Lucas Soul was the final one to come up to him. He paused for a moment, his eyes full of fire, before impaling his heart with his sword.
Coldness swamped Vlado as Soul yanked the blade out of his chest. He crumpled slowly onto his side and glimpsed the reddening pool staining the ground beneath his body. Sound faded. The formidable figures before him blurred as his heart fluttered and slowed, each struggling beat sending forth waves of darkness that encroached across his vision until there was no more left to see.
Chapter Forty-Five
The silence, when it came, was sudden, and all the more shocking in its intensity.
A shudder raced through Lucas as he stared at the dead man before him. The unearthly power flowing inside his veins gradually faded. He dropped his blades, twisted on his heels, and headed for his children.
They met him halfway and leapt into his arms, their cries of “Daddy!” the sweetest sound he had ever heard. Intense joy flooded him as he held their warm bodies to his chest and kissed their faces.
‘Dad, I can’t breathe,’ Tomas said with a choked chuckle.
Lucas grimaced and loosened his hold. ‘Sorry.’
He lowered them carefully to the ground, his gaze shifting briefly to the fallen army strewn across the armory. He swallowed and studied his children for a long time, his mind full of conflicting emotions.
‘That was—incredible,’ he said finally.
Tomas grinned. ‘It was pretty cool.’
Footsteps sounded behind Lucas. Alexa walked up to Tomas and ruffled his hair.
‘Pretty cool is an understatement, kid,’ she said gruffly.
‘It was fu—freaking amazing is what it was,’ Ethan stated bluntly.
‘Yeah,’ Conrad muttered with a smile.
Olivia knelt in front of Lily and Tomas and hugged them, tears streaming down her face. ‘I’m glad you’re safe.’
They embraced her just as fiercely.
‘Thank you for lending us your strength,’ Lily said.
Olivia nodded shakily and pressed her lips to her brow.
Groans sounded as the Immortals and humans who had been robbed of consciousness by the violent storm of supernatural energies that had been unleashed inside the armory started to awaken.
Lily and Tomas sobered when Zachary approached from the left, Asgard’s body in his arms and Anna and Madeleine at his side. Reid and Anatole followed in their steps, their shock reflected on the faces of the men and women waking up around them.
Anna rushed to Lily and Tomas and closed her arms around them.
Conrad moved toward Zachary and the still figure in his hold.
‘No,’ Lily said.
He stopped and frowned at her over his shoulder, puzzled. ‘But I need to—’
Tomas shook his head, his expression resolute. ‘There is no time for that right now.’
He and Lily glanced at the cracks in the ceiling and the walls. Tremors shook the chamber and the distant crash of collapsing concrete echoed above them.
‘This place is going to come down any moment now,’ Lily said. ‘We have to get everyone away from here.’
A man covered in dust headed across the floor toward them, blood trickling down the side of his head.
‘Not that I’m ungrateful at being alive or anything,’ Reynolds said dully, ‘but what the hell just happened?’
They were nearly on the fifth floor when they felt them.
Alexa’s feet froze to the ground amid the tide of humans and Immortals surging rapidly for the exits. Ethan faltered beside her, his back stiffening and his gaze swinging to follow hers as she looked to the right.
Zachary slowed up ahead and looked over his shoulder. ‘Alexa?’
Alexa turned and headed for a door at the other end of the concourse, her heart thundering in her chest, her body moving of its own volition. Fire licked the birthmark on her nape, the sensation eerily familiar. It was a couple of seconds before she realized Lucas, Olivia, and Conrad had fallen into step with her and Ethan, their faces reflecting the same conflicting feelings flooding her.
‘Where are you going?’ Anna called out behind them, panic lacing her voice.
‘It’s okay, Mom,’ Lily said. ‘They have…to do this.’
They moved against the flow of bodies, unheeding of the ground trembling beneath their feet and the fissures spreading through the underground structure, the crowd parting unconsciously before them.
Shivers danced along flesh that did not belong to them as they shuddered under the weight of centuries of emotion and the memory of a battle that had torn them apart.
