24. Riven
Riven
Her scream claws straight through my skull.
The ropes bound around her waist drag her backward as though she weighs nothing at all. Creed loses his grip first. Then Kyzen. Then Amick.
I don’t. I refuse.
He’ll have to sever my hand from hers.
My boots gouge trenches through the stone as I hang onto her for dear fucking life.
Daddy Dearest will not take my angel and pluck her wings.
“Riven,” she whimpers, latching her other hand around my wrist. “Hum louder for me.”
I don’t remember deciding to hum. I rarely do.
It simply…
Happens.
A quiet vibration settles in my chest as Chaos stretches in my belly, delighted by the promise of what comes next.
“Round around the ropes glow,
Ashes drift where dead gods go.
Four boys charge and she hangs high,
Father laughs and all sons die.”
With one swift tug, we’re ripped from the floor. My angel and I soar through the air together for the second time in our short little lives.
My giggle tickles my throat as I pull her head to my chest and wrap my body around hers.
The melody playing in my mind slows. As does everything around us.
I watch, truly mesmerized, as Death launches himself straight at the rope imprisoning her. His exquisite swords slice through the black essence spilling from our father’s palm, and corruption bursts apart like smoke caught in a storm.
Then…
We plummet.
She screams. I laugh.
Kyzen’s power wraps us in a hug, while her beautiful Boundaries places us in a bubble. My ass touches the ground, nice and gentle. No more than a millisecond passes, and Kyzen and Amick jerk us to our feet.
The relief lasts exactly one chuckle.
Across the chamber, our father doesn’t even spare her a glance as we shove her behind us and stand as one.
He merely rolls one shoulder. Then the other.
Like a man loosening stiff muscles.
“Round around the charcoal wall,
Catch her, save her, watch her fall.
Pull the rope and cut it through,
Father’s smiling just at you.”
“There,” he murmurs as his gold eyes drift across the four of us like a man admiring a piece of art. “That’s the welcome I was hoping for.”
My humming grows louder.
“Round around our father goes,
Counting every son he knows.
One for Death and one for Time,
One who laughs and one who’s Right.”
For a heartbeat, everything stills.
Even the air feels like it’s waiting and I have to choke down another laugh that’s so fucking eager to break free.
Then he snaps his fingers.
His posture straightens as he laces his fingers behind his back, smiling at us like he cannot wait for what happens next. The responding sound is quiet at first, then the echo vibrates the ground beneath my boots.
A distant, growing thunder rolls through the hall toward us.
“Shit,” Thayla breathes as she presses her back against Kyzen’s.
The others all line themselves up. Waiting.
“You’ve got to get out of here, Thayla,” Creed grunts.
“I’m not leaving you four. Even if I considered that option, there’s no way out.”
Powers flare as everyone who joined us on this idiotic mission prepares themselves for yet another battle.
Feet shift and weapons rise at the ready.
He called in the army.
“Vullie,” Thayla says, panting. “A vial would be nice right about now.”
I hold my angel’s gaze as she turns the little glass container back with no hesitation the second good ol’ Vullie passes it to her. The exhaustion in her eyes is nothing compared to the determination.
She’s fucking magnificent.
“Let Chaos reign, my little psycho,” she breathes.
I blow her a kiss.
My brothers and I tear our gazes from her and the doorway, then face our father. He smirks as though the anticipation is everything he dreamed of and more.
“Now,” he says, “let me see how much you’ve grown.”
Dark Gods and Oblirians pour into the chamber in a tightly packed surge of steel, corruption, and orders shouted too late to matter.
“Now!”
Amick’s command echoes through my ears.
Déjà vu.
Gods, just like old times. The same formation. The same roles.
The same desperate hope that together might finally be enough.
We’re the same four abominations.
Just surviving for a different reason.
Power roars through the air. The love of my life and the ten beings who have unfortunately been dragged into this shit show with us unleash hell on the oncoming guards.
My brothers and I…
Strike at our father.
Death uncoils from Creed’s hands in long, controlled arcs that cut through the space between us. Kyzen moves in the same breath. The timing of everything shifts. Not visibly or dramatically but just enough to accelerate our powers.
My Chaos flows free.
The baby blue and burgundy streaks of power slink from my fingertips as Amick directs us.
Left. Now. Hold. Adjust.
Every movement we make folds into the others like we’ve rehearsed this in over a hundred lifetimes that haven’t happened.
Kirabitch barely moves from his spot. A pulse of power here, a swipe of his arm there. He never strikes back.
Frightening. That’s very fucking worrisome.
