Esta’s soul power rages across Koda, but his own power sparks within the storm, bursting around our hands and rapidly spreading toward my wrist.
Its form is crystalline like dust.
The power ofbliss.
His power is an antidote to pain and anger, and it protected me during the battle with our oldest brother, Arga. Together, Koda and I combined our power and defeated Arga, leaving us the last two standing. A combined power that would allow us both to survive the Elimination.
Or so we thought.
Until Esta reappeared—the sister we thought had died.
Once she destroys Koda and me, Esta will win the Elimination and claim the throne with Crone standing at her back.
“Your power!” Koda shouts at me, his face deathly pale. Blood continues to stream down his cheek from the wound on his forehead, but he doesn’t try to wipe it away. “Use your power!”
I’m broken. Injured. In terrible pain. But a surge of Koda’s renewed bliss rushes through me, suppressing my agony and clearing my mind.
I call on my control over nightmares, harnessing my own fear of being left soulless and using it to strengthen the icy force that streams through my chest and my free arm. I’m still lying on my back in a completely vulnerable position, but I extend my arm and release the darkness at Esta.
Charcoal light blasts across the space between us, thudding into her chest right at her heart, where her power was growing again. The blast is so fast that I wouldn’t be able to see it if I wasn’t using my demon vision.
It’s the same level of force I used to kill Arga.
It should knock Esta to her knees, and I wait a heartbeat for her to fall, but all she does is falter and take a single step back.
She has consumed thousands of souls—so many that she said she lost count. Each time she dies, she appears to draw on another soul to revive herself, and it seems she can revive as quickly as she likes.
Still, I use the very brief reprieve to force myself up onto my knees, swaying there, as unsteady as Koda as he follows me up. Meanwhile, the glow of Esta’s power around us doesn’t diminish, concealing everything beyond a few paces in each direction. It doesn’t let up. The thick cloud of golden light that fills the air continues to ripple and strike at my chest, arms, and face. Harder than before.
Her soul light intensifies around my chest, tearing at me, clawing and scraping at my soul, trying to separate it from my body.
I groan against the pain.
If it weren’t for Koda, I’d be screaming.
Doubling over, I plant my free hand on the ground but refuse to look away from Esta.
Beyond the fog of her power, I sense a disturbance, crackling energy, and I can only imagine what Roman and my sisters and wolves are doing to try to get to me.
Esta’s hair is as bright as a halo as she gives me a smile and stretches her neck. “Really, Nova? Koda? You think you can fight back?”
I want to scream a response, but another groan of despair is all I can manage. I’m so physically and mentally broken right now that I’m sure she would have ripped out my soul already, except that my wolf is fighting for me.
Within my mind, my wolf is writhing with pain like I am, but her ferocity is undeniable. She wants to tear Esta apart and she will fight until the bitter end.
It’s a shame my father didn’t have a wolf to guard his soul, because the tension around Esta’s eyes and the sudden crease in her forehead tells me that my wolf is a force she didn’t expect.
A growl rises to my lips and my voice is guttural as I allow my beast’s instincts to combine with my demon power. “We won’t stop fighting you.Sister.”
Despite my assertion, Koda isn’t doing so well. His chest is glowing, too, and the darker shimmer around him indicates that his soul might be only moments away from being ripped from him. He doesn’t have a wolf to help him.
Even so, he grits his teeth and echoes my thoughts. “We aren’t done yet.”
He’s a survivor, like I am. Throughout the trials of the Elimination, he revealed that he will fight as wildly as a wolf to avoid death. Hell, he traveled through the gates between Pyra-Mortem and Earth in a bid to flee the Elimination. I don’t agree with, or condone, his past choices, but I do understand his motivation to survive.
Beyond the glow of Esta’s power, a dark light flickers, a crackle like lightning, and for a moment, I’m sure I can hear Roman’s voice.“Hold on, Nova. We’re coming for you.”
Roman promised that if I died here, he would get my sisters out of Pyra-Mortem, but death will have to fight harder than this if it wants me.
