Chapter 27
~Velra~
Evacuation was underway at the sanctuary zone from which the two-thousand-strong hybrid assembly had marched out from earlier.
Ryker was overseeing it alongside Lucian, Jaxon and Mia.
Kai, and Nyx were with Cassius and me as we stood at the ready with hundreds of Guardian Movement members flanking us and the hybrids that had agreed to be used as bait to draw out Gregor and the last remaining three thousand Puritas members.
And Vorzyr was flying overhead in dragon form with several dragon hybrids, pretty much serving the function of supernatural snipers for when things got underway.
There was a lot of whisper-talking and shifting around, a mixture of nervousness and restlessness, everyone knowing this was the last stand, the thing that was going to end all of this insanity. All of this weaponized demonic rhetoric against hybrid beings.
I brushed my fingers against Nyx’s and he smiled and took my hand in his. Cassius nuzzled against me for a moment, beaming at the interaction.
Kai leaned in on Nyx’s other side and kissed the top of his head and then one of his horns, soothing him. “We’ll see to this, just like we’ve seen to everything else. Nothing has come up against us and won out.”
Nyx nodded. “I know, yeah.” He smiled at me. “He’s good with the one-liners—and the speeches too every now and then.”
“This is an instance where your vicious side plays very well,” Cassius told Kai.
Kai grinned. “I’m well aware.”
In a burst of silver light that startled us and many of the hybrids behind us, Cornelius materialized with an arm wrapped around Warlow.
“Hey!” I cried.
Warlow seemed like he wanted to come to me, but he held with Cornelius.
I’d spent enough time around them when they’d taken me into their home so sweetly to understand their dynamic.
Cornelius hated Warlow being in any sort of danger, so agreeing to allow him to be on the frontlines now wasn’t sitting well with him, hence him needing to maintain a physical hold on him.
Warlow had come out as the first hybrid known across the supernatural world publicly.
Well, he’d been outed.
Before that he’d been in hiding, because Chimera Circle had wanted access to him as he’d been a born hybrid like Lazriel was, something even rarer twenty years back when this had all gone down.
So this battle, these enemies specifically being about hybrid hate…
it got under Cornelius’ skin like nothing else.
But just like those two thousand here now, Warlow needed this. To stand up, come out of protection, just like he had when he’d formed our Crossborn team.
“Velra,” Warlow greeted me warmly. “Nyx.” He gave Cassius and Kai a chin lift each.
“My dear,” Cornelius spoke. “We must stop meeting under such awful circumstances.” He smiled politely at Cassius, then winked out at Nyx and Kai.
“Totally agree,” I responded.
“It will only be awful for them,” Warlow seethed, glaring out into the trees in the distance enveloping the massive two acre clearing.
“Certainly,” Cornelius agreed, squeezing him to him.
A dragon call sounded from Vorzyr above.
Kai stepped forward, calling his rose-gold power to either palm, his long leather coat flapping behind him with his sudden movements. “He’s sensed a shift in the air,” he told us.
We were expecting the enemy to come in via magical means, but a shift like that was the run up to that.
Warlow gave a solemn nod, then tugged on Cornelius’ hand, and then he was leading them over to the front of the assembled hybrids, while Cassius, me, Nyx, and Kai stayed off to the left side, readying ourselves, all of us calling our power.
I watched as Warlow turned to address everyone as Cornelius remained facing outward toward the trees in the distance, watching and on guard.
I had never seen so many hybrids gathered in one place like this.
So many different beings—wolf-vampire, wolf-sorcerers like Warlow, vampire-sorcerers, Light Fae-sorcerers, Basilisk-vampires, Shadowmancer-vampires, even Dark Fae-wolves and vampires, some Dark Fae-Light Fae—the Dark Fae weren’t all with the enemy.
Those ones had just made themselves far too pronounced as pureblood Dark Fae.
So many beings with so many different hybridized natures. Nyx was an Incubus-Sorcerer. Me with my Wraith-Dark Fae nature. The combinations were virtually endless.
They stood there, some in metal armor, some in tactical gear similar to Lazriel, some in leathers like me, but most of them just in their own everyday wear, whether that was jeans and T-Shirts, slinky dresses, or magical robes.
There was no single set way of looking or being, there was so much variety, so much difference now brought together under a common cause of protection and freedom from persecution.
