DISCORD
I recognized the sound slashing through my psyche instantly, but the weight of Hecate’s magic was crushing and absolute. I barely detected my soulmate’s energy running beneath the goddess’s deathly high vibration, nor could I sense any physical sensations from the earthly realm.
“Hell is unravelling at its very seams,” Lucifer’s voice echoed all around us.
“Tell us something we don’t know.” Cinder sounded distant, as if she no longer stood next to me.
Lucifer ignored her sarcasm. “Neither realm will survive.”
“I am well aware of failure’s consequences, my love,” Hecate said. “You have no need to explain it to me.”
His growl rumbled from the Underworld. “You are diluting the power of three and three. Do as the Fates deem.”
Hecate gasped, and her crushing weight ceased in half a heartbeat. My stomach lurched. I doubled over, catching myself with my hands on my knees as the world around us wavered into focus.
Clouds churned in the sky above, toppled trees lay strewn about, their trunks scorched by lightning strikes, and patches of nothingness, blacker than the tarpits of Hell, peppered the scene, having swallowed reality as the universe continued unravelling.
“Marshall!” Freed from the trance, Scorsha raced to her husband’s side, dropping to the ground and pulling his limp body into her lap.
I glanced at my brothers, who looked as drained as I felt, and Cinder squatted in front of me, holding my shoulders and catching my gaze.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’ve been better.” I straightened, and she rose with me, turning toward the cause of the chaos.
Through the shimmering, jagged tear of the rift, Lucifer stood on a ledge of obsidian, his arms crossed over his chest, looking remarkably bored for a man witnessing the collapse of two realms.
“You always did have a flair for the dramatic, my love.” His voice echoed through the rift with a resonant, smug clarity. “But you’re overthinking the geometry. The seal requires a balanced circuit, not a silver-threaded prayer.”
Hecate spun toward the rift, her hair whipping into a frenzy that matched the storm above. “I did not ask for a performance review. I’ve held this universe together with spit and willpower while you played with your collection of damned souls!”
“And yet, look at the cracks.” Lucifer gestured with one hand toward a fissure that nearly claimed Mayhem’s boot. “The Fates demand a circle of six. Release your ego and use the tools at your disposal.”
“The Fates demand?” The goddess crossed her arms and scoffed. “Are you trying to say they graced you with an audience in the time I’ve been here? That they granted you this knowledge and not me?”
“We do not have time for a lovers’ quarrel.” I curled my hands into fists.
Lucifer cut a steely gaze toward me before returning his attention to the goddess. The smugness slipped from his expression, sincerity replacing it. “They did, my love. They wove this tapestry long ago, and silver threads cannot mend it. The six will channel your power to enhance their own, but they must do it equally, and you may not assist them in the weaving.”
Hecate let out a roar of frustration that shook the remaining trees in the clearing. She turned back to us, her divine luminescence flickering with the strain. “Fine. The king is right. He’s an arrogant, insufferable ass, but he’s right. If the Fates deem it, so mote it be.”
The ground split again, a fissure jutting toward Scorsha and Marshall. Hecate flung her arm, and a gust of wind knocked them aside before the crevice could swallow them. Then, she turned to me. “Do it now.”
I nodded and grabbed Cinder’s hand, the familiar heat of her palm grounding me against the vibration of the unraveling veil as we moved into position, forming a perfect ring of six.
I stood between Cinder and Ember. Next to Ember stood Mayhem, then Ash, and then Chaos, who completed the circle by taking Cinder’s other hand. Hecate stood in the center of our formation, her form glowing with a sudden, mercury-like intensity.
“No buffers,” she commanded, her eyes turning into voids of pure silver light. “Open your souls. Channel the essence of the realms directly, or the darkness will consume us all.”
“I’ve got you,” Cinder whispered, her thumb brushing my knuckles as she squeezed my hand.
My heart hammered against my ribs, and bitter bile crept into my throat, souring my mouth and making my stomach lurch in dreadful anticipation. Hecate raised her hands, and the floodgates opened.
The goddess’s power didn’t just flow; it exploded into us. The silver light hit all six of us with equal, devastating force. It felt like someone poured dry ice directly into my veins, and I gasped, my head snapping back as the high-pitched hum of the ritual vibrated in my skull until my teeth rattled.
Mayhem let out a guttural roar, and Ember’s grip tightened on my hand. Cinder’s essence flowed into me from one side, smooth and grounding, while Ember’s shot into my psyche, wilder and sharper. Next, I felt the familiar low hum of my brothers’ energy, and finally Ash’s meticulous, ordered spirit.
We were no longer individuals. Instead, we comprised a single conduit for a power that no mortal or demon was ever meant to hold alone.
