“Don’t believe me?” Shadow chuckled, then glanced over his shoulder at where Slate stood. “Ask him.”
Shadowy tendrils wrapped around my wrists, then slithered to the hilt and yanked the sword from my grip. They weren’t my half-brother’s shadows, since his were more incorporeal. These were the sickly and malevolent byproduct of Tempest magic.
“Nuh uh, little Celestial King. You don’t get to play right now. You’ve been a bad boy.”
The sword went sailing, and dark power slammed into my chest, knocking the breath from my lungs and launching me across the courtyard.
“Chrome!” Gray’s cry was the only thing that made sense in my warbled mind as I catapulted through the air. My back struck the ground, and a few ribs cracked from the impact. My ears rang, and my vision blurred. When I managed to sit up, I noticed Infernals had surrounded us, and my allies were all crumpled to the ground, holding their heads from the enemy’s psychic attacks. Valik and the portal were gone.
Gray.
My body was still stiff, weakened from returning from the afterlife, but I fought through every strained tendon and muscle to crawl, digging my fingertips in the stone to get to her. On her knees beforeCelanea, Gray clutched her throat, gasping for air from an Infernal with the power of psychokinesis. “No…”
She was too far. I wasn’t sure what Celanea did to me, but my body felt like it was shutting down, like I was crawling through quicksand. I realized it was probably one of the Infernals. I looked for Slate. On his knees, he clutched his head, his face twisted into a grimace of pain, but I didn’t mistake the faint silver glow emanating from his body.
I pushed forward, determined to get to Gray, but Celanea turned her dark pits of eyes on me. “You know, I find it so offensive that you severed our bond. I gifted you the infinity—immortality and endless power—and you threw it in my face.”
I ignored her, my focus on Gray. Just a bit closer.
“And you.” The Tempest Queen pivoted her stare onto my Twin Soul. “You killed my love. That just can’t be forgiven.”
Gray choked. And that was all it took for me.
A surge exploded through my veins, so strong that I believed it wasn't meant for mortal bodies. Thankfully, it seemed I wasn’t mortal…completely. The power electrified me, the combination of my element surging to life and its rage igniting itself. It was pure, untainted by consumed souls and auras.
With a burst of power, my magic singed through the Infernal controlling my body, overpowering and casting it aside.
I leapt to my feet and lunged for Celanea, hurling waves of electromagnetic pulses at her while summoning the sword she’d stolen from my grip. Normally, when my blasts struck, my opponents disintegrated into nothing. But not Celanea. She rocked back a few steps, the pulse from my magic rippling over her body and vanishing into thin air.
Celanea cackled, raising her outstretched hand high above her head, her fingers splayed. I made it to Gray’s side to catch her as she sank to the ground. “I got you. Come on. Bring my little savage out to play one more time, yeah?”
Breathing hard, Gray scowled, twisting her head to the side to meet my gaze. “I’m gonna kill her for what she did to you.”
My heart fractured, knowing that she actually still cared for me after everything I’d done. Syphon Bond or not, I’d done horrible things. I didn’t deserve her forgiveness.
“What she did tous,” I corrected, meeting her gaze head-on. Our bond was nonexistent now, so I wasn’t sure what we could do together at this point to combine our powers. But I had faith in us.
Slate leaped to his feet in my periphery. Onyx and Cotton joined him next, followed by Void. I glanced at them all and inclined my head.
“Wouldn’t it be fun to introduce the rest of our party guests?” Celanea crooned. “All those visits to your Kinetic Domains, Forest was still thinking ahead. I’m really going to miss his foresight. I must say. Bring them out!”
I squeezed the sword in my fist, hating how tainted it felt, but I knew that was the only effective way to disengage the Infernals surrounding us if a fight erupted. “Quit playing your games, Celanea. We’re leaving.”
“Are you? Because it seems your ride home has abandoned you all.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm, lilting in her disturbing childlike tone. “Ah,” she said, her eyes rounding in excitement, her hollow cheekbones standing sharp on her face. “There they are!”
Two figures were being roughly escorted to the courtyard to join us, their identities hidden by the shadows cast by the castle and its gate. But as the Infernals shoved them forward in the rays of the rising sun to join us, their faces were revealed.
“Dad…” Onyx said, and I shifted to face him. His russet complexion paled in horror. At his side, Cotton may as well have been a ghost, because next to Smokey Valor was Sage Sjodin.
Chapter Forty-One
Gray
With each second that Celanea remained alive, my magic throbbed inside of me, a beating drum to the sound of war in my heart. I wanted her head rolling on the cobblestones, staining them with whatever color blood she bled.
Electricity flared to life in my palms, cobalt illuminating above the ground. Air powered through me, wafting through my hair and embracing Chrome at my side.
I watched as Cotton and Onyx’s fathers were shoved to their knees. Both held their heads high to maintain their dignity. They kept their eyes on their sons, never wavering from them.
