by Callie Rose
“There!”
Jerking my chin, I drew the guys’ attention to Gavriel. They barely had time to look before they had to turn their attention back to their own fights, but I could see the renewed energy that seemed to fill their bodies as hope bloomed inside them.
This thing wasn’t over yet.
“Did Price see?” Jayce called out, swinging his massive, dog-like head toward me.
“I think so,” I grunted, ducking under a blast of magic that flew over my head. “Even if she didn’t, the team back at the headquarters should’ve picked up on his signature. They’ll know he’s here. Now they just need to tell Michael where he is.”
The werewolf we had befriended was using Kingston’s cell phone. He had called the point team just before the countdown timer ran out, and as far as I knew, he’d stayed on the line, waiting for the signal from them.
Come on, Michael. Come on.
When he blipped into existence on the rim of the crater, several yards from the evil lord, I almost cheered. In a flash, dozens of other fallen stepped out of the ether too, surrounding Gavriel—isolating him.
Other fallen resistance members joined the fray in the basin too, helping the Custodians hold their attackers off.
But I couldn’t look away from where the fifty or sixty fallen, led by Michael and Vee, surrounded Gavriel.
This was the final part of our plan.
Isolate Gavriel and destroy him.
As I watched, our fallen allies surrounding Gavriel all unleashed an attack on him at once. And as they did, Vee worked her magic to encase him in one of those bubbles she’d used to trap me and my bond-mates.
He was too strong to take out in a fight, too fast and powerful to be overwhelmed, even by dozens of fighters. But if we could incapacitate him, however briefly, we could kill him.
Magic swelled on the air as Vee’s bubble settled around him. Several other fallen cast spells as well, and they all hit the dark lord at once.
He froze, and for just a second, my heart swelled with relief.
But then a pulse of magic erupted from his body, exploding outward and disrupting every single spell that had been cast on him. A shockwave of power radiated from him, knocking the fallen over and sending them stumbling back.
“No.”
The word fell from my lips on a breath, inaudible over the sounds of battle that raged around me.
No. Fuck, no!
Vee was powerful. I had seen her work first-hand. And she’d had some of the best underworld fallen Michael had been able to recruit on her side. That should’ve worked.
But Gavriel was just too powerful. Nothing would hold him.
And now we’d lost the element of surprise.
Vee and the others were on their feet in an instant, lobbing more spells at Gavriel. But he moved in a whirlwind, blocking them all.
I couldn’t let this happen. Maybe I wouldn’t survive the fight, but I couldn’t let them face him alone.
Without even realizing what I was doing, I began to move, my feet carrying me forward. It was only when a hand wrapped around my wrist that I jerked to a stop, wheeling around.
Xero stood behind me, his dark eyes wide. Reds, oranges, and golds sparked in his irises as his nostrils flared.
“Piper, I—”
“I love you too,” I panted, my heart cracking as I tugged my wrist free from his grip.
It was the end of the line. The odds of any of us surviving beyond today were almost nil. But I wanted to go out fighting, and I hoped he and the others would understand that.
He reached for me again, fire burning in his eyes.
“That’s not what I was gonna say.” He pulled me close, his chest rising and falling fast as shouts and screams echoed around us. “I don’t just love you. I need you. In every way possible. You’re my fucking soulmate, Piper, and I don’t care how it happened. Whether it was fate, or luck, or magic. My soul is yours. It always will be.”
Then he crushed his lips against mine in a kiss that broke my heart open and reformed it into something new. My mouth moved against his in a rhythm that belonged only to us, and I could feel each of my men gathering around me.
“My soul came alive when I met you, Piper,” Kai murmured as I broke away from Xero and found Jayce’s lips.
“You showed me I have a fucking soul. And it belongs to you now.” Kingston’s voice was low and deep, poured directly into my ear as I kissed Kai for all I was worth.
The moment Kai and I separated, Kingston kissed me fiercely. Jayce’s soft whisper hit me right in the chest. “You’ve had my heart for a long time. And it’s about damn time I admitted you have my soul too.”
All four men were so close to me that I felt lifted by them, supported by them, and everywhere we touched, heat flared inside me.
It built from somewhere deep inside me—from my own soul, maybe—and spread out until it seemed to light up my entire body.
No.
Didn’t just seem to.
It did light up my body. A bright yellow glow, like the buttery rays of the sun, poured out of me, washing over the men and spreading out over the battlefield around us. Everyone it touched stopped what they were doing, hesitating mid-attack or mid-defense.
I sucked in a gasping breath of air, and as if the glow were carried on the wind, it all rushed back into me, slamming into my body with an almost physical force.
“Holy crap,” Hannah breathed. She’d been standing nearby, so she had been bathed in the yellow light as it expanded. “Piper. Is that your… persuasion power?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I—I don’t know.”
I shook my head. All four men took a half-step away from me, staring at me in shock and awe.
Fuck. The battle.
We’d been making out in the middle of a battlefield like love-struck teenagers, and when I glanced up, I saw that Gavriel was still fighting from the lip of the crater. Only a few fallen remained standing, and my stomach churned at the sight of them.
