Chapter 42
I jerked to life with a gasp.
Lurching to my feet, I glanced down at the coat that had been covering me, the scent of mint and evergreen embracing me.
Logan.
He’d covered me with his jacket near the edge of the stage, and as I ran my hands over my unmarked throat—memories of that
blade slicing into my neck flashed in my mind—I couldn’t believe I was alive and whole.
Power thrummed in my center, and as I glanced around the room, it was to find that I was the only one standing. A blanket
of magic had the entire room locked down, students, council, and professors alike pummeled into the ground. The foundation
of the school was shaking, just as it had been when I’d drifted in the darkness.
Following the flickers of our bond, I glanced up and my world stopped turning.
“Logan!” I shouted, using magic to force my way through his power.
His body floated in the middle of the room, a visible expulsion of energy seeping from him. He’d moved into the darkness of a spellcaster, tapping into the essence of the Earth itself. The power he’d called in his grief was enough to level not just Weatherstone, but half the world.
Magic tingled in my fingertips as my well of energy all but overflowed from the shared power. It took zero effort to use air
currents to fly myself up to Logan, where I could see his eyes were closed, dark strands of hair floating around his face.
The closer I got to him, the harder it was to penetrate his magical field.
Logan! I shouted through our bond, and for a moment I felt a response. Mate. I’m only going to say this once. Stop destroying the world.
Another flicker of awareness. Another sliver of my Logan returning to me.
Come on, baby, I coaxed. I love that you’re annihilating everything for me. It’s very villain of you. But I still want to live here, so let’s save
it for later.
This time the flicker was a lightning bolt, and I gasped as a heavy weight slammed against me. Logan sent us into what remained
of the far wall of the assembly hall, turning just before we hit so his back was the one to crack against the wood panels.
His hold on me was so tight . . . so complete . . . that there wasn’t a sliver of space between us. As his lips crashed against
mine, I was consumed, forgetting the world was ending momentarily.
“Precious,” he growled against my swollen, bruised lips. “You fucking died. Don’t ever do that to me again.”
My laughter was soft, and I felt him shudder in my hold as he tightened his arms until it was painful. Not that I cared. “I’m
sorry, love,” I said in a breathless whisper. “I was momentarily removed from this plane, but I found support from my sister-witches
in another. They showed me the way.”
His piercing green gaze focused on me, and I squirmed under his intensity, even as I soaked up the love that I had almost lost. “Your power . . . baby,” he said slowly. “What happened?”
His magic tentatively probed where we were bound.
“Reapers were never supposed to work alone,” I told him again, my voice breaking as I recalled floating in the darkness with
my sister-witches. “We’re guardians. Protectors of the magical world. We were all who stood between the living place and dark
energy from the other planes. I know you can’t see it, Logan, but our magical world is covered in darkness from the other
planes. It’s eating away at Earth’s energy, and soon there’ll be nothing left. Purgatory will filter through every plane,
including the Eternal Lands.”
Logan kissed me again, as if he couldn’t help himself, and I heard him whisper, “Even as a child, you were extraordinary,
but as an adult, you are beyond belief.”
I wished I could stay wrapped in his arms forever, but our battle wasn’t over yet. After placing another kiss against his
soft lips, I pulled back. “Can you release the school now, best friend?” It was no longer a phrase used to create distance,
but one of shared memories. “We need to show the world that we’re too powerful to fuck with—oh, and that we’re kind of the
only magic preventing the utter destruction of everything.”
Logan’s face darkened as he took in the room, and the witches, warlocks, and monsters held down by his magic. With his release
of the apex elemental energy he’d been channeling, the shaking of the building had eased. “I’m going to destroy the council,”
he told me, no inflection in his tone as his fingers flexed against my skin. “There’s nothing that can save them now. We will
rebuild the magical world with those more worthy.”
Capturing his chin, I held him still so I could glare into his face. “Logan Kingston. You will not murder dozens of witches and warlocks. That’s not the way forward.”
The slightest smirk played around his lips. “There’s a few less than there was already,” he admitted. “Belle no longer has
a father, and the witch who ordered your death . . . she’s in a million pieces. Marcus got fried, though he might still be
alive and wishing he was dead.”
I examined his expression to determine if he was kidding or not—definitely not. “Are you angry about that?” he asked with little more than curiosity in his tone. “Do you wish I’d acted less savagely?”
It took me about one heartbeat to decide how I felt. “I’m not angry at all. If they’d hurt you, I’d have let my demons tear
them and this entire world to pieces.”
I’d finally accepted that my monsters were demons from Purgatory.
Logan’s smile was feral, and when we kissed this time, I felt him drawing his magic out of the hall and back into our bond.
I already thrummed with a hundred times more power than I’d ever contained before, and when we added in the spellcaster energy,
we were an atomic bomb about to explode. This amount of power couldn’t remain within us, and thanks to my sister-witches,
I had a very good idea of what we needed to do next.
We landed in the middle of the chaos. Logan’s power had kept everyone as living statues, aware of what he was about to bring
down on them, but without the means to break his energy and stop him. Now they were free, the battle between demons and students
resumed, but they were all very aware of Logan and me nearby.
We were as dangerous as the monsters and they knew it.
Without thought, I tethered all of the dark creatures.
One moment they raged in mindless pursuit of blood, and the next I had them in my grasp, moving them toward me. “Can we broadcast
this again?” I asked Logan, searching for my friends and family in the crowd. There were a lot of witches and warlocks here
I loved, and I needed to know they were all okay.
“It never stopped,” he said to me, looking through the crowd as well.
Excellent. That meant whatever I did now would be broadcast to the world.
As the students grasped that they were no longer fighting for their lives, I sent almost all of the demons back to Purgatory.
