I shook my head and stepped away from Adrian, from the comfort I knew he was going to offer. My gaze flickered to the fire burning around the academy and the students rushing to keep the wards powered despite the heat slowly cooking them alive. I looked to Elara and the rush of agents pulling out weapons to stop Dante’s forces from infiltrating the Underworld.
And I looked at the black screen again, Jay’s scream echoing in my ears.
“We need to go,” I said, voice hollow. “We don’t have a choice.”
I always knew I would need to face him. I knew we would have to end it.
But I thought we would have more time.
Maeve appeared in front of me and gripped my shoulders roughly. “You do not have to go anywhere,” she hissed, red bleeding into the blue of her irises. “Not now. We can buy more time.”
“How?” I asked, voice breaking. “He’s going to literallycookan entire academy alive. He’ll slaughter the entire island if he has to. And he has Jay. I can’t—” I swallowed hard, trying to stop myself from vomiting. “I won’t watch the world burn when I know I can stop it.”
“You don’t have full access to your power, though,” Hawk said, appearing behind Maeve, sounding desperate. “He’ll launch whatever attacks he can on you.”
“I know,” I replied, “and I know what he’s capable of. But we literally do not have time for this.”
He’d kill Jay in minutes. He’d allow his army to slaughter anyone in their paths. And we didn’t know how much time the academy had left. Especially not when the wards flickered. There were screams from the students. A rush of activity as elemental witches and mages attempted to counteract the flames.
I pulled out of Maeve’s grasp and turned to Damon. “Can you take me directly into the palace?”
The giant demon stared at me in horror, lips parted, eyes dancing with the flames of hell. “No.”
“Damon,” I pleaded, rushing to him. “Please. They won’t survive this.”
“And neither will you,” he snapped. “He’s going to cut you open first, scoop those babies out, and then he will steal your power.”
I flinched at the harshness of his words. He wanted them to knock sense into me, but I shook my head. “It won’t matter in the end. I need to go.”
“Three minutes,” Orion said darkly. “I say we go.”
Of all my mates, I never expected him to be the one to agree with me.
But I watched as he filled his belt with weapons, all sorts of daggers and even a set of swords on his back. He would go in, but by the dark look etched into his features, he believed he wouldn’t make it out.
I swallowed hard, heart pounding. “We can stop him. We just need to get the skull. If we have that, he doesn’t have what he needs to steal my magic. And then we take him out.”
My mates shared uncertain looks. There was no telling whether it would work. And it might not. Dante’s army had their orders, and they would likely continue their attacks even after Dante was incapacitated.
But he was one male against the ten of us.
“I like our odds,” Xerxes said, shifting into his Primal form. “And he cannot stop us all.”
The colour drained from Adrian’s face, but he moved around the room, handing over stones marked with runes. “Press these into your palms,” he instructed, handing me one. “It’ll stop Dante from getting into any of our heads again.”
I didn’t question it; I pressed the stone rune-side down into my hand and felt it burn briefly before settling. When I pulled it back and slid the rock into my belt, I admired the rune—sharp, thick lines that criss-crossed together—before it faded, sinking into my flesh.
“We take him out,” Elias stated. “I know the objective was to take his power, but if we can end this, then do it.”
Adrian didn’t even flinch; he’d been the one to want to take his brother into custody and strip him of his power, but my mate didn’t fight it. Instead, he checked his weapons, remaining silent.
“One minute,” Orion announced, looking around the room.
I took in all of my mates; the original team who found and saved me, the first male I ever fell in love with, to the one I thought I could never tolerate, to the demon who married mefor an alliance, to the creature of the Old World who unexpectedly stole a piece of my heart, and the bear shifter who unknowingly became my anchor during our time in the cages.
As the world turned dark around us, I silently prayed that we would all survive this. That it wouldn’t end the way they feared.
I prayed Dante would regret ever turning against us at all.
