EPILOGUE Bishop
Epilogue
Bishop
This is not how her story ends.
“Any final words …” The rest of what Cassiel says is lost to the blood roaring in my ears.
The hold I keep on my power slips, my thoughts scattering as my magic swells. I reach for it as Arden looks at me like I’m still her safe place.
Fuck me, that hurts.
For one second, I think my brother might change his mind and carry her off. Power strains against flesh and bone, hungry to tear its way out of me and take my brother apart before he can fucking try.
He’s not walking off this balcony with her.
He isn’t walking off this balcony at all.
I surge forward. Magic ripples through me as Arden opens her mouth to speak, fumbling for words. “I lo—”
My brother plunges the blade into her heart.
Her eyes widen as it pierces her chest, and then Cassiel shoves her forward.
Into my arms.
She sags as I catch her, head lolling back, body failing. Her gaze skitters, searching for a second before it finds me. She smiles for one heartbeat, and then the light in her eyes is … gone.
And my world ends.
I’ll follow you.
I feel it happen. Whatever binds me to this body rips in half and follows her.
I fold around her, knees giving out and slamming into stone. I clutch her to my chest like I can force her soul back into it. The dagger’s hilt digs into my ribs.
I press my lips to her forehead. She tastes like salt, skin still slick from fighting. She didn’t give up for one moment.
I can’t fail her now.
I let my eyes close. Let myself memorize the warmth of her skin.
One final kiss.
One last vow.
Then I lower her to the stone, and I stand.
Below us, the sea slams against the cliffs and breaks. Again and again. Like it doesn’t know how to stop, either. Somewhere behind me, Hero lets out a low growl.
The balcony’s stone railing is at my brother’s back—the same one he went over the night I lost everything. Cassiel smirks. “Did you miss me?”
I study him like he’s already dead.
There is only the echo of her unfinished words in my ears, and the unbearable silence where her heartbeat should be.
Cassiel’s smile sharpens. He thinks I’m broken.
I draw my sword without looking away, something ancient and hungry bleeding into the edges of my sight. This power freed won’t stop for mercy or reason. Not even love. It will devour whatever is in its path, like a star collapsing and swallowing everything it touches into a blinding void.
And for a minute, I let it take control.
“There it is.” He tilts his head, watching me like I’m a wounded thing.
“For a minute, I thought I was wrong. That my friend didn’t finish the job that night.
You put on an admirable show of being mortal.
Then again, you’ve always been good at hiding, Bishop.
I wondered if you’d awakened yet, but I couldn’t be sure without coming home … Aren’t you glad to see me?”
He’s speaking to me like we’re still brothers. Whatever I was before is gone. Killed alongside her.
I raise my sword. “Let’s have a fucking party.”
I fly at him. Our blades meet with a crack like splitting bone, the impact vibrating up my arm. Cassiel twists, regains his footing, but I’m already swinging again. Power leaks into every strike. But I rein it in, keep it barely leashed. I won’t give in. I won’t be like him.
I won’t choose the easy path.
But I don’t stop.
Strike. Again. Again.
Until time slows. Until I can’t see my brother anymore.
Only her—falling heavily into my arms.
“I needed a vessel,” Cassiel grunts, throwing his weight behind a parry. “No hard feelings, I hope.”
His sword catches my cheek and slices my skin. “You killed her,” I snarl, not feeling the cut. “I’ll fucking end you.”
Cassiel rolls his shoulders like we’re still kids playing knights.
“Attachments are a liability during the cycle. I’ve made certain we have none. You’re welcome.”
Like he’s done me a favor.
Then it hits me.
He’s removed all our attachments, starting with—
“That night. You killed them.” My throat tightens. The words tremble out, then explode. “Every one of them.”
“That’s a long story.” He laughs.
He fucking laughs.
“I will rip your heart out with my bare hands.” I mean it.
“The cycle must be released,” he says, as if this justifies it all. “You have to feel it. We all do.”
I don’t care about the cycle. Or what he thinks we’re meant to become. Her blood is still drying on my fingers. He can preach to the Stars themselves.
I slam him into the rail, and stone cracks behind his shoulder. Our blades grind together over our heads.
“Why are you so afraid?” he grits out. His free hand finds my shoulder.
Bright blue flame echoes from his palm, searing through leather into flesh. My skin peels back in black sheets.
Pain fractures my control, the scent of charred flesh fills my nose and mouth, and I shove away from him.
