“NO,” I say again and this time the word travels through the room like a physical shockwave, cracking the remaining glass in the windows.
Wes is still beside me and as my fingers touch his chest, a brilliant, white-gold spark jumps between us.
Click.
Charred sixth thread re-forms slightly.
“Theo, get him back.” Wes eyes reflect my sparkling goddess-light.
I’ll get him back.
I don't need to think; I weave the light I’ve filtered through my soul, throwing a strand to Donovan.
Click.
Cosmo’s thread grows a little further as the centaur’s frantic energy settles. Dono reaches out to Ludo.
Click.
Ludo kneels next to Max, they meet eyes.
Click.
The chain is still too weak, too short. Maximus rests his palm on Alexis’s back.
Click.
Alexis stretches out, trying to connect with our dead dragon. “There’s nothing,pulu.Nothing.”
My heart, supercharged by Harmonia’s grace, refuses to accept that.
Reaching deep into the core of the goddess herself, I grab the feeble burned strand of Cosmo’s bond and I pour the starlight into it, forcing the golden light to travel backward, down into the underworld itself.
Connect. Please, Gods, connect.
For a heartbeat, nothing happens.
Then, a spark.
A single, liquid-gold pulse beats from the center of the ash. The blackened scales shift slightly.
Click.
The bond snaps back into place with the force of a supernova.
Cosmo’s eyes fly open—no longer blue, but the same shimmering lilac as the Lumina. He gasps, drawing in a breath and the circle is complete. The six golden threads turn into pillars of light that hit the ceiling then explode through.
The light expands, as I feel the dark energy being scrubbed from the world, one heartbeat at a time.
Until the world is truly free.
Finally, I release my hand from Wes’s.
And he instantly shifts.
Before me is a beautiful shining pegasus.
—Let me take you away from here—