My power shifts and out pop dozens of copies of my brothers and myself. They screech at the top of their lungs like they’ve truly lost their minds, and for a heartbeat, our father’s eyes flare.
He turns his gaze straight to me, real me. Never for a second did he doubt where I stood. He fucking grins.
This may be the first time in my life he’s ever looked at me like that.
Hopefully, it’s the last.
“Interesting development.”
Nothing about that is comforting.
I allow my smirk to morph into one that matches his.
“Round around and round again,
Brothers, father, blood and sin.
Laughing, humming, count to four…
Someone doesn’t leave this war.”
My giggle doesn’t drown out the sounds roaring behind us.
Steel meeting steel. Screams. Curses. Grunts and groans.
Their fight continues as our dance drags on.
Each shift my brothers and I make, our father matches. The closer we get to him, the more the essence of his Veil surrounds him. It doesn’t swallow him whole. It seemingly…holds him.
It’s like it’s both protecting and empowering him.
“This is never going to fucking work, genius,” I grunt at Amick. “Any other grand ideas?’
He does what he always fucking does and stares ahead in unwavering concentration. Small murmurs of instructions slip past his lips and although I’d rather punch him in the damn face, I still do whatever he commands.
All the while, Kira still never cast his power against us.
He…observes. His head turns slightly as Creed’s next wave of Death threads through the space in front of him. Close but not close enough to wrap around his fucking throat.
“Attack the Veil,” Amick says.
“What?” Kyzen barks.
“Attack it.”
Say less.
I redirect my power and aim it straight for that ungodly creation behind our father. The second it penetrates, my Harmony rushes to the surface, weaving in the threads of my Chaos.
The sensation that blasts through me is nothing like what it felt like when my powers attacked Obsidian. This feeling is daunting and freezing. Worse, it calls to the threads of corruption that will always live in our veins.
The power we kept from this place buzzes beneath my skin. Begging to go back home.
No. Nope. Home is behind us.
Home has beautiful stained-glass eyes that flare like fire when you make her smile.
“Home is not ash and stone.
Home is never all alone.
Home lives in our Binder’s heart.
Home is in the soul split apart.”
Creed and Kyzen don’t question Amick’s order a second time.
Death and Time crash into the Veil in perfectly staggered waves, each adjustment coming a heartbeat before Amick calls for it. It’s as though the three of them are sharing the same mind.
They basically do. They always have.
I’ve just always had to try to keep up.
No, no. Don’t think like that at such a glorious time.
And glorious it is.
The first flicker of concern races across our sperm donor’s face.
His eyes cloud with realization as he peers over his shoulder. His head slowly pivots back to us and blackness seeps across his gold irises.
“Careful, boys,” he warns, low. “You damage my Veil and I’m going to have to stop playing with your Binder and your guests.”
The four of us hesitate for a moment, weighing the very clear threat.
“Little burden, you need to run.
Father’s only having fun.
Catch the girl and break the boys.
Then he’ll put away his toys.”
“Don’t stop,” Thayla shouts, jumping between the four of us.
A brutal grunt rips from her throat as our father’s power slams against the barrier she puts up in front of us.
“Mellcom is still in there. If you destroy the Veil, you kill him and fuck up your father’s plan. Don’t stop!”
The four of us push even more of our power. The barrier buckles and cracks of white race across its surface before Thayla forces it smooth again with a strained gasp. Another blast crashes into it. Then another.
Every impact drives her boots another inch across the stone.
“Yemi!” she grunts.
Golden light joins the shimmering wall as Yemi throws both hands forward. Poor bestie looks like she’s been to Hell and back—again. Regardless, her barrier locks over Thayla’s like another layer of steel. The two powers weaving together until I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
It still isn’t enough. The floor trembles beneath every strike Obliteration sends their way.
Sweat drips from Thayla’s brow. Yemi’s arms shake.
The rest behind us still battle. No one yields.
“Again,” Amick orders.
No hesitation.
Death tears into the Veil and Time follows a fraction behind it. Chaos collides with both while Harmony stitches the attacks together just long enough to force another ripple across the charcoal surface.
The Veil groans.
Actually…
Groans.
The sound crawls beneath my skin and the wings in my belly flap faster. Kira hears it as well. His expression shifts from fury to calculation.
“Are the four of you truly willing to allow your Binder and your…friends to die?”
Another pulse of corruption slams into the barrier, and both Thayla and Yemi cry out.
“Don’t listen to him,” Thayla bellows. “Don’t give in.”
My humming stops for a heartbeat.
