Chapter Forty-Seven
Kara
We closed the portals.
By the time the last of Harvest’s creatures and dragons fell, the vortex had already opened.
The air trembled with its pull. Every breath burned in my chest. Every step felt like walking through ash.
I was beyond exhausted—beyond pain—so when the tug in my chest grew unbearable, when that invisible thread yanked at my soul to look toward the crossover, tears welled and blurred my sight.
The swirling channel of magic glowed in the distance—a beacon. It called to me like home.
To my end.
I could feel the finality in my bones. It was in the tightening of my flesh, in the hollow ache of my heart, in the wary acceptance pressing into my soul. This was it. The end of all things.
Whether we’d saved what remained humanity or would vanish within the hour, I didn’t know anymore.
How did Dad keep up his spirits when he felt like this?
My knees nearly buckled. I stumbled a step forward, hand pressing to my stomach—where something tingled. My skin. My magic. Something inside me flickered like a dying lightbulb.
When I looked down, I saw why.
My stomach was gone—or rather, translucent, fading piece by piece.
Bitterness coated the back of my throat. Acceptance followed.
“Come on,” Sebastian called, voice strained as he staggered ahead.
No.
He was in worse shape—completely transparent and naked. I looked away as Isabella cried beside me. “It’s okay,” he told her. “We need to hurry. Hold my weapon for me? In case I become solid again.”
Those words only made Isabella break into tears.
“This isn’t the end,” Barron said. Like me, he was transparent in places, but not everywhere.
“We just have to stop them from entering,” I said, but my voice was low and exhausted.
“Have Harvest or the Devil already gone through?” Joy whispered, voice cracking. “Our babies.”
Joy’s anguished cry made me swallow down my pain.
A loud crack rippled through the woods, and everyone quieted as the magic pulsed outward from the crossover in one giant wave. It bent the limbs on the trees and knocked leaves on the ground. We staggered, but then we ran.
Ran for one last chance. Our last hope. Luke wanted me to watch until the bitter end. I didn’t want to disappoint my mate. Not the way he was disappointing me.
But even our last hope was cut short when another portal opened from the sky above us and dozens of Harvest’s dragons poured out again. We had made it to the crossover, but so many dragons…
They tore through the new portal, blackening the glow of the vortex with their massive wingspans. Fire rained down, scorching the red leaves into ash before they ever touched the ground.
We were right there.
Joy and Payne leapt into the sky without hesitation, their roars splitting the air. It wasn’t enough. Not this time.
Nova grabbed my arm. “You go,” she choked out. “You and Barron make it. We’ll hold them.”
“No,” I said, but even as I did, I was moving. My blade was still in my hand, but my body was fading. My mate was still missing.
The ground beneath us rumbled again as the vortex grew.
This was it. This was the moment he’d told me to watch.
And I did.
I turned to the vortex. And I watched.
I gripped my blade, head rushing with possibilities and our odds. How could we stomach another fight? We could barely run, and some of us had no solid limbs to hold our weapons. And our odds were…
We were going to lose.
My tears came then, hot and heavy on my cheeks.
I never considered myself a quitter. I thought I’d remain optimistic until the very moment I faded.
But seeing my siblings look so much like our father did when he faded.
Seeing the spark die in their eyes. Feeling a sense of doom in my heart as more enemies appeared.
I felt my resolve crumble under the pressure and the unbearable pain of a mate who rejected me for reign.
The biggest kick of all was I still thought of my mate. I thought of all the things he must have planned after he ruled the human world. And he still made no sense to me. Nothing about him ever did. Why would he protect me so fiercely just to let me go?
If he had stayed cruel, maybe it would have been easier.
No one moved at first. We simply watched the dragons as Payne attacked them in the sky. It was clear he was exhausted, but there were so many. Joy couldn’t hold her dragon form any longer, and that’s why she was on the ground with us. Plus, she was becoming transparent, too.
Nova stepped forward, which had August saying, “No.”
“We have no choice,” Nova began. “I’m the only one able to destroy them. I’ll definitely destroy Harvest this time.”
“We don’t know what will happen if you try to use that much magic.”
“We don’t have time.” Nova gripped August’s shoulder as she gestured to August’s transparent limbs. “You have fought this fight longer them me. All of you have. It’s my turn.”
“Nova.” There was a plea in his voice.
“I don’t want to die, August, and I don’t want you to fade. I have so much to atone for.”
