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As soon as we emerged into the cool night air, the chaos from down below met my ears—shouts and screams, cracks and booms. I couldn’t tell who was winning and who was losing, but the flashes of bright light let me know that the battle was still raging in earnest.
Behind us, the door that opened onto the roof flew off its hinges, nearly decapitating Lachlan as Omari stormed out after us.
Any semblance of cool control he had once given off was gone now, burned away in the fire of his rage. His fingertips shook as he raised his hands, and the two gods who’d followed him out onto the roof mirrored his gesture.
“You foolish, foolish girl,” the god spat. “Why did you have to fight? Why couldn’t you just accept your fate peacefully like all aberrations should? You. Should. Not. Exist.”
“And yet I do,” I shot back, gathering power from the pit of my belly, funneling it into my arms, my hands, my fingertips. “Maybe you need to get with the times, old man. Some power even greater than you or me gave the gods their strength once upon a time. Now it’s happened again, and just because you don’t like it, that doesn’t mean you can stop it. You’ll never be able to wipe out all wild magic users.”
Something in his expression twisted, a grimace that contorted his features. As if he knew, deep down, that I was right.
The gods hated wild magic users because they hadn’t been the ones to gift us with this power.
But the truth was, even if they killed everyone at this school tonight, it wouldn’t be the end of wild magic.
Like pollen spreading from flower to flower, wild magic would continue to spread, granting other humans power just like ours.
Wild magic just was. It existed, and would continue to exist, no matter how many temper tantrums the old gods threw. No matter how many people they killed.
In that split second, in the angry curve of his lips and the flash of fury in his eyes, I know that Omari understood all of that.
Then his expression morphed into something cruel and vicious, and he sneered at me. “Maybe not. But I can wipe out the ones you care about.”
With that, he shifted slightly, turning toward Merrick as he shot a blast of what looked like pure lightning from his fingertips.
The bolts of energy hit Merrick square in the chest, sending him hurtling backward. Merrick had been prepared to step up and defend me, not to defend himself, and Omari’s sudden change of target had caught us all flat-footed.
I watched in horror, my heart clogging my throat, as Merrick’s body sailed backward. He hit the roof with a sickening thud and skidded over the tiles, half of his shirt singed away and glowing burn marks decorating his skin.
No. No, fuck, please, no.
I hadn’t been ready. No matter how many times I had considered the possibilities, trying to anticipate what could happen in our fight against the gods, I hadn’t ever been able to truly admit the possibility that I could lose one of the men I loved.
No. I can’t lose him. I won’t live through it.
Merrick stirred, groaning as he tried to shove himself to his feet. His body was too weak though, and Omari was already readying a second attack.
Nothing I had done against the god had been enough to bring him down. I hadn’t been strong enough to fight him off. But I could at least keep him from hurting someone I cared about.
With a feral scream, I threw myself forward, diving between the white-haired god and Merrick just as Omari unleashed another burst of lightning. My body absorbed every single bolt, and pain like I had never known spread through me like fire. My body was hurled backward, my feet leaving the roof as I flew through the air.
Vaguely, I was aware that I was dying. I could feel the power of the blast Omari had thrown surging through my system. I could feel it killing me, wiping me out cell by cell.
But then… I realized something else.
Something strange was happening. Even as my cells were being destroyed by Omari’s blast, it felt like new ones were forming. As if I was literally being torn apart and remade.
Rebuilt.
Reincarnated.
The world went fuzzy around me, blackness closing in at the edges of my vision. I had been thrown clear of the roof, and I held my breath, bracing myself for the moment when my body would hit the ground.
But it never came.
Because I wasn’t falling.
I was flying.
