Now that I had him, I didn’t know where to begin. I wanted to hurt him in so many sinister ways that would make the most deplorable man blanch. I wouldn’t kill him, not unless Astraea asked me to, since his death was hers to claim first.
“I have a piece of the key,” Auster said, as if it could be a bargaining chip.
Too bad for him that it only surged my fury to be reminded of the weapon he’d killed Astraea with. The haunting flashes of memory of when he’d speared it through her right in front of me, keeping me helpless behind a fucking veil to watch… it made me so unhinged in my vehemence that I didn’t know when I’d kneeled, nor how many times my fists had slammed into his face before they were split and bloody.
“Stop,” Astraea’s voice was the only thing to reach me through my place of endless violence. I pushed back to my feet, panting and staring at Auster’s bloodied face that was still too intact for my satisfaction.
I forced myself to look at Astraea, who was utterly enchanting, still glowing with the power of Lightsdeath, a goddess that demanded fealty.
“Get up,” she said to Auster, who lay catching his breath and spitting out blood.
Auster managed to roll over. “Dusk and Dawn will walk among us soon. You won’t stand a chance in this war.”
Every time this bastard spoke touched a specific trigger in me that made me want to split the world apart and watch him burn in the cracks.
Before my snapped restraint could register with me, I was upon Auster again, hauling his pitiful form up off the ground, only to plunge into his mind to know what he was talking about.
I didn’t expect the first thing I found to be my father. But once it was… I knew exactly where he was.
I dropped Auster to fall back into the snow. My eyes were wide, staring at nothing at all, as the plan involving my father that could very well already be in motion swirled in my mind. When I came around from my initial shock,I was about to dive back into his thoughts for more answers, but Astraea cut in first.
“I saidget up.” Astraea commanded her violet light to snake around Auster this time, forcing his body off the ground. “I want you to face me when I kill you. I want you to fly with me so I can tear out your wings and drop you from the heavens.”
As much as that pleased me to hear, I knew this was Lightsdeath taking over her thoughts and feeding her merciless violence. Astraea in her true mind would be heartbroken at this confrontation despite all Auster had done to her. She was too pure-hearted and could never forget their long friendship before the betrayal.
She’d never have peace if she killed him as Lightsdeath.
“Astraea. Starlight.” I tried to reach her true mind gently, but with my first step she warned me away with a searing sheet of light across my path.
Steel clanged and grew closer; the battle raged once more between the vampires and the celestials. I saw Drystan fighting, but occasionally his darting gaze revealed that he didn’t know who his enemies were until they attacked him. Nadia had less hesitation, targeting only the celestials.
Shit.Astraea could handle herself; I knew this, yet I was torn wondering if she wanted,needed,me to help bring her back from Lightsdeath before she did something there would be no taking back. Only I knew how deep the claws of such an entity as Lightsdeath sunk into the very core of her being, especially with her storm of anger and retribution.
“Save my people, Rainyte,” Astraea said. She watched my contemplation, and in her bright eyes, I understood.
There were no sides on this small battlefield to her; they were all her people, and she was asking me to end it, while she ended Auster.
I bowed my head, accepting that order. She was my mate, my queen, my goddess.
Blinking through the void, I swiped up a sword from one of the fallen and plunged it into the gut of an unsuspecting soulless. Then I became spellbound by my blade and this dance of reaping souls. It all came pouring out of me and I couldn’t stop, losing track of Astraea physically, though she was eternally within me. I was so fuckinglividI didn’t know if I would ever feel lighter after all that had been bottled inside me.
I might have been known for being merciless and ruthless, but there were few times I got to unleash my pain and retribution for all that was done to me by my father. And for a fate that tried time and time again to steal the one thing Ineededto feel a heartbeat in my cold chest and know I harbored a soul worthsomething.
Worthher.
If the world had to break apart for me to keep Astraea, then so be it.
My steel drowned in crimson, and I watched the blood drip off it, staining the pure snow. Bodies stopped advancing, and only then did I survey around to gauge why. I was surrounded by death and gore, but those who remained standing weren’t looking at me any longer. Their faces paled and eyes turned wide as they retreated backward, tracking something tall behind me.
I felt it within myself first. Then I heard a cracking, felt it beneath my feet. Turning around, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The ground came alive. Blue strokes of paint became animated, taking a form that slowly pulled itself from the land it had long been entombed in. I watched in utter fascination as the dragon painting drew breath and became leathery flesh, awakening from its long slumber.
“I will never tire of seeing this,” Drystan said, close by me now.
Athebyne’s red form peeked over the treetops in another clearing, but Eltanin was right here. He’d freed another of his kin. The blue dragon gave a distinctive roar, a higher pitch than Athebyne’s or Eltanin’s.
“She’s magnificent,” Drystan said.
