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Two teenage boys, both bound and gagged.
Lidia didn’t need to look. She inhaled, scenting whatever was coming—
Her eyes flared as she recognized her sons’ scents. Pure, murderous rage filled her gaze, and Tharion was suddenly very, very glad she was on their side.
So he knew better than to stop Lidia as she emerged from their hiding spot, rounded the corner, and said, power ringing through her voice, “Let them go.”
* * *
Bryce had enough strength to make it to a hall a level above the archives. From there, she and Hunt snuck down on foot, trailing water, as quickly and quietly as they could. She might have pushed herself to teleport them down to the hallway with the firstlight core, but she needed to conserve her strength. Only one Asteri was currently down—
She’d killed Polaris.
The realization kept rippling through her. How it had felt, how Polaris’s blood had felt, showering her, the primal, raging satisfaction in seeing the other Asteri’s outrage as Bryce impaled their sister with the sword and dagger, ignited by Hunt’s Helfire.
And then Polaris had been sucked into nothing.
Into nowhere. The blades, fueled by her starlight and sped along by Hunt’s Helfire, had opened a portal to a place that wasn’t a place.
One Asteri had been banished from Midgard. But would she be lucky enough to get near the others? Now that they knew what she could do, what she bore, they’d avoid her, as they’d avoided Apollion.
The thoughts shot through Bryce’s mind, dread sinking in her stomach, as they ran through the palace.
There was no point in staying hidden. Everyone knew they were here. A nod to Hunt, and her mate blasted open the doors into the archives.
Glass shattered, spraying everywhere, and a shield of Hunt’s lightning kept the shards from shredding them as they raced through it, Bryce leading them toward the door to the hallway where the power of Midgard was held—
The glow of the room spilled up the stairs, leading the way down.
There was no sign of Lidia’s sons. Indeed, the hall was exactly as it had been before. A crystal floor. The seven pipes, each with an Asteri’s name on an engraved plaque beneath, and next to the plaques, small screens showing their power levels.
Sirius and Polaris were now dark. But the others were nearly full.
One of them, the seventh, was at full power. And standing before it was its bearer, smiling faintly at them.
Rigelus.
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Rigelus unleashed a wall of white-hot power, and Bryce had enough sense to blast up a wall of her own, matching the lightning Hunt hurled between them and the Asteri.
The entire palace above them shook at the impact.
And as it cleared, Bryce drew the Starsword and Truth-Teller. “It didn’t end well for Polaris,” she told the Bright Hand, sending starfire rippling down the blades. “It won’t end well for you.”
“Polaris was weak,” Rigelus said. “And a fool to let you draw close with those blades.” Without warning, he launched his power at them again.
Bryce grabbed Hunt this time and teleported to the other side of the room.
Rigelus’s power hit the stairs behind them, and they buckled. A true blow from the Bright Hand might collapse the entire palace, but that strike still would have seared their skin down to the bone.
“We have to get to that core under the crystal,” Bryce said, and Rigelus attacked again.
“Kill him first,” Hunt grunted, nodding toward the blades in her hands.
“He won’t let us get near enough.” She gathered her strength to teleport them to the core, and Hunt erupted with his lightning as they reappeared, firing right for Rigelus—
It hit a barrier of light and scattered.
