Chapter 40
Lana
As our palms connected, a tingle of energy shot upward, coating my body with magic.
Everything came down to these few moments. Ridding this land of the darkness, pulling it out of Kade, then destroying Thames. Our prophecies had led us to this moment, together.
The pit in my stomach, since failing to eradicate Kade’s darkness, lessened for the first time after hearing the final prophecy.
Light is stronger than dark. It’d been woven into every prophecy, every journal entry from my ancestors, every fiber of this very world.
Light was what would drive out the darkness, defeating it once and for all.
I looked around as our magic slowly built inside of us. Where would we channel it to?
The volcano had been easy; there was a clear target, but this wasn’t the same. There wasn’t an obvious answer.
“Where,” I murmured, still glancing around as Kade’s shadows danced along my skin, calling more of my light forward. Power welled up, strong and resolute. This time as I urged it to respond, it did so willingly.
I glanced out at the dark ones. “The darkness is not residing in one single place, it’s everywhere. The prophecy is clear, all of it has to be destroyed,” I continued, talking to myself.
“Including any he may have hidden away.” Kade’s eyes flashed black before turning back to their grey.
“Are you all right?” I gasped, touching his cheek.
His smile reassured me. “I’ve been using my shadows to lock away the darkness for so long that releasing them allows it to come to the surface.
” He unlocked one of our intertwined hands and brought it to my neck, stroking his thumb along my collarbone.
“The darkness isn’t as present when you’re here, Lana. Focus. Don’t worry about me.”
I closed my eyes and basked in his touch, letting it attempt to soothe my fears while strengthening me at the same time.
“We need to find a way to spread our power everywhere, touch everything.” I paused, thinking. “Touching.”
I stared at the ground, then my dagger, then back to Kade. “The earth,” I whispered.
Even with the dome around us, wind rustled the grass beneath our feet, the sun pulsed as its rays brightened.
Just as it had done before, when I’d been on the right track with the strox.
A gift from nature, a confirmation. “Let’s try to funnel our magic into the earth, so that everything touching it can be infused with light.
If we’re right and it can cover Atheria…
” I exhaled slowly, sending a prayer to the Fates that I was right about this.
Kade’s lips parted as his eyes widened. “Into the earth,” he repeated.
Slowly, he moved his hand from where it rested on my neck and we kneeled, lowering our hands to the ground. Kade laid his over mine, and my light, charged with his shadows, formed a cocoon around us.
A furious roar bellowed in the distance, and I turned my head. The fighting near us parted as our army shrank back, pushed from beyond by a force stronger than themselves.
“Protect your queen,” a shout rang out. Tommy charged toward us, turning and standing in front of the ground where Kade and I kneeled.
Fear may have etched Tommy’s features, but he gathered his group of rebels, and they bravely swarmed to block us from Thames’s renewed attack.
Another roar echoed into the world as a dark mist circled around Cassandra’s enclosure. Thames knew what we were doing, and he was pissed.
“She said the dome wouldn’t last long.” My voice shook as I dug my hands more firmly into the ground. “Cassandra can only give us so much.”
“Together, Lana.” Kade met my gaze.
I trembled with anticipation. Everything I’d become had led to this. My light, foretold for a thousand years, was our only advantage, and it was time to unleash it on our world.
Closing my eyes, I focused all my attention on the ground beneath my fingers. The sounds of the battle, all the screams faded into the background until it was me, Kade, my light, and his shadows. His breathing, his very heartbeat perfectly in sync with my own.
I inhaled a steady, calming breath as I wrapped my magic around my hands like a coil.
We’re ready, my light reassured me, speaking confidently, fueled with the love I felt in my soul.
We were one, my magic and me. The light an extension of me. My body shook at the force of the magic gathering inside. I clung to it, letting it well up despite my trembling.
“I’m here, Little Rebel,” Kade’s voice caressed over me, but I kept my eyes closed, focusing both of our energy into one solid torrent of power. I dropped every doubt, every fear I had, and let the light reign supreme.
My magic plunged into the depths of the earth as a scream escaped my body.
Staying connected with its power, I held on, letting everything flow through me to pour outward with purpose into the earth.
I felt it then, a pulse of energy scattering in the depths of the soil, gliding through Atheria along the feet of everyone here in the battle, and outward even still.
Kade’s shadows circled the light, reinforcing it like vines coiling together to carry the charge across all of Atheria. My arms shook, my body pushed to the brink of its limits, but still I didn’t let go of the power. Not yet.
I groaned under the weight of it all, feeling Kade’s grip tighten around me. He grunted, as if feeling the heaviness of our power extending itself to its limit.
Apollo burned at my thigh, and I forced one hand from the ground, pulling the white dagger from its sheath. I channeled every last ounce of my magic, Kade’s shadows, every ounce of myself into the blade.
I directed my love for my parents, the king and queen. The pride I felt being theirs and knowing they loved me like I was their own.
I channeled the love I had for my birth parents, knowing they died with a fierce devotion to each other, and to me.
