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28
ADDIE
“Maddox! No!” I stood and cradled my left arm to my side.
It throbbed, but I shoved the pain aside. I cared more about Maddox. Beneath the force of Maddox’s aura, Fenrir slowly vanished. It started with Fenrir’s flank. Then it spread to his tail and his ribcage.
Staring up from the ground, I saw only the fury in my husband’s eyes. They burned with blue fire light. He snarled, his lips pulled back from his jagged teeth that had been shattered on Fenrir’s chains. My lover had become the very beast he feared.
His massive white form loomed over the both of us. He was larger than I’d ever seen before. His body nearly filled the room, especially now that Fenrir’s form shrank. It was as if Maddox used everything he took from Fenrir to grow larger.
“This isn’t who you are! Don’t become a monster like him!” I waved my one good arm over my head.
It made my opposite shoulder burn with a bright intensity that made my head swim, but I wasn’t going to give up. I loved my husband. There was no future where I would let him become exactly what he hated.
I had the power to chain Fenrir in his eternal prison again. Maddox didn’t have to do this. But I noted the way Maddox’s gaze roved over my throbbing shoulder. He could tell that I was in pain, and I had no way to hide it right now.
“This is only temporary,” I told him. “Cerri can fix me when we get back, but that means we have to get back. I won’t leave here without the man that I came with.”
I wanted Maddox, the hero. This version of him, an anti-hero willing to do anything, was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. We were already going to pay hundreds in therapy after this. I didn’t want our futures to be any rockier than they already were.
“Give me the man I love!” I stomped my foot.
Maddox froze. Fenrir’s form stopped falling apart. At this point, Fenrir was nothing more than a mockery of the man he’d been. Maddox had taken enough power from Fenrir to make him weak and useless.
“Let me finish this,” I said, once more.
I’d finished Vince. I’d been the one to sever Bastien’s tie to this world. Death was nothing to me. It was just another facet of life. I wouldn’t lose sleep over what I had to do the way that Maddox would after we found our way out of this. If I could help him in such a small way, then I would be happy to do so.
Maddox, bolstered by the energy he’d stolen from Fenrir, kept his weight on the world-devouring wolf. Fenrir could barely whimper beneath Maddox’s massive paw. The tables had been turned. Fenrir had spent too much time trying to bring Maddox over to his side by showing their similarities. In the end, he’d revealed all the ways they could match each other in battle.
Chest heaving, I marched from one of Fenrir’s limbs to the next. He kicked and struggled. One blow caught me in my broken arm. I let out a visceral scream when the pain flared across my body and stole my vision for a moment.
A growl ripped out of Maddox. The air shifted when he moved to strike.
“I’m all right!” I shouted before he could land a blow.
My vision cleared, though Maddox was still blurry. His eyes were on me. I gave a nod with my jaw locked in pain and got up to keep working. This was the last damn thing I would ever do for a god. They could handle their own squabbles from now on.
“Hel, you have the absolute worst taste in men. I hope you know that I’m doing a whole lot better than you did.” I mumbled to myself as I locked the last chain in place.
This wasn’t Hel’s grand prison, but the chamber deep in the bowels of Hel’s underworld was more than enough to hold the feeble Fenrir. He tried to pull himself upright when Maddox moved away, but the chains were too heavy for him. I’d bound them with so much power that this version of Fenrir couldn’t struggle against them.
He wasn’t getting out for a very long time.
Which reminded me.
“Paige! You bitch. Show your face.” I looked left and right at the dark shadows around me.
Maddox growled. I hushed him. She wouldn’t show her face if she knew what I wanted to do.
“It’s time we make amends and move on,” I lied.
Paige had betrayed my mate and put the safety of the world at risk for her own selfish desires. I didn’t want her locked up. I wanted to make sure she could never do anything like that again.
Her deep sigh warned me of her appearance. I spun and flung my arcana out.
Paige’s eyes went wide before narrowing with rage. “You’re all a bunch of selfi—"
I cut her off. She wanted out of her eternal service as a Reaper. I would give it to her. To my surprise, as I destroyed her spirit, I heard a soft sound of relief from her. It wasn’t what she wanted for herself, but she embraced the peace, nonetheless.
When it was all said and done, when Paige no longer existed, the heavy weight of guilt and grief fell like a stone in the pit of my stomach. She would never be able to free Fenrir again, but she would also never experience anything else again.
Now that the fight was over, my body gave out. I’d channeled too much. My muscles and bones protested, going on a dramatic strike that sent me to my knees in front of Fenrir. He looked up at me with ire in his eyes. If I had the strength, I would have lifted my hands in an ironic shrug.
Instead, I managed a quiet, “Fuck you.”
Maddox picked me up and cradled me close to his chest. He smelled of blood and grave dust down here in the underworld. I rested my head against his bare skin and wondered when he’d shifted back. It didn’t matter. He was here. He had me in his arms where I would be safe.
A portal opened ahead of us. Relief swept over me. I crashed into an exhausted, dreamless sleep with Fenrir’s pathetic howling in the background.
