Rebirth—Day 58, hour 11
For a long moment, Lyla’s words hung in the still air and nothing happened.
No one moved.
Click. Click. Click. The gold hardware atop each of the kings’ ears floated upward and separated into shards of a crown.
Their eyes darkened, and the talons on their nails lengthened.
Unlike before, that wasn’t the only transformation the kings underwent.
Malum said roughly, “As the Ignis from the illustrious House of Malum, I invoke the power of my mates.”
My skin prickled with warning.
Malum put his fingers to his flaming neck. “As the crowned King of the Sun God, I invoke the power of my mates.”
A long, wickedly sharp silver dagger appeared in Malum’s hand.
No.
The dagger hadn’t appeared.
My jaw dropped.
His tattoo was gone. He’d pulled the dagger from his flesh.
“Venimus!” Orion shouted in a loud, lyrical voice. “We came.”
My eyes snapped over to the quiet devil as he spoke the word tattooed across his shoulder.
Pink cherry-blossom petals drifted off Orion’s neck and swirled in the air around the posts.
Scorpius said, “Vidimus. We saw.”
The eye tattoo on his neck blinked open and looked around. At the same time, his milky blind eyes started to glow.
Malum growled roughly, “Vicimus. We conquered.”
He held the dagger high above his head, and flames poured off him, filling the air.
I was so busy staring at the kings that I almost missed it.
A flame about the size of a fist hovered in the air above everyone’s heads, including my teammates’ and the judges’.
The kings were the only ones who didn’t have one.
I tipped my head back, but there was nothing above me. Maybe I couldn’t see it?
Every person’s flame was white.
Déjà vu ripped through me.
Back in the beast realm, when I’d been high, smoking my enchanted pipe for the first time, I’d sworn I’d seen a white flame hovering above Sadie.
What is going on?
My hands shook as I pulled my pipe from my pocket and slammed it between my teeth.
I waited for an explanation.
A commotion.
The only sound was the whooshing of flames as they poured off Malum.
I turned and said, “John,” but my friend didn’t stop staring straight ahead at the kings and gave no sign he’d heard me.
Everything was so still that I had half a mind to think time itself had stopped.
I brought my shaking fingers to my temples.
No one else moved.
“The day of wrath is here,” Orion sang loudly, and his voice was unbearably sweet, like poisoned honey.
The decibel level sent goosebumps erupting across my skin and all the hair on my body stood up.
I whipped my head in his direction and shouted, “What are you doing?”
White-blond hair floated with cherry blossoms around Orion’s golden head. He looked possessed.
His voice was beautiful as he sang, “The day of wrath is upon us.” His voice was so perfect that it stroked a part of my brain but so haunting that it hurt my chest and made it hard to breathe.
I understood with disturbing clarity why he always whispered.
His voice was enthralling. Literally.
Scorpius tipped his head back to the sky. Bright light shot out from all three of his eyes.
The white flames above everyone’s heads flickered.
Scorpius turned his head and looked at everyone with his glowing three eyes. His powers did something to the color of the flames.
It hit me like a punch to the face—he’s judging their souls.
Jax’s and Lyla’s flames were the only ones that stayed pure white.
Everyone else’s changed color.
The edges of the flames above the demons, twins, Sadie, Ascher, and Xerxes turned black.
Three quarters of Dick’s and Cobra’s flames turned black.
All of them still had white. I shivered at the implication. They’d been judged and found to still have goodness in their souls.
“You stay where you are,” Orion sang loudly as he pointed his finger. Cherry blossoms swirled in a mini storm and rose across the air.
Malum pointed his silver dagger in the person’s direction.
Orion sang, “Your soul has been found lacking. You have committed a heinous crime against those you love. Redemption is not possible. You will be exterminated.”
The pink petals stopped spinning. All of them hung suspended in the air around one person.
Jinx.
A pure-black flame flickered above her head.
There was no white.
Her soul had been judged, and the kings had marked her unworthy.
Orion’s voice was poignantly beautiful. “You have committed a heinous crime against those you love.”
I paused in horror because Jinx had sobbed and told us that she’d made us forget “so much.” We were the only people she loved.
The kings were wholly focused on her. Their purpose was clear.
Extermination.
“No!” I shouted with horror.
Flames poured off Malum faster.
Sweat dripped down my face and I screamed at the kings, “Stop it!”
“Judgment is here,” Orion sang like he hadn’t heard a word I’d said.
The three kings took a step forward on their posts until they hovered on the edges.
Jinx stared blankly back at them.
Her body was frozen like she was being immobilized by the force of whatever they were doing.
Malum transferred the knife into his right hand and pulled back his arm.
