Page 198 of The Gods Order

Come on, V.

Come on.

End him.

End it all.

The realm explodes.

Light erupts between them with enough force to blind me.

A deafening crack tears through the chamber as a shockwave sends all of us sliding backward.

Our father crashes through the air until his body slams into the far wall hard enough to crater the stone. Dust rains from the ceiling as he slides to the floor, unmoving.

For one glorious, impossible heartbeat…

Nobody moves. Nobody breathes.

We…

We did it.

V did it.

A giggle tears from my throat.

“Home is laughing.

Home is bright.

Father finally lost the fight.”

A thread of blue catches my eye, and my song slowly fades from my mind.

Time.

Kyzen’s power.

It coils through the settling dust, impossibly gentle as it cradles V’s shrinking body and lowers him toward the broken floor.

No.

No, no, no.

“V!”

Thayla’s scream shatters something inside me.

His wings hang limp.

His head lolls against Kyzen’s slowing power.

The chamber falls so quiet I swear I hear his body meet the floor.

No.

“Round and round the colors fade.