A fracture snaked down the wall next to the door when they were ten feet from it. It expanded rapidly until it framed the opening.
Olivia gasped when the wall caved outward, taking the doorway with it. A yawning pit replaced it.
The sound of clashing blades echoed dimly above the rush of blood in her ears as she stepped to the edge of the drop with the others.
Hairs rose on the back of Bastian’s neck. He stilled, his sword freezing against Crovir’s as an uncanny feeling washed across his skin. Crovir stiffened where he stood opposite him, his knuckles blanching on the handle of his motionless blade, his eyes locked on something above them. Blood drained from his face and fear widened his pupils.
Bastian looked over his shoulder. His heart lurched painfully inside his chest at the sight that met his gaze.
One floor up, on the opposite side of a gaping chasm and what remained of the unstable stairwell, five figures stood staring down at them.
‘Father,’ one of them said tremulously, her green eyes glinting with unshed tears.
‘Navia,’ Bastian whispered.
He straightened and swallowed convulsively as he beheld his and Crovir’s children, his gaze hungrily roaming their at once familiar and yet unknown faces, taking in every old and fresh detail, imprinting them in his mind forever more.
An animal sound escaped Crovir. He backed against the wall, his petrified gaze frozen on his last-born child.
There should have been rage. There should have been hate. Yet, in that timeless moment of remembrance, the only emotions that filled Alexa’s heart to bursting from the soul within her were sorrow and regret. And love. Love for the one who had given her life.
Hands closed around hers. She glanced sideways and saw tears shimmer in the others’ eyes as they stood with their fingers linked and beheld the kings.
A violent tremor shook the stairwell. Dust clouded the air as cracks tore through the walls of the shaft.
‘Father!’ Olivia screamed, fear coloring her voice.
A wave of psychokinetic energy burst forth from her body just as Ethan moved, his own hand rising to project the elemental power pulsing from his core.
‘No!’ Bastian shouted, alarmed. ‘You cannot save us!’
They froze as one. Alexa’s pulse stuttered.
‘Go! Now! While you still have time!’ Bastian said.
Crovir blinked and stared at his brother.
A tremulous smile curved Bastian’s lips as he studied the five of them.
‘Live.’ His smile grew fierce. ‘You have much left to fight for, so you must live.’
‘Father,’ Conrad said brokenly.
Bastian’s eyes burned brightly. ‘Now, go!’
They made it out with seconds to spare and found the others loading their injured and unconscious into the snow vehicles and trucks they had found outside.
Anna rushed toward them. ‘Are you alright? What hap—?’
The rest of her words were drowned out as the facility finally caved in. The earth shook and rumbled for long minutes under fountaining clouds of snow and ice. When the billows settled, they revealed a crater where the research complex once stood.
Tears trembled on Lily’s eyelashes. ‘The kings.’
Tomas reached out and took her hand, his eyes dark with sorrow.
The color drained from Olivia’s face in the next instant. Her gaze swung from the
crater before them, to the north and east.
Ethan frowned and stepped toward her.
‘Livvy?’ He froze, his face pale. ‘Shit.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Lucas said tensely.
A muscle jumped in Ethan’s jaw as Olivia turned and looked at them, horror painted across her features. She had projected her thoughts to him across their bond.
‘Vlado Krall had a remote control on him,’ he said stiffly. ‘He activated it an hour ago.’
Reid scowled. ‘That doesn’t sound good.’
Conrad turned and narrowed his eyes at Olivia. ‘What did it do?’
‘It started timers on four nuclear devices,’ she replied shakily.
Reynolds paled. ‘What?!’
‘Three are located next to the reactors powering the facilities. They should detonate deep enough underground not to affect us,’ Ethan said, staring blindly at his soulmate. ‘It was Vlado Krall’s last resort to ensure that his and Jonah Krondike’s work never fell into the hands of any enemy who managed to defeat them.’
Lucas clenched his teeth. ‘And the fourth device?’
Olivia looked east again. ‘It’s in a concealed cabin four miles from here. It’s the only one above ground.’ She stared at them. ‘Krall meant for it to kill anything on the surface in a thirty-mile radius of its location. We have eighteen minutes until they all go off.’
