She reached out her hand and allowed the blood to trickle on her fingertips like rain.
“You know, Dolion...” She let the blood slide down her arms as she raised her palms to the sky. “...you look pretty when you scream.”
And then she pulled her hands down in a flourish, ordering her shadows to tear with impossible force in all directions. His body ripped to pieces. Warm blood rained down upon her as she lifted her hands to cup it.
Helaina smiled.
CHAPTERSIXTY-NINE
The savage storm relented as the sun rose behind gray clouds. The only sound traveling between the jagged peaks was the breeze whipping through the trees. Helaina’s fog of shadows had dissipated, bleeding back into the ground. The hills that were booming with snarls and screams now rang silent.
Helaina and Theo took in the massacre before them.
“You came back,” he whispered, rubbing his cheek on the carnage coating her hair. It didn’t bother him at all—he just wanted closeness, to confirm she was not an illusion.
“I came home,” she answered, turning to face him. Her eyes had returned to her signature silver.
He was her home. And there would never be another for her again.
He brought his face down to hers and wrapped his hand behind her neck, pulling her up to meet his lips for the briefest kiss.
She stumbled a bit.
“Are you hurt?” He pulled away, assessing every part of her.
“I don’t think so.”
He lowered her down into the damp grass as he sat with her, positioning her back to rest on his front. Her face was stained ruddy, her hair covered with a thick layer of filth. How had she gotten here? How had she resurfaced from the godly realm with a bloodlust that could rival his own?
“You fought well. Rest.” Theo’s entire body was shaking as he spoke. In all his time he had never had to face an enemy alone. She had saved him.
That internal pull was strong as they touched. He knew exactly what it was.
That connection.
That tether.
A part of him had known from the start but didn’t want to allow his withered old heart to hope.
Theo was a god, and Helaina was his bonded.
It was easy now to see why she was so sought after. Taking magical ability away from an enemy, leaving them mortal. That power could conquer worlds.
Theo let his arms envelop her chest. He needed rest too. His biceps were trembling. She held the weight of him, bracing his arms as they shook.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “For choosing to come back.”
He always knew these trials were a choice. To stay dead or fight to return.
She had fought.
“Thank you for believing I could,” she replied. Those silver eyes beamed as she turned her head to look at him.
His soldiers were making their way into the tunnels of Elkron. Some of the fire bringers remained, burning the leftover hounds, erasing any trace of them from this realm. The already putrid stench intensified with the flames.
They sat there, neither one wanting to move.
His laughter rumbled in his chest.
