I ran. As fast as I could I ran for Zephyr who was about to reach Dawn. I willed my hand to return to flesh, feeling my palms now and that was enough. I just had to reach him before…
“I’m so sorry,” Kairos said. “I tried.”
A scream tore from me as time resumed its natural pace.
Zephyr reached his target before I could reach him.
“How dare you steal her face!” Zephyr cried out, plunging the key through Dawn’s chest.
My run staggered to a stop when a flare of blinding light erupted. Forcing my eyes to bear the sting of the bright, I wept at the sight before me, struck deeply by the intensity of Zephyr’s pain as he gripped the key, forced to stare into his wife’s eyes with an imposter behind them.
There was no greater tragedy to behold.
In his final seconds, Zephyr’s terrified eyes met mine. “Protect my children, Astraea.”
The key delivered its consequence before I could promise him I would. Having been used by an outsider, it would demand Zephyr’s life… he knew this.
The moment I could flex my fingers, my grief had me racing toward Dawn and Zephyr once more.
My friend made no sound as his body was engulfed in light, and when it faded… he was gone.
The sound that tore from me was anguish pulled from the heavens.
Lightsdeath surged through me as I gripped the key as Dawn fell to her knees, locking her wide eyes with mine.
“You cannot have my life!” I screamed. “You cannot have my friends. You cannot have my world…Eos.”
I twisted the key as I spoke her name, and Dawn’s head was thrown back. As though sunlight grew a sphere inside her, rays pierced through her mortal flesh until she…erupted.
Nyte reached me right in time to use Eltanin’s magick and cast a shield of darkness around us as we crouched and huddled.
The land roared, splitting deeply and vastly around us. Chasms opened, threatening to swallow all life upon its surface because of the imbalance it now suffered without the Goddess of Dawn.
I couldn’t scramble to my feet fast enough before I was pulled down by a fresh scar that shot like lightning across the land.
Nyte’s hand wrapped my forearm before I could plummet down into the deep tear, and he pulled me up swiftly. I curled into him, feeling his heart beat as violently as mine under my ear.
I couldn’t move.
More thunderous cracks echoed distantly, as if the world was tearing itself apart in retribution for what I’d done.
I cupped my hands over my ears and my eyes slammed shut. But in the darkness of my own mind all I could see on repeat was Zephyr’s final charge, his brave sacrifice, his absolute devastation.
He didn’t deserve that end. Katerina didn’t deserve to be a puppet for Dawn.
“I don’t want to fight anymore,” I croaked.
I was so tired. So terribly tired of the losses stacking in my chest.
“I know, love,” Nyte said, his voice utterly heartbroken.
He held me tight, stroking my hair as the world tore itself apart.
“What have I done?” I whispered.
Had it all been a trick? A lie? Had death given me this power to kill Dusk and Dawn knowing it would destroy this world?
I might not have had much time left because of my wound, but I was fighting until my last breath to leave this world brighter for my friends I loved dearly. Now I wasn’t sure if I was only making it worse.