Five remained standing behind Logan and me, silently observing the confused students.
“Pais!” Sara burst out of the crowd, looking a right mess. Her dark hair was everywhere, and she had a nasty cut on her cheek,
but she was alive. Haley pounced on us a few moments later, and I wasn’t surprised to see Noah and Tobias right behind her.
When Noah reached us, he leaned over and murmured a few words to Logan that I couldn’t hear, but I would guess they were something
along the lines of Thanks for not actually destroying us all in your rage, bro.
“Bring the council here,” I said to Logan, drawing my demons closer. They were a mixed group including a bear, a centipede,
and a spider, and as they towered over us, I knew we painted a terrifying picture. My aim, before they partially removed my
fucking head, had been to present myself as harmless and sweet. A complete nonthreat.
That was no longer the plan.
My friends glanced up at the demons but didn’t move away, demonstrating once again their complete and utter trust in me.
“Little Gem! You’re alive!”
At Dad’s call, the first tears pricked my eyes, but it wasn’t time to fall apart. Not yet.
He crashed against me, and I fell into his familiar warmth and ashy scent. “Trevor and J?” I asked as I pulled away.
“They’re fine,” he told me, brushing his hand over my cheek, pushing my hair behind my ear. “How are you okay though? I saw
them use fire magic against you. I saw you fall . . .” He wore a look of anguish that I hoped to never see again. It shattered
my hold over my emotions, and a few of the tears slipped free.
“The power of the other reapers saved me.” This was an explanation for the world, so I wasn’t surprised when my magic swelled,
and my voice amplified to fill the hall. “Reapers are a guardian affinity. We’re supposed to be a collective, the only affinity
who can truly join their powers to keep this world safe. We stopped the five planes of existence from colliding and collapsing
into one, which would have the darkness of the realms devouring Earth’s natural light and energy. But the Council of Fools,
through the years, murdered us all. We’re lucky that the fallen reapers lent me their powers, and now I have the means to
make it right.”
The dark veil that had appeared when they rebloomed my energy was no longer present; it had been healed with my return and
the banishing of the demons. But that was only the tip of the problems the magical world faced.
It was time to show them what they’d wrought with their ignorant actions.
Icy energy flowed from me, and my eyesight tilted for a breath. When it rightened itself, the darkness I’d seen in the vision
from the reaper witches coated everything—the walls and floors where students sat and lay, everything.
“This is dark energy,” I said harshly. “It’s from Purgatory, and it’s the main food source of my demons.”
Tugging on the tethers of the five that remained, I sent them out to do what they did best: devour the darkness. They raced
forward, and students started screaming again, but they shut the fuck up when they realized that nothing was attacking them.
The demons were fast. Starting in one corner, within minutes they had eaten through a decent chunk of inky energy.
“I’ve seen them do this before,” I said, my voice no longer amplified. “I thought they were chomping on air because I didn’t
look deeply enough into the magic around us.”
Half a dozen cloaked members of the council were all that remained. Logan’s magic was wrapped around them as he dragged them
down to kneel before me.
It was a nice, but unnecessary, touch.
I didn’t make him release them though.
“You need me,” I said coldly. “You almost destroyed the world when you murdered me without trial. I’m the last reaper, and
therefore the only one who can bring the demons here and ask them very nicely to eat up the darkness that’s throwing the balance of our world out of order.” I angrily jabbed my finger at the walls. “That covers our magical world. It’ll take me decades to clean up your mess.”
Okay, it wasn’t exactly their mess, since most reapers were destroyed long ago. It also wouldn’t take decades with the power
of hundreds of reapers at my disposal. But there were points to be made, and I wanted them really drilled home.
“You’re one reaper. Can you control enough of the demons to truly save our world?” The council member lifted his head to reveal a surprising youthfulness. He couldn’t be older than his late thirties, and considering members were generally fifty at the youngest, he must be quite powerful.
“I’m the only hope you’ve got, so you better pray to Selene and every other goddess that I’m enough. And you better be grateful
that I’m even willing to save this world—and your sorry ass with it.” I was done with their shit, and I was done with the
magical world as it stood, but I wouldn’t let them all die. They were lucky I loved my family, friends, and Logan fucking
Kingston. Otherwise, they’d be screwed.
“I’m finished with college,” I said, more to myself than anyone else. “I already have an important role in the magical world.”
“We will pay you,” another council member piped up, a woman who looked like she was a few years from death, her pale skin
thin and wrinkled. “A fortune. You can name your price.”
“She doesn’t want your blood money,” Logan snarled. “I take care of my mate.”
My lips twitched, but I managed not to laugh. I gave them one last warning: “You won’t ever control us, not with your money
or your magic. Pray that I don’t stop caring at some point, because who is left to take my place?”
With that, I wrapped my arms around Logan and breathed him in, the last of my panic and pain fading under his touch. “I’ll
keep you safe while you keep the world safe,” he whispered. “I love you, Precious.”
“I love you too,” I said on a sob. “You brought me back from the deathly planes, Logan. Our bond led me to the light.”
The mention of my death had him grumbling as magic blazed between us, but he didn’t lose it again. He just held me, which was exactly what I needed.
When I lifted my head to check on my demons, I noticed a small witch standing near the edge of the aisle between overturned
chairs. Belle met my eyes, and the sadness there was overwhelming, but she didn’t come any closer.
We kept eye contact for several long seconds, before she nodded and turned to leave the room. I wasn’t sure we’d ever recover
our friendship after what happened, but in the end she’d tried to reason with her father for me before he went too far.
That was important, especially if it went further with Trevor and her. She might be my sister-in-law one day, and if that
happened, I would find forgiveness. Eventually.