Chapter 38
Jaxon
I felt nothing.
Blood dripped down my face as I stared down at the decapitated head.
The head of the witch that caused centuries of suffering.
Death. Her yellow eyes were open and wide, icy and detached as they stared blankly up at nothing.
I expected to feel relief, happiness even, but all I felt was a gaping emptiness in my chest. My vision swam, and the world around me blurred.
Voices echoed, but I couldn't make out what they were saying.
I could only stare at the blood seeping from the jagged cut of her open throat.
The gaping hole in her mutilated chest. Her black heart, lifeless, broken, and glistening on the mud-soaked earth where I'd thrown it.
Morgana was gone. Truly gone. It was all I had been wanting these past months, and I couldn't bring myself to care.
I turned my head, my eyes finding Xavier. My brother. I didn't care what the Fates had revealed. He was, and always would be, my brother. My hands started to shake, my breathing growing ragged. A crack echoed, the world tilted, and I was on my knees.
A hand landed on my shoulder, but I violently pulled away, lunging toward Xavier. Zara lay beside him, and they were staring at one another, their hands outstretched toward each other. As if even in death they knew where to find one another.
A sickly, wet, gasping sound filled my ears as snot, blood, and tears streamed down my face. I could only breathe through my mouth, and I realized that horrible sound was coming from me.
Why?! Why did it have to end like this? Was there no other way?
My fingers curled into my brother's leathers, and I shook him, desperately trying to wake him. Xavier’s head rolled, but he remained utterly still, unmoving.
He couldn’t be dead. He couldn't be gone…
I wouldn't allow it. I shook him harder. He couldn’t leave me alone…
he was the only family I had left… he would wake up. Both of them would.
“WAKE UP!” I screamed, my voice booming across the hilltop and out across the realm.
I searched my soul for that spark of magic, for the piece of my brother that had remained, for that sliver of Zara—but it was gone.
Cealan had taken it when he killed Zara, ripping it from me just as Xavier had felt her torn from him.
Now, only an emptiness remained where they once resided within me, nothing of them left.
Soren’s face came into view, and I snarled as he knelt in front of me. The emerald cloak he wore covered most of his body, but it was pristine. Not a drop of blood or gore marring it.
“Help him,” I barked. “Get Caelan, do something!”
But Soren only shook his head. Where did he even come from?
Theo appeared behind Soren, followed by Dedra, and I had to look away. I couldn't see their expressions, their grief. It would only make his death—their death real.
Soren’s nasally voice cut through the air. “Caelan can't come back. They are gone.”
I only shook harder, Xavier’s blood coating my hands, my clothes. Xavier’s face was so pale, it was nearly as white as that damn strip in his hair.
“But you will see them again, Jaxon. Caelan left you a note.”
“Fuck his note,” I growled, snapping my gaze back to him. This wasn’t real. They couldn’t be dead. I needed to fix this, go back in time and never open that damn portal. At least then I would still have my brother.
Soren leaned forward, his pointed rat nose lifting. “Because of their sacrifice—”
“Sacrifice?!” I cut him off, a cruel laugh escaping my lips. A choking noise followed as I tried to suck in a breath. “They were murdered! By your so-called gods because they said it needed to be done. That is no sacrifice! That is slaughter!”
I lowered Xavier gently back onto the ground, my gaze fixed on Soren.
“You tell them to bring them back. Now.” My voice was lethal, deadly, and Soren blanched at my tone.
“If you would just let me show you the note,” Soren stuttered, reaching into his pocket.
I lunged.
My fist connected with Soren’s jaw as he fell back into the mud, but as I raised my fist to do it again, another roar echoed around us. I snapped my head up and found Lexion Demaris charging directly for me. I scrambled to my feet, and Theo and Dedra put themselves between us.
“No! Let him come,” I shouted and I felt something then. Understanding.
I had seen how he acted with Lana in that clearing. Saw how similar his scars matched her own. They had been mated, and Lex was looking for revenge, just like I was.
If I couldn't have mine, I at least could give him his. What did I have to live for now anyway?
Lex was now in front of me, but I didn't move or defend myself as his fist lifted. I only stared at the side of his face, at the scars peppering his skin, and closed my eyes.
The ground shook violently, and my eyes shot open. Lex’s fist swung wide as he stumbled and crashed to the ground, and I staggered and fell backward onto my back. The breath left my lungs in a rush from the sudden impact.
An explosion of blue light flashed, and the air seemed to shift.
The entire sky rippled as if bursting open, and a dam blew open in my mind.
Memories I hadn't previously known flooded me, and I screamed as searing pain began to bloom on my chest. The smell of burning flesh filled my nostrils and I looked down in a panic to find a mark now etched onto my chest. Raised red burns were now peeking up from my shirt, the skin bubbling.
A face, one I knew like the back of my hand, flashed in my vision and understanding bloomed, but not before another wave of pressure in my skull ebbed, and I passed out.