How could Puritas hate what couldn’t even be properly quantified or put in a box as being any particular individual thing?
How? They were insane, hopped up on power, fear of the unknown, and unfounded hate.
Well, they were about to see the power in what we were, in who we all were.
“We stand here against those who would persecute us, against those who have tried to force us from our lives, to inspire shame in us, to have us doubt that we belong in the world alongside everyone else,” Warlow began, his vehemence rolling right through me.
I felt Nyx squeeze my hand, feeling it too.
“The world is changing, evolving. We are creating systems that understand and adapt to us now, not the other way around. We don’t need to tiptoe around.
We don’t need to take only what we can get.
We don’t need to accept lack of understanding and support.
This is our time now! We are done being hidden away, done being afraid of what will become of us.
We are here claiming our place in the world.
And the world has answered. It’s here with us.
Puritas is an old guard rhetoric that will fall here this very day.
” He thrust his fist in the air. “It ends here and we rise here!”
Applause, wolf-whistles and hearty cheers rang out and it had the four of us doing the same.
I let out a whistle, Nyx thrust his fist in the air like Warlow, and Kai clapped intensely.
And then Cassius had me grinning as he shot off a spark of his white power into the air that formed a massive heart with a sword through it, before it then morphed to Crossborn’s logo.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
He smiled at me through the stunned and awed reaction from the crowd. “Thought you’d enjoy that.”
The moment of elation was far too short-lived, though, as dragon cries rang out from above, just moments before magical eruptions suddenly started happening.
Portals burst open, dozens coming through each one.
Others teleported in directly.
And as the army moved into rapid-fire formation, said teleportation brought in one very familiar figure.
Gregor Varsellis.
His shimmering silver robes cut through the night, as did those creepy eyes of his, the rare pale-blue shade really wasted on him.
Those eyes narrowed as he flipped down his hood, a severe brown and black buzzcut coming into view. His disdainful gaze swept over everyone, before coming to rest on Warlow, darting to Cornelius and then Cassius every now and then. He was clocking their Celestial power.
I wished it was with worry, but there was none there.
After all, the psycho had his followers wielding that and even black magic alongside their own power and innate abilities.
Wolves, vampires, Light Fae, sorcerers, sorceresses, and many Dark Fae made up his entourage of a couple thousand.
He sneered at Warlow. “Such hubris. Being married to an Immortal has made you foolish in that regard. You believe yourself untouchable. You all believe you’ve already won.” His eyes flamed with his peach-colored power. “That is so very far from being the case.”
Warlow tapped his chin and cocked his hip. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you dearly humiliated in your last battle where Sylas Morgrave turned your own despicable device against you and had you squealing like a little bitch with your arm bound to a torture chair of your own making?”
Raucous laughter and cheering rang out from our side that had me chuckling and Cassius beaming at me.
Gregor hissed, “I will cut out your tongue for your venomous disrespect.”
“Your threats are as old guard as your rhetoric. Move with the times, Gregor.”
Cornelius grinned and clapped Warlow on the back.
“This ends tonight.”
“The only way it ends, hybrid filth, is with you and your kind wiped from the face of the earth. You were never supposed to exist. The balance needs to be restored. And I will see to it.”
“You know nothing of the balance,” Cornelius told him. “You possess the twisted comprehension of a madman and nothing more.” His eyes raged with his silver power. “And it will be your downfall, heathen.”
With a bellow of indignation, Gregor signaled behind him at his army, “Take him!”
Cornelius stepped in front of Warlow, then swept his silver power up and out, creating a massive shimmering barrier.
In the next second, two dozen Puritas members thrust their magic at him directly—gold and white magic, the forms that their usage of borrowed Celestial power were taking.
“Cornelius!” Cassius called out, in rare panic, sensing something was off. “It’s True Celestial power, not just Immortal—too potent!”
Oh my God!
Warlow moved with his wolf speed, but Cornelius shoved him back, sending him stumbling into the army twenty feet from where they’d been standing.
And then the power hit.
It slammed into him, all channeling into one stream.
Cornelius cried out.
His shield fell instantly.
And then I heard myself, Nyx, and so many of the volunteers screaming as a hole tore right through his gut, out to the other side, and he dropped to his knees.
“Cor!” Warlow screamed, skidding to his knees beside him.
“Remember… the … plan,” Cornelius eked out.