Onyx slumped against Luc, and the need to hold his brother was all that kept Luc from collapsing.
“Thank all that is damned,” Dante said. “If she’d died…”
“They can’t do this!” Ash’s snarl popped Luc’s ears, and suddenly, everything was loud again. “They can’t attack us like this. Hurting innocent beings is vile.”
Ash stomped toward the mist-shrouded archway, Valac at his heel.
Rowan stirred in the grass and sat up, looking dazed. Lillian murmured with Catalina, and the other vampires groaned as their immortal magic put their broken bodies back together.
“Shield’s up,” Luc ordered. “We can all lend power to protect our guests.”
Fire flared on all sides. Red coated Luc’s body, Onyx bathed in blue beside him, and a multitude of colors surrounded Catalina and each vampire.
“I’ll stay back for now, until the vampires are healed,” Lillian offered.
Luc nodded and marched toward the gate with Onyx.
“Come out and show yourselves, cowards!” Ash roared into the mist.
“We aren’t leaving unless you kill us,” Onyx yelled out. “Are you going to break the ultimate rule and admit it’s all bullshit? Or own up and do what’s right?”
Luc rested a hand on Onyx and Ash’s shoulders.
Dante caught his eye, black flames raging in his irises. “Don’t back down.”
Luc let the strength of his raging fire fuel him. He wouldn’t, especially not with his brothers at his side.
“We’ve seen the truth,” Luc called into the mist. “The universe is not built on opposites. Straying from one box or another has no effect on anything. The realms don’t balance each other. Life does not balance death. Magic is not in opposition to mortality. It never has been. All things exist in varied forms. Witches are not wrong for existing between what we thought were the only two ways of being. There is no reason some souls should be damned other than to satisfyyourneed for control.”
But Luc might as well have been yelling at no one. Silencefilled the air. Even the ambient music of the half-realm had ceased.
The ground vibrated.
Dante growled. “Get ready.”
Ash pulled Dante and Luc back from the invisible barrier. “We need space to move. Brace yourselves.”
Valac and his supporters joined them. “No matter what’s coming, we’re not backing down.”
“No.” Luc reached into his well of power. “There’s no coming back from this.”
He was doing this for Dex—he longed for an unending life with his mate, there was no denying that—but it had become so much bigger. His heart’s desire had brought him to a reality more important than any individual dream. Dex had shown Luc a better world. Everyone deserved that world, and no one had the right to stand in the way in the name of a sacred truth.
“Lies!” Malachi’s voice boomed out of the mist.
“They are not!” Luc shouted back. “Discovering this new truth doesn’t have to be bad. We can change our beliefs. Letting witches into the Eternal Realm threatens no one.”
All it threatened was the council’s power. Eternals would question them in ways they hadn’t before, but that wasn’t bad. If anything, it was good. Unless you were a councilor clinging to power and unwilling to change.
“Your attempt to bring chaos into this realm will fail.” Malachi reemerged from the mist, flanked on each side by a dozen Eternal guards.
Hollis was conspicuously absent.
In a flash of eternal fire, the guards launched into the air, lightning crackling at their fingertips. Luc, Onyx, Ash, Dante, and their supporters rose to meet them.
28
DEX
