I am yours always until the stars above take us home. There will never be enough sorry’s to cover this mess up, but I hope one day we can begin something new. We can fix this because we love each other enough to try.
I know when you’re reading this, you probably still want nothing to do with me. I don’t blame you. Why would you want anything to do with me? I tricked you. I poisoned you to keep your Nexus quiet. I gave you to him, and I could tell you it was all part of a plan. That I knew you’d never die. It doesn’t make any of it better. Hollis was against it from the start. He said it was a stupid plan, and he was right.
When you’re ready, I would like us to talk, try to mend some of this, if it’s even possible to be mended. Until then, I am your spy within the palace, your shadow in the dark,here for you to call on when you need it. When the king falls, it will be me right there, making sure no one else rises in his place that is ever a threat to you.
With all my love, Rhodes. Your mate, who is endlessly in love with you.
I don’t realise I’m crying until I fold the letter shut and feel the wetness on my hands as I wipe my face. Rhodes. I know he is trying, and this is breaking my heart because how will I ever be able to trust him again? It’s too messy, it’s too much, and I’m still so angry at him. I still feel pain in my chest when I think of that night, when my world just stopped. He made me doubt myself in a way no one else ever has done. He pushed me to the limit—no, he pushed me past the limit.
I fold the letter up and slip it into my pocket. Hollis squeezes my hand and looks at me. He knows I don’t need to talk about it, not yet. I haven’t even asked him when Rhodes wrote this, when he gave it to Hollis, and how long Hollis has had it. I’m glad for the flight through the storms over England and into Scotland, and by the time we get to Starlight City, or where it should be shining bright in the highlands, it’s midnight.
It’s dark and endless, like there isn’t any light left. I drained it away.
The storm has gone, and so has the rain as we head through the broken wards that barely even flutter as more than an invisible shield to hide a dead city. It might be very dark outside, but I can see the city perfectly well, and it’s worse than I imagined. Half of the city looks like a grey cloud has painted it and ruined it with one stroke. The other half is still standing, some lights flickering in the night, but it’s different. Starlight was alive and bright against the darkness, no matter what. Severi warned me it was going to fall, because he knew of his father’s plans to bring it down, and he tried to warn me that therewouldn’t be much of Starlight left. He was right, even though I hoped to save it. I didn’t save the city, I doomed it.
Onyx’s hands clench and he goes pale as I look at him, sensing something wrong. I reach over, touching his arm, and he turns to me, nods once and turns back. He’s still tense, and I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of what happened to him here. Why I can’t feel his Nexus anymore. There is too much to be done, and I don’t have time to slow it all down.
We land just on the outskirts, by the academy, in the huge empty fields. The guards file out of the helicopter before Aleksander pulls our door open and climbs out. He lifts me down and I turn to face the academy, the gothic masterpiece standing on the cliff. My home. It’s silent, the rangers gone now, and it still stands. I want to go and see my room, see if it is still there with all my clothes and things I love. I don’t think anyone’s in there, even though it hasn’t been touched by my grey death magic. The grey magic seems to have left an actual mark on all the rest of the buildings in the city, and it’s like an arrow shot down the middle. I actually turned them grey against the night.
I look at the stars, hoping they’ll give me strength for what’s to come, and I touch the small box in my inner pocket. My mother said to open it when there was no hope, and tonight feels like there is no hope. I know there might be nothing in the box, but even holding it feels like my mother is with me.
“Time to go,” I tell my mates, because standing here any longer is making me nervous. I let my Nexus take over, shifting into a wolf, and she stretches out before running forward through the guards, who stare in shock at my grey wolf and the sheer power radiating off me. My mates shift with me until Hollis’s snow leopard is at my side, Finnegan’s brown bear and Aleksander’s black bear. I sense them all following alongside me, and I look back once to see Onyx is running on foot with Annie and Issan and the other guards. Why didn’t he shift?
I know I can’t ask him right now as we head straight into the city. I shift back in the first street, which is littered with abandoned cars, kids’ toys dropped in the street, and rotten food. Everything is left exactly where the people who died had just stood. A breath catches in my throat as I look at the ground, seeing how pale it is as it is covered in unnatural grey ash.
Death. I left behind a city of death.