Anatole swore colorfully.
Conrad glanced between Ethan and Olivia. ‘Can you—?’
Ethan shook his head, frustration burning in his eyes. ‘No. The detonators are foolproof.’
Reynolds twisted on his heels. ‘Peters, we got any communication devices we protected from the EMPs?’
Peters slipped a Faraday bag out of a pouch at his waist and removed a satellite phone from inside it.
‘Call the Sixth Fleet and tell them to scram. We have four nukes going off imminently, three subsurface and one above. Get them to give the Government of Denmark a heads-up.’ Reynolds looked south, grimacing at the explosion of shocked cries that erupted from the soldiers and Immortals within hearing distance of his command. ‘See if they can spare helicopters and a ship to meet us—’
‘No. We have to go west.’
Reynolds turned and stared at Lily. ‘What?’
He glanced in the direction she indicated. ‘But, there’s nothing—’
‘Our only chance of survival depends on us reaching that ridge,’ Tomas said. He pointed at an elevation in the distance.
Reynolds’s perplexed gaze moved around their group before focusing on Lily and Tomas once more. ‘Why? What’s behind that ridge?’
‘It’s where Ivan and the children are,’ Lily said steadily. ‘And it’s where we’ll stop it.’
Olivia inhaled sharply and pressed her hands to her mouth.
Alexa glanced from Lily to Olivia. ‘Stop what?’
‘The fourth explosion,’ Olivia mumbled. She gazed blindly at Lily and Tomas, wonderment dawning in her eyes.
Zachary headed over from the vehicle where Madeleine sat with Asgard in her arms.
‘What’s going on?’ he said with a frown.
The sky darkened above them.
The crows came in a giant flock, silent but for the rustling of their feathers as their wings thrummed the air. They circled above the crater where the research facility once stood before diving inside.
Another flock appeared to the north and a third to the east.
It took ten minutes for the first vehicles to reach the crescent-shaped ridge. In the sheltered basin beyond, waiting inside a snow vehicle and five trucks, were Ivan Vlašic and several hundred children and infants.
‘I’ve got him in front of me,’ Lucas said briskly.
He stepped down from the cabin of the snow vehicle, walked over to Ivan, and tossed the satellite phone at him.
Ivan caught the phone with a puzzled stare before bringing it to his ear. ‘Hello?’ He dipped his chin at Lily and Tomas as they climbed out after Lucas, Anna at their side. ‘Victor?’ He listened for a moment, a scowl darkening his features. ‘She did what?!’ He exhaled loudly and pinched his forehead. ‘Okay, give me a second. I’ll call her.’ He muttered something under his breath, disconnected, and dialed a number.
‘Sylviana, it’s Ivan.’ He clenched his teeth. ‘Never mind where the hell I am, I want you and the Crovir First Council to stand down right now. The Bas—’ he faltered for a second, a pained expression flashing in his eyes, ‘—the Bastians had nothing to do with my disappearance. It was Vlado all along.’ He sighed. ‘Yes, Victor was right. No, I am not lying, nor do I have a gun pointed at my head right now. Now, do as you’re told, goddammit! And FYI, I’m holding you personally responsible for whatever damage has been inflicted on the Bastian First Council headquarters!’ He abruptly ended the call, a vein throbbing in his forehead.
‘Subordinates, huh,’ Anatole muttered with a grimace.
Ivan studied the scores of trucks and snow vehicles riding up and over the elevation past them before looking at Lily and Tomas. ‘What’s happening?’
They stood with their hands linked in a line on the ridge, the vehicles arranged in a thick wedge in the depression behind and below them.
‘Hey, does this remind you of anything?’ Alexa asked Olivia.
Olivia’s lips curved slightly. ‘The battle at Eridug?’ She glanced at Alexa where she stood to her right. ‘There were eleven of us then.’
Alexa smiled faintly. ‘Some of them are with us right now.’
Sadness flashed through Olivia. She could sense Navia’s grief inside her heart. The time for them to part would soon be upon them.