None of the shifters moved to help her. No one did anything. For some reason, I was the only one who was aware of what was happening.
I backed up on my post.
About thirty feet of air separated me from Jinx.
I didn’t care what she’d done to me.
They didn’t get to take her away, not while I still breathed.
Before Malum could throw the dagger, I sprinted and threw my legs forward. Midjump I kicked backward to propel myself ahead. For long seconds, I hung suspended.
There was nothing but air beneath me.
As I traveled, my momentum took me slightly left of Jinx.
I reached out my fingertips. They tangled around shirt material.
With all my strength, I flexed my arms and ripped Jinx off the post at the same time Malum flung his dagger.
In slow motion, the impossibly sharp point grazed a lock of her long black hair. That was all it hit.
The blade missed her.
I didn’t have time to celebrate.
I was free-falling with a child in my arms, and we had no way to stop.
I wrapped myself around her small body and turned so I would fall onto my back, but I knew in my gut it wasn’t enough.
It didn’t matter what type of creature Jinx was. All adolescents were more vulnerable until they turned eighteen.
Sun god, I wouldn’t have survived this drop a few weeks ago if it weren’t for my queendom and the tattoo on my hip. Only an extremely powerful creature, like an adult shifter, devil, or demon, could survive such a fall.
My talons dug into her skin as I clutched her desperately.
We were rapidly approaching the ground.
Free-falling.
Toward her death.
It didn’t matter what irredeemable atrocity she’d committed against us. She was the little sister I’d never had.
That meant something.
It wasn’t my job to judge her; it was my job to love her. Period.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I did something I’d stopped doing after the first time Mother had lit me on fire. I prayed.
Please, sun god, allow Jinx to live. Take my life instead. She’s too young. Please. I’ll do anything. I don’t care what she’s done.
Wind whipped our hair in a frenzy as we plummeted.
Nothing happened.
Tears streamed from my eyes, and I pulled her limp body against mine as we tangled in the air.
We spun out of control.
I clutched her body with desperation. I didn’t want to live in a world where Jinx wasn’t in it to make fun of me. She was a little storm cloud of darkness. She was the mean younger sister I’d always wanted growing up.
Please. I can’t live without her, I begged the gods.
Jinx was too smart to die like this. She had too much to offer the world. There would never be anyone like her. She was special. Unique.
I sobbed brokenly.
She was a part of my family.
If you save her, if you let her live, I’ll do anything for her. This isn’t right. Take me instead. Please.
The green lawn approached.
Rapidly.
I sacrifice myself. Take me instead. Let her live, I screamed silently into the void. I don’t care what she’s done to me. It doesn’t matter. She does.
I reached desperately for the post to my right. Ripped my fingernails off my hands as I clawed at the wood like I could somehow stop our momentum.
Flesh pulled off bone.
I left a bloody trail behind.
But it didn’t slow us.
Suddenly, a male voice whispered, “Welcome to the Consciousness. We’ve been waiting for you. You are more righteous than we thought. Your service begins. Now.”
Memories flashed through my mind—the angels muttered to themselves and clutched their heads after challenges. Convulsed like they were electrocuted. Like someone was speaking to them.
My eyes shot open.
A stinging sensation like nothing I’d ever experienced exploded down my spine.
My back bowed, and I screamed.
A thousand cracks erupted at once.
The ground was rapidly approaching as I writhed and bucked in the air—a frenzy of convulsing limbs.
We torpedoed.
Blue exploded in my peripheral vision, and there was a loud clattering noise.
The grass was disturbingly close.
My back throbbed with agony, but there was something new protruding from my flesh.
It was skin and bones.
A network of cartilage holding thousands of ice daggers.
No.
Holy fuck.
Midplummet, adrenaline exploded through my senses, and my jaw dropped open.
Time stopped.
I hung suspended in midair, unmoving, as the neurons in my brain took the new information and put the pieces together faster than I could consciously process.
The irregular shape of my ice daggers. Long and flat at the end and narrow at the other. Impossibly light, razor-thin, and sharp.
They had never been weapons.
My daggers were feathers.
Probabilities, statistics, and facts rushed through me as I struggled to make sense of what was happening.
The feather was all it took.
Sodium and potassium pumped signals across my nerves at lightning speed.
My eyes widened as the pieces clicked into place.
I understood. Everything.
Mother had had blue flames that differed from the rest of the fire fae.
Instead of the typical red flames, hers had been blue. Instead of a hot fire that burned, her flames had hurt but never left a single mark. After she’d torment me for hours, I’d lay shivering on the floor with my teeth chattering.
When the angels slammed their ice swords together, flames shot out.