I poured my dreams from childhood; though there had been trauma and torture, there had also been a love most only dreamt of having.
Something unconditional from the start. A love that never asked for anything in return.
Love given freely and genuinely from my best friend.
I thought of Ian, of his strength, of his absolute, unwavering belief in me.
“You’re doing it, Lana.” Kade’s voice brushed over me in a strained whisper.
I tilted my head back, squeezing the blade harder as I pictured the friendships that came after Ian. Of Kalliah and her spirit, of Leif and his humor. A tear escaped as I thought of Corbin and how he’d made me feel worthwhile every damn time we spoke.
My chest constricted, the toll of holding myself together to accomplish this goal reaching a breaking point. I let the pain come, adding it to my thoughts and emotions I used to fuel my magic, because at the root of that pain was love, light itself.
More faces came to mind, boosting my heart to give more and more of myself. Raya, how much she’d suffered, and most importantly, how she’d endured it all through the love of her friends. My best friend’s mate.
Jax with his ability to make everyone smile.
Storm, who had been my shield and support when we’d both lost Kade.
Apollo grew hotter as it glowed so bright, I saw it even behind my closed eyes.
Hale’s devotion. Vivienne's perseverance. Cassandra’s sacrifice for the world.
I opened my eyes, and they immediately connected with Kade’s storm-grey ones as he leaned back to see my face.
His face was red, strained and weary, and yet his gaze still softened as I watched and admired his perseverance.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, and I knew he was giving me everything he had.
Kade.
Last but far from least, I poured every emotion this man had awakened in me forward.
I would give every drop of magic to the world if it meant allowing him a moment of peace.
He saw me when I had no magic to offer our world, when he believed he needed someone powerful to help him defeat his father, and chose me anyway.
He thought I was worthy, loveable, powerful even without magic.
He saw the queen I could be before I did, and he stood beside me.
He allowed me to learn, to grow, and to fight my battles head-on, knowing he was always standing there alongside me.
“I love you,” I whispered.
With a quivering hand, I expressed what I’d known my entire life into the dagger, letting it flow alongside the love and warmth I’d already spilled into it.
“I am Illiana Dresden,” I cried, my body weak but holding on.
My voice surprised me with its steadiness as I inhaled slowly, lifting the dagger above my head.
I focused all of the magic into Apollo the way the journal had instructed, running my fingers over the center and pouring the last remaining bit of light directly into it.
“I am stronger than the darkness within me.”
I plunged the dagger forcefully into the ground, unleashing a devastating scream.
The earth rippled, almost tearing me away from the dagger, but I held on tight, not breaking the connection. Kade wrapped his body around mine, holding on to me with everything he had as light overpowered our world, blasting out in a brilliant, blinding white.
It was all there. For this moment in time, the world existed only in a white nothingness.
As quickly as it flashed into existence it retreated, back into the dagger itself, and I yanked it from the ground.
I grabbed Kade and cut a deep gash along his arm, aiming true to rid the darkness from him and Atheria completely.
He flinched but remained strong as a faint line of black oozed out of the wound.
I cried out as pure joy radiated from the bond, outward.
It worked. We’d done it.
There was no time to continue watching what we’d both hoped for so long as the glittering protection encasing us crumbled.
I jumped up, turning and staring in horrified awe as Fae stumbled to their knees around us. Intertwined with our army, the dark ones fell. Some vomiting, some sobbing. Shouting and pained wails momentarily replaced the sounds of combat.
Some Fae appeared furious, looking around with frustration before they charged our soldiers to continue the fight. They lashed out at our army, determined to finish what Thames had started.
Fates, Vivienne had been right. Eliminating the darkness didn’t end the battle. It merely took out all of Thames’s ties to this world.
While we’d succeeded, it wasn’t the end. We’d made Thames vulnerable, and now we needed to end him.
A thunderous thud sounded, shaking the earth itself.
My eyes widened as I looked up, seeing the strox screech victoriously at the voidlings falling from the sky.
Their bodies scattered, dead and unmoving on the ground, strewn about the battlefield.
My light had destroyed the evil creatures along with the darkness.
“Kade,” I said frantically, resheathing Apollo at my thigh and grabbing my sword. “It’s not over yet.”
I faced him, ready to run to Thames with him by my side. Our gazes collided, and he gave me a small sympathetic smile. “Now it’s just a fight among regular Fae. You took their darkness.”
“We did it.” I grinned. “We need to help the others.” I glanced down at his arm and nodded toward it. “How do you feel? It must be so freeing to finally be rid of that evil living inside of you after so long.”
I reached for his arm, but he pulled it back.
Dread snaked around my heart, building in me so quickly, it almost knocked me to my knees. “Kade?”
The sky turned grey and storm clouds rolled in from Mysthaven’s side of the border. The tides were turning, but now I wasn’t quite sure in whose favor.
He shook his head just once. “No, Little Rebel. You purged the darkness from our world, it just didn’t work on me.”