Max snarled as the essences of the malachim disappeared inside his brother. Before my very eyes, the malachim subsumed Charles’s body. He transformed into a withered shell. His eyes became sunken. His skin shrank over muscles liquefying as though something was sucking out his strength from the inside.
Everything else died away as Charles let out a mournful cry. And then his head lolled to the side and his eyes lost their light.
40
It had never occurred to me that there would be something worse than a broken heart. But the dead thing inside of me that couldn’t feel anything anymore was far more unsettling. All around me, everything lapsed into silence. The elite guard ceased their assault on the barrier, the demons and guards stopped fighting below us, and inside the conference room, the civilians stopped crying.
And then somebody began to scream. It was such a thin wailing sound that at first I suspected it might have come from a broken corner of my mind. When I couldn’t find the origin of it, I searched the Reserve. Kate whimpered. Her body shuddered with grief as she curled in on herself and bawled. I looked to where her attention had been and my mind shattered.
Shayla and Alastair were stumbling through the trees that surrounded the conference rooms. She tripped even though the ground was even and smashed her head as she went down. In her broken state, she didn’t even have the insight to brace so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Cheyenne sobbed when Shayla didn’t get up. Alastair fell to his knees beside his mate, his hands moving so slowly to try and pull her into his lap.
Laughter rose up in my ears again. The glee in it was so emotionless that it sounded fake. The thing that was in my head didn’t understand happiness. It only understood the absence of it.
The guards on the ground below us scattered through the barrier of trees to stand with their brethren. Yolanda and the other pack alphas stumbled into the clearing too. Four of them led Durin on his hands and knees, silver chains latched around his throat. Somebody opened a door behind us and the shifters closest to it raced out.
“Come,” Cheyenne told me. “We’re going to meet our destiny.”
She tugged at my shoulder but all I could see in my head was red. Throwing her off, I crouched down and sliced both of my palms open. I slapped them onto the blood of the shifters and used my alchemy to suck the blood into my body, transmuting it into essence until my skin glowed a healthy pink against my brown skin.
Inside me, the soul tether began to tear. Latching onto it with blood, I frantically held on. Just for a bit longer. I only had to last for a bit longer. Following the crowd out the door, I walked with a detached sense of dread.
The shifters and their families were marching towards their last stand. On their faces, even the little ones, was a resolute acceptance that had been drilled into them through the makeup of their very beings.
The guards had tried to protect them till the very end. Until they were overwhelmed. If they were going to die, they would do so with their pack. Not cowering in a room. Now, they would all fight.
My legs didn’t stop when we hit the edge of the crowd. I shouldered my way to the front knowing exactly where I was headed. They parted for me as a shadow blocked out the red moon. Max loomed in front of me. If you accept the mating link, he will die.
I prayed to the old gods I didn’t really understand that he would be able to find somebody else he cared about one day. If I couldn’t be with him, I wanted him to be happy. The thing was, the look in his eyes was happy. Despite the fact that we were both likely to die in a few minutes, that didn’t diminish any of the pure joy I saw on his face because I was coming to him now.
Unable to lie at the eleventh hour, I leaned against him and allowed him to wrap his arms around me. The ice in my veins that was threatening to rip my heart out with fear melted just a fraction when he kissed me. It was hard, hot, and urgent with a need that shoved everything else into the background. When he pulled away, I was crying again.
“I love you,” I told him despite my better judgement. “I’ve loved you since the moment you stole my lunch and forced me to be your friend.”
He chuckled and grabbed me around the nape of my neck with one hand as he wiped away my tears with the other. He bent his head and rested his forehead against mine. “I swear I’ll find you in the next lifetime. No matter where we are. I’ll find you. You belong to me, Sophie. Body and soul.”
My laugh was wet and quivering.
“Well, isn’t this nice?” Agatha cackled. “It’s like a reunion. You still can’t do it, can you, little witch? Even while you watch your world crumble, you still won’t do what’s necessary.”
Max pushed me behind him even though there was no real point. We were surrounded on all sides by demons and malachim. He glanced up into the air where his brother was still being
