“Also, I need your help here,” Dastian says. “The Strike Demons have been using the instability in the energy between the worlds to cause havoc in Vegas. We need all the help we can get.”
My focus has been so much on the heart of the energy imbalance that I hadn’t considered its effect on the supernatural community. For now, I have to trust that Dastian will do everything he can in Vegas while I’m gone, especially now that he has my fierce harpy sister at his side.
Malia, standing beside Taniya, looks on, her brown eyes glistening with tears. Her lips tremble as she rips her focus away from Taniya and strides toward me.
“This is foolishness, Nova. We should be coming with you.” She makes it within a few paces of me before a hard rebuke makes her grind to a halt.
“No,” Adriel says, prowling after her. “You will not go.”
She whirls at the sound of his voice. “No?” she asks, dangerously quiet.
Adriel stares her down as he comes to a stop in front of her. “Did you mishear me?”
Malia raises herself up to her full height and leans in very close to him. “I was giving you a chance to rethink your words.”
Adriel crosses his arms over his chest, the tension in his jaw increasing. “It’s too dangerous for you to return to the Underworld. I won’t risk you.”
Her lips purse and her face screws up with disbelief. “Why do you care? Until you joined the fight at the last minute, you were going to let us die in Stella-Astrum.” She slaps her hand to his chest, sparks emitting from her fingertips as her power spills over. If she was having difficulty accessing her power before, she certainly isn’t now. “You could have warned us,” she snarls. “You stood by while my family suffered!”
“I wasn’t sure if I could trust you,” Adriel says, standing his ground, barely wincing as her light shines across his chest and the hard planes of his chiseled jaw. “The angels are my people. I’ve been loyal to them my whole life. Protected them. Betraying my family was not an easy decision to make.”
Malia’s breathing is rapid and heavy, but some of the anger drains from her expression. She could never walk away from us the way Adriel walked away from his people when he chose to help us.
Tears trickle down her cheeks as she starts to speak, but she stops again. “I’m…”
“You’re important.” Adriel moves one swift step and sweeps his arms around her. “To me.”
Malia gasps as she disappears behind Adriel’s massive black wings, which suddenly block them both from view.
“Malia!” I call out, stepping toward them, but she answers me immediately.
“I’m okay. Uh… Adriel and I just need to figure some things out.” She appears a second later, pushing out of his wings, her finger held up to him as if she’s telling him to give her a second. Her cheeks are flushed, and her eyes are still glistening, but the furrow in her brow is gone. “Right after I hug my sisters.”
She scoops her arm around Taniya while Adriel tucks in his wings. He wears a glimmer of a smile as he watches her plow toward me.
When both of my sisters wrap their arms around me, I have no words and I don’t even try.
I already know everything they want to tell me.
Stay strong.
Fight with everything you have.
Don’t fucking die on us.
My wolves also run to my side, all of them brushing against my legs in turn, even Ruby, and I reach down to hug them all. I trust them to watch over my family, and especially over Mom.
She’s reached Jareth’s side and holds him tightly. “Come back to me,” she says, her intense gaze appearing to hold him captive. “And bring our daughter with you.”
He draws her nearly off her feet when he kisses her.
Then Athella approaches with Angelus Lux, offering it to my father before she ushers him, me, Roman, and Koda toward the cavern’s opening once more. “You will need to use the weapon within the cave so its light doesn’t touch anyone else and take them with you.”
It has always been a risk, when using Angelus Lux, that it will force others to go to the Underworld like it did to us the first time.
I look back once before I follow my father once more into darkness.
My family watches me go, tears in their eyes, and my wolves give a mournful howl.
