He held his hand out, and I took it quickly. I stood on my feet, and my body swayed, still a little woozy from the blow to the back of my head.
“We will mourn our family later. For now, we need to fight.”
“Thank you.” I gaped at him, still shocked that he’d chosen my side.
“Don't thank me for saving my own son.”
I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed, knowing there would be a lot to unpack later. “Let’s end this war.”
FORTY-ONE
Kian
Iswallowedthelumpin my throat as we faced the power hungry side of Cursina, the sirens and the necromancers.
They fought alongside a couple of dragons, but we had witches, warlocks, and vampires on our side.
Adjusting the glasses on my face, I stared down our enemy as magic thrummed thick in the air.
Spells spiraled back and forth, the terrifying zap cracking the air as a chill spread down my spine, signaling the necromancers.
Death and decay filled my nose, and I shuddered. I couldn't understand how my ex-coven was able to handle it, although really, I would never understand.
“Listen, necromancer,” Trixie hissed as she threw a hand up and had one of the resurrected corpses explode from the inside out with mushrooms.
I winced and glanced at her at the same time Nightshade took over on my shoulder, casting a few spells toward the necromancers surrounding us.
“Wren would want you to be strong and confident because she's sure of your abilities just like I am. You're a powerful warlock, Kian. The strongest necromancer I have ever met. Let's eliminate them together.” She gritted her teeth as a strike of orange magic jolted at our feet.
My eyes widened, and my heart slammed in my chest as I recognized the necromancer standing in front of me.
He was part of the group that was messing with the reanimated human when we visited the village just before I cut ties with them.
“Cortse!” The necromancer smiled widely, a sadistic grin splitting his face. “Fancy seeing you here. Of course you have your little furry friend with you. Didn't you learn your lesson?”
“Didn't you?” I asked as Nightshade threw his hand as he chanted a fatal spell with chirps, and it struck straight through the chest cavity of the necromancer, who hadn't even tried to protect himself.
It was proof of how little necromancers feared death. What they didn't realize was that Claude had been lying to us all. Once we were dead, we were dead. Even if our bodies came back to life. I knew that was true, deep in my soul. I always had.
“Kian!” My father's voice was sharp and cracked like a whip among the chaos of the battle around us.
“You've got this.” Trixie gave my arm a squeeze before she jogged toward her sister to aid her with a whole group of necromancers that had seemed to team up on her.
“Why can't you just be the necromancer that I know you can be?” He wiped his bloodied hands on his pants as he stared at me absolutely unguarded.
“Because you're sick. There's something not right in your brain. Mom was the only one who was like me in the entire coven!”
“She put shit in your head.” The ground shook with his accusation, and the sky was dark with bitter rain as the wind whipped, howling from the misery around us.
My father was always like the necromancers, and I never understood why my mom had fallen for him. They weren't mates or anything. We didn't get mates unless our mate was from a different species, like Wren.
Grief clogged up my throat as I kept reminding myself that the only true parent I had was my mom. Any semblance of the father I had growing up died when she did. Iknewthat. So why was it so difficult?
“This is how the Fates made us. What don't you understand about that?” My father spat, and it sounded rehearsed, like he had heard it a million times. Because he had. From the mouth of Claude.
My stomach churned, and I sucked in a deep breath.
‘You can do this,’Nightshade whispered beside me, throwing his little paw up and forming a magic circle the color of purple, like our magic. I threw my hand out and did the same, overlapping his spell.
