I focused on Dae-hyun and that fucking ax, pinpointing my magic at him. I chose Light, mainly because I knew it would work instantaneously. Also, I had to give Anu his props for looking after us.
But I couldn't resist dropping a one-liner. “The only path to immortality is through God.”
Then I sent him on his way.
Chapter Forty-Four
The ax disintegrated along with Lee Dae-hyun. Antaura let out a relieved breath and slumped back. Before she could meet my stare, I looked over my shoulder to see Extinguisher Connor Teagan standing there in a spectral form. He grinned at me, then vanished.
But I was still chained. He had freed my wrists but not the rest of me. Oh, well. No big deal. Light could take care of the chains too. I started to summon it when Star appeared before me. He had wounds on his chest and legs. Bleeding, ragged wounds. The sort you get when you tear away something that has fused with healing flesh. But his stare bled far more than his body.
“Seren!” Star rushed forward, grabbed the chains, and yanked them apart. Links went flying, then the remainder slithered to the ground. He rubbed my arms as he searched me for any injuries. “Are you all right?”
“I'm fine,” I whispered, then swallowed roughly. “Star, I'm fine.” I grabbed his hands to stop him.
Star met my eyes. We stared at each other. And we saw the truth. It wasn't all Anu. Our attraction. The ache. It was partly ours. And what was ours was still there. Anu had magnified it, but he didn't create it. So he couldn't remove it. Itwouldn't drive either of us to insanity. Distraction maybe, but nothing unbearable. Just your normal, run-of-the-mill, desire on the cusp of something more. Perhaps more already.
“Oh, fuck,” Star muttered.
“Seren!” Killian shouted.
I flinched and shot to my feet. Star vanished in a rain of embers. I didn't pause to wonder where he had gone. I knew. He went to help his people. And I went to help mine.
I raced to the edge of the pedestal, then jumped off. Air caught me, and I floated to the ground. The first man I saw was Sever. He looked awful.
“Get Killian,” Sever said. “I'm nearly healed.”
Killian was just to Sever's right, spikes sticking out of his chest and left hip. “Hey, babe,” he groaned. “I need to have a word with Anu. He didn't just say that sword and shield shit to you. He made that vow to me too. And if this is his idea of shielding me, it sucks.”
I didn't bother with witty banter. I used Air Magic to lift Kill off the spikes and set him on his feet. He instantly collapsed.
“Kill?” I crouched and grabbed his arm.
“I'm fine.” He pushed me away. “Help Sever.
I turned toward Sever, but he had already laruked off the spikes and was helping the hunters. Just as I'd assumed, Star was seeing to his guards, who were slower to heal than the King of Hell. Not that healing around metal spikes was all that great. There were remnants of flesh on Sever's spikes, torn away whenhe had laruked. But he was on his feet, even with that reopened thigh wound. Most importantly, he was alive.
I helped the other hunters get free just as the sound of helicopters echoed in to us. The cavalry had arrived.
As extinguishers piled up on the ledge at the cavern's entrance, our bloody group gathered around the body of the dead hunter. His teammates lifted him off the spikes. Not magically, but with their own hands. And then they carried him to the edge of the pit with reverence.
No one looked at the smudge that was all that remained of Lee Dae-hyun. Not even Apitron. Although, he did grin wickedly. Apitron's job didn't include torturing souls, but I had a feeling he was going to make an exception.
Chapter Forty-Five
The cave—which turned out to be man-made—was cleared of spikes and equipment. I destroyed Dae-hyun's laptop without bothering to have it searched. His research on immortality wasn't of interest to me. It was better off gone. The only things I'd wanted from Dae-hyun were the pearls he'd stolen. Oh, well. Better that most of us had survived. My uncle could live with the disappointment.
Although Dae-hyun's house in the wealthy neighborhood was destroyed, that had to be cleared as well. Then that property, along with the larger property he'd taken me to (and its still-standing house right outside his man-made hill), was confiscated by the Fairy Council as payment for our suffering. The destroyed house would be rebuilt and turned into a Hunter House since there weren't any in Seoul.
Many of the extinguishers had been injured in the explosion, but, as if they'd been protected by a divine hand, none of the injuries were fatal. The uninjured extinguishers had stayed behind to pull their buddies free of the wreckage. Which was why they hadn't been with the team who laruked and laleked to me. Ironically, the blast had saved their lives. That made our only fatality, Hunter Jang Sung-ho. As for Lee Dae-hyun's wealth, it went to the surviving relatives of Hunter Jang Sung-ho and the murdered Kumihos. Sang-hee got a portion too sinceshe'd been attacked. Maybe she could buy a bigger house and keep her cat indoors. All in all, it was a good ending to a bad story.
And I was ready to go home.
Well, I'd already gone home briefly out of necessity. My boobs had been on the verge of exploding. I fed Miri, gave my family the good news, then brought everyone back to the apartment in Seoul for a celebration. Everyone included my husbands, my children, my dad, his wife, Cat, and Henry. Yup, the whole family came to South Korea to share in our triumph. But before I could celebrate, I had something important to do.
“Extinguisher Connor Teagan,” Raza growled.
Connor spun around, the bottom of his brace serving as a pivot point while he hopped on his good leg and leaned on a crutch to keep from falling. Once steady, his stare shifted from Raza to my other husbands before settling on me.
