Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
ABBY
“ Y our own mother?” I can’t believe what I’m seeing. What I’m feeling . Imelda’s blood running down the brambles I’m still very much connected to. Those now lifeless eyes stare into mine with just as much hatred that existed there before. Void killed her as if she were nothing to him.
“I’m not your enemy,” he says simply, and it reminds me so much of Jade. The difference is, Void is my enemy. He may have killed Imelda, but he still wants to wipe out the world. Destroy all life and start fresh with us as gods. Even if I have the power to create life, I won’t. Not when there’s still time to save what already exists. “You’ll come to see that.”
His shadows swirl again, though this time, they surround him in an angry spiral of darkness so black that even the light still glowing from my chest doesn’t penetrate it. As the shadows fade, so does he.
“Where is he?” I ask, searching what was once my lifeless garden. I spent so many years of my life wishing for it to come alive, and now that it has, the moment is soured.
Quinn is at my side in seconds, and I revel in the warmth of his body pressed up against mine. Though it does little to slow my panicked heart, some of the fear fades just as the shadows did. Safe and together.
“She’s really dead,” he says, and I don’t miss the hint of sadness punctuating his words. I just can’t tell if it’s because this is yet another family member he’s lost, or if he’s just disappointed he didn’t get to kill her himself. I wouldn’t blame him for that. Even though she answered my question, I’m not sure I can believe her answer. If Imelda didn’t kill my mother, who did?
“One down.”
Quinn’s thumb brushes against my blood-stained cheek and then presses his lips against mine. It’s not his usual, hungry kiss. This one is tender, and somehow I know this is his way of thanking the Gods that we survived this. That we get to keep on living in this world together.
‘I love you,’ I tell him, and saying it once doesn’t feel like enough.
A sound to our left has him pulling away from me all too soon. Arabella stirs, hand at her yellowing throat. She sits up and scans the garden, searching for something. When her eyes land upon her mother’s lifeless corpse, still imprisoned in thorns, her hand flies to her mouth. Tears well in her eyes and my heart breaks for her, even though Imelda deserved exactly what she got.
“No…” she says, though I barely catch the word.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her, and I am. We may not be related by blood, but she’s still my sister and her mother is dead because of me.
Arabella’s gaze flashes to mine, but it’s not grief I see in her eyes. It’s fear. “We have to go. Now. Maybe it’s not too late to stop this.”
“We have stopped it,” I tell her. “We got the people out. Void can’t open the rift.”
Her head snaps sharply up to the sky and moments later, I hear the distinctive sound of dragon wings. She couldn’t have heard them, which means she’s seen this before. That knowledge, combined with her obvious terror, can mean only one thing.
This isn’t over.
Ory and Wyatt land a few steps behind us, wide-eyed as they take in the scene. “Merrick sent us,” Wyatt says.
“That wolf—” Ory cuts off suddenly as takes in Imelda’s form. “What happened?”
Arabella is on her feet and moving before anyone can answer. “Get me to Kaylee. Now!” She all but jumps into Ory’s arms.
“I’ll run,” Quinn says, already shrugging out of the blood-stained clothing he must have borrowed from someone he killed. He shifts just as I allow Wyatt to scoop me up into his arms. ‘Don’t wait for me. Go.’
I nod, and then Wyatt launches us into the air only seconds behind Ory and Arabella. Although I can’t see him, I can feel Quinn doing his best to keep pace with us as he navigates what’s left of the city below. I feel the strain in his muscles, the pumping of his blood, the heaving of his lungs.
The fires are mostly out, but the ruined buildings meld with scattered trees and new growth. The full moon in the sky above is my only light to take in the extent of what my powers did, but it’s more than I’d ever thought possible. Even though I can’t see them from this high in the sky, I know that flowers have returned to Lunae.
Ory lands first and Arabella flings herself from his arms before darting across the clearing. “How could you?!” There’s venom in her words as she moves for Kaylee, who is kneeling down on the ground beside—
Is that Rhett?
Kaylee’s head snaps in our direction, tears pricking in the corners of them. “I couldn’t lose him,” she says, her voice breaking. So Rhett is alive, but at what cost? Arabella had seen this, and Kaylee… All those moments where she knew too much. When she’d pushed me to visit the Spider. I thought that was to find a way to save Quinn, but what if that choice, and every other choice we’ve made, was to bring us right here to this moment?
I scan the gathering, and the size of it has my breath catching in my throat. Ory, Wyatt, Kaylee, Rhett, Jade, Lara, myself, and Quinn—who is only just emerging through the trees. No one else.
