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“Go, sweet angel!” Nita calls to me.
Tunneling into my vision, my focus, I chant breath prayers and focus on mynewbit of heaven and the demon spawn who wants to steal him away. Over my dead body! Oh, that’s right, she already tried that. I cry out when claws bite my ankles, trying to drag me down my ladder. Another Lux demon spawn assaults me. My fingers slip, but I hang on, keeping my eyes on the end goal and trusting Nita. A moment later, the claws are severed. I keep moving, noticing Syn and Nita united out of the corner of my eye, hacking away at the demons until all that’s left is Lux.
I reach the final rung at the top of the ladder and balance precariously. Lux is no more than six feet in front of me, batting her wings like they’re eyelashes, her silvery hair a crazed pendulum waving before Neo’s omnipotent wings. Some Mordere vampires have managed to evade Neo’s flames. They mount him, driving iron stakes into his diamonded armor, stabbing again and again. My Prince, my Dragon rears up, chest exposed. Lux will take her chance.
But I take a leap of faith!
In mid-air, I create my flaming sword. With no words, I bring it down and drive it so deep into her back that it pierces her heart! She freezes, and Neo’s black Dragon eyes lock with hers right before she falls with me still on her back. Above us, he growls. Bitten vampire bodies tumble around us as Lux and I fall—our bodies ready for the breaking. As the ground rises to meet us, I slam my eyes shut until something solid, something hot and diamond-sharp catches me! The inertia drives my whole body forward, and I tumble against Neo’s Dragon neck. All reflexes, I reach out and grip his arms, clinging on for dear life!
He lands on the earth, rupturing it beneath his destruction and weight. Hundreds more of Mordere’s soldiers charge for us. I bury my head in his scaled shoulder, behold Neo’s wings flicking up in one beautiful sweep to shake up my curls and protect my form. The arousal of his fire reverberates beneath my body right before he unleashes one omnipotent roar and an indomitable force field of fire, burning every last vampire to ash and husks. Nita and Syn take care of any remaining stragglers who are too ignorant to retreat.
Scooting up along his neck, I lean over and press my cheek to the scales on Neo’s dragon face, loving the same high cheekbones that mirror his vampire face, the same silver mist eyes, and his nostrils puffing smoke. “I am fire! I am Destruction!” I tease, squeezing his scales, marveling at how they are sharp as diamonds, but also soft as silken shades.
Just then, a lilting moan echoes behind me. Lowering my brows, I swing my head, my jaw dropping because…Neo caught Lux!
Chapter32
Before the blood moon sets and the sun rises
On the ground now, I kneel over Lux with Neo slowly transforming back to his vampire form, clothed in robes of shades and flames. Lux’s breath is shallow, her face pale and spectral-like. I can sense her soul clinging to her body by a frail thread. Her flesh and skin burn from my sword, amber blood dripping from her back and chest. Neo’s hand settles on my back, and I turn to behold his eyes, urgent and prompting me to remove it.
Nodding, I place my hands upon her flesh, staining my palms with blood to evanesce the sword until all that remains are glittery embers. Whatever else she has done, even if she was the Father’s pawn, she is still my ancestor…and Neo’s first wife.
As soon as my sword is gone, a cold caress of metal greets my palm. While Neo slides his hand beneath Lux’s neck, bearing her up, I curl my fingers around that metal and pluck it free of Lux’s heart. Coated in amber blood and flesh, I gaze down at the silver object: Neo’s wedding ring and the second piece of the Grail!
I stare up at my husband, but his eyes are downcast as he observes Lux, observes how she opens her mouth, coughing up blood, how shesmilesat him before riveting her eyes upon me. They are not amber anymore. Now, they are gold as honey crystallizing in the sunlight. No more Scourge. Did it plague her as much as it plagued all others? As much as it plagued me?
“Thank you, Elysia,” she rasps to me, blood pooling from her mouth.
A shadow eclipses Lux’s form just as my ancestor’s eyes turn vacant, dead.
“Elysia…” Nita’s familiar voice chants behind me.
When I glance up at Nita, I scramble to my feet, jaw dropping, lips parting because Nita has captured Lux’s soul! In her dark, cupped hands is the most ethereal light I’ve ever witnessed. Her soul strands twinkle like the kite-tails of stars and spiral like DNA. When Nita approaches with Lux’s soul and bids me to open my hands, all I can seem to do is hold my breath.
“She has a message for you,” Nita informs me, and my hands tremble, fingers quivering as I accept Neo’s sister, my sister nestling Lux’s soul into my palms.
I purse my lips and bore my eyes into Lux’s soul, like peeling back the very skin of the moon! Inside that soul, I read ten thousand different memories—of her trials and guilt with the child crusaders, her training with the templars, and her time with Neo. Lux’s soul strands covet my face, prompting me to lower my head until they tickle the sides of my head like kisses of frost. And suddenly, she reveals one vital memory, tethering me and drawing me into its depths until I’m kneeling before the multitude of eyes robed in wings once more.
Your soul will be called for, first-wife of Destruction, the Goddess tells Lux within the memory in the desolation of the Chasm.You will become the vessel for great evil. Through your sacrifice, you will shake the faith of the Everblood with a poisonous Judas kiss so she may prove her love and strength and pave the road for her to defeat the Father of Vampires.
Trembling in that sulfuric darkness, Lux’s silvery soul nodded her acceptance.
Within the vision, the laws of heaven apply just as they do anywhere, and the Goddess turns to face me. Radiant light scintillates from her presence, shimmering all around my mind as the celestial creature prophesies to me,Everblood, you will lose part of your heart in your next trial. Only with the ascension of the blackest of hearts may your light shine.Oh, heavens preserve me!You will be broken but not shattered, perplexed but not driven to despair, struck down but not destroyed.
On my knees, I take the familiar words, this biblical truth, deep into my heart, wondering if I will remember them tomorrow, wondering how I will possibly overcome Mordere: the blackest of hearts.
Even when you are hunted down, you will not be abandoned. You will learn to hunt, and you will be protected. And like a bride leaving her chamber, you will run your course and win a circle of joy and feast with another warrioress of light.
The Goddess narrows her eyes upon mine—golden soul blood weeping down the almighty feathers like tears from a Grail. I force my eyes to remain open, force myself to listen, and brand all the words like holy scars into my mind.
Two beings will battle for your heart. Two empires will wrestle for your soul. Only once they unite will your heart find the strength to become whole. And once it does, the purest of hearts will vanquish the blackest of hearts and rise in victory to the glory of the angels.
I drop to the ground, clutching Lux’s soul, smelling the aftermath of Neo’s fire, the ash clotting my nostrils. Overcome by violent emotion, overcome by the vision transcribed into my mind I know will remain even after I lose my memories, I fixate on Lux’s soul, on all those ten thousand memories…and of her true love for the Prince of Destruction, her heart that was strong enough to bear with him and to recognize thenewbeing he would eventually become. So…perhaps not so irredeemable after all.
Closing my eyes, shedding one golden tear to roll onto the silverscape of her soul, I lower my lips and gift Lux with a kiss. Her soul shudders and evanesces until no glittery strands remain for me to hold. History repeats itself with the release of the holy energy that causes me to arch my back and scream with the force of that kinetic bomb. Neo catches me as the heavenly foresight ignites a path deep into my soul.
Lux is in heaven.
