“You don’t understand! If you kill me,youdie too,” Apollyon growled.
I grinned. “I know.”
The look of pure terror that washed over his face brought me satisfaction. His power slapped out and tried to push back at me, but this golden magic was a force to be reckoned with. It wasn’t something that came from me. I was merely a channel for it, and I wasn’t convinced I was worthy to carry such a power.
Apollyon fell to his knees as souls started to climb up out of his back and turn solid. They looked down at their hands in disbelief and then up at me in awe. At first, only one or two emerged at a time. Then hundreds of souls leaked out of his skin like an infestation. Every soul he’d consumed over the years was brought out of him and restored into Tartarus.
“Enough!” Gage cried, breaking free from Aurum’s hold, and running for Apollyon with his sword raised.
It was like time stopped. I was so focused on flooding Apollyon with this new golden magic that I barely had time to process Gage’s sword coming down on Apollyon’s neck.
For a moment, I thought he would do it, decapitate Apollyon and put an end to the monster, but at the last second Apollyon grinned, never breaking eye contact from me. Without so much as looking at Gage, a wisp of Apollyon’s black power leaked from the golden cocoon I’d made around him and wrapped around Gage’s throat, throwing him backward.
“Gage!” I shrieked, losing my hold on Apollyon for a split second.
It was all he needed.
Empty of the souls he’d previously consumed, his body was shriveled, but he still had enough power to thrust his arms out and fling a black rope of magic toward me.
I couldn’t get my arms up in time to counter it with the golden magic. Instead, a streak of dark hair and black shadow wings jumped in front of me, Harley taking the full force of the dark magic that was meant for me. The black rope wrapped around her throat like a boa constrictor, and with a strangled cry her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she fell to the ground struggling for air.
That was it. It was the final act that broke the damn holding my power.
I didn’t think, I didn’t calculate, I just exploded.
Gold, purple, and smoky black magic shot from every pore in my skin and pounded into Apollyon like bullets.
He shook and convulsed, falling to the ground, as my multicolored magic battered into him. Purple magic for me, gold for Avalon; the black was probably something I’d inherited from him. The magic didn’t care, the magic didn’t discriminate, it ate him alive. His skin fell away first and exposed flesh.
Shrieks of horror ripped through Tartarus. The entire world shook, the sky going dark as my magic devoured him like a pack of vultures. When it reached his bones, they started to disintegrate into dust, and I grinned.
I’d done it. I’d killed the monster.
As the sky lightened, I scanned the area, looking for Gage in panic. Was he okay?
I spotted him just off to my left. Pulling a light dagger from a tattoo on his arm, he cut the black magical whip from his throat and got to his feet just as a bolt of pain speared me in the chest.
“No,” Gage croaked as I fell to my knees, deprived of air.
“Healers!” I heard Aurelia scream, but then the pain in my chest became too much and something popped.
There was a split second before I died where I found it ironic that my father broke my heart—literally—and then I fell to the ground and everything went black.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
GAGE
No. No. No.
I jolted forward, reaching Tate with just enough time to dive and cushion her head with one hand before it hit the ground. Her eyes were closed, and the natural pink in her cheeks had disappeared, leaving behind a chalky pallor that terrified me. Pulling her toward me, I cradled her in my arms.
“Tate?” My hand shook as I pressed two fingers to her neck to feel for a pulse.
Nothing.
Crushing Tate to my chest, I brought my wings forward, wrapping them around her, unwilling to part with her.No. Tate couldn’t be dead because she had my heart and I was still alive. There wasn’t a world where I existed without her.
“Gage?” Someone said my name and I lifted my head, the tears in my eyes blurring my vision before I blinked them away.
