.
I felt a tug at my center, and somehow, I knew it was Nyssa. Something was happening back at camp. My throat cracked as terror began settling in my core.
The silence inside the volcano was otherworldly as I cautiously approached my brother’s side. Standing at his shoulder, I cursed the Gods for bestowing this fate on Daxton and Skylar.
How cruel was it to allow them this happiness and then tear them apart so shortly after? My brother experienced so little joy in this world. Skylar had become his light, a ray of hope in the bleak existence he was forced to endure.
And now? Now…
I swallowed a heavy breath, my voice cracking as I dared to step closer. “Dax?”
My brother didn’t flinch at my word. Gods, he didn’t even blink. His stare was isolated solely on the face of his lifeless mate cradled in his arms.
I stilled, watching Daxton’s body tremble, and I swear even I stopped breathing. His hand quivered as he pulled back to gently cup Skylar’s cheek. The reality of his mate’s fate raged through his soul like a hurricane on the open seas.
Gently, Daxton brushed a strand of hair from Skylar’s brow, tucking it behind her ear as he gently kissed her cheek. Almost as if she were sleeping, and he was patiently waiting for her to wake from a dream.
“Dax?” I questioned once more, yet he still didn’t turn to look at me. Seconds passed in complete silence, five, ten, thirty… “Daxton!” I yelled.
Haunting silver eyes, not the gray ones I’d known all these centuries, snapped open to meet my gaze. I blinked and shifted backward, my eyes widening in shock at the vast well of power I felt emanating from my brother.
Daxton returned his focus to Skylar, lifting her closer and burying his face in her cascading golden-brown hair. His body shook as his grip on her tightened.
“No,” Daxton whimpered in disbelief. “No… no… no. Spitfire, y-you can’t—”
“Shaw, get back!” On instinct, I released my magic and created a barrier of ice to shield us. I didn’t have time to question how I managed to create the blockade. My brother’s magic was unstable, on the brink of exploding in a violent outburst.
“No!” Daxton roared into the chasm.
His scream was powerful enough to feel in the depths of your soul, followed by the most powerful blast of magic I’d ever experienced. I stumble back a step, holding onto anything I could to try and steady myself.
The pain of losing Skylar shattered him.
“No!” Daxton yelled once more. The depths of his loss echoed across the seas, atop every mountain peak and valley below—loud enough for all of Valdor to hear.
The magnitude of his grief caused the earth to tremble, threatening to tear the world apart as my brother’s soul bond to his mate lay broken.
“Castor, the volcano is going to erupt!” Shaw rasped in his human form as the pool of magma bubbled with boulders crumbling from the walls. “Castor! We need Daxton to teleport us out of here. The tunnel’s collapsed!”
“You think he’s coherent enough to do that?” I hissed as I lowered my ice barrier.
“It’s either that or we all die here with Sky!” Shaw inhaled a sharp breath as his expression hardened.
The admittance of his alpha’s passing tortured him almost as much as the reality of her sacrifice. Shaw’s eyes darkened as he scanned the rumbling ground near the entrance.
“I need to bring the dagger back to our people, and you need to settle Daxton enough to get us the fuck out of here.”
Without hesitating, Shaw sprinted across the way, dodging fallen boulders and leaping over fissures that would lead to a molten death to retrieve the alpha’s dagger.
Daxton’s wordless roar rang out once more, causing the volcano to shake, throwing me against the wall as his power lashed out in response to his grief.
The depths of his sorrow struck a blade through the center of my soul. Gods above, his pain was manifesting in his magic, on the brink of tearing the fabric of Valdor to pieces.
Then I realized… The stone. The fucking Heart of Valdor was amplifying his magic just like it had done with Skylar’s.
I will not lose my brother. I cursed the Gods. You can’t fucking have them both. Not this time.
Determination set in as I pushed myself from the wall and raced to my brother’s side. “Dax!” I roared, praying he could hear me through his grief. “Brother!” I screamed, reaching out to latch onto him.
I dug my fingers into his shoulders, which felt like hardened slabs of stone, trying to draw his attention away from Skylar and return to the current dangers threatening our lives.
My brother, my protector. The one who’d always been so strong.
“Daxton, please!” I cried out as he lifted his gaze to meet mine.
Tears streaked my brother’s face, and the canyon in my heart widened into a never-ending chasm, feeling his pain radiate from every facet of his being.
In our centuries together, I’d never witnessed tears fall from my brother’s face. Not when our mother’s body was burned at her funeral. Not when Daxton told me about our father’s death on the battlefield, nor when he finally returned home after a century in Minaeve’s court.
But now, this.
For the first time in over five centuries, I witnessed my brother’s true grief surfacing. Skylar’s death would forever leave a constant bleeding wound on his heart and soul.
“We need to escape, Dax,” I pleaded. “You need to get us out of here.”
My brother didn’t move. Gods, he didn’t even appear to be breathing.
“Dax!” I roared as I reached to take the stone from Skylar’s lap.
The movement toward her snapped him out of a trance. He bared his teeth with a feral growl, his eyes hardening as he abruptly got to his feet. Despite the stone no longer being in his possession, his eyes remained silver, his wild power pulsing in uncontrollable waves.
What in the Gods’ names was happening to him?
“Castor! Daxton!” Shaw’s voice broke the tension as he reached us, the alpha’s dagger clutched in his hand. “The volcano is collapsing! Please… Please, Daxton, get us out of here!”
The volcano rumbled as the heat in this death pit rocketed to an unbearable degree. I could see a survival instinct click in my brother’s mind, but I knew he was still lost in a haze of grief.
“Dax!” I yelled as I reached out to grasp his arm, motioning for Shaw to grab my shoulder. “Now!”
I don’t know how, but thankfully, my words reached my brother. And in a silver flash, he teleported us away.