It was the alchemy law of extremes: At its hottest temperature, fire mimics the properties of ice. At its coldest temperature, ice mimics the properties of fire.
When ice was cold enough, it formed flames.
It was obvious in hindsight.
The angels called me “sinful blood” because they knew what I was, and they knew what she had been.
Mother had been an angel without wings. And the others knew it.
For some reason, the High Court had positioned an angel on the throne of death. It was an inside job.
A cover-up.
I’d never developed fae powers as a child because I was never a fae and Mother had known it.
Her taunt about how I’d never be more than her made so much sense.
The slur carved into my back was a statement. Mother had wanted to make me in her image and ensure I never achieved what she couldn’t.
In the beast realm, a maid had confronted Sadie and me. Her voice had been warped and distorted as she said,
“One must join, and raise the rear,
Other must break, and bring the kings,
One must grow, and lose the fear,
Other must die, and rise with wings.”
It was the same voice that had just spoken to me and welcomed me into the Consciousness—some type of connection among angels.
It had found a way to speak to me even before I’d earned my wings.
It had guided me.
To this exact moment.
I’d assumed, since I was depressed and fearful, that “one” referred to me and “other” was a metaphor for Sadie embracing her powers.
Now it was obvious.
I was the other.
It was all predetermined: I’d been broken, I knew three heinous kings, a piece of me had died in the competitions, and I had wings.
Free will was a lie.
I snapped back into the moment.
My brain had processed everything in 0.2 seconds, but I was still free-falling.
I screamed as my body twitched from the force of the change that had ripped through me.
There was no time left and no miracles to be had.
I was back at square one, with the problem I’d always had at the academy. Knowing wasn’t the same as doing.
No one was coming to save us.
No god would stop this fall.
Understanding everything didn’t change the reality that Jinx was plummeting toward death and no god was going to step in and save Jinx from her fate.
There was only me.
Doom was a few seconds away.
Gritting my teeth, I tensed and flexed every muscle in my body. Sweat poured down my face as I tilted my shoulders to the side and spread cartilage wide.
Bones clicked and jarred together. Wings fanned behind me and caught against the wind.
We banked rapidly to the left.
Spiraled sideways toward a post.
I barely had time to shift Jinx in front of me before my back slammed against wood and crystal feathers clattered.
The wind exploded from my lungs, and Jinx tumbled backward out of my hands. She fell limply through the open air.
Paralyzed with outstretched arms, I could do nothing but watch.
As she fell.
For a long, horrible moment, my momentum kept me pinned to the post as Jinx disappeared out of view. Then I tipped forward and plummeted face-first after her.
It was a short fall.
I face-planted, and my nose exploded beneath me.
Blinking in dirt, I lay immobile.
Behind me the student section screamed encouragement, and their shouts jumbled together.
Jinx.
I strained to roll over as the heavy weight of my wings pinned me down.
They crushed me.
With every ounce of strength I possessed, I pulled myself upward. Tipping backward, I threw myself forward to counteract gravity and managed just barely to stay on my feet.
I staggered toward a child’s limp body.
Bruises were already forming on her skin, but her limbs were attached. When her chest rose with a shaky breath, I nearly collapsed with gratitude.
The relief didn’t last long.
Whoosh. Three kings landed on their feet with a crack as the dirt cratered beneath them.
The three devils had jumped from the tops of their posts and landed on their feet. It should have been impossible.
I forced myself to stand up straight, and I stepped toward Jinx.
White light still shot out of Scorpius’s three eyes, and Orion’s pink petals floated around him.
Malum pointed a flaming finger at Jinx.
No.
Still winded from the fall, with heavy wings holding me back, I couldn’t move fast enough.
One second, Jinx was lying mostly unharmed.
The next moment, Jinx’s leg was on fire.
Orion sang, “Judgment is here,” as Malum’s scarlet flames spread rapidly up her leg and left nothing but ashes behind.
“Stop!” I shrieked like a maniac as I flung myself at Jinx. I landed atop her small body, and turquoise leapt from my hands as I patted at Jinx’s leg desperately.
Ice fought fire.
I nearly wept with relief when the flames dissipated.
The kings took a step forward and towered over us, blocking out the eclipse, casting us in cold shadows.
Three nightmarish villains with unbelievable powers.
Three men built for murder.
Death incarnate stood before us.
They were mindless killing machines.
Judge. Jury. Executioners.
As I stared up at them, visions flashed before me: cities on fire, people screaming for help as they burned to death. You could feel it in the air around the kings—the capacity for atrocity and the sheer lack of control.
How were they allowed to live? How could the sun god name these creatures his kings?
How could a god allow such monsters to live?
