I chuckled softly. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Caleb and I really don’t do well when we’re apart.”
“Ben, is Araquiel trustworthy? Amal?” River interjected on the comms channel.
“Yes. We all want the same thing, my love. And Ta’Zan is standing in the way. Araquiel will not rest until Ta’Zan is taken out. And neither will Amal. We’ve done our best to prepare for what’s coming next. For us, it’s important to stop Ta’Zan from killing Mom,” Ben said.
“Okay, well, Nathaniel, Uriel, Angelica, and Deena are ready to join Araquiel over there,” Harper replied. “They’ll need about five to six hours to get there. When do you plan on surrendering?”
“Closer to the deadline. We want Ta’Zan to stew a little,” I said. “Amal and Douma both confirmed that the more riled up he is, the less focused and more prone to making mistakes he is. We want to play him with every card we’ve got. We want him to think that we might sacrifice Mom after all. It’ll throw him for a loop, it’ll irritate him, and he’ll take forever to recover from it. His psyche is fragile, apparently, despite his composure.”
“We’ll leave him without genetic materials,” Ben added. “We’ll snatch the four Draenir he’s got in there, too. By the time we get out of the colosseum, Ta’Zan will have nothing. Araquiel, Amal, and Amane will see to that.”
“Oh, you’re talking about the genetic samples he’s already collected!” Arwen cut in.
Kailani lit up like the sun at the sound of her mother’s voice. They’d talked several times since the comms went back up, but the distance was still making its presence felt, especially since Kailani had been dealing with her Word apprenticeship. She needed a mother now more than ever. Lumi handled the technical part, but Kailani was more than just a budding swamp witch.
“Yeah. We worked out a general map of the colosseum,” Kailani explained. “We know where the labs and the storage halls are. Araquiel will make sure to load them all up with explosives, and Amal will compromise whatever batches are already being processed.”
“Good. We don’t want that bastard to create a single Perfect on top of what he’s already done,” Arwen grumbled. “What about the pulverizer weapons? You got your devil-vipers, didn’t you?”
“We did, yes!” I answered. “We’ve got enough venom to produce all the ammo we need. Raphael and Araquiel will provide the rest of the ingredients over the next couple of hours. Lumi and Douma will help them. We’ve got the weaponry under control.”
Harper cleared her throat. “We’ll put the fae on a shuttle and have them wait outside Strava’s atmosphere. Once one of you confirms that the Perfects are too busy to engage the shuttle, they’ll go in and land somewhere in the winter-summer cluster.”
“That sounds reasonable,” I said, nodding slowly, then looked at my team.
There was a mixture of hope and fear drawn on their faces. I, out of all people, understood exactly why they felt this way. This was it. This was our greatest challenge yet—the biggest performance of all time. Our last attempt at dismantling Ta’Zan’s growing empire before it was too late.
“Rose, Ben… I need you all to be extremely careful,” Dad said. “Be ready for anything, and make sure you come back to your mother and me alive and in one piece. Okay?”
Tears came up to my eyes, and Ben gave me a soft smile.
“Dad, we’ll be together again,” I replied gently.
“Or we’ll all die. The future’s bright, dammit!” Varga retorted, then let out a nervous chuckle.
It wasn’t in his nature to succumb to any form of despair, but we had to be realistic, too. The chances were fifty-fifty, at this point. Either we succeeded, or we died trying. There was no middle path, and we were all okay with that. We weren’t happy, nor eager to embrace death, but we looked at all the possible options.
After all, the fate of the entire universe hung in the balance, not just the lives of our families, our friends, and our allies. Failure couldn’t be an option, and, if needed, sacrifice was an acceptable outcome, as long as Ta’Zan was destroyed.
Elonora
We had some time to spare while Amal, Amane, Raphael, Araquiel, Douma, and Lumi prepared our weapons against Ta’Zan. Ingredients for the pulverizer pellets needed to be gathered from around the mountain, and the explosive charges had to be put together, along with the wiring and the remote control for their detonation.
In the meantime, we didn’t have any bags to pack or weapons to take with us. We were going to surrender, and we were going to leave everything behind, with the exception of our earpieces—those were going to be well hidden. The Perfects were bound to search us for weapons and any spell paraphernalia that could be used against them, but not such small, nearly undetectable communication devices.
So, with nothing much left to do prior to departure, I settled in one of the cave chambers to gather my thoughts. Nevis didn’t leave me alone, though. He sat next to me on the floor, and we said nothing for a while, enjoying the darkness, the inner-mountain chills, and the silence.
My heart fluttered simply from his presence. I’d fallen for Nevis, and I worried that, should everything go sideways, I’d never get to experience what his love would feel like. His shoulder gently pressed against mine, and a familiar warmth spread through my body, all the way to my fingertips.
“We’ve got quite the challenge ahead of us,” he said slowly.
“Mm-hm. We’re screwed, more or less,” I replied, then exhaled sharply.
“I’m not ready to give up. Are you?” Nevis asked.
I looked at him, thrilled to find his icy blue eyes fixed on me. I located the source of the liquid sunshine flowing through my veins—it was Nevis’s love for me, burning bright and golden all around him. The drum beating in his chest echoed in mine. We had a similar effect on each other, and that made me smile. Or maybe I was grinning. I wasn’t sure. Nothing was absolute when Nevis was around, except his impact on me. That, I felt clearly.
“I’m not giving up. I just know we won’t come out of this with our feathers intact. We’ll get them ruffled, and then some,” I said. “Not to mention the possibility of dying. We’re all aware of it.”
He gave me a soft smile. “This isn’t my first dance with death, Elonora. The Dhaxanians have had their challenges over the years. Mind you, Shaytan and the Exiled Maras were merely one of many. A blip in our ancient timeline. A hiccup. I’ve stared at my end before, and I have no intention of giving up on what I’ve found now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Love, Elonora. I’ve found love. And there’s nothing more powerful than love to make me tell death to bite me,” he replied, then tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. His mere touch was enough to send my senses flying.
“So, we’ll tell death to bite us both, then,” I said.
A split second later, he’d moved in front of me, his hands cupping my face. He pulled me close and kissed me deeply, and the universe vanished for a moment. I was weightless. His arms slowly snaked around my waist, his embrace tightening.
His lips were soft, and he tasted of cool nights and honey. His tongue explored my mouth as he took me all in. We’d spent so much time running or fighting or sneaking around that, whenever we got together, stars practically exploded between us.
Nevis was as cold as they came, and yet, as soon as his lips met mine, we were both overcome with a combustible heat. We kissed and hugged for what felt like days, and I couldn’t get enough of him. His firm grip reminded me that beneath the royally bejeweled tunic and the blue blood, Nevis was full of fire and passion—and I was the sole recipient of it all.
“Love, you say?” I murmured, brushing my lips against his.
My stomach tightened as he kissed the tip of my nose and whispered, “I love you, Elonora. I didn’t think you’d need any clarifications.”
I giggled, and his hand found the back of my neck and squeezed gently. Suddenly, years of tension came unraveled, and my muscles instantly relaxed. I traced an invisible contour of his face, marveling at the sharp line of his jaw and the softness of his skin—a most enticing contrast.
