Faintly, I can hear words being exchanged between Mera and Nyx as I step away from Hekate, shaking my head in disagreement with the truth. It cannot be real. It isn’t true. She has always belonged with me. Love is a curse. Fate is a blatant, fucking lie. And prophecies, well, they are nothing but absolute bullshit if it means we don’t get to be together. I won’t allow it. Fuck the gods or the rulers of the realms or anyone else who’d like to stand in my way.
I am not a fucking pawn in the games gods play.
Running to Mera, I conjure lightning in my palms and focus it on Nyx as she smiles cruelly and sends her black flames spiraling toward my face. I will kill both the demons if I have to. My fated mate—and mine is exactly what she is—will not be staying here with them. I dive and roll across the steaming, hot ground, ducking just in time for the fire to miss me and go hurling into one of the half-broken pillars near the pit. It groans, roaring across the realm as it tumbles and crashes to the ground. I aim at Nyx and my power jolts from my fingertips, wrapping around her like one of her serpents and she shrieks. Even stunned by the electricity and unable to move, she still fucking smiles, sending out a puff of air from her lungs tainted with her venom. The scent of her dark power makes my stomach churn, and I hold my breath as I force my way through her cloud of death, gripping her by the throat and squeezing as I lift her. Her stilettos kick at my raging wind that swirls around us, rocks and dirt flying past as she dangles helplessly in the air.
“Kairos, enough!” Hekate screams, but I smile up at the demon queen and ignore her completely.
Nyx ruined my life. She took everyone and everything I loved from me. Mera wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for her. She needs to pay. My plan hasn’t changed. I was always going to end her pathetic life.
I stumble back as two demons slam their monstrous heads into my sides. My ribs ache as pain slices through me, but I don’t fall. The celestial dagger on my right thigh slips free and goes tumbling across the black dirt directly toward Nyx. My lightning dies out as soon as the shooting pain makes me lose focus of my power. Nyx is no longer unable to move. She blows me a kiss, wiggling her fingers in a taunting wave goodbye as more venom leaks from between her puckered lips. Crouching low, she picks up my dagger and spins it in her hand with expert precision as she prowls toward me. Her demons grip my arms and shove me to the ground, holding me down so I can’t move. I thrash and pull as I try to stand, but her venom takes hold because I was too distracted to hold my breath, and now my body feels heavy and useless. Fuck.
A flash of red hair steals my attention as Mera runs to me, but Hekate and Ere grab her and pull her back. She screams my name, the sound muffled and on repeat like I’ve been trapped within an echo chamber in my own mind, her wailing at the top of her lungs as she fights to be set free. All I can do is watch from a distance as she tries and fails to come to me. Tears fall, splashing and sizzling on the scorched ground. Her mouth opens and closes again and again, blood rushing to her cheeks in anger or possible heartbreak, all of it in slow motion. It brings me comfort in death though, to see that a part of her, at least, still cares. Hekate pushes Mera behind her and steps forward. A flash of blue light whirls closer, barreling into one demon and then the other, and they fly back, slamming into the mountain wall. Ere’s shadows creep closer, ripping and shredding them until they’re nothing but a puddle of thick, black blood at the foot of the mountain. As if he cares whether I live or die. It’s an act. A show just for her. A façade, the way it has always been with him.
My blood boils and my internal organs are on fire, hot pain tearing through me. I’ve felt the demons’ venom countless times, but this…godsdamn I’ve never felt anything like it. All I can do is lie here and wait to die as Nyx raises my celestial dagger above her head, light flaring out around us as she prepares for the kill. I still can’t move. Her venom races through my system making it harder by the second to even use the muscles of my diaphragm to fucking breathe. I am going to die here. Flames, beautiful blue and purple flames, soar toward Nyx and hit their mark. And fuck, if I could smile right now over how proud I am of Mera, I would. Seeing Nyx slump over in pain, her body curling in on itself and screeching so loud the demons grumble low in surrender, the ground trembling as they run away, offers a small amount of relief.
It all happens so fast after that. One second, I’m paralyzed and watching in slow motion, like an outsider who’s not even here, and the next second Nyx is lying on top of me. Warmth spills from my stomach and gushes down my sides as my own celestial dagger tears through muscle and nerves that are already burning from Nyx’s venom, so hot that I can’t even feel the stab wound. It’s a death sentence and she knew it. Her final gift to me.
“Kairos!” Mera screams, and the pounding of feet on the hard dirt is fuzzy and far away as blurry shadows and shapes rush to my side.
