“Yes, but she won’t remember a damn thing!” I retort. “Calista has lost her sister. You wish to punish me, yet you only hurt them.”
“No! I hurt you through them,” she hisses, growing closer. “It was never your magic that drove Calista mad,” she says, her eyes sparkling, while my stomach knots. “You know there is no removing an ethereal magic once gifted. Why do you think she can still touch others when you cannot? Because my power still lives within her.” The muscles below her brow twitch, insanity lacing every word. “She had everything, yet she chose you and you tainted her with your decay and rot.”
“I loved her!”
“I did, too,” she shouts, and arrows of gold and green shoot from her fingers. Vines rise around us, quaking the ground until they stop, forming a wall of knotted overgrowth encasing us. She rolls her shoulders, commanding her magic to settle when she looks at me, desperate to hide her rage. After a tense breath, she whispers, “It does not matter now. We are awake and will take our revenge. While they think you are the villain,” she says, her laugh tinkering in my mind, and I grimace. “We will know the truth, and they’ll never believe you over me, their loyal sister.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” A growl rumbles in my chest. “They know what happened.”
“Fool! It was me,” she divulges, then smiles sweetly as if she’s not evil fucking incarnate. “A bloom of my magic still resided in her, and I used it to heighten yours, driving her to madness.” Her whispers become breathy, uneven, her pupils growing so tiny. “Sending you to the Darklands was not punishment enough. I knew you were watching her slowly turn as dark as you would destroy you, and it did.”
My breaths deepen, my muscles tensing until the fabric of my tunic strains. “You did that to her? When you supposedly cared for her? Loved her?”
“She picked you!”
“Love does not simply evaporate after one wrongdoing, you selfish bitch.”
She walks back, her long lashes flickering as her eyes twitch. “You know nothing of my heart, but I know yours. That is why I asked Nyxara to take your memories. Our dear sister thought it was for our benefit, to aid the prophecy, but I needed you to forget so you wouldn’t find her again in her next life. If I couldn’t have her, then neither would you.”
“You tore out her heart!” I shout.
“Yes, and now you know,” she whispers, “to never take what is mine again.”
I shake my head. “It was you who did it again. Her powers only started acting up when she was on Tenenocti.”
“Hmm.” She smiles. “She was close, finally. I could taste my magic in her from where I slept. Then the elders came, so easy to manipulate. And that boy, the new Harvest winner.”
“Drake,” I hiss.
“Yes. We accessed their dreams. After you returned and we took back our powers, it was easy.” Her gold eyes narrow. “Go to her. We’ll all be coming for you shortly.”
“I’ll tell them,” I shout. “Astraea will believe me.”
She scoffs a laugh, disbelief etching her features. “Now, Brother, you can’t really believe that. You trapped them for a century and a half. If you see them, you won’t breathe long enough to tell them. Even if you could convince them, they’d still despise you.”
She dangles the truth over me, like a cat playing with her food, taunting me with every word. If it wasn’t for Calista so close, and my need to get her off this island, I’d bury Essentria.
She turns her back to me, then glances over her shoulder. “Go to her, Azkiel. Good luck trying to save her. Our magic will devour Calista soon enough. You can never absorb my power from her, or all of yours. It is just a matter of time, and you will watch her slowly fade away from grief and darkness, knowing that her soul will be obliterated by Cyna the moment she falls into death. You can’t protect her anymore.”
“I will kill all of you,” I promise, and she grins.
“Oh, I count on you trying.”
With that, she flees back into the forest. The primal need to chase her down, cut her to pieces, and tear her soul apart is almost unbearable. But Calista is more important. If Essentria is right, then she’d die soon, or destroy everything.
I race into the temple, whisking past the pillars. I find Calista, on the ground, crumpled in a ball under her navy cloak. My gaze drifts to the altar, cracked down in the middle.
I race to her side, then drop to my knees. “I’m here.” I lift her head in my hands, cradling her as she gazes up at me, her expression so filled with heartache that it tears me apart.
“Ari,” she croaks, tears falling into her hair. “She’s gone.”
“I know, but we must get out of here.” I swallow hard, thinking of Essentria running toward the caverns now. My siblings will come here soon to find us, and I plan to be as far away from this damn island before they can. “I need to keep you safe,” I whisper, my body over hers as I hold her head in my hands, staring into her bloodshot eyes.
“Drake betrayed me.” Tears slide from the corners as she gulps. “He helped them kill her. I killed Alaric, which means—”
“I know.” A muscle feathers in my jaw as I add the traitor to my list of people to kill. “He’s the next elder.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
I nod slowly. “We will, but first, we must escape before the other gods come.”
“I—is it possible? To bring Ari back?” she asks, although she must know it’s not possible. A flicker of hope lights in her eyes, but quickly fades when I confirm her suspicions.
“No. I saw Essentria.”
She grits her teeth, and a glint of that darkness flashes over her sharp features. “What happened?”
I shake my head, anger clouding every thought. “I’ll explain everything once we’re away from here.”
“What about Ari’s soul?” She sits upright, and I roll back onto my knees. “You’re the God of Death,” she cries, her lips trembling with a mixture of anger and hurt. “Can’t you find her?”
“My domain’s destroyed. She would have likely crossed the veil already,” I admit, lifting her chin as she looks at the ground. “Come on. We must move.”
Slowly, she gets to her feet, then stares at me with a newfound bloodlust that roots me to my spot. Her stare darkens as the ground trembles, and she glances at the temple door. “Let them come. I’ll die happy knowing I took at least one of them with me.”
My heart palpitates as she talks of her death so casually. I lift her in my arms, and she wrestles against me, pounding her fists against my muscle but I only tighten my hold. I’m getting her away from here, willingly or not.
As soon as we’re outside, the sky flashes with purple lightning as rain hammers around us. The entire island buzzes with magic as a roar trembles the ground, the monsters awakening from the caves. Across the forest, my siblings’ powers grow in strength and the last tatters of my domain fall around us.