“Fucking no!” August snapped, his voice a mere croak. “You say you don’t want to die but speak about atonement. You’re not doing that. I swear to fucking—fuck! Just listen to me, please. I just got you back. Please don’t do this to me.” August fell to his knees, and I couldn’t look at them anymore.
My heart couldn’t take another jab. We were fading, but the marked mates. They’d remain there with the outcome of whatever happened.
We watched August beg and plead, so none of us noticed Harvest until he had my hair fisted in his hold and a blade pressed to my throat with the other hand.
“Don’t even think about attacking me, Nova,” Harvest warned her. “Not when you have so many dragons coming for you.”
Just as he spoke, the beasts started lunging from the sky. Nova started blasting them. They started exploding.
“No!” August said.
Luke ported in front of me instantaneously. His gaze flickered over Harvest’s hold on my hair, but he didn’t let on what he was feeling. He remained still, so still that Harvest seemed offended.
“Ah, see now? See how quick he appears when you’re in danger?” Harvest spat beside my feet. “It makes no sense, does it? I mean, look at you, fading away, and he’s just letting it happen.”
Luke stepped forward. I winced as the blade nicked my skin.
“Step any closer and she’s dead,” Harvest said, and Luke stopped.
Luke eyed my neck before his jaws tightened at Harvest. “You shouldn’t have done that. Until now, you’ve been a necessity. You’ve helped me get what I want, but it’s time for you to go back to nothing.”
Harvest put so much pressure on my hair; I could feel the sting of strands snapping from my scalp. “I’m not dying. You are. Get on your knees, or I kill her.”
My eyes widened. Luke did as Harvest asked instantly. Harvest laughed. “You’re not so powerful now, are you? Look at you on your knees for me.”
Luke met my gaze as he said, “I’m not on my knees for you.”
My eyes watered.
Harvest glanced around at my siblings and their mates. “One of you, kill him.” When no one moved, he screamed, “Kill him or I kill her! He’s mortal.”
“And so are you,” Luke murmured.
Before I could process what was happening, Luke’s tail shot out for the blade around my neck. He freaking impaled the tip of his tail onto the weapon so it couldn’t touch my skin. Once I saw blood curdling, I pushed away from Harvest, and Luke struck him like a bolt of lightning.
“You were created from the darkness within me. It’s something I should have never let out.” Luke’s eyes brightened as he yanked Harvest closer.
“No, no. Let go of me!” Harvest thrashed in his creator’s grip, fear overtaking his already pale features until his skin turned an ashy, sickly blue.
I staggered back, horrified, watching as Luke’s jaw…stretched. It dropped lower and lower, joints cracking and popping like bones breaking under pressure. It didn’t stop. It was like watching someone unroll a rug—if that rug were made of a nightmare.
Harvest’s screams tore through the air as the fire snuffed out on his head. His wide eyes pleaded for life. He clawed at Luke’s arms, ripping through skin and muscle until blood ran freely—but Luke didn’t budge. He never loosened his grip.
My mate didn’t look like himself anymore. He didn’t even look like something from this world. His mouth hung impossibly low, unhinged beyond any natural anatomy—even worse than the banshee’s. I knew what he was about to do. My stomach turned, but I couldn’t look away.
Luke opened wider. His maw could have devoured a full-grown man.
And then he did.
Slowly.
The head went in first. I could still hear Harvest’s screaming as he was consumed, inch by inch. And yet—Luke’s body didn’t move. His throat never bulged. His stomach didn’t distend. He wasn’t eating Harvest.
He was absorbing him.
That was the secret. That was why Harvest had kept a distance—he had known Luke could end him at any time. And now, he had.
When Harvest was fully gone, Luke’s eyes met mine, and my heart dropped. I took a step back, every cell in my body shrieking.
His mouth was still unhinged, hanging low like some eldritch thing clawed from the depths of a nightmare. A true monster, the kind mortals couldn’t survive meeting.
And then I flew backward.
A scream ripped from my throat as my legs flipped over my head. Wind whipped through my hair, my body twisting violently, completely out of control. I reached for anything to grab hold of—but there was nothing. Just air. Some kind of magic? I didn’t know. Only that something had flung me hard.
“What’s happening?” Maureen’s voice rang somewhere distant, panicked and small.
With terrifying force, I was thrown onto my knees.
No—forced.
An unseen pressure slammed me down, holding me in place. My arms stretched outward at my sides, unmoving. I tried to drop them, tried to move—anything—but it was no use. I couldn’t do anything but see.
And I saw my siblings—each of them dropped, one by one—forced into the same unnatural pose.