Chapter 54 #2
When they separated again, she gained her bearings and looked around. It was still dark, despite him being calm. Why were the shadows still surrounding them? “What happened to the light?”
Caius withdrew the shadows that covered the essence lights, and Rory instinctively clutched him tighter when the light bounced off the wall of knives. She turned to where Gedeon lay and froze before searching the room frantically. “Where is he?” His body was gone.
Caius stood with her still in his arms and placed her gently on her feet.
“His neck shouldn’t have healed that fast,” he said, perplexed.
Shadows started bumping into things, and the sound of knives falling to the floor made her yelp.
“He’s probably hiding somewhere to finish healing,” Caius guessed, furiously raking a hand through his hair.
“He has his power back,” Rory said, shaking at the memory of the liquid fire scorching her skin.
Caius’ face softened, and he engulfed her in his arms. “Hey,” he soothed. “He doesn’t have his power anymore. He won’t hurt you.”
After a few calming breaths, she met his intense gaze. “How do you know that?”
“There are no more suns.” He looked guilty at the fact.
Rory stared at him, not comprehending. “What do you mean?”
Caius’ bright eyes were in direct contrast with the dark lines covering his face, amplifying the emotion displayed there. “Exactly what I said. When I came through the barrier, the suns disappeared. Without access to them, he has no power, and he knows he can’t win against me without it.”
“We need to find him before he gets away,” Rory urged as the ramifications of Gedeon walking around hit her.
Caius grabbed both sides of Rory’s face gently. “You are my priority, and if you are terrified and shaking, I’m not leaving you. You come first, always.”
A crash sounded, and they both spun around, prepared to fight, but the sight of Lauren stumbling toward them catapulted Rory into action. With everything that transpired, her mind hadn’t fully caught up to reality yet, and she’d forgotten Gedeon dragged the Angel into the room.
Rory almost cried at the sight. “You healed.” She moved her hands over Lauren to inspect for lingering injuries.
“I was in his room, and he walked in,” Lauren told them, panting. “He electrocuted me, and I passed out.” She looked around the room. “Where is he?”
“He got away,” Caius said grimly, absentmindedly rubbing a soothing hand down Rory’s back. “Stay with her, and I’ll finish him.”
“I’m not staying here,” Rory protested. Like hell he would leave her again. “My body healed. He has no power and is no more a threat to me than any other man.” She steeled her spine and forced her body not to tremble. Caius glared at her but wisely said nothing.
Lauren pushed past them. “There’s no time to argue. The others are here, and we need to find them before Gedeon does.”
The others?
Rory stopped breathing when she understood. Swiping the knife Caius had thrown on the floor, she bolted toward the door closest to where Gedeon fell, not thinking about anything but getting to her friends.
Fear was a strange thing. Fear for her own well-being kept her subdued, but the second she realized her friends were in danger, a switch flipped.
No one would go through what she went through.
“Rory!” Caius yelled behind her as she sprinted down the stairs of the corridor.
Caius and Lauren’s footsteps pounded after her, but the mortality of her friends raced through her mind, and she pushed harder.
She heard Gedeon’s voice through the cracked doorway. “Put her down!”
The three of them burst through the door of Gedeon’s office, and Rory looked around wildly. Across the room, a maid held a jar filled with a beautiful pink soul, and Rory stopped in her tracks.
Cora.
The maid’s face paled as Gedeon closed in on her, but instead of handing over the jar, she grabbed the lid with shaky fingers and ripped it off. The realm stood still, and Rory stared in awe as Cora’s soul rose from the jar, twirled airily around the woman’s arm, and caressed her cheek.
Months ago, when Rory released the trapped souls she found in the Merrow’s apartment, that didn’t happen. The souls went directly toward the aether.
Cora’s soul finally left the woman’s side and floated skyward, leaving everyone to stare.
“She was mine!” Gedeon thundered, his face filled with rage. “And you took her from me!”
What happened next took seconds, but it felt like a lifetime as Rory watched the horror unfold.
She didn’t know how Gedeon got a knife, but he raised it high and stabbed the woman in the chest. Her screams of fear and pain set Rory in motion, but Caius grabbed her, pushed her toward Lauren, and ran at his brother. Shadows threw Gedeon back, and he slammed into a nearby table.
Before Lauren could touch her, Rory took off running, catching up to Caius with ease.
“You fucking bastard,” Caius growled when they reached his brother. Rory careened around her husband and jumped on top of Gedeon, dropping the knife beside her.
Shadows bound his body, and Caius stayed back, giving Rory the kill. They both wanted to exact their vengeance, but after everything Rory suffered at Gedeon’s hand, her mate gifted her the honor.
Gedeon’s eyes were wide with unhinged delirium, and he bared his teeth. “She took my mate from me,” he shouted.
Rory’s fist hit his nose with a satisfying crunch.
“You took my sister. She was only a child,” she cried, delivering blow after blow.
Despite wanting to, she couldn’t beat him to death and picked up the knife, pressing the tip into the flesh over his heart.
“This is for every person you took to that room.” She pushed the tip of the knife into his chest.
He cried out in pain, throwing his badly beaten head back. Leaning forward, she used her body to put more pressure on the handle. “This is for Atarah and Cora.” The knife cut deeper, and she delighted in his screams.
Sitting back, she tugged the knife from his chest, and his whimpers made her lip curl. He deserved more pain than that, but the others needed her.
Rory dreamed about this moment for eleven years, but it didn’t feel right. Turning to Caius, she found him watching the Lux King with barely restrained anger raging in his eyes.