They were more weapons than men.
Who could stop them?
No one.
The potential for mass murder was written in the harsh planes of their faces, in the perfect cuts of their high cheekbones, in the muscled lines of their immense heights. I saw it every day at the academy. They lacked empathy for others. Everything was about dominance and asserting themselves.
They were more beast than man.
My stomach churned. Horror exploded across my synapses.
There was no way to reason with them in this state.
With monumental effort, I spread the bones of my wings and splayed my limbs so I covered Jinx’s smaller frame with my own.
“To get to her, you’ll have to go through me,” I snarled up at them.
Scorpius’s three eyes glowed creepily as he stared down without blinking. Silken petals drifted across my skin as Orion sang loudly, “Justice must be served. She has committed an unspeakable wrong. Her soul is black.”
Malum pointed his flaming finger down at us.
This was going to fucking hurt.
I held my hands up in front of me uselessly.
Once again, the world was drenched in shades of crimson.
I drowned in fire.
Burned.
Opened my lips and screamed.
Then—
Something exploded.
My ears rang like the sound barrier was broken.
Flashes of scarlet and teal lit up around me like bombs until my vision went white, then blank.
My thoughts disappeared. I was cocooned in a peaceful song. The tune was so soft and lyrical that it sounded like silence.
But it wasn’t simply quiet.
It was fate.
Destiny.
A predetermined life path.
I floated lazily in the melody of a song that soothed every jagged edge of my existence. Pure contentment flowed through me.
I was yanked out of the safe place.
The world snapped into focus as someone grabbed me roughly.
Orion held me by my arms and shouted down at me.
Malum and Scorpius hovered beside him but they didn’t look fully conscious. There was a glassy sheen to their expressions like they were still out of it.
Orion shouted something at me, but I didn’t understand.
My ears rang.
I blinked, and Orion was gone. A crowd stood around me.
Beside me Jax cradled Jinx as he screamed at someone.
Cobra ripped off his pants and wrapped them around the stump where Jinx’s leg had used to be. Jinx’s body arched as she flung her head back. Her face twisted with pain.
I blinked with relief.
She was conscious. She’d be okay.
Sharp feedback stung my ears like someone had spoken with enchantment, but I couldn’t make out any individual words.
Everything was garbled.
Jax gathered Jinx into his arms and sprinted toward the academy, and the rest of his legion followed. Sadie looked back over her shoulder at me with a tortured expression, but then she disappeared from view.
I blinked.
The angel with the mismatched eyes was saying something to the kings. The rest of the angels were staring down at me with wide eyes.
Malum shoved at the angel’s chest, but no flames leaped off his skin.
The angel said something, and Orion threw a fist at his head. An angel shoved him backward, and all hell broke loose. Scorpius and Malum threw themselves at the angels, and they clashed in a spray of fists.
Was I hallucinating?
I opened my mouth to ask, but no words came out.
My lungs burned like I’d smoked a thousand enchanted pipes at once.
Luka wrapped his arms around my chest. The world spun as he lifted me off the ground, and I put my arms around his neck.
John grabbed my legs and positioned them around Luka’s waist.
I tipped backward from the weight on my spine. John lunged forward and caught me. His fingers pressed against the overly sensitive skin, and I shivered.
Vegar and Zenith pulled the kings away from the angels and dragged them over to us. The twins carried me toward the academy with our teammates close behind.
When we passed the student section, I was glad my ears were ringing.
Students shouted things in my direction. Some pointed. Others made rude gestures. The rest gaped at me in shock.
Lothaire stood to the side with his mouth gaping.
He looked like he’d seen a ghost.
I buried my face in Luka’s neck and breathed in his spicy scent. He smelled like warm male and safety.
When we entered the academy, I began to shake.
An ache throbbed through my muscles, and the burning sensation in my lungs was worse across my chest.
I felt disoriented and shaky.
Like I had a fever.
Luka laid me down on a makeshift cot, and I held on to him desperately. Fear skittered through me, and I was afraid to release him.
My wings were heavy and painful against my back, and I flexed my shoulder muscles to ease the pain.
Their weight disappeared as I felt them retract tight against my spine. It was a bizarre sensation. I could still feel their heaviness weighing me down, but they no longer protruded from my body.
I didn’t know what was happening to me.
My teeth chattered from the sensation of cold while my chest burned like I was too hot. It was overstimulating and confusing.
I blinked back tears as I shivered.
Luka and John lowered themselves to the floor like they knew exactly what I needed. They lay beside me on the ruined mattress pad and pressed themselves flush against me.
I was sandwiched between them.
I was safe.
John pressed a gentle kiss against my temple, and everything went dark.
