The void around us began to quietly fold in on itself and the last thing I felt was the echo of her radiant power fading from my body and the steady thump of my heartbeat beginning again.
23
KIERAN
The blissful voidin which I met the Creator was gone, and in its place, agony.
There was no gentle return, no breath of warning—only a tidal wave of sensation, thick and suffocating, as if I’d been dropped from the heavens into a body made entirely of fire. My lungs seized as I gasped for air. My skin felt peeled back and stretched thin over the crackling weight of the stars now surging through every inch of me.
Steele’s voice, hoarse and frantic, murmured against my ear. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you, I’ve got you—fuck, Kieran, hold on.”
He cradled me in his lap, his body curled around mine like he could help contain the energy if only he held me tightly enough.
My fingers spasmed, curling against the front of his shirt as my body bucked again, helpless beneath the violent magic tearing me open from the inside out. My breath came in ragged bursts, lips parted in a silent gasp as every nerve lit up.
And through it all, just beyond the pain, I felt them.My mates.
I forced my head to turn, vision swimming through the pain and found them in a circle of scorched wings and blood-streaked bodies around Steele and me. Gabe roared as he deflecteda Dominion’s blast with his sword. Ronan’s shadows twisted through the air as he created creature after creature, with a pack of black wolves tearing through a Dominion. Niz above us in his wyvern form, wings tattered and bleeding, lashing out mid-air as he barreled into another Dominion mid-dive. Bastian floated just beyond them, barely upright, his blood dripping from him as he fought to keep up a shield in front of us where the Seraphim were launching orbs of fire at us, free from their cages now. His lips were drawn tight in fury, and fatigue bled through our bond.
They were holding the line. Fighting the heavens themselves to keep me alive.
Steele’s arms tightened around me, his breath ragged against my temple. “Just keep fighting for us, Kieran.”
Through the burning static screaming beneath my skin, the bond pulsed—frayed, erratic, and suddenly full of anguish so vast it nearly drove the breath from my lungs. The pain wasn’t mine, but all of theirs, and it flooded through me.
Bastian’s presence dimmed first, no longer the snarling inferno of blood and defiance I’d always known. He felt hollow now, as if the magic he’d poured into those cages had drained the marrow from his bones. I could feel his blood and energy leaving him in steady pulses. His body trembled with effort, held upright only by sheer refusal, but even his refusal was faltering. His magic stuttered with each heartbeat, too thin, too fragile.
Above, Niz let out a screech and my gaze jerked to him. There were holes in his wings now, singed with what had to be celestial fire from the Seraphim. I felt his fury, his primal need to protect me, to protectus, but it was dulled by pain and damage that ran deeper than even his body could sustain.
Tears began to trail down my eyes as they struggled to hold on, the same as me. I could do nothing but watch and force myself to continue to fight to draw each breath into my lungs.
Ronan was surrounded by dozens of shadow creatures that circled protectively, fighting back the tide that pressed in on us, but I could feel how much it cost him. Each new conjuration siphoned more from him. He was splitting himself apart to keep those shadows anchored in this realm.
They were all burning through the last scraps of their strength, still refusing to retreat in order to protect Steele and me.
My hands trembled where they curled against Steele’s arms and my chest tightened with grief. I wanted to scream, to throw myself into the fray and bleed beside them, but my body was still seizing, still full of too much power and too little control. Through the bond, I could feel what they weren’t saying, what none of them dared admit—this was it. Their final stand. Every last ounce of strength they had was being given freely to protect me.
Not because I held the stars and the fate of the world within my body, but because they loved me.
Tears blurred my vision as I blinked through the haze, eyes straining past blood and flame and shadow beasts that lunged into the fray. My pain radiated through my bones, blistered through my veins, lit every nerve on fire with too much power and not enough body to hold it.
But none of it compared to the agony of watching them break. I choked on a sob as my gaze dragged over each of them over and over until suddenly Bastian’s gaze locked with my own.
His steps faltered, knees buckling for a half-second before he caught himself, hands braced on the hilt of a blood sword he was too drained to swing again. His magic clung to him like a second skin as his hair flicked through the colors of the rainbow as if it was consuming him.
He smiled just barely before his voice came through the bond, fading.
“I love you, Darling. Forever.”
The moment that final word left his mind, his body slumped forward and the light of our bond went out entirely.
“No—” The scream ripped out of me, making my throat bleed with burnt skin and the force of it. “No!”
I tried to force my body to move to go to him, to do anything but helplessly stare at his fallen form. “Bash!”
Steele’s arms wound around me tighter, his voice filled with grief as he yelled, “Kieran, stop! You can’t force your body to do anything else right now.” His words caught as he crushed me to him. “You have to live, Princess. You hear me? The stars are still coming—moreof them. He knew the risk. We all fucking knew and we still chose this. We’ll choose it again. A thousand times over. Focus on the stars for him.”
I was screaming and sobbing and seizing all at once, my body no longer mine, my heart shattering with every pulse. I wanted to go to him, to feel the warmth of his skin one more time, but Steele held me tightly, anchoring me in a way that split my soul and somehow still kept it tethered.