“It’s a trap! RUN!” Onyx screams, and I spin, seeing him collapse to his knees, the line of guards pausing behind him. Issan grabs Annie at his side, and the both of them disappear into the night. The ground vibrates like an earthquake, shaking violently from Onyx, and his Nexus flares to life, so bright and strong it hurts my chest to feel him. Orbs float out of his body at an alarming rate, just like the orbs that I see after taking a life. They were inside of Onyx, all the souls, and now, they spin into the air between us all. I shift back.
I frown, touching one of them that floats right in front of me and hearing a woman’s soft voice. “Save my son. It is not his time.”
“Onyx!” I shout just as an orb explodes, as every orb explodes like bombs. I scream as I go flying into the building behind me, straight through a glass wall and over a desk, before finally rolling to a stop on a floor of broken glass. I heave in pain, feeling a shard of glass stuck into my side and more of them in my back. I cough out blood as I stand up, my ears ringing and the world spinning like a storm.
I shake my head, clutching my ears, which are bleeding. “Onyx was the trap.” I whisper to myself.
“It was easy enough to control the souls you took and make them flood the only living soul in the city—your mate. I scared him with a warning from the God he feared the most, but he forgot it. Those souls all waited inside him like drops of water in an ocean, drowning his Nexus and waiting to be freed. It’s a raregift to control the dead…but not for me.” I turn around, facing the Vian king as he leans on a desk, looking perfectly untouched by the chaos. He flicks some dust off his suit, and he smiles at me like we are old friends, even as I search around for Georgina in fear. “Hello, Gwenieve. Do what I ask, and no one needs to be hurt.”
I do what any smart person would do, I push off the desk and run towards the only open door while letting my Nexus free. She takes over my body, pulling up grey shadows to block the Vian king’s magic as it shoots through the air between us. Bullshit, no one would get hurt. I run through the open door, slamming it shut behind me like it might stop him, and get to the back door of the building.
Stopping just outside, I close my eyes and cast out my magic, searching for the walls and wrapping them in grey shadows. My Nexus helps me control it, guide it, and I see the Vian king running across the room to me.I hope this hurts, motherfucker.I close my hands and my power responds, taking out all the walls of the building. His roar echoes to me as the ceiling collapses onto him, and I run as the dust pushes me forward, my magic barely holding back the flying plaster and dirt, keeping it from cutting into me. Breathless, I get into the next street over and walk out, expecting to be alone.
I’m not.
My eyes widen as I come up to a group of people. All Nexus. The survivors of Starlight City. They’re sitting on the floor in circles, and Vian grunts circle them. “Nexus, these ones are yours. Let’s free them.”
“Tasting their blood will be my treat.” She explodes with power, taking the Vian down one by one before they even see her coming. The bodies slam on the floor in pieces, and she kills them like she is dancing to a song, like it’s a song she has danced to for a very long time. I watch in awe and disgust, feeling the hotblood pouring over our hands and body until she stops at the last one. Until there isn’t a Vian alive and she looks over the crowd of Nexus. Most are crying or pleading to the Gods, who will not listen or help them. I don’t know what I expect her to do, but she simply watches them. “They used to bow and cheer.”
“They are scared,” I explain to her. “But they are thankful. Let me back.”
“Bowing to a Goddess was a privilege, and one day, they must all bow,” she finishes, letting me back in control. I gasp at the lack of her presence and how quiet it goes in my mind as people stare at me. I search around them for anyone I know, for any ranger clothing, and one man stands up, his red hair shining.
Howard claps. “Gwen!” He runs to me through the crowd, which is beginning to move. “You came back and you’re alive!”
As much as I’m glad to see him alive and realise Rhodes was telling the truth, we have bigger problems right now. “Howard, I need you to listen. We are all the rangers left, and the Vian king is in the city. I distracted him, but it won’t last long. There are helicopters by the academy, and you need to tell everyone you can to get to them now. The pilots are still inside. You need to get everyone out, okay?”
“Okay, I’ll stay. I’ll tell everybody.” Howard nods, lifting his chin. “We are rangers and we protect our people.” Howard, who always has come across as scared of his own shadow, clearly has changed as of late. He begins shouting the orders I gave him and commanding a panicked crowd like a boss. I love that for him.
I need to find my mates before the Vian king does, and I need to find Finnegan. His family aren’t here, I don’t think. This was all a trap to lure us, and he had no intention of trading anything with us at all.
