“No way. I’m not leaving you alone with Dahes and literally all the monsters from Hell.”
“Jaxs, Hael is going to need you—” I started, then swallowed. “Dahes is using him to take out Elion.”
“Oh, fuck yeah,” he grinned.
I whipped my head toward him.
“What?” He shrugged when he noticed my stare. “That bastard needed to die centuries ago. This night just got a whole hell of a lot better. Get it, causeHellis here?”
I frowned. “Jaxs, I’m serious. You don’t have your dragon.”
“Bluey is coming as soon as he’s done warning the others, and in case you hadn’t noticed,youdon’t have a dragon. Hael will fucking murder me if I let anything happen to you, and I’d very much like to be alive to see this place without shitheads as kings.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. I stuffed three daggers into my clothes, keeping one in my hand as Jaxs strapped a sword to his back, then started stashing throwing stars down his chest.
I was about to respond when steam hit my back.
“Fuck yes,” Jaxs fist bumped the air as soon as Bluey landed before us. He was larger than Aura but without the talons running down his spine. His blue scales were varying shades, giving the illusion of a glimmer, and gills were embedded under his neck.
I’d never seen anyone so excited for our inevitable impending doom.
I looked up at the sky, wishing I had that kind of optimism.
Only one moon was out of alignment.
It was almost time.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Flying Dead
MAGNOLIA
We were shrouded in darkness for one minute as the Solstice began. At the start of the first cycle, when the six moons fully aligned, Hilitilia went dark before the Ferro moon took over, casting a gray hue over the world.
The moons rotated which one was forward, each of the six Moon Gods orbiting and pivoting to be the front of the Solstice for an hour, before another moon would shift and the process would start all over again.
I was counting down the minute in my head for the first one, and I knew Jaxs was doing the same.
Sixty seconds and the Solstice would start.
Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight.
I knew my heart was racing—or it would have been racing if I wasn’t in my ghost form—Suns, that was so weird thinking.
Ghost form.
Not transparency.
Forty. Thirty-nine.
I could become a freaking ghost. Even after a week of accepting my Token, it was still hard to wrap my head around it.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
Keeping counting—Twenty.
Not only could Dahes not control me in my ghost form, but he couldn’t kill me. I had an advantage for once.
