Then, another group of Valkyries flies forward, although this one is combined with a group of Keres, their silver and copper wings discolored in the crimson haze.
The women swarm, their group tightly knit, and once again, Typhon cuts them down, laughing and gloating at their death screams, but this time, another figure shoots forward from within the falling women.
A single, golden-haired woman dressed in black with three snakes writhing around her form flies at Typhon’s face.
His arms rise to bat her away. There is no fear in his expression, only gleeful anticipation of her death.
As his fist collides with her side and the sound of her crunching bones is drowned out by the screams of battle, two of her snakes leap out. Instead of darting forward and back, they detach from her, shooting straight and true at each of Typhon’s eyes, their fangs tearing deep.
While the golden-haired woman falls to the ground, so does Typhon, but not before ripping the snakes away from his face. It doesn’t seem to do him any good. Their black poison has flooded his eyeballs, leaving him floundering.
That’s all I see before the memories halt.
“She gave everything to stop him,” Vanguard says, his voice bitter.
My hands have instinctively risen to my hair, where my snakes hide. They are a part of my body and my power. To separate from them is to cut off a limb that can never be reattached.
“What happened after that?” I ask.
“When Rebella’s snakes poisoned Typhon’s eyes, he could no longer see,” Vanguard replies. “He was stunned for long enough to be imprisoned.”
“My people gave their lives to create the cage that held him,” Jonah replies. “They returned to their original molten forms to become lava that surrounded him before others of my species—those of rock and ice—added their power to form an impenetrable prison of icy rock. I was too young to join the fight, but I followed after them to the battlefield, determined to join them. I watched my family die from a distance.”
“And Rebella?” I ask. “What happened to her?”
Both men are silent.
I consider pushing into their thoughts, but it would only be to satisfy my own curiosity. Not a good reason. I can read the pain from their silence. Whoever she was to them, they lost her.
“Well, that is punishment enough for now,” I whisper before I walk away from them.
After that, we wait in silence.
I gravitate toward Striker, reading the remnant hints of fury in his eyes before his rage is gone.
He’s taking deep breaths, and then he’s calm again.
I find his presence soothing, so I stay nearer to him while we wait.
An hour later, the edge of the realm shimmers, and Slade appears, the echo of dance music with a heavy beat following him inside.
So do two women I recognize.
First is the powerful witch, Tanzanina Grey, who is close friends with Hunter and Slade. She’s a tall woman with honey-blonde hair and bright, green eyes, dressed in a black pantsuit, and black boots.
The aura around her is immense and powerful.
She is one of the few witches who can access instinctive magic. That is, she doesn’t need a wand or spells, but only when she acts on heightened emotion and instinct. At all other times, she needs to recite spells. The problem is that her power was damaged when she was a child—she can’t remember spells and needs to write them down to recite them.
I sense a deep sadness about her, but can’t place my finger on the reason.
I’m surprised to see Archer Ryan—Cain Carter’s wife—step into the realm behind Tanzanina. Archer is a curvy woman with long, blonde hair, paler than Tanzanina’s, and stunning violet eyes that she’s currently concealing with blue contact lenses.
She wears a copper-colored assassin’s ring on the forefinger of her left hand and carries a satchel.
The first time I saw her, she and Cain had just given Hunter and Slade the happy news that they were pregnant. That was over eight months ago, but she is clearly not still pregnant now. The hint of milky baby spit up on the shoulder of her assassin’s suit, and the thread of connection that keeps drawing her mind away from this place tells me she won’t want to be away from her baby for long.
I don’t know why Archer is here, but still, I murmur, “I’m sorry for the separation you’re experiencing.”
