“What a letdown it must be to find yourselves stuck on my side of the veil,” she says. “Not that it matters—I would have tracked you down and killed you just as easily on Terra-Centrum.”
I growl at her, and her gaze shifts to meet mine.
“Sister,” she drawls. “You surprised me. I can’t say I’m impressed, but you did surprise me.”
“One of my goals in life complete,” I shoot back. “I just have to kill you to get the other one.”
She smiles, appearing completely unconcerned. My family has taken up defensive positions around me—Koda and Taniya on my right, Malia on my far left with my wolves fanned out behind us. Roman’s energy on my near left is strong. I haven’t seen the full strength of the Master of Demon Runes yet, and I’m comforted by that as we face our enemy. Together.
Esta’s power glints around her fingertips like little rays of sunlight and I’m about to step forward, but Koda moves first, demanding Esta’s attention.
“How could you kill our father?” he rages at her.
Esta tears her gaze from me to look at her brother. Really look at him. He appears more furious than I’ve seen him before, his anger, fear, and pain manifesting in paler-than-normal skin and piercing-blue eyes.
“I wanted to rule Mortem,” she says simply. “He was in my way.”
Brushing Koda off, she focuses on me again, but Koda isn’t finished.
“So you ripped his soul from his body,” Koda snarls, dragging Esta’s attention back to himself.
“Easily,” she replies with a haughty grin.
Koda gives a derisive laugh. “Fucking liar. You tried to kill him, but you failed. Separating his soul was an act of desperation.”
On my left, sparks tingle across my skin as Roman appears to be quietly gathering power. He meets my eyes before his focus flashes meaningly at Koda. Despite the vehemence in Koda’s verbal attack, my brother seems to be distracting Esta and drawing her attention away from us.
I step up a little, blocking Esta’s view of Roman to the extent that I can—difficult with someone of Roman’s stature.
Esta’s haughty expression falls. I can’t quite tell if it’s because Koda accused her of being desperate or of failing—or if the memories of what she did might be tainting the euphoria she feels at being so close to ruling the Underworld.
“Somehow, he was expecting an attack, although I’m sure he was surprised that it came from me,” she says. “He bulked up his strength so the best I could do was tear his body and soul apart and send them far from each other so that he can never be whole again.”
Several times now, she’s spoken about tearing our father’s soul from his body, but she hasn’t mentioned his heart. My father’s message in the prison was clear: His heart was separated, too. I’m sure of it because Malia and Taniya were caught up in trying to pass on the message to me and they consistently drew the royal rune—the symbol for my father—and the death bond made of three lines.Threepieces.
Somehow, my father’s heart is out there as well.
Not that I’m about to mention that to Esta. It’s to our advantage to let her think she knows everything and is in control of this situation.
“Our father was too powerful for you,” Koda says with a derisive laugh. “He would have seen your disloyalty from a mile away. You’ll never be the leader he was.”
“He was weak!” Esta snarls as she takes a step forward, her hands in a claw position in front of her. For the first time on this bridge, I feel the lapping of her energy against mine, as if she’s preparing to take us all out at once. “He was losing his power! He should have chosen a successor and abdicated the throne, but he clung on despite his frailty.”
As she speaks, Roman’s hand brushes the back of my arm and I nearly jump at the jolt of energy he’s been gathering. I can’t see the runes he’s creating—normally, they’re brightly lit, but now they seem to be invisible—but Ifeelthem tingling against my back as he weaves and weaves, building his strength.
“Keep her distracted. Only attack if you need to,” he murmurs. “Give me time to weave the strongest spell.”
I nod, barely moving my head before I step up and my wolves gather in behind me. I slip my hand into Koda’s, and he immediately gives it a squeeze.
Farther to my left, Malia is also drawing on her power, but she, too, has stepped forward, making herself a visual distraction from Roman. Likewise, to my right, Taniya’s harpy talons are fully extended and I sense that she will be ready to shift from her harpy into her wolf form, depending on what is needed for the fight ahead.
We’ve all now created a line in front of Roman.
Esta scoffs at our preparedness to fight, but I’m gratified when she doesn’t try to see around us.
She gives a loud, maniacal laugh. “Why do you keep fighting me? If you had any idea how many souls were cast into the Wilds thanks to me, you’d accept this defeat and welcome an easy death. Why make it more painful than it needs to be?”
Koda is immovable. The longer he speaks, the more confident he appears. “All of those souls clearly messed with your mind, Esta, because betraying your family to win a crown is pathetic.” His lips twist with increasing derision. “But then, you’ve always been sad, weak, pathetic little Esta. Desperate to be noticed. Desperate to be loved. Terrified of being ignored.”
