Forget freezing him, use the hourglass!Alaric shouted.
“Give me the hourglass,” I said as I unfurled my new wings.
Odin held it out to me with a worried expression, but before I could take it, Azrael snatched the hourglass and shot into the sky.
“Azrael!” I shouted after him.
That's when the castle gates opened, and Nyx's army rushed out. Screeching harpies came first; the half-bird women flying ahead of the others. They lifted their vicious talons and dive-bombed the gods in our army. More screaming women followed the Harpies out, but they didn't have wings. What they had were vampire teeth that they gnashed together as they launched themselves forward. They went straight for vulnerable throats and drank down the blood they spilled. Then came individual gods; their arms lifted as they cast their dark magic ahead of them.
Toby had to focus on battling a wave of dark mist that Nyx relaunched at me. Above him, magic brightened the sky with streaks of bright white, pale peach, acid green, and neon blue, but that Darkness blocked out the colors completely. Odin bellowed and lowered his shoulders as he transformed; he's a talented shifter and can become anything. This time, Odin chose the form of a massive rhinoceros and went barreling straight into the oncoming army. Gods were knocked aside like bowling pins.
Thor was doing nearly as much damage with his hammer; swinging it in a graceful and continuous pendulous motion. Nayenezgani blasted gods with condensed streams of sunlight, along with his father, while Estsanatlehi did something similar with water. Pan looked more savage than I'd ever seen him; lashing out with waves of Panic. Brahma had a scepter in his hand that emitted different kinds of waves; sound waves. The sound was strong enough to knock gods on their asses. Horus had both hands lifted; beams of silver coming from one while gold shot from the other. The only one who wasn't launching an attack was Teharon; who ran among the army; healing injured gods.
I saw all of this from the sky because as soon as Azrael had taken off with the hourglass, I launched myself after him. Az was only a few feet ahead of me, but he was also much faster than I. The distance between us grew, and he reached the castle within seconds. Azrael hovered above Aion and held out the hourglass; ready to crack it open.
“Aion!” Nyx shouted as she drew a curved sword from her belt and flung it at Azrael.
The blade gleamed; catching the colors of the magical attacks around it as it spun through the air. It moved so quickly that Azrael barely had time to look up before it hit him; slicing clean through his neck. Everything seemed to slow as Azrael's head separated from his body and blood began to gush from his neck. I screamed as Azrael fell onto the crenelations; his back cracking over the stone before he tumbled over the wall. The hourglass dropped to the ground beside Azrael's body and smashed into pieces; just like my heart.
The images seemed superimposed over another moment; a time when I had watched Azrael fall before. Our gazes had met; his looking serene as he simply closed his wings and let himself fall. But that wasn't now; this time, Azrael was dead. He hadn't caught my gaze to send me his love one last time, and there was no other flying god to save him. I should have saved him, but I had been too late. I had failed Azrael, and now he was dead.
I faltered; falling through the air as I sobbed brokenheartedly. Wind whistled past me as I lost control of my wings, but by the time I realized the danger I was in, I was falling too fast to recover. My muscles weren't strong enough to force my wings out, and I simply didn't have the experience to know how to counteract the wind. I heard Odin and Toby shouting and glanced down to see a naked Odin shift into a griffin. He leapt into the air right beneath me; catching me and stopping my fall just moments before I hit the ground
“Vervain,” Odin screeched out of his eagle beak. “We must kill Aion!”
“Do something!” Nyx shouted to Aion simultaneously.
He's accessing his magic!Alaric roared.Hurry, V, every time Aion changes history, it gets harder for your memories to return!
Aion had his eyes closed and a look of intense focus settled over his face. I reacted out of grief and fury; screaming the word that filled my mind.
“Die!”
A sword manifested above Aion and fell like the blade in a guillotine. But as it dropped, a new darkness enveloped me. It wasn't Nyx's magic; this was cold and consuming. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was Aion; staring at me with vicious triumph.
Chapter Twenty-Six
It had been a strange day. I woke up late and felt groggy even though I had gone to bed at my usual time the night before. Nick had been waiting at the foot of my Chinese wedding bed; giving me hisI'm disappointed in youkitty look. I fed him in a haze that even coffee couldn't alleviate. It felt almost like a hangover except without the vomiting. Which was a plus; I'd rather be in pain than nauseous. But still; what the hell was wrong with me?
I tried casting a circle and grounding myself; that seemed to help a little. I felt clear-headed enough to get some work done. I had a gallery show in Chinatown that night, and one of my paintings still had to be framed.
I set the painting into its gilded frame and tightened it into place before I turned it around to admire it. The Norse God, Ull, stared up at me serenely. I'd done a lot of research for this collection, but it had all been for naught. I knew that Ull, also known as Ullr or Ullinn, was the God of Justice, but he was also a hunter, an archer, and a skier. He was the son of a grain goddess named Sif who was married to Thor, but his biological father was the hunter, Orvandil. As the God of Justice, Ull was the overseer of oaths, and the Norse Gods swore their vows on Ull's ring. This had given me a lot of inspiration that I could have used to paint him. But when I lifted my brush, my original concept had disappeared, and I had painted this.
Ull was seated in a massive, Viking throne with two unusual toddlers on his lap; one had blond hair and blue eyes like Ull, but the other had blood red hair and green eyes with slit pupils like a snake. It should have been an unsettling image, but it wasn't. All three of them had peaceful smiles on their faces, and I felt as if these were aspects of Ull. It was completely wrong; Ull was not a trinity god. Still, it felt right to me. And sad. Every time I looked at the painting, I wanted to cry. It was the reason I'd waited until the last moment to frame it.
I felt a little better once I had the painting wrapped in brown paper. I carried it out to my old Honda and packed it carefully in the trunk. Then I drove into Chinatown and dropped it off at the gallery. I still had to get my hair done before I could get dressed for tonight. Gallery shows meant schmoozing; I had to sell my art and myself. So, we both had to look good.
Hours later—primped and primed with flowery words about my art—I was glad that I had put some extra effort into my appearance. Because as I wandered through the throng of glitzy, gallery guests, the most gorgeous man I'd ever seen walked in the glass doors. He looked as if he could be Hapa—what we in Hawaii call people who are half Hawaiian and half Caucasian. But I wasn't sure; his features were too refined, and his skin was the oddest color. Beautiful, but odd.
“How do you get your skin to gleam like gold?” A woman asked him with adoration in her eyes.
“It's genetics,” he said in a voice like warm sugar; addictively sweet, seductively comforting, and sticky enough to cling to you long after he stopped speaking.
“Come on,” the woman cajoled as she played with her diamond necklace. “You can tell me; I'm very discreet.”
“I assure you,” he purred, “this is how my skin naturally looks.”
He took her hand and rubbed it slowly over his arm. The woman sighed as she wrapped her fingers around his forearm and lightly scratched him with her long, red nails. The man smiled knowingly as he lifted her hand to show her that her fingers remained clean.
