Tapping her temple, she met his gaze, allowing the ancient Greek characters to glow through her skin. “I absorbed it, all the spells, before Eleanor took us from the crypt. I have a copy of the golden grimoire… inside me.”
Eleanor hissedwhen Raven and the others disappeared just as her lightning bolt electrocuted the room. She stepped out of the symbol on bare feet, her dress torn from her increased size, and frowned at the remains of Crimson Vanderholt. She’d make them pay. Before the twin suns set on Paragon, she’d send Raven to Hades after the other woman.
The mountain shook, chunks of stone raining down from above her. Wherever Raven had gone to hide, she’d have to wait. Right now, Eleanor had to finish what her armies had started. In a rage, she raced to the veranda overlooking Paragon.
She drew up short when she saw the blood that stained the mural. A thick layer of ash swirled in the wind around her ankles and across the shiny obsidian. Ransom’s scent was undeniable. There, in the shadows, his heart winked at her in the dying twilight. She growled and gnashed her teeth as she swept it from the floor, but there was no light inside this heart. She had not prepared Ransom for death like she had Marius, Brynhoff, and Killian. His soul was gone, moved on to wherever dragons went after they died. Even as the goddess, that place was unknown to her.
Fury seized her, and she crushed his gray heart in her hand and tossed the shards aside. The hate flowed through her like never before. Now it was a goddess’s rage. A mountain’s rage.
They would pay. They would all pay.
Stepping to the edge of the veranda, she looked out upon the battle. The skies of Paragon were darkened with witches. Her dragon army fought them valiantly, but they were outnumbered. She watched an orange dragon rain fire down upon a witch, who blocked the attack with a shielding spell. Below her, dragons burned and writhed, elven arrows, slick with Aitna’s tears, sizzling in their flesh.
And then there were her children. She spotted Sylas first. His garnet scales flashed as he tore through her aerial legion with practiced intensity. Rowan, no princess in battle, fought mercilessly by his side. On the ground, Eleanor spotted Alexander wielding a sword as if he were born with it in his hands, Tobias backing him up.
The suns inched below the horizon, and she could hear them coming. The vampires of Nochtbend surged across the river. Her guard would never survive. Already the enemy was too close to her door.
A growl rumbled deep within her, her inner dragon feeding on her new magic. But how to wield it? Lightning wasn’t enough. A single spell wasn’t enough. She needed a way to end this now, to save her dragons and only her dragons.
And then she realized she was now the goddess of the mountain. Shewasthe mountain. Her lips twitched into a dark and deadly smile. There was one thing that dragons were impervious to that all other creatures of Ouros feared.
Fire.
She raised her hands, tapping into the pure power at the heart of this mountain. The earth quaked. A mighty rumble echoed across the palace grounds.
Witches stopped in the sky, staring openmouthed from their brooms. The elf captains took one look in her direction and screamed, “Retreat!”
“Burn, baby, burn!” Her voice boomed as only a goddess’s could.
The rumbling grew more intense, and then the volcano erupted. Molten rock spewed into the sky, raining hellfire from the palace all the way to Hobble Glen. Lava flowed like blood.
A chorus of screams filled the night.
She laughed as witches fell burning from their brooms. Elves and their animuses were swallowed in liquid magma. Arms spread wide, she grinned at the blood, the gore, the glory.
“On your knees! Worship your new Goddess of the Mountain!”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Leena opened her eyes to the world crumbling around her. Colin was there, holding her, and he looked worried.
“I have it!” Nathaniel yelled.
She couldn’t see what he had or what he was doing, but his and Raven’s anxious murmurs filled the air. She was in a cave, some strange stone chamber that was so hot she thought her skin would peel from her flesh.
“What’s going on?” she asked Colin. Her head throbbed. So hot.
“Leena, I want to give you my bond. I know you won’t mate with me, but if you take my tooth—”
“Why? What’s happening?” She tried to sit up, but she was too weak.
“We’re in the palace, in a place we call the cradle,” Colin said. “This is where the queen normally incubates her eggs. Raven says she knows a spell to resurrect the goddess of the mountain so that she can fight Eleanor, but the volcano is erupting. Nathaniel and Raven have used magic to protect us, but neither knows how long it will last. It’s not safe for you here, and I can’t get you out. All I can do is give you my tooth. I can give you immortality.”
“Your bond.” She had to yell over the rumble of the mountain.
“Nothing will change.” His eyes searched hers. “I don’t expect you to honor the mating bond.”
“You don’t expect me to honor it, but it will exist,” she said, picking up on the nuance in his choice of words.