“We have to get up there,” I said thickly. “Kingston. Can you carry all of us?” Then I turned to Hannah. “Stay here. Help keep his minions from winning. Please.”
She nodded once, her eyes wide and scared, but almost feral with battle lust and determination. Then she turned and waded back into the fight, blowing several fallen warriors back with the force of her magical blast.
Kingston had shifted while I was distracted, and now he let out a low, rumbling noise that was almost like a purr. All four of us scrambled onto his back, and he took off into the sky with a heavy sweep of his wings.
“Head for the crater’s edge!” I screamed over the sound of the wind in my ears. “Get me over the fight. Then drop low!”
“Fuck, Piper.” Xero’s voice was choked and tight. “I didn’t tell you that you were my soulmate just so you’d sacrifice yourself for all of us.”
“It’s not a sacrifice,” I shot back, gazing at him fiercely. “I’m doing this because everything you see in me is what I want to be. And I’m not planning on dying.”
If I can help it anyway.
I didn’t let that thought linger long enough to gain a foothold in my mind. This wasn’t about living or dying anymore anyway. It was about saving the things that were most precious to me in the world.
Kingston’s massive wings carried us fast, and when he swooped low over the spot where Gavriel fought off the remaining fallen, the dark lord lifted one hand to hurl a bolt of blue light toward us.
My dragon shifter mate banked left, narrowly avoiding the blast, and I took advantage of the distraction to slip off his back.
I fell ten feet and landed hard, rolling as my ankle twisted beneath me. A sharp pain flared, and I clenched my jaw to keep from crying out.
Gavriel’s eyes widened when he caught sight of me.
He looked just as terrifying as he had the last time I’d seen him. He was pale as a ghost, tall and lean. His long, spider-like fingers tapered into purple claws, whi
ch were almost black. His eyes were deep pools of complete darkness, with twin specks of bright red where his pupils should’ve been.
“You. I should’ve known this would all come down to you,” he hissed.
He sounded angry, and I felt a little swell of pride at that. He was pissed as fuck because we’d snatched away his easy victory, and it was extremely satisfying to watch him rage—even if his side was currently winning.
“Yeah,” I grunted, testing out my ankle. I was pretty sure I’d broken it, but it was already healing, thanks to the power roaring through my veins. “It must really get your panties in a bunch to get your ass kicked by a girl.”
“On the contrary, foolish child. I will merely destroy you first. Then I’ll torture and kill your little toys, and then my army will sweep over the earth.”
He lifted his hand, and I could see dark smoke beginning to gather at his fingertips. The stench of death seemed to pulse from it, and fear chilled my skin. Kingston was banking in the sky, wheeling around to come back toward us, and I couldn’t let him or any of my mates get hit by that smoke.
I reached out with my magic toward Gavriel.
As I did, the yellow light that’d poured from me earlier began to radiate from my skin again. This time, it flowed directly toward the lord of the underworld, encompassing him in its bright glow.
His eyes widened in shock just before the beams covered him completely, and as soon as they did, he hesitated, his arm half-raised.
Holy shit.
“Turn around and go back to the underworld,” I commanded, imbuing every bit of power I could into my voice.
“Yes.” He blinked, staring at me with his creepy as fuck eyes as his red irises dilated. “Yes. I must… go back…”
In my periphery, I could see Kingston bank again. He’d been making a beeline for Gavriel, but something about the light emanating from me held him back, almost as if it was a barrier he couldn’t cross.
Shit. Was the light I was pouring into Gavriel protecting him even as it held him in my thrall?
Motherfucker.
That was less than ideal. I wasn’t sure if my succubus power could actually convince Gavriel to give up his fight to conquer earth, and if I dropped the glow, he’d be on me in a second. He was too strong for me to hold for long.
I reached out with my feelings, and sure enough, I could feel his twisted mind and spirit already resisting me, pushing back against my hold.
You will never defeat me!
His voice was like a scream inside my head, like thousands of nails scraping over chalkboards, and it took everything I had not to curl into a ball and clap my hands over my ears, trying to block out the sound.
His hand began to move again, slowly but surely, as he overrode my succubus control.
You’re right, I thought back, clenching my jaw so hard my teeth ached. I could fight you until I die, and I probably wouldn’t win. You’re too strong.
He was no longer speaking in my head, but now he projected pure pain into my mind. My knees wobbled, and my stomach threatened to rebel, but I clenched my hands into fists, fighting to stay on my feet. He was using my own power against me, using the connection I’d opened up between us to destroy me from the inside out.
Every breath burned my lungs, and even though I’d just been imbued with a mega-dose of power, it felt like I was burning through it like kerosene. I could feel my strength flagging already, and I pushed harder, forcing myself deeper into his mind.
I might not be able to defeat you, I told him, my voice shaking even in my thoughts. But we can.
As I projected those last three words at him, I thought of my four bond-mates, the men who had come to mean more to me than I’d ever thought possible. I thought of everything we had become, everything we shared.
Love.
Desire.
Trust.
Understanding.
Every single thing we were, all the way down to our very souls.
And then I pushed those images toward Gavriel, sending them directly into his heart through the connection between us.
