Chapter 67 Where are the gods?
Where are the gods?
The fighting has stopped; they’ve just lost one of their own. I can see them faltering. Bear looks at me and shakes his head slightly. I don’t care. The Resistance backs away and then runs. The beta pledges and guards chase after them, disappearing into the city.
There are still a large number of black-robed betas here, but there are even more black-robed bodies on the ground.
I don’t care about any of it.
My entire focus is on this bitch who stole my happy ending.
“What are they doing? Where are they going?” the goddess screams. She looks around, sees her Fang dead on the floor of the stage. Her High King is gone; his face is a mass of blood and muscle. I think they stomped on him.
She paces furiously, jerking her stolen body this way and that.
“Get them!” she screams, and a whole heap of the betas who were standing around scatter into the streets, taking off after them.
I swipe at my cheeks and stand up straight, watching her with narrowed eyes. There are still too many up here. Thirty guards and about half a dozen pledges, but I don’t see any marquesses or barons. The only ones are lying lifeless on the cold ground where they belong.
She paces, becoming more and more agitated as the minutes pass.
“Fine, I’ll fix it,” she mutters.
She stands up straight, and I watch as her thighs twitch and tremble. She paces to her Warden and stares at him intently.
“You did exactly as I suspected you would. Your loyalty is only skin deep, and I can’t have you doing that.”
Her face contorts as she stares at him.
“Recall them,” she snarls.
A pledge jumps to a massive horn that’s on a platform. He grips it with one hand, takes a deep breath and blows into it. The deep mellow sound is amplified by her power; it makes my eardrums shudder.
She folds her arms over herself, and I see the streaks of blood and clear body liquid running down her body.
“Bring me another.”
I let out a frustrated sound. She ignores everything as a terrified girl is dragged up the dais. She screams when she sees what’s going to become of her. I wonder if she’s aware that the goddess will cannibalise her from within.
Kill her.
I have to kill her.
She’s innocent.
It’s for the greater good.
My fingers twitch, and I lean into moving forward, but I can’t make my legs move.
She’s going to die anyway.
“Kaida Keres!”
I whip my head around and see the bowman and drop.
Benji’s arrow is true. It punctures the chest of the living beta, stealing her life from her.
She collapses to the ground as the Beta Goddess screams, spit flying from her mouth. I look back, but Benji is gone, disappearing into a mass of swirling robes.
“Another!” she shouts.
“There is no other, Goddess,” a guard says and flinches when she whirls on him.
The goddess stares at him in a way that clearly terrifies him. “What do you mean?”
“The,” he motions to where Jarek was. “He let them all out, and they ran away.”
“They ran away? They ran AWAY?”
Jarek, I think in despair. He found a way to avoid killing them all. I should have known he would. He’s got too much heart.
“I need a vessel!”
The beta guards step back, but she seethes, ignoring them, not even noticing the stench of their sour fear filling the air around us.
“She turns back to Walker.”
“Be my vessel again.”
Again? My eyes bulge. Again? What the fuck does she mean again?
“I need you to be my vessel.”
He shakes his head.
“You know it has to be voluntary or it won’t work.”
“No,” he hisses. “I won’t do it.”
She paces. “Then, kill the omega.”
The guard near me lifts his sword.
“Not that one, you idiot!” she howls. “How are you all so stupid?”
I turn to Legion, who stares only at Walker.
“We’re not supposed to be,” Legion whispers. “They’ll never let us be together.”
I go still, barely daring to breathe, trying to figure out what’s going to happen, but she moves and puts an arm over his shoulders.
Legion doesn’t try to push her away; he just watches Walker.
“No!” Walker snaps.
Cadel huffs, and I realise I’m close to him, and there’s no one between us. I start moving in his direction, inch by inch.
“You’ll give me the loan of your body, or I’ll kill him,” the goddess wheedles.
Walker hesitates.
Legion smiles softly at him. There’s almost a peace and acceptance on his face.
“Don’t do it.”
Walker doesn’t say anything. He just stands tall, refusing to bend, refusing to answer. He keeps his eyes tracked on the Beta Goddess.
She holds out a hand, and they pass a knife to her. She lifts it up and runs it down Legion’s jaw. I think only I see how tense Walker is.
I’m halfway across the stage. I’m not close enough to leap for it yet. Sweat runs down my temples, and my stomach flutters wildly. There’s a countdown in my head, and I can hear time slipping by, but I don’t know when it will run out.
“You help me, I’ll help you. I’ll let you keep him.”
Walker tenses.
“I would never be happy,” Legion answers his unspoken question. “With everyone I know and love dead, trapped in the dark until the day she decides to break her promise.”
“Don’t be like that, Omega. I will give him a chamber to keep you in, all the luxuries. Anything you could possibly want.”
Legion laughs. “Anything? How about alphas and omegas not to be extinct?”
“You will be the last two in the world. The last of your kind. I’ll have you sterilized so you can’t breed.”
“Oh, how generous of you,” Legion spits. “You hear that, Walker? We can be the last alpha and omega pair in the world. Until we die.”
