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I felt a painful bite in my bones, the runic words swirling in my head. The spell forced me to sing ‘Melody of Little Maple’ as magic coursed through me.

“I may be expelled from you,” Caer seethed, “but we’re not done. The song inside you is mine as much as Gavriel’s. And I will use it.”

Cast out for the most part made sense.

Ugh.

If she crushed my hand any harder, all the bones would pop. “You will give me the essence, Paris. Do it now, and I will send you to join the seraphim. I will be merciful.”

Even if I wanted to give it to her, I had no clue how. Also, I wasn’t spending my afterlife in the screaming darkness.

Hell to the no.

Magic poured out into the world, bolstered by the power of the song. A lavender wind reaching the mind of every mortal and every vampire. A rot wrapped in pretty light, infecting those poor folk with…

…faith.

Oh. Shit.

Every set of eyes in the room turned purple, apart from Medusa’s. Huh? She was immune?

“Hail, Caer!” Declan roared.

My belly flipped.

Right. So, no re-infection from Aidan’s touch after Silv’s cleanse, but no protection from Caer.

Oh, goody. Would the king be able to cleanse her rot too?

“We serve you,” Jenny added. “Our glorious, Caer. We fight in your name.”

Declan dropped to one knee, the rest of the pack following his lead.

Caer grinned, showing off my mum’s teeth. “Now, a better faith shines through Quintrealm. There is only one war here—the War of The Wheel. And I⁠—”

Aidan appeared behind her, blowing her skull open with a gun. Brain and bone sprayed me in the face, the bullet having missed me and Medusa by inches.

I tumbled back, arse slamming into the floor. Medusa launched herself off the headless corpse, shifting back into her human form before Caer exploded in a cloud of lavender smoke.

Lia’s body, not Caer’s.

My stomach roiled, the horror sinking freezing teeth into my heart.

Lia. Mum. What… What if… What if she was gone now? Like Hal might be gone.

Oh, shit.

Aidan’s enraged golden peepers were on me. “Bitch. Thinking she can play games with me.”

Only Elio and Alistair’s eyes turned gold, Silv’s effects keeping the purple in the others.

He groaned, lifting his arms, the gun smoking in his left hand. “Why am I cursed to deal with this hell?”

“Because you’re a wanker!” Medusa retorted.

I didn’t have any time to fire anything back at him. Caer returned in a swirl of purple smoke, another disk in her hand. Blood ran from her nose, hate practically dripping off her.

“That was quick!” Aidan bellowed with a cackle.