He stiffened, his body jerking with shock as a look of disgust and anger passed over his inhuman features.
But there was something else in his expression.
Fear.
No. His voice in my head was faint, but it grew stronger with each word. No. No, no, no.
Every thought I was feeding into his psyche went counter to the way he saw the world. To the way he saw the fallen.
To the way he saw himself.
I was forcing him to feel these emotions right alongside me, to feel what I felt for my mates. And it was driving him mad.
With a final enraged shriek inside my head, he unleashed the spell that had been gathering between his fingertips.
“Now!”
I screamed the word as I threw myself to the side. As I moved, I yanked hard on the energy I’d been projecting toward Gavriel, pulling it back inside myself with a painful snap.
Hitting the ground hard, I rolled across the packed earth just as Jayce, in hellhound form, leapt toward the lord of the underworld.
Gavriel’s defenses were down, his focus solely on me. He didn’t notice the hellhound until it was too late. Strong jaws closed around his neck as Jayce landed hard on top of him. A second later, Kai was there, his teeth flashing as they tore at flesh, allowing dark, sludge-like blood to seep out.
A dragon’s roar split the air, and Jayce and Kai stepped back long enough for Kingston to breathe a jet of fire at the dying body.
Gavriel didn’t even scream. He didn’t have time. Flames engulfed him as Xero joined in the attack, hurling balls of pure fire at him.
His body seemed to shrivel and shrink as it burned, a toxic, nauseating smell rising up in the air as if my mates had lit a pile of garbage on fire.
Slowly, I crawled to my feet, my heart slamming between my ribs as I watched the flames rise higher and higher.
The sounds of the battle below us were fading, I realized.
Gavriel’s burning body was like a beacon, a warning sign to all those who had followed him that their leader no longer lived. That he couldn’t give them any of the rewards he’d promised.
That his fate would soon be theirs.
Little flares of light rose up from all around the basin of the crater as demons, dragons, ogres, and gargoyles disappeared, abandoning the battle along with dozens of their brethren.
We had cut off the head of the snake, and now the snake was dying.
Chapter Thirty
Jayce shifted back, and Kai dropped his vampire form as they both came to stand beside me. Moments later, Kingston and Xero cut off their flames and joined us too.
There was little left of Gavriel but a blackened husk, a lump so twisted and deformed that it was difficult to believe it’d once looked almost like a man.
“Holy fuck, Pipes. What the hell did you do to him?” Jayce breathed.
“Uh…” I laughed, and it sounded strange to my ears. “I’m not the one who did that.”
“No, but what’d you do before that? You got his guard down. He had no shields up at all, no magic protecting him.”
“Oh. That.” I cleared my throat. Telling them I showed him what love feels like sounded way too corny, so instead I settled for, “I think I blew his mind.”
“Yeah. I’ll say you did. I never would’ve been able to get that close if you hadn’t shut off his brain somehow.”
“Thanks for that,” a gruff voice said from behind us. “The fucker was stronger’n we realized.”
I whirled around to find Michael supporting Vee as they both limped toward us. Or maybe she was supporting him. It was hard to tell.
They both looked beat to shit, like it was a miracle they were even walking, and they leaned heavily on each other, each using the other to stay upright.
“I’m glad you two are okay,” I said. I glanced around us. Several of the demons who had been sprawled across the ground were slowly picking t
hemselves up. But a few didn’t move at all. “How are… how many casualties?”
“More than I was hoping for, much fewer than I feared,” Michael said flatly, and I knew that, just like me, he’d been hoping against hope for zero.
If only war worked that way.
“I thought I could hold him,” Vee muttered, disappointment clear in her voice. “I thought my trap would be strong enough.”
“You did hold him for a little while,” I said. “It almost worked just like it was supposed to. But I saw a peek inside his mind when I reached out to him with my persuasion. He spent so long—so much of his existence—chasing power that it was the only purpose he had left. That singular focus gave him a kind of strength that most people never have.”
“Well, he gave us all a singular focus.” Vee glanced over at the crispy, still smoldering body and spat toward it. “But I’m looking forward to broadening my horizons. To having a day go by where I don’t think about Gavriel.”
“A-fuckin’-men.” Michael nodded wearily.
Then he glanced down toward the basin of the crater where the Custodians, FU students, and fallen who’d come to fight on our side were picking off the remaining stragglers of Gavriel’s army—the ones too vicious or dumb to know that the fight was over.
“I hope this means we’ll have peace in the underworld for a time,” he added. “I’m no dummy. I understand how it works; it was the same way even on earth. We got rid of Gavriel, but we didn’t get rid of all the evil in the world. Or the underworld, for that matter. Eventually, someone will stand up and try to seize power again. But I hope it’ll be a long-ass time before that happens.” He snorted. “I’ve got a damn house to rebuild.”
“I might be convinced to help,” Vee said, shooting a glance up at him. “I built my home with my own two hands. Sturdy enough to withstand earthquakes or herds of cyclops.”
Michael glanced down at her, scowling a little, although I noticed a slightly pink tinge to his cheeks that hadn’t been there before. “I’ll have you know, I built my home all by myself too. And it was plenty sturdy.”