Hekate rolls Nyx’s motionless body off me, and I can sense her heartbreak, smell her tears in the air, her knee brushing against my arm when she collapses between the two of us. “No!” She screams, her pain ripping through the air, my numb mind and body still feeling the ache of her bleeding heart as my own slowly dies.
“Nora, help me!” Hekate grabs Mera’s arms and drags her to the ground in front of her. “Place your hands on my shoulders so I can draw from your power and heal them. I don’t know that I’m strong enough to do it alone. They aren’t dead yet, but they will be soon.” Taking a deep, trembling breath, her eyes snap closed. “We can do this. They will be fine,” she whispers, soft shimmers of blue light illuminating the hazy shadows.
Mera doesn’t look at her. She only looks at me. At my gaping wound and the blood draining rapidly from my body. I cannot be healed. This wound is deep. Permanent. The way our love once was. Her mouth hangs open in disbelief, a tortured, knowing expression on her face as she takes my hand in hers and squeezes it once before placing her outstretched palms on Hekate’s shoulders. She’s ignoring the fact that Nyx is going to be healed, and that I cannot be saved, but I can’t fucking speak or resist or argue for them to just let us both go. I push the truth away the way Mera does now beside me, not accepting that I’m going to die, because I can’t face it. Dying means never getting to spend even one more day with her, and it’s not a truth I can fucking bare. Lying to myself is better.
The glowing lights of their magic float above me, and as soothing as their power is, my eyelids are too heavy to hold open. I let them close. I let my mind wander to memories of date nights under the stars followed by I love you’s. To promises made that could never be broken.
I drift off with only thoughts of her, the way I always do.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Forgotten Promises
NORA
Since the day I was killed and woke up as an immortal in the Underworld, fear has been a distant memory most days. In this moment, waiting to see if Kairos somehow survived that wound from his dagger, fear is the only thing I do feel. I’ve never been this scared in my life. But his heart is still beating. His breathing is slow but steady. He’s not dead yet. I don’t think I can live with myself if he dies. This is my fault. I sent my power raging toward Nyx so carelessly, and her dagger ended up in his stomach because she fucking fell. Because of me.
Ere doesn’t wrap his shadows around me to numb my pain as tears silently stream down my cheeks. He stands behind me just watching and waiting as I hold Kairos’ limp hand in mine, softly caressing it with my thumb. I think he knows the numbness, the feeling absolutely nothing, would hurt infinitely more than not suffering through this pain. If Kairos suffers, then so should I, because gods, I deserve to.
Hekate sniffles beside me, staring intently at Nyx as if she’s counting every single breath, pressing her fingertips against her neck periodically to feel her pulse. “They should be awake by now. Something must be wrong.” Her words are quiet but they’re laced with panic and heartbreak.
I want to be pissed. I want to yell at her, to ask her what the hell is wrong with her, but I can’t gather the energy to do it. It doesn’t help that I’ve never seen her so broken and lost before. She loves my mortal enemy, and as much as I want to hate her for it, I can’t. I won’t. Because I love her.
“They will wake up any second now. Ere steps around Kairos and kneels beside Nyx. “Though when this one wakes up, we might all want to run. She is not going to be herself for a while.” He meets Hekate’s eyes, nodding once before he stands and comes back to my side.
“What the hell does that mean? What happened to her?” Hekate glares at Ere, holding Nyx’s hand against her heart and gripping it tight within both of her palms.
Her blue shield has been up around her and Nyx since the healing ritual, after she dragged her lifeless body away to a spot near the mountain wall. She hasn’t even looked at me since.
Ere’s head tilts as he gazes down at Kairos and I, not looking at her as he speaks. “You are asking the wrong questions, little witch.”
Kairos jolts upright, gasping for air and clutching his abdomen, his wide, bloodshot eyes darting across the realm. “How the hell—” another gasp for air and he chokes on his words, his heartbeat racing, “Am I alive? It’s impossible.” He finishes, his bright emerald eyes meeting mine.
“Good, someone who is asking the right questions,” Ere glances at Hekate and then walks away, taking a seat on the stairs of the raised platform.
“I don’t know how you’re alive right now, Kairos, but I’m so thankful you are.” I throw my arms around his neck and pull him to me, squeezing him tight as he pushes himself up to his knees. “I’m so sorry. I’m so damn sorry I almost got you killed. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t okay.” Warm tears fill my eyes, but I’m smiling, too, because a world without Kairos would be a much darker place.
He wraps his arms weakly around my waist, leaning his head on my shoulder and taking a deep breath before pulling back slightly to look at me. Cradling my face between his palms, he whispers just for me, “There are so many things I never got the chance to tell you. Too many things.” Glancing over at Ere, he grips my amulet in his palm, running his thumb across the swirling colors within the black stone.
