I feel the bond between us hum as my refilled wellspring of power expands and my simurgh rises. I realize what he intends when I feel our magic start to flow and combine. I’m scared to see what becomes of us, but I trust him completely. Shadow intertwines with starlight into a brilliant plume of shimmering night. He glances at me with so much love that my knees weaken. “I love you, Starbright.”
“I love you, too.”
“Now burn like the star you are,” he says. “I’ve got you.”
Silvery runes and tattooed markings light in tandem as the iridescent wings of my simurgh burst out of my back. Black shadow wings flare as he tightens his grasp on my hand, and together we aim our magic toward the azhi. Our combined magic blasts the two smaller heads, which explode in bursts of ash and embers. Only the middle head remains. The azhi roars in fury, sucking down the magic of the remaining revenants and whatever it stole from its mistress in a desperate bid to regenerate itself.
If we don’t eliminate the last and most powerful head before the other two return, then we will have to start all over again. It’s a matter of careful timing, constant pressure, and a whole lot of luck. Blood thunders in my ears, each passing second fraught with fear that the window of opportunity will close... that it will leap into the skies. We focus our power on the main head’s eyes, blinding it temporarily, and it shrieks, attacking wildly but without coherence.
This is it...
Darrius retrieves his massive obsidian sword and tosses it to Roshan with a wink. “Show us what you’ve got, Sunshine.”
Roshan grins back, and I watch in awe when he jumps on a horse and races toward the belly of the beast. The king and his mount move like magic, an aureate iridescence surrounding them both. My breath lodges in my throat when he gracefully dodges a stream of acid breath and a vicious swipe of the azhi’s talons. It’s only a testament to his skill as a rider that he doesn’t get unseated. And then he leaps off at the last minute to roll beneath the creature’s massive legs.
The sword—Darrius’s sword—ignites, bright light blazing along its obsidian edges right as Roshan cleaves it through the azhi’s belly like a hot knife through butter. The scream the demon releases is horrific as its entire body splits in half and flakes to ash within seconds.
Stupefied, I turn to Darrius. “Did you know your sword was god-touched?”
“It’s not. ButAchariais. It’s his akasha that made it so.”
The Everlean prophecy floats to mind:By the chosen’s own hand, the ill-fated shall die...
Tears spring to my eyes as the entire valley goes up in cheers and shouts of victory, the men and women of Endara who had fought and bled together lifting a victorious Roshan up onto their shoulders. Of course. Agod-touchedsword. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.
“Stars, is it finally over?” I say, half expecting the demon to rise again for one last unholy hurrah. But it doesn’t, thankfully.
Darrius nods, wrapping his arms around me. “It’s finally over, my love.”
“What do we do now?”
Roshan smiles. He’s broken away from the crowd and made his way over to kiss my cheek. “Whatever we want.”
Covered in blood and gore and gods know what else, I laugh at the two loves of my life, my heart so full it feels like it’s going to burst. I like the sound of that. I like it a lot.
Chapter Forty-One
Whatever we want unfortunately has to give way to duty, which is what happens when two kingdoms and two kings are involved. Not to mention paying our respects to those who died in battle as well as making sure that the rot from the corrupted remnant of Fero is completely eradicated in both Oryndhr and Everlea.
As Aran had explained to me, Fero isn’tgone—the gods exist in balance, after all, but his brothers and sisters have made sure that his ancient godly essence remains in exile until he realizes the errors of his ways. For a power-hungry god, that could be another several millennia. I’m not holding my breath.
“Ziba?” I ask as I fasten the last of my leathers. “Do you know where my husband is?”
Her expression drops for a moment. “He’s in Princess Anahima’s quarters again.”
Needless to say, Darrius has taken the loss of his sister harder than expected, even with all her deception. I find the king of Everlea in the next wing of the castle, standing at the entrance to Ani’s chambers. They’ve been cleaned as if she were expected back from the library or her study at any moment. But she won’t be coming back.
I touch Darrius’s shoulder with my magic before I reach him. “Are you well, my love?” I ask him, slipping my arms around his middle.
His body relaxes slightly, though his big shoulders remain hunched when I rest my cheek against the middle of his back. “I just wish she had come to me. I could have helped. I could have done something to save her. I failed in my duty as king and as her brother.”
“She didn’t want help, Dare,” I say, stroking his stomach. “And you didn’t fail. Her actions are her own. She could have chosen a different path, but she did not.”
“I should have been there for her,” he says brokenly.
The truth is Ani was lost by the end. The remnant had corrupted her beyond redemption. In fact, it was a mercy she was gone. While Roshan had hung on to the last of his humanity with everything inside of him, Ani had abandoned hers. That’s the only reason he’d been able to come back from the very brink. Well, that and Saru’s grace.
But I think about that every day... What if he had embraced Fero fully?