‘Aunt Olivia, I know you’re scared,’ Lily said after a moment on her left.
Olivia stiffened and looked down at her.
‘What happened at Yuma was your rage,’ Lily said. ‘This—’ she glanced over her shoulder before staring up at Olivia, ‘—this is your love and everything that you are.’
Olivia bit her lip. Her fear of the terrible psychokinetic storm she had unleashed at that time, the storm that had killed Jonah Krondike, had been at the forefront of her mind once more. Relief filled her at Lily’s words and her warm expression. It was followed by a sudden resolve.
There was something she still needed to do. Something she had waited too long for.
She looked beyond Lily to the end of their chain on the far left. ‘Ethan?’
He turned and gazed at her, his eyes full of so much love it choked her. ‘Yeah?’
Olivia smiled tremulously, tears blurring her vision. ‘Will you ask me again?’
Confusion flashed across his handsome face. Then he grinned, looked ahead to the east, and took a deep breath. ‘Olivia Ashkarov, will you marry me?’
Olivia sniffed and followed his gaze to the horizon. ‘Yes, I will.’
‘Well, congratulations,’ Conrad said drily where he stood on the other side of Alexa. ‘It’s a bit of a shame you two waited until the end of the world to get your shit together.’
Lucas chuckled to Ethan’s right.
Lily froze. Her eyes widened.
Tomas blinked.
‘Oh,’ he murmured, his eyes sparkling.
‘Uncle Conrad?’ Lily breathed.
Conrad tensed and gazed at her. ‘Yes?’
‘Aunt Laura just gave birth to your son,’ Lily said with a dazzling smile.
Conrad sagged next to Alexa. She grasped his hand tightly.
‘Are they—?’
‘They’re fine,’ Lily said. ‘He’s big and healthy. And loud.’
Conrad gulped. ‘We were going to call him—’
‘William,’ Tomas said. He grinned. ‘He’s going to be my best friend and one of the greatest healers and warriors this world will ever see.’ His smile faded slightly. He sighed. ‘He’s also going to be a gigantic pain in my butt.’
Lucas glanced at Alexa over Tomas’s head.
‘I think swearwords are allowed under present circumstances,’
she said with a shrug.
Lucas swallowed a grin and nodded.
Chapter Forty-Six
Slivers of snow fluttered across the fingers of light piercing the gloom high above.
Bastian gazed at the distant rays and shifted awkwardly in the narrow gap where he had become wedged, slabs of concrete and debris piled high around him.
It had been some time since the structure had collapsed. He had broken his legs during the fall to the bottom of the stairwell. He could barely feel them now, the pain fading as the blood supply to his swollen limbs was slowly cut off.
A muffled cough sounded below him.
Bastian looked down to where Crovir lay with his head on his lap. The wound he had inflicted on his older brother’s chest had stopped bleeding a while back.
‘I never thought it would end like this,’ Crovir rasped.
Bastian studied him, puzzled.
‘Our dream,’ Crovir continued in a weak voice. ‘The one we had all those moons ago, before we built our empire.’
Bastian smiled faintly. ‘You mean…for the two of us to rule this world?’
Crovir nodded and winced.
‘Hush,’ Bastian murmured. ‘You will only make your injuries worse.’
Silence descended around them.
‘You could have escaped,’ Crovir said suddenly. ‘After you stabbed me. You had a chance to get out.’ He hesitated. ‘Why did you not?’
Bastian stared into the pale gaze beneath him for timeless seconds.
‘Because you are my brother,’ he said finally. ‘I did not leave you then, nor will I leave you now.’
Crovir blinked rapidly, a wet film forming across his eyes.
‘You are a sentimental old fool,’ he said throatily.
Bastian grinned. He tensed a second later.
Goodbye, King.
Bastian relaxed when he recognized Lily Soul’s sorrow-filled voice inside his head.
Goodbye, child.
Bastian knew that he and Crovir had but moments left. Lily had predicted this end for them when she last bade him farewell, before he and Ivan had taken the children and left, and told him so in his mind.
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