“My boys.” Our father folds his hands behind his back and smiles at us. “You already know I want you home. I want you four to step into the roles that were always meant to be yours.”
His voice never rises despite the strikes he continues to land against the barriers protecting us. Yemi stumbles a step, and Thayla catches her shoulder without tearing her glare away from Obliteration.
“Join me and this ends. I vow I will spare every life standing in this chamber. I will even give them the option to join us or go back to the Godsdawn unharmed.”
He says it so certainly, yet the fucking power he unleashes and the bellows that tear from Thayla and Yemi say something different.
“Do not fucking listen to him,” Thayla screams.
He tsks and shakes his head at her.
“Listen to your Binder and well”—his smile returns as he gestures behind us—“their blood will rest on your hands.”
The blood that coats our hands has always been because of him.
“Together,” Amick mutters, glancing at Kyzen, Creed, then me.
He holds my gaze and I nod.
“Fuck you!” I shout at our father.
My Harmony screams through my Chaos as I tear another wave into the Veil. Creed’s Death wraps around it. Kyzen’s Time spears it all forward the instant our strikes land.
The charcoal wall shudders and a fissure splinters across its surface.
Kira’s smile disappears as he raises his hands.
We all brace for impact.
Then…
The entire chamber shudders.
The roaring hoot that cuts through the house sends everyone tumbling to the ground. Bones snap, screams ring free, and bodies fly through the air as an ombre of indigo feathers explode through the room like a falling star.
Dark Gods and Oblirians don’t even have time to scream as talons the size of swords punch through armor. His wings hammer outward and bodies lift from the floor, then break against the walls.
Within seconds, every guard is dead and…
Only Obliteration remains.
“V,” Thalya mumbles as he lands between us.
He doesn’t glance back at us.
“You’ve gone too far, Kirabaddon.”
The deep, ancient rumble in his tone nearly shocks me still. I’ve never heard his voice laced with such power.
Black wings shoot from our father’s back as darkness crawls from his fingers.
“Not far enough, Vedarya.”
Those three words carry centuries of hatred and V answers with another hoot. The two collide in the air like thunder and lightning.
Debris falls from the ceiling as power as old as time crashes together in waves of corruption and pure essence. It keeps us pinned to the ground, watching in absolute horror and fascination.
The shade of purple that you see in the Angel Aura Amethyst and the angel orchid flower cannot rival what flows from V’s feathers.
Hope and triumph continue to rise in my chest as blow after blow tears my father to shreds.
Never in my life have I seen his blood, but as the raindrops of burgundy—the perfect mix of red and black—splatter against the stone, I deem it my new favorite color.
It’s the most breathtaking sight I’ve ever seen.
Until…it isn’t.
Thayla screams bloody murder at every feather that falls from V’s body as black ropes lace their way around him.
The unpredictable pattern of him being caught, then breaking free, has my heart seconds away from exploding.
Neither ancient being gives up. They never give an inch. They land strike after strike.
Again. Again. Again.
Each impact louder than the last.
Their bodies move so impossibly fast that wings, corruption, and light become one blurred storm of white, frost blue, lavender, rich purple, deep indigo, and black.
Pressure builds not just around them, but everything.
The stone beneath my ass splinters.
The Veil trembles.
Every breath becomes harder to pull into my lungs, and every instinct in me screams to run, hide, survive.
Instead…we watch. We’re forced to. The power in this now seemingly small space paralyzes us where we are.
Come on, V.
Come on.
End him.
End it all.
The realm explodes.
Light erupts between them with enough force to blind me.
A deafening crack tears through the chamber as a shockwave sends all of us sliding backward.
Our father crashes through the air until his body slams into the far wall hard enough to crater the stone. Dust rains from the ceiling as he slides to the floor, unmoving.
For one glorious, impossible heartbeat…
Nobody moves. Nobody breathes.
We…
We did it.
V did it.
A giggle tears from my throat.
“Home is laughing.
Home is bright.
Father finally lost the fight.”
A thread of blue catches my eye, and my song slowly fades from my mind.
Time.
Kyzen’s power.
It coils through the settling dust, impossibly gentle as it cradles V’s shrinking body and lowers him toward the broken floor.
No.
No, no, no.
“V!”
Thayla’s scream shatters something inside me.
His wings hang limp.
His head lolls against Kyzen’s slowing power.
The chamber falls so quiet I swear I hear his body meet the floor.
No.
“Round and round the colors fade.
Round and round the games we played.
Round and round don’t make this true.
Home still has a place for you.”