She stands up, finally realising that he’s not impressed. “So, you’re rejecting my offer? I could torture you.”
“There you go, showing your true colours, being who we know you are.”
I reach Cadel and reach for the chain.
It seems to take forever, but then I pull it free. It starts to uncoil, but there’s so much of it, and it’s taking me forever.
“I’ll do it,” Walker says.
“No!” Legion shouts. “Don’t you dare.”
“I won’t see you die. Even if it means we’re the last, I can’t lose you again. I can’t…don’t ask me to.”
I pull the chains faster.
“What are you doing?”
I keep yanking.
“OMEGA, STOP!”
I almost smile, one full of bitterness, because I don’t listen to anyone but my alphas.
“Stop her!”
I yank on the chains, no longer trying to be quiet. They fall off him, and he stands up.
“No! It’s impossible,” she stares at me, her eyes bulging wide and ugly. “Who are you?”
Cadel grips my hand. The world feels right again, for a second, before it doesn’t. He lifts my wrist to his mouth and bites deep.
I moan.
“Stop them!” she shrieks.
I bite his upper arm, and the bond surges between us. The molten core freezing inside me, solid and real. My breath catches, and I press my hand over it.
Cadel cups the side of my face and stares down at me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see her swing her knife at Walker, but Legion steps in front of the blade. It cuts deep into his neck.
“Legion!” I shout.
Legion makes a sound of pain, but he looks more shocked than anything. His blood sprays out, faster and faster.
Walker catches him and cradles him as they crash to the ground.
“No!”
Legion tries to talk, but he can’t say anything. He holds onto Walker, clinging to him. He gurgles and coughs up blood.
Then he goes still and silent.
Walker shifts his weight. “No,” he whispers.
“Walker, now listen to me,” the goddess starts.
“Lucian? Wake up? Please? Baby?”
I hold on to Cadel’s hand, watching, unable to look away.
“Luce, please.”
I take a step towards him, and Cadel lets go of my fingers. I keep going even as I almost decide to turn back.
Walker sits there numb, staring at his omega. When I can see his face properly, all I can think is: his face will give me nightmares forever, and is that how I looked?
I kneel by his side, reaching out cautiously and touching his hand. He turns his head towards me, his eyes so haunted that I don’t think anything is going to bring him back.
“I can’t,” he says.
“I know.”
He squeezes my hand. “Everything I did was to keep you both safe.”
“I know,” I whisper. “It’s okay, we understand.” And I do. I really, really do.
“He died anyway. Where are the gods? Where are they?”
I stare at him, a memory trying to shake its way loose. It’s hidden, but I can feel it, and then I can.
“Pray,” I whisper.
“What?”
“Pray for his soul, for him to find happiness, to wait for you. Pray, Walker.”
He stares at me and shakes his head, snatching his hand back. He strokes Legion’s long black hair back from his face.
“I told him I like his hair, and he should never cut it.”
Walker is falling apart and into pieces.
“Alpha, I command you to kneel.”
He roars and struggles, but he can’t fight it. He gets to his knees. I move back, sliding Legion away from them.
I glance at Cadel. He’s got the pledges and guards moving back, their eyes huge and terrified as he growls at them.
“Give me your body.”
“No!” Walker shouts.
“Give it to me!”
“Go jump off a cliff.”
She lashes out, hitting him. He doesn’t even react.
“I’ll kill her next.”
“No, you won’t,” I say before she can finish the threat.
“Dog!” the Beta commands and blows a whistle that she’s got hidden in her fist.
Walker screams. It’s so sudden and so full of pain, hate, and rage that it amazes me that it comes from a human throat.
Tears stream from his eyes.
As soon as he stops screaming, he inhales and screams again.
And again.
The sound gets deep, eerie, wild. The creature pushes through his skin, huge and monstrous. Its teeth are longer when I’m this close to it, but I can see the madness in its eyes.
It doesn’t know anyone. It just hates.
It hungers.
It hunts.
Walker is gone, buried so far deep in this beast that I don’t think he will be able to find his way back this time.
It flexes its claws in the wood and looks at the Beta Goddess. She doesn’t recoil or cringe, just stands there strong and proud. When it takes a step towards her, a pledge blows a whistle. The sound is hideous. He crouches, scratching at his ears, which have been partially clawed off.
He lowers his head; his fur stands on end, deep, black, and oily.
What did they put in this alpha?
I slide my foot back, carefully, not making a sound.
He huffs, and a trembling warble erupts from his throat. I look down at Legion. I can’t leave him here; Walker would never forgive himself.
I grab Legion and jerk, rolling fast. He lands on the stairs beside Mordecai.
I look at them, and time stands still.
Almost everyone I love is dead.
I turn, finding Cadel’s eyes. There’s a Ravage Wolf between us, and I’m not sure we can survive this.
Not anymore.
My confidence is gone.
Cadel crouches, his eyes glowing red. A deep, threatening roar booms out of his throat.
The Ravage Wolf fixes his eyes on my soul mate.
The Anarchy Wolf springs.