The angels lift their eyes to heaven looking past the threat descending upon them. Standing wing to wing, they cast a shield of protection around every creature of the Light. The Fae, Elves, Fairies, Pixies, all the beings that have come together to fight the darkness, look up when they feel the soft brush of heavenly hands shielding them.
Caius stops the moment he feels it and turns away as fast as he can from the mountain, leaving his sons behind.
Ariana feels the divine touch and the moment she does, she stops in midair. She feels the shared power of her King and Heaven reaching a critical mass where it must be released or perish.
She whispers to their minds, “Brothers, I forgive you and free you from this evil!”
Ariana takes the power humming in her body and catalyzes it, amplifying it. With power pouring out of being, she waits until the Vampiric Fae fall on her in midair. With a flash, she detonates. The concussion from the blast blows all on the ground from their feet as wave after wave of energy explodes across the betrayers incinerating them.
Caius is hit by the concussion on the left side of his body and he falls burning to a lake below.
Reese has reached the top of the mountain, finally greeting the leader of this rebellion. He glances to the right drawn by the light and watches horrified as a horde of vampire falls upon Ariana. His scream is swallowed up by the explosion. Reese and Colin are both flattened by the blast. All that remains of the demons, fallen Fae, and vampires are cinders. It drifts down falling like snow over the wounded.
All the protected stand slowly and stare up at the mountain, hearing the sound of Reese’s mournful scream. “Ariana!” his soul screams and he turns, full of rage.
Colin stands slowly and starts laughing. “Ariana!” He screams mockingly. “Finally, the bitch is dead! Uggh! She was hard to kill!” he says pretending to wipe his brow.
“I’ll take all the power that you have, and I will put it to good use. First, I will destroy the Fae, then...”
Reese hears nothing else, except the sound of her voice whisper, “Peace my King, I will wait for you with the wounded. Hurry, I think I have a scratch you need to look at.” Beneath him, he uses his power building pressure in the mountain below.
Without a second thought, he throws a dagger, piercing Colin straight in the throat. “That should shut you up! You are found guilty of, well of every kind of sin,” Reese snaps. Colin rips the dagger free and his blood begins to flow.
“You are judged! The Shadows who joined you, are no more,” he says staring into Colin’s eyes. They now glow red with vampiric blood, his fangs lengthen, and he smiles slowly.
“Surely you didn’t think it would be that easy! What kind of Shadow King works against the Shadows? His own so-called people! They will not tolerate being ignored,” he says leaping at Reese. He slices at his forearms with long black nails, drawing blood and leaping back.
“I hoped you would fight me, Colin. I find I have a need to spill your blood.” He shimmers to shadow form and runs past Colin slicing at his leg with an iron bladed dagger. With startled scream Colin swings wildly striking at empty air. Again, the Shadow King darts past, slicing at his upper arm. Colin hisses as the burning starts.
“Hurts doesn’t it? That is the iron entering your system.” This time, when Reese darts towards him he leaps over his head and slices the right side of his face. Colin’s hand goes to his face screaming in rage he spins trying to locate Reese, but he is invisible as a shadow.
“I hope it hurts, I added something special just for you!” he says laughing and his voice echoes out from every direction. Colin tries to run but finds his feet are stuck.
“The blade was infused with celestial light, Colin, a gift from my Angelic brothers. That’s the burning you feel.”
The rock beneath Colin’s feet begins to glow red with heat. The ground begins to rumble and under the mountain, the screams of the evil trapped beneath reaches a frenzy as the released lava fill up the tunnels below. The demons trapped inside the mountain are forced out onto the platform and Colin frantically screams at them. When he hears a cracking beneath his feet and they all stare in horror at each other.
“YOU ARE JUDGED!” Reese says standing on the side of the mountain. Colin’s spirit tries to leap from his body to attack Reese only to be pulled back. He wants the power of the Shadow King!
“Your spirit is trapped inside the body you chose, Colin. That is a gift of the vampiric blood you tasted. Never again will you hurt me and mine!” Reese throws the iron dagger piercing the body of Colin with a flash of released energy burning him from the inside out.
With a final crack, the ground gives way and the screams of the judged fill the night before falling silent. Reese looks down into the pit of fire with a look of satisfaction and turns to go see his Shadow Queen.
Chapter 23
Ariana watches as he runs down the mountain and she runs to meet him, her Shadow King. He lifts her from her feet trembling with his need to touch her.
“Ariana!” he roars holding her tightly in his arms. In that one word she hears everything, his love, his fear, his passion and she smiles.
“Surely you know you can’t kill a Shadow, my King!”
