Gormick returned his gaze to Morgana as he growled. “I am tired, Morgana. There have been enough deaths. You made me kill every single one of my children for centuries. I won't let you kill another.”
Morgana cackled, “I hate to tell you,husband, but she is already dead. Feel free to join her.” She snarled, and a sharp snap sounded, but not before a shriek left Morgana’s lips.
Shadows dissipated between them, and a blade stuck out of Morgana’s chest, dripping with a thick green liquid. Daka poison. She held the hilt with both her palms as she pulled it out and stared at it in disbelief. My father lay motionless on the ground, a small smile lining his now cold, lifeless lips.
“This is for my brother, you fucking bitch.”
Jaxon materialized behind Morgana. Using his air magic, he propelled his fist through her back and into her chest, ripping out her heart just as she had done to Xavier.
Morgana gasped, turning slowly, still somehow conscious, and met Jaxon’s eyes.
“The funny thing is, I just found out he is actually my cousin,” Jaxon said, laughing softly. “Flynn sends his regards.”
Morgana’s eyes widened a fraction, understanding rippling across her gaze as his blade did what my father’s blade could not. Morgana’s head rolled and thudded into the mud in front of me. A massive wave of dark energy exploding from her corpse. It shot into the sky and power surged through me.
I thought you didn't have magic,I snarled, and Caelan sighed as he raised his hands to the sky. A warm surge of energy was pulled from me as a light shot from his hands, followed by a thunderous boom. The earth shook as the dark matter turned bright white, and a ripple of magic shot out in every direction.
Caelan slipped from me and my body without responding, and hatred bloomed in my chest.
Darkness consumed my vision, and my body swayed precariously. I felt the jarring impact with the earth, and as my sight cleared, Xavier’s face came into view. I was lying on the ground beside him, and my vision started to blur again as shouts, muffled and distant, reached my ears. A chilling cold spread through me, like an icy frost creeping over my skin. I felt myself drifting away, and I reached out a phantom arm toward the male I wish I could have saved. The mate I should have protected.
He deserved better than me, and maybe we would find each other in another life. One that didn’t end like this. One where we had time. Time to get to know each other. To love each other the way we were meant to.
Xavier’s emerald gaze was vacant, his features slack, and despite the finality in his death, in my own, I was grateful that I got to see his face one last time before the end.
Chapter 38
Jaxon
I felt nothing.
Blood dripped down my face as I stared down at the decapitated head. The head of the witch that caused centuries of suffering. Death. Her yellow eyes were open and wide, icy and detached as they stared blankly up at nothing. I expected to feel relief, happiness even, but all I felt was a gaping emptiness in my chest. My vision swam, and the world around me blurred. Voices echoed, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I could only stare at the blood seeping from the jagged cut of her open throat. The gaping hole in her mutilated chest. Her black heart, lifeless, broken, and glistening on the mud-soaked earth where I'd thrown it.
Morgana was gone. Truly gone. It was all I had been wanting these past months, and I couldn't bring myself to care.
I turned my head, my eyes finding Xavier. My brother. I didn't care what the Fates had revealed. He was, and alwayswould be, my brother. My hands started to shake, my breathing growing ragged. A crack echoed, the world tilted, and I was on my knees.
A hand landed on my shoulder, but I violently pulled away, lunging toward Xavier. Zara lay beside him, and they were staring at one another, their hands outstretched toward each other. As if even in death they knew where to find one another.
A sickly, wet, gasping sound filled my ears as snot, blood, and tears streamed down my face. I could only breathe through my mouth, and I realized that horrible sound was coming from me.
Why?! Why did it have to end like this? Was there no other way?
My fingers curled into my brother's leathers, and I shook him, desperately trying to wake him. Xavier’s head rolled, but he remained utterly still, unmoving. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn't be gone… I wouldn't allow it. I shook him harder. He couldn’t leave me alone… he was the only family I had left… he would wake up. Both of them would.
“WAKE UP!” I screamed, my voice booming across the hilltop and out across the realm.
I searched my soul for that spark of magic, for the piece of my brother that had remained, for that sliver of Zara—but it was gone. Cealan had taken it when he killed Zara, ripping it from me just as Xavier had felt her torn from him. Now, only an emptiness remained where they once resided within me, nothing of them left.
Soren’s face came into view, and I snarled as he knelt in front of me. The emerald cloak he wore covered most of his body, but it was pristine. Not a drop of blood or gore marring it.
“Help him,” I barked. “Get Caelan, do something!”
But Soren only shook his head. Where did he even come from?
Theo appeared behind Soren, followed by Dedra, and I had to look away. I couldn't see their expressions, their grief. It would only make his death—their death real.
Soren’s nasally voice cut through the air. “Caelan can't come back. They are gone.”
