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“Wait!” Niko called as West grabbed the door, but it was too late. A shocking blast of magic sent West flying into us. Niko and I managed to catch him, with Levi holding me up from behind. I handed his unconscious form to Levi, the desperation in my eyes pleading with him.
“Get him to the healer. Now,” I ordered. Without question, my dragon omega immediately turned and ran off with the only father I’d ever really known. West would kick my ass if I broke down now or lost sight of our goals, so I took the worry I was feeling and pushed it to the back of my mind.
“Come on,” Kane urged me as gently as he could manage, but it was more of a growl than a gentle coaxing.
At first, I couldn’t see the man, his small frame overshadowed by the cooling unit. Then puffs of white smoke that sparkled in the growing sunlight lifted from the ground before slamming into the man we were after. He tried to claw his way back to his feet, his head poking over the unit as he forced himself to stand tall. As if they had a mind of their own, my legs were moving. I was running toward him, ready to face him head on. His ragged gasps for air sharpened into an agonized wail as my magic stirred. It forcefully broke free from his body, but instead of flowing back into him like the fallen soldiers’ life force had, my magic shot straight out toward me. My body flew backward, and my men caught me as the magic found its home again.
“Put me down. This is your chance,” I gritted out as my magic rocked through my system, threatening to burst me apart with the strength of it. I had never really thought of myself asthatpowerful, but having just about all of it slam into me at once was a stark reminder of just how much potential this bastard had tried to strip from me.
‘Kill him. He doesn't deserve to live,’Zehra hissed in my mind. I’d have sobbed in relief if I wasn’t still fighting against the overwhelming storm within me.
The process was too slow, so I seized what control I could and latched onto the last of my magic, yanking it free and earning another screech of pain from him. My remaining men ran after him, tackling him to the ground. I was forced to watch on as my magic finally settled into its proper place. It buzzed along every fiber of my being, but it felt so fucking good to be made whole again.
When I finally stood, I was surprised to see Avi facing off with Clarence, a dark black magic wrapped around his hand. It encircled the Arch Mage's throat as he lifted him into the air.
“Avi,” I called out his name and he glanced back, eyes a soulless black with fissures of dark purple and red, the physical embodiment of the dark magic threatening to corrupt his soul. “Please. Don’t do this.” This was the part of his past that he loathed. I knew that if he were in his right mind, he’d be horrified by what he was doing, what he looked like, right now. My heart was aching, almost ready to break, from the idea that this act might cost me one of the men I’d fallen in love with.
Niko reached me as I scrambled to my feet and tried to hold me back, but I shook him off, heading for my beta. He needed me, consequences be damned.
“He needs to die,” Avi declared. His voice was layered, as if not only my beta mate was speaking, but several others as well. What the hell?!
“Think, Avi. Do you want this to taint your soul? Would you let your daughters watch what you’re about to do?” I accused, knowing this wasn’t the time to hold back. “Fucking fix this, Avi! Show me how strong you are. And this, this isn’t strength.”
My words rattled him; his eyes began to fade back to their pale blue, but the war hadn’t been won. A moment later, the color started to deepen again. Wrinkles formed between his eyes as he fought a battle that had begun long before today. He had been born into this tug of war, who he was raised to be pushing and pulling against who he wanted to be. Sure, he’d run away and put it behind him, but the past always reared its ugly head. You had to let it go entirely, and that was something he clearly hadn’t done.
“You’re right,” he said, his voice normal now, then his grip loosened, letting the Arch Mage fall to the ground. Kane and Niko had him up in seconds, each holding an arm. Between the two of them, there was enough magic pushing into him that the feeble man fell to his knees. They kept the pressure up, not allowing him to fight back for even a second.
“He's yours, my queen,” Niko said with a respectful nod of his head. It was more formal than my mate had ever addressed me, but the moment was significant.
Before I dealt with him though, I needed to know Avi had recovered.
“Avi?” I asked. “Are you here with us?”
“I am,” he confirmed. “I’m not that man.” His tone wasn’t bitter or dark. Instead, he seemed unburdened for the first time.
“Lay it to rest, Avi. It has no place in our lives,” I commanded. “You are stronger without it. You are enough. Don’t rely on it as a backup. Renounce that dark magic and be who you were meant to be. You escaped that fate and upbringing and made it out on top, stronger than they could ever be.”
He shifted on his knees and put a fist over his heart. I knew this might be a battle he fought for years to come, learning to be himself without that dark magic guillotine hanging over his head, but he wouldn't be alone.
“For me and for our family,” he promised as he bowed to me. “Now end this, Farren.”
That was all I needed to go back to the man awaiting my final judgment. The intensity of the decision weighed heavily on me, but I refused to let him be tried for these crimes. He’d nearly taken my life and my babies, but more than that, he had taken countless others. I would rule on his fate here and now.
Closing my eyes, I took a moment to feel my magic dancing under my skin and through my veins, reminding me that I was powerful and always had been.
‘For you, Zehra,’I told her.
‘And them,’she said sadly. There was no time for elaboration as I reached into my boot for the dagger I had resting there. Walking closer, I pressed the tip to his throat and met his eyes. The pure hatred in them was just as apparent as the self-loathing. Cracks were forming in his flesh, magic shifting beneath the translucent skin that remained. He was bursting, the overload of magic threatening to blow him to pieces.
“It seems you finally took too much, you greedy dragon. How many were there?” I accused.
He spit on me then, but he was weak enough that it barely reached my feet. Kane slammed an elbow into his shoulder, cracking his bones in the process. Another wail of pain echoed in the air, but we nonchalantly waited for it to die down. The pain he was going through now was nothing compared to the pain that he had caused. We would be fazed by none of his suffering. The old man pulled in heaving breaths to try to recover, but each inhale and exhale had a wheezing quality to it that gave away his weakness.
“Hundreds, if not more,” he said smugly. “No one will ever be able to best the strength I hold now.”
“Held,” I reminded him mercilessly. “When you die, it won’t be remembered. Your corpse will be burned and buried alone with no proper rituals or respect, and I doubt peace awaits you in the afterlife.”
“You failed,” were the last words he heard. I pressed forward, my dagger digging into his flesh before I slowly swiped it across his throat. My arms were coated in warm blood, and bile rose in my throat. It wasn’t easy to take a life, but in this case, I felt no regret as I watched him gasp for air, life draining from those hollow eyes.