Because of Gedeon, Caius had lost everything: his sisters, his freedom, and his reputation. He even almost lost himself, and if anyone deserved to end the Lux King’s life, it was him.
She beckoned him closer and held out the knife. He wrapped his hand around the handle and softly grabbed Rory’s chin, kissing her deeply before turning his fury on the barely recognizable face of his twin brother.
“And this is for my wife,” he snarled and slammed the blade deep into Gedeon’s beating heart.
Rory refused to look away until the bastard was dead. Caius’ hand still gripped the knife, and when Gedeon’s pulse faded and his breathing stopped, he let go and helped her stand.
She buried her face in her husband’s chest, and he kissed the side of her head, murmuring his appreciation and admiration for her.
Suddenly, the ground shook, and they stumbled as Sam appeared out of thin air and slammed onto the floor in a graceful crouch.
The Angel’s eyes searched the room until they landed on Lauren crouching next to the maid on the floor. At the sight of the knife protruding from her chest, he released a roar so powerful that everyone fell to their knees, forced into submission.
Lauren scrambled out of the way as Sam crossed the room and scooped the woman into his arms. The maid turned her eyes to his, and her lips moved, speaking words only for him to hear.
Whatever she said, it broke him.
Three sets of golden wings flared from his back as he clutched the woman in his arms, and when he screamed to the aether, a golden light blasted from him, throwing the others back.
As fast as it appeared, the light was snuffed out, smothered by what Rory could only describe as the night sky.
A moving entity, black as night and filled with thousands of stars covered Sam, cutting him off from their view.
Rory felt the pressure holding her down dissolve, and Caius crushed her to his chest, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the mysterious thing. “We need to help him.”
Lauren grounded her, placing a firm hand on her shoulder. “He is safe. You will see.”
She trusted Lauren, but it’s not every day the sky fell on someone. “What is that?”
Lauren looked heart-stricken as she stared at the dark entity. “That is a selfless man losing the only thing he has ever allowed himself to want.”
The woman was clearly important to Sam, and the Seraphim ripped her away from him. Rory’s heart broke into tiny shards. Everything that happened over the last twenty-four hours was too much, and her body went limp.
Caius held her up, murmuring soothing words against her hair.
Could all of this have been prevented if she had never made her first kill? Would the pain and suffering have ended with Cora?
Adila and Dume ran into the room, and Rory turned slowly. Dume hurried toward her, and when he was close, Caius transferred her from his arms to Dume’s. “You’re okay,” she whispered, not trusting herself to say more.
He nodded against her shoulder. “So are you.”
***
Sam held Anastasia in his arms, watching the blood soak through her dress. He removed the knife and covered the wound with his hand.
He could save her. He had to.
“Son,” his father’s familiar voice said, and Sam looked up, staring at the man who had let this happen.
“She was innocent,” he shouted, and when he felt her body take a last, shuddering breath, everything ceased to exist.
He watched her essence flicker out, and her sunflower-yellow soul ascended toward the aether. The sound that tore from his throat was not of these realms, and the very ground he kneeled on trembled with it.
Not caring about the consequences, he held his hand above the yellow orb and pushed it back into her body. Pressing down on Anastasia’s chest, he forced his power into her, healing her wound and granting her a second life. It was forbidden, but he refused to watch her die.
He hung his head and cried with relief, his tears salting the woman who deserved life more than most. She was good.
The type of person who tried to sneak stray cats home and risked her life to free a soul she had no connection to.
He didn’t see her release Cora, but Lenora said as much, and the empty jar on the ground was proof enough.
His father observed silently, and Sam stared at Anastasia as her chest rose with the first signs of life.
“Thank you,” he whispered, unable to look away from her sweet face. His father could have stopped him, should have stopped him, but he didn’t.
“I have watched you move through life as a shell of the male you used to be. I know having to kill Michael destroyed you.” His father’s voice cracked, and Sam raised his head.
“But I never imagined you could not put yourself back together.” The king of Aravoth stared at Anastasia’s sleeping form.
“I cannot watch you go through that again, and your mother would never forgive me for allowing your mate to die.”
Sam’s wings flared wide at his father’s words. “Seraphim do not have mates.”
His father smiled sadly. “Every day, your mother visited the Hall of Fates to watch you, and every day her heart broke more and more. She knew a piece of your soul had died and petitioned Moira to grant you a mate. Her hope was that a mate would help you heal and give you a reason to live, not just exist.”
Sam gazed down at his perfect match, and his heart soared, knowing she was his, but when his father covered his mouth and looked away, terror filled him.
“What else?” Sam demanded. “What are you not telling me?” Nothing came easy for him, and he should have known this would be no different.
“Son,” his father said, clearing his throat. “You cannot stay in the realms. You agreed to the stipulations of coming here, and you put everyone in danger.” His dark eyes trailed to Anastasia. “And you broke the cardinal rule. Moira will not allow you to stay.”
Moira was the Fate of Aravoth. She controlled the destiny of every being in the kingdom and all realms under its jurisdiction.
Sam’s heart shattered into a million pieces when he realized the implications.
One had to petition their kingdom’s Fate for permission to leave the aether.
Moira granted him leave under two conditions: no one could know what he was, and he was never to use his true power.
He did both on top of granting life to the dead.
When he saw Anastasia dying on the floor, he no longer had control of himself, and when she whispered her final words, he unleashed his power. If not for his father’s arrival, trapping Sam’s power with his own, the realms would no longer exist.
“May I say goodbye?” he asked in a broken voice, unable to look his father in the eye.
His father’s power receded, and Sam stood with his mate in his arms to say goodbye to the only true friends he’d ever known.