Silas examines his blackened-fingertip hands. “Yes.”
“And there’s nothing we can do?”
He shakes his head.
Godsdamn it, this is going to hurt Maven so fucking much. Seeing her break over Lillian was pure torture—but now this? Not to mention, the idea of Crypt just not being around to pop out of Limbo and annoy us all the time is just bleak as hell.
After everything we’ve been through, is our quintet seriously about to never be complete again?
“That damn incubus,” Everett mutters, stopping his pacing to rub his face.
The tip of the new scar on the center of his chest peeks out from under his shirt, leftover from Amadeus ripping his heart out. He still hasn’t asked Silas to heal the scar, and based on his face, I’m going to take a wild guess and say he doesn’t really give a shit about how he looks anymore.
More time passes. Finally, I can’t take it anymore and blurt, “What if Maven comes back with bad news? Or what if—fuck, what if the gods refuse to let her return to the mortal realm again?”
“She can’t stay in Paradise,” Silas argues. “She made herself mortal to fall from that plane of existence, and mortals aren’t permitted there. Galene said her soul would return.”
“She also saidwith the utmost of haste,and that was clearly a fucking lie,” I growl.
Everett adjusts one of his sleeves six times in a row. “I don’t like that it’s taking so long for her to fulfill the blood oath, whatever it is.”
That fun little reminder that she swore something none of us has a clue about makes me want to throw up. I start pacing the room alongside Everett, ignoring the heat under my skin and the restlessness urging me to shift and fly to burn off this suffocating impatience.
It feels like hours pass, but it’s probably only a few more minutes before the strangest thing happens. The air pressure changes around us as the morning light sneaking in through the drapes brightens. My entire body tingles with the same feeling I get when casters are wielding powerful magic anywhere near me.
“That’s holy magic,” Silas realizes, getting to his feet. “It’s so fucking potent. This is gods-level magic at work outside.”
Alarmed, I throw open the drapes so we can see what the fuck is happening.
At the height of our quintet apartment, we have a view over the nevermelt walls Everett built far outside of Everbound. The world in the distance is gray and colorless, proof that the Nether’s reach spread there—but as we watch, lights begin to rain down from the heavens. It’s like a meteor shower in the middle of the day, with thousands of tendrils of holy magic falling to the earth.
One beam of light veers sharply, passing through the window before any of us can react and absorbing into Crypt’s motionless body.
Crypt gasps and bolts upright before scrambling to get his clothes off like they’re on fire.
“What the fuck just happened?” I demand, my heart pounding.
The incubus throws his shirt to the ground, and we all watch with wide eyes as swirling markings reappear on his skin like surfacing ink. Instead of both light and dark markings, these ones are only dark as they cover his body once again.
Crypt lifts his hands, sees the curling markings all over his arms and palms, and looks at us with wide purple eyes.
“I’m…something just changed,” he breathes, looking down at Maven with awed disbelief. His lips curl into a smile. “Our girl is making some hefty demands of the gods.”
“What do you mean? Is your curse back?” Everett asks, as confused as the rest of us.
The Nightmare Prince studies his new marks. “No. I sense I’m no longer the steward of Limbo.”
Silas blinks. “But how? I thought your curse was unbreakable. It was killing you.”
“It was,” Crypt murmurs, slipping off the bed to join us in looking out the window. He’s thoughtful as lights continue torain from heaven. “Which is why I suspect our little goddess is doing some significant cosmic meddling.”
The heavenly light show comes to an end just before a ripple of energy pulses across everything in our sight. Trees in Everbound Forest bend slightly in a wave from the force of whatever just happened, the castle trembles, and something inside my chest burns slightly for half a moment.
I swear all colors get fractionally brighter before all at once, everything gets really fucking still.
Whatever the fuck just happened, there’s something different that I can’t put my finger on.
“I highly recommend waking up to the sight of four sexy asses,” Maven yawns behind us.