I stagger back, blade still raised. The power inside me roils, and I reach for it. Just a little. Still trying to hold it in check.
“That’s what you’re running away from, brother.” Cassiel grins. “All that power. Locked in a box because you’re too good to use it.”
“I chose a different path.”
“Always the noble son.” Cassiel sighs. “Aren’t you tired of pretending?”
I lunge. He meets me. Steel sings.
“You should be thanking me,” he says, blade locked against mine. “You’d have kept protecting her until she was old and frail and your love for her became a fucking joke.”
“You’re not walking away from this.”
“I’m not?” He pushes off. “Honestly, brother, I didn’t come for you. I came for an answer. Not your head.”
I drive forward, snarling through clenched teeth. “What … answer …” I bite out each word as I swing again and again. Steel meeting steel.
“One only she could give me.” His eyes flick past me to where she lies in the dark.
“I had a theory. That’s all this was. A theory about a girl whose star split the Night’s Scar at her Kindling.
About a brother who fell for the harbinger and didn’t have the nerve to tell her what she might really be.
What a new star in the sky means, according to the Ars Astra. ”
For a half second, something leaps in my chest, but I crush it. I will not bargain with her death.
“Are you done punishing me yet?” he demands, a wild glint in his eyes.
“I will make you pay for this with your last breath,” I vow, “and then I’ll let you wake up so I can kill you again.”
Cassiel lifts a brow, snorting. “You have it bad for her.”
“Don’t talk about her,” I roar and come at him. “Don’t even think about her.”
He meets me, but he’s slower now. The fire took something out of him. I see it—shoulders heaving, jaw set, sweat at his temple. He’s wearing down.
That’s all I need.
I press. Drive. Force him toward the corner where the rail meets the wall. Our blades catch. I twist, nearly pinning him, but his free hand lashes out and seizes my blade. Blood gushes down it. Blue flame races after, searing through my palm, and I drop my sword.
I leap back, but he has his sword at my throat before I can recover mine.
“If she wakes up, I’ll take good care of her,” he murmurs, breath ragged. “Let her ride my cock if she behaves. But after I have what I want from her, I’ll bury her heart next to yours.”
The threat lands, and something inside answers for me. Something that won’t allow him to take her. That doesn’t care about paths or oaths.
Something that wants blood.
The power roars within me—the real power, the one I’ve kept caged since I came back from the dead—and for one terrible breath, I let it free.
Cassiel leaps back, dropping his sword to the ground. It melts, pooling into nothing more than molten metal. We both stare as the puddle shrinks, consuming itself, then disappears entirely. Like its very existence has been sucked away.
“There you are.” His voice is almost giddy. “I knew it was in there. Why lock it away?”
I don’t answer. I can’t. If I let this blinding power loose in the world, there will be nothing left when I’m done. The monster will take everything.
He sees that, too. And smiles.
He steps back and grins as if he’s already won. “You’re going to be glorious,” he says. “When you finally let go.”
Cassiel is at the railing. He nods toward her body. “Keep it as a reminder that I can take anything from you. Anyone.”
I could void the whole damn world. What’s the point of it without Arden?
“Can you feel it?” He pauses and tips his face toward the darkening sky. “The cycle is beginning. Let’s call it a day before the fury makes us kill each other.”
“I’m not like you,” I grit out.
“You will be. All of us will be.” He pauses, just long enough for the words to sink in. “Only one can take the throne. Best of luck.”
And then he leaps over the railing.
I don’t hear his body hit the water. Hero races to the balcony’s edge and howls after him.
But I wait. Longer than I should. Until the sky above us is bruised with twilight, and only then do I fall to the ground beside her.
Rock bites into my knees as I reach for her, blood trickling down my cheek, shoulder smarting.
The wounds will heal soon enough. All of them except the one in my chest where my heart used to be.
My hand shakes as I reach for the dagger still buried in her chest.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper and pull it free. There’s no rush of blood, only the sickening wet sound of steel leaving flesh. I fling the weapon across the stone and press a hand over her heart, searching for a miracle.
Her skin is cool under my palm. She’s heavy in my arms, and her head lolls against my shoulder, boneless in a way that shatters whatever control I had left.
“No.” I gather her into my arms, my breath coming out in choked sobs. “No, no, no, no. Wake up. Please, wake up. You need to wake up.”
I drag air into my lungs, the world blurring around me. “Just wake up, Arden. Don’t leave me. Please.” My voice cracks on the please. I keep saying her name. Like if I do, she’ll finally answer me. “Please don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.”