Dolion’s lupine features shifted toward him. “I was hoping you would choose poorly. I wonder what yourmotherwill do to you when I bring you back to her. I know she has been looking forward to making up for lost time.”
Callum’s eyes narrowed as he turned to his commander. “What is he saying?”
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Theo hissed through clenched teeth. “Mymotheris dead. She died a long time ago.”
Dolion’s eyes taunted the captain from afar. “Theodon, you surprise me. After all these centuries you haven’t told them? None of theesteemedDivine Allura have guessed it? Honestly, I don’t know what you see in this pathetic lot. They really couldn’t sniff it out?”
Theo released a growl, that raging fire inside him burning and aching for bloodshed.
“No one found it odd that your powers were so limitless? No one here even considered that you were not a descendant of our immortal creators but ason.”
Theo kept his unblinking eyes on his opponent. His power brewed.
Moments ago, there wasn’t a cloud in the night sky. Now, rain began crashing down upon the canyon.
His lifelong secret, the burden he kept under lock and key.
Callum’s face was distorted with shock. “Valhoor is yourfather... and your mother... your birth mother... is?—”
“Drayella,” Theo breathed out.
“You’re a god,” Callum finished.
Dolion’s grin grew. “She’s very eager to reunite. Mother dearest isn’t too proud of your deeds, your siding with Brahm. She thinks it’s time you were punished. Time for men and fae toburn. For you to experience banishment as she did—or death. Whichever comes first.”
“You can’t kill me, Dolion.”
“True. Butshecan. After I’m done draining this valley dry, I’ll deliver you to her myself. I think I’ll make Helaina watch as your own mother destroys you.”
Dolion whistled a signal. Gleaming royal-blue scales and sharp spines rose from behind him. One by one, undead syren hounds poured over the mountain’s edge. Bloodthirsty red eyes and snapping jaws crowded all around.
“Once I’m through here, I’m going to find my sweet prize. She will serve Drayella and Valhoor during the day, then spend her nights serving me, for the rest of our immortal lives.” He flashed his fangs, licking his lips in a repulsive gesture.
Theo’s feral eyes flared as he flashed his own razor teeth. He held his sword at the ready. “You’ll never fucking touch her again.”
Callum unsheathed his own long blade, readying for the attack.
“Oh, I’ll do more than touch her. I’m going to bite her, Theodon, again and again. I’ll fuck her bloody until she’s screaming for mercy that will never come.”
Thunder cracked as the syren hounds lined up, hundreds of them howling to the sky and snapping their teeth in anticipation of the order.
Callum looked at his captain.
The hounds were near the height of Dolion himself. And if they wereallundead... how could they destroy an entire cursed army with two soldiers... even if one was a god?
“Kill every last one of them.” Theo held his sword as those obsidian eyes flashed in the gleam of a nearby lightning strike. “None reach the valley.”
Callum nodded as they both readied themselves at the base of the hill, the lone barriers between their helpless legion and the army of bloodthirsty dogs.
Dolion’s command was eerily calm.
“Attack.”
As soon as the words left his lips, the syren hounds sprang forth.
CHAPTERSIXTY-FOUR
Darkness.