My attention locks on Jade. He’s standing over Rhett, wings splayed behind him. There’s blood smeared on his bare chest, and I can only hope it’s from the Guardians he killed and not the unconscious dragon beneath him. “Where is everyone?”
Cold eyes flick to mine. “The tunnels.”
“You left them there?” That wasn’t the plan. Right now, Lunae’s people should be well on their way to Marein. “Imelda is dead, but Void—”
“Dead?!” He cuts me off. “Did you kill her?”
“What does it matter? We have to get to Marein. This can’t have all been for nothing.” Arabella’s warnings play over and over in my mind.
A thud sounds from behind me as Merrick lands. “It’s done. The others will meet us…” He trails off as he takes in the scene, his brain likely reeling in the same way mine is. “What did you do?” he asks when his gaze settles on Rhett.
“Don’t!” Arabella shrieks as Merrick runs for Jade.
He doesn’t even make it halfway before shadows spring out from the trees behind his cousin. Two long tendrils with sharpened points penetrate his chest and belly all the way through and out the other side with a sickening squelch. When they pull back just as suddenly, Merrick crumples to his knees. A torrent of blood flows from his wounds, cascading down his body and seeping into the earth around him. “Why?” he gasps, only seconds before the life leaves his eyes and he falls before ever hearing the answer.
Rhett stirs, as if the sudden loss of his Regent was enough to wake him. “Merrick!” he shouts, sitting up, though not without trouble. He’s injured, but there’s no time to worry how. Ory and Wyatt sprint for Jade, but they freeze the moment he turns his glare on them.
Oh, Gods. He’s Regent now.
The magic that exists within all of them, binding them to the one who leads, has moved from Merrick and into his heir. Into Jade. Not the unborn child with a father they’ll now never get to meet.
I open my mouth, but no words come. There are no words for this. Merrick—my friend—is dead. Void killed him, and Jade… Jade knew. Looking at him now through tear-blurred eyes, I see it all too clearly. There’s no remorse in his gaze as he stares down at his cousin. No surprise or even fear.
“You promised you would let me kill her,” Jade grumbles as Void steps out from the darkness behind him as silent as the shadows he walks on.
“It had to be done.”
They’re talking about Imelda. So the ‘us’ Void was talking about wasn’t him and his mother. He was asking me to join him and Jade . The other Chosens.
I think I’m going to be sick.
Suddenly, my voice wants to work again as rage and betrayal propel the words forward. “You’re working with him?!” It seems my legs work, too, as I storm towards them. I don’t get very far before shadows wrap around my feet, locking me in place.
When Jade meets my stare, there’s only the faintest hint of emotion in them. “I told you I couldn’t be the person you wanted me to be. The Jade you knew is dead. I’m just what’s left.”
“That’s not true! How could you do this? Merrick was your family. I’m your family.”
“Gods don’t have family,” he says as he turns from me. His eyes glow red, as do the lines streaking his body, as he raises his arms in the air. He brings them down with force, and the world cracks in response. Just liked he’d done while helping me train Ty, the land before him splits—only, on a much larger scale. It caves in on itself, crumbling into the fiery gash that spreads wide like the hungry maw of Inferna herself. Trees topple over and the smell of smoke and ash fill my nose and choke my lungs as they burn.
The crack widens, spiderwebbing outwards as it races towards Lunae. What remains of the city is alight with the flaming pits surrounding it…but then it disappears entirely.
I can’t breathe as I watch the city I once called home fall into fire, taking all those still trapped inside with it. The thousands Jade lured into the tunnels with the promise of rescue. He left them there, because this was always the plan. His sudden disappearances from Marein. He was meeting with Void. Feeding our enemies information. Planning how to tear open the rift and unleash an army that will devour everything good in this world.
And once that’s done, they want me to rebuild it.
Ash roses bloom on the ground around us, but it has nothing to do with me. A massive rift appears beside the man who betrayed me, and wraiths scream as they spill out into the night. Void’s laugher melds with their wails and everything about this is wrong.
Quinn’s grandmother was right. History repeats itself, and nothing we did could stop it.
A light flashes as something else flies out of the veil and hits Jade square in the chest. He doubles over with the impact, and all I can do is hope whatever it was kills him.
He gasps as horror-filled eyes settle on me and then flick down to Merrick’s lifeless body. “No no no no no.” he grabs at his head, repeating the word over and over as if this is the first time he’s seeing him.
“What’s the matter with you?” Void growls, but I can’t focus on him. Not when Kaylee shouts a single word that nearly stops my heart.
“Quinn!”