But as the Usurper’s madness suddenly swings our way, its towering roar blasting an inescapable heart-curse right at me, Bjorn spins us.
And takes the full force of that blast—right to his broad back.
Like a shield, Bjorn holds me in his arms, even as it takes him down. I scream, turning to catch him. But he is already falling, the light dying from his beautiful golden eyes as the Usurper’s heart-curse spirals all through him.
His beautiful lips whisper,I love you.
And my First Bloodmate breathes his last.
I am alone in the chaos, as my First Bloodmate falls. I am the last one standing as this cyclone of hell destroys everything around me. Only I am at its epicenter, as the Black Dragon rages far above. Only I am still here, finally standing in my brightest light, as everything around me dies.
As the Archangel’s sigil-field snaps out, with not a single angel in sight now, I feel the Black Dragon’s power explode. Far across the barren northlands, the Usurper’s hell shoots out, careening to every horizon and further, as it surges to devour the earth.
The leviathan taint of the Black Rift goes with it. I feel the cosmic rift energy that powers them seethe through the closest Magnussen villages and into neighboring territory, siphoning away lives.
Together, they claim life after life now, endless like a cancer as it overtakes the world. The cyclone of hellfire darkness at its epicenter grows, as I stand on only a tiny patch of ground now within the cavern.
Watching death descend.
And though something inside me feels unforgivable, because I caused this terrible destruction, I do not descend into my worst darkness. Because as I clutch Bjorn to my chest now, kissing his lips, then kneeling to set him upon the ruined ground, I finally know who I am.
I am Rikyava Andersen, Bloodwalker of the Ancestors and kin of kings.
And I am a badass bitch—about to take this motherfucker down.
Even though everything inside me shrieks in pain now, my Bloodbonds severed and gone, I do not shudder. I stand tall as my beloveds lay dead at my feet. I face Hedda’s Jormungandr with a snarl in my bones and fire in my veins, as a towering white auric wildfire bursts from me now, seething through the carnage.
Where that blazing fire goes, the raging taint of the Rift and the hellfire of the Black Dragon are pushed back. Because I am righteousness, and I am my true heart. I am nothing but love now, as the cyclone of my wildfire makes me roar up into the elder skies, lifted upon the tide of its whirling brightness.
As I hold my arms out wide.
I call the Black Dragon to me, standing with arms wide inside my cyclone of fire, as I sacrifice myself to the beast. Because my drakes and my real sister are in there. Like hell am I going to let them suffer in endless torture when I could be in there with them, loving them to the endless universe and back.
Because I understand now what it means to love and to dedicate myself to others, at last. And that soul-deep love is endless, as I shine like the greatest star in the cosmos now.
And roar for the Usurper to come.
It hears my voice roaring through its maelstrom. It hears me goading it—that I am no longer one with it but something else, shining now against its hellfire darkness as I stand in my own cosmic brightness, indomitable.
Even as it comes down, opening its jaws wide to begin its heart-cursing roar, I am not angry with it. I am not wrathful; I do not feel rage. I do not feel hate or retribution, or any other divisive feelings that once made me resonate with it.
I feel only light, love, and hope, as it barrels down out of the sky. As it fires its never-ending heart curse, hitting me square in the chest so hard it knocks me from my cyclone of wildfire, I do not falter in my love.
Because I am a love beyond division now, as nothing but compassionfills me. As I fall, that ultra-condensed love of my drakes’ and my united Ouroboros blasts all through my everlasting heart. An explosion of auric fire bursts so hard from me, I shine like a star being born in the cosmos.
Even as I hit the ground—my body broken and bleeding out—in death.
“I’m coming for you. I will give you your true death...” I promise the Usurper, upon my very last breath.
And then I’m gone—spiraling into its inner Void, at last.
I take my brightness with me as I enter the Black Dragon’s Void. I am dead, but I have never felt so alive, as true love burns all through me for my Bloodbonded drakes, and myself.
Just as all my drakes and Lærke died in true love for me, I die that way for them now, feeling the vast power our love has formed between us, as I seek them out from within the Usurper’s Void. I understand now that I can never wield the Black Dragon—doing so only ever brings division and death.
And I am an instrument of life now, as I enter this cosmic Rift, at last.
Just like the universal division energy that powered it from the Black Rift, the Black Dragon will only ever divide kin from kin, and us from ourselves. I understand that now, as I unite with it in my real power now, no longer trying to wield it anymore, but heal it.
