Chapter 29
~Velra~
The pangs finally stopped.
Holy fuck.
They’d just kept coming over and over.
Lazriel and Sylas—their distress, pain, fear, suffering.
They’d been in danger.
Horrific fucking danger.
From what I’d felt, and what I knew Cassius was feeling too while up at Haven Initiative overseeing the siphoning with Ketheron and the Celestial children, it had seemed like they’d been on the edge of fucking death.
But now… now it had finally ceased.
“Velra?”
I raised my head from my crouched position on the grass to see Rhyza eyeing me with concern as she knelt in front of me, stroking my back soothingly like she had been since this had started.
It had been so intense that she’d had to pull me off the battlefield, and we were a hundred feet away.
That hadn’t stopped attacks from coming our way, though, and she’d had to beat several back.
And then, when Cornelius had seen what had been happening, he’d teleported over to us and erected a shimmering silver shield that was now encompassing us.
He’d managed to calm Warlow down who’d been raging all over the battlefield in a dangerous way after earlier and the wound that Cornelius had suffered.
Cornelius had realized what was going on, noting the Nexus Band ring on me, then he’d reached out to Ryker, who’d been on his way to the boys with Lucian, but they’d been delayed by the remaining thousand soldiers of Gregor’s army that were being tracked.
The Shadowed had found them and Ryker had been assisting with Lucian, but Cornelius had then confirmed that they hadn’t been far out from making it to Sylas and Lazriel.
“It’s over,” I told Rhyza as I lifted my head, then rose to my feet, her following.
She sucked in an unsteady breath. “Over?”
“Oh. No. Not like that. Sorry,” I gave her arm a squeeze. “I mean, they’re out of the woods now.”
The sheer enormity of her relief mirrored mine.
I dropped my hand to my belly and stroked it, taking a moment.
It was okay. It would all be okay.
I moved my hand away, my eyes narrowing fiercely.
My purple power sparked on my palms as I squared my shoulders.
It was time to channel all that pain and terror, and give it right back to those who were causing all of this—fucking Puritas.
“Cornelius, we’re good now.”
He craned his neck to look at us over his shoulder, his assessing gaze sweeping over me.
He smiled, then gave a nod and dropped the shielding dome.
Rhyza dropped her wolf claws, a growl rumbling in her throat, preparing to escalate to a battle cry of a true Alpha.
My shadows swirled around my arms and my frost crackled on my fingertips and out in front of me, forming a protective path, while my purple power flamed.
And Cornelius’ silver power surged on his upturned palms.
We were just about to re-enter the battlefield, when a hell of a sight pulled us up short.
Over to the left where Kai, Vorzyr and the Guardian members who had Bastion Gauntlets were fighting against the members of Gregor’s Puritas army who were wielding Celestial power and black magic, sparks of white and gold, those black flecks too, started floating up into the air, pulling from the offenders.
It was happening!
The siphoning of that stolen power was underway.
Ariana had been bogged down erecting a wall protecting the two thousand hybrid volunteers who were battling against those Puritas soldiers who weren’t wielding Celestial magic.
But as the magic floating up into the sky and it being drawn away had those wielding it shrieking and yelling out, many forced to their knees, especially as those sparks became streams when they were siphoned harder and faster by Ketheron, Cassius, and the Celestial children up at Haven Initiative, she dropped the wall, and rushed toward Gregor.
That demented bastard was firing his staff, the peach orb fighting to contain the Celestial power and prevent it from being taken, keeping a store, even as he tried to take out Jaxon and Mia who’d been battling him, but had been forced into a defensive, dodging position due to the potency of the magic.
Ariana stormed over there, holding an oval shimmering silver shield in front of her.
Gregor turned his attention to her and fired a stream of that concentrated shit at her.
She grunted and jarred, but kept going, her blond waves whipping behind her with the force of the power being expelled all over the place.
In a blink, Vorzyr was there too, firing his red power—the Primal Celestial Resonance aspect—that served to cut into Gregor’s stream.
“You will not win out here!” Gregor bellowed, his composure cracked. “Misguided fools! This is what the world needs! Restoration of the balance!”
“Your actions are what have been threatening the balance,” Ariana seethed.
Gregor stumbled.
His power cut out for a brief moment.
There was a delay with him reigniting it as Mia fired upon him from behind.
And then Jaxon leapt forward with crazy speed, calling out, “Now, Kai!”
With a burst of teleportation, Kai was right there as Jaxon hit Gregor, snatching the staff away, just as Jaxon slashed his claws across Gregor’s throat.
Cornelius burst into the fray with an explosion of his silver power. As Gregor hit the ground on his ass, frantically trying to heal his gushing throat, spluttering as blood literally drenched his robes, Cornelius hauled him up by said throat, making him shudder all over.
“Your actions have damaged so many. Your rhetoric has poisoned the supernatural world. You have made a power play out of persecuting, harming, and murdering the innocent, the vulnerable. You are no mighty man. You are evil and madness colliding.”
In the next moment, Cornelius called his silver power to the fingertips of his free hand, and then I was jolting as he shoved his hand through Gregor’s chest.
Gregor lurched, eyes wide.
And then Cornelius jerked his hand free—Gregor’s heart in his palm.
Holy. Hell.
The light went out in that bastard’s eyes.
Cornelius released him, then spat on him.
His corpse.
Dead.
Gregor Varsellis was gone.
The leader of Puritas was dead.
It was… surreal.
There wasn’t time to process it right now, though, as his acolytes registered what had happened, then went wild, the battle ramping up to a whole other level to our right.
Fortunately, the left side that had been wielding Celestial power were curled up in balls now whimpering as the last of the Celestial power and black magic was pulled from them, causing weakness and a clear pained, maybe hollowed out sensation until they recovered.
I caught sight of Kai handing the staff to Ariana.
She grabbed it by the orb, his silver power flaring around it, and then it cracked into pieces, the remaining Celestial power Gregor had been trying to keep floating up into the air too.
Cries near me drew my attention to the right side of battle, and I looked to see ten of the soldiers—these ones vampires—tearing into a half dozen wolf-sorcerer hybrids, slashing through their clothes, some feeding on them.
Rhyza caught sight of some more being cornered and she bounded over there, claws out, battle cry sounding.
I thrust my shadows at the ten vampires, ripping them off the hybrids by capturing them in a funnel cloud. As I swept them away, I directed the funnel through the battlefield, picking up other Puritas assholes along the way, until I’d cleared out fifty of them.
Then I twisted my right hand, the funnel collapsing, and the soldiers falling out onto the grass unconscious.
Guardians descended on them, slapping cuffs to them, preparing them for transfer to The Void once this battle was done.
As I blasted back two Light Fae coming at me from the left with my purple power, I caught sight of Nyx sailing and flipping through the air, bouncing off soldiers, blasting them unconscious with his blue power as he executed his impressive parkour moves.
Kai joined this side of the battle then, now that the Celestial aspect was done, and in typical Kai fashion, strode right through the middle of the battlefield, clearing a path with his rose-gold power without stopping, soldiers shrieking and flying into the air, others slamming into their buddies and creating domino effects.
I felt a rush of movement coming from my right and I spun, my Dark Fae power at the ready, just as ten vampires and five sorcerers lunged at me.
I saw Rhyza about to leap into the fray.
But an explosion of white power right in front of me stilled her, and then it was rushing at my attackers and sending them all hurtling into the distance several feet away, where they landed in unconscious heaps.
When the blindingly bright light died down, I caught sight of him.
“Cassius,” I breathed, as he spun around to face me and came to me, kind of looming over me in a very protective way, while his gaze darted around constantly, monitoring our surroundings.
“Little shadow,” he uttered, beaming at me.
“I thought… I was so worried that I’d feel a painful pang from you next.”
“Ketheron and I determined a solution that wouldn’t cause harm to me.
All is well. The process is complete. Ketheron is well.
All the Celestial children are unharmed.
” He chuckled. “Actually, they are elated that they were heroes tonight. I’m sure they will be up all night talking about it.
Ambrose is well also and has absorbed all the black magic that tainted the Celestial power. ”
“Wow… that’s… I can’t believe it. Thank hell.”
“Indeed.” He moved in then, to brush his lips over my cheek in that sweet way of his.
But he never made it.
He was suddenly frozen mid-step.
A gray film materialized all around him.
No.
No. No. No.
In the next second, a blast of that awful power slammed into my side.
It sent me flying out fifty feet beyond the battle, where I’d been earlier with Rhyza.
I rolled from my back and somersaulted to my feet, just as I caught sight of Rhyza leaping toward me, only to be frozen in Undead Domination too, like Cassius.
An intense rush of fear hit me through the Soul Brand from Cassius.