Max’s lion lifted its head into the air as it sniffed out scents and tried to discern reality from lie. I turned towards the mating link, only to see it encased in the same poisonous black-and-red filth.
“Have fun,” Apollyon said. He snapped his fingers and Max was free. In Max’s mind, I was now Apollyon. And I was holding onto me and rattling me like a leaf. In my head, I heard his words clearly. If I die protecting you or the people I love, then it will be worth it.
In Apollyon’s black eyes, I saw that he would reap my soul as soon as Max killed me. And then he would let Max live with the torment for the rest of his life.
“Max!” I screamed. For a fraction of a second, I thought he heard me because his head lifted. But then he was charging towards me without any brakes. A moment before he was about to collide with us, Charles pushed himself up, the demon blade held out in front of him. Max was moving too quickly to avoid it. The demon blade pierced him right through the heart. He rolled over both of us and the demon that was holding on to me.
The demon blade sizzled as it gobbled up Max’s blood. Sapphire blue light spiralled down the blade’s edge and sparked across the tattoo Lex had given him. It lashed out in a forcefield that smashed into Max like lightning. The tattoo throbbed as the demon blade stole Max’s life.
I screamed. And screamed. And screamed.
But it did nothing. All of my pleading did nothing. My body became this obstacle that was holding me back from the mating link and was utterly useless as his soul fled.
If you accept the mating link, he will die. But I had been too selfish, and I hadn’t listened.
52
Max
I always knew that Charles would be the death of me. When I came to in a field that reminded me of a nightmare Lex had once conjured up, I was confused for a moment. Pain thumped in my chest and I looked down to find the demon blade sticking out of me. That little shit had stuck me with the demon blade.
And then I remembered the sound of Sophie’s voice. She was screaming my name, but I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t do anything besides watch her crying as the demon blade snatched the life from me. Was this what the afterlife was meant to be? The old gods had promised us a world overflowing with the bounty of battle. Screw all of that shit. I had been mated for all of ten minutes. No way was I going to stick around here like a useless piece of shit while Sophie was still in danger.
I scented water and moved towards it without really understanding why. As I drew closer to what turned out to be a river about ten metres wide that stretched out well past the horizon, the sky began to darken. Storm clouds gathered together and knitted themselves into a stark ceiling cracking with the kind of magic that ruffled the hair of the back of my neck. I didn’t give a damn if I was half high-magic sorceress. High magic was a nuisance. I could, however, use some of it now to open up a portal.
What the hell was this place? Actually, Hell seemed like a good bet. If Heaven was this boring, I wanted a refund.
I was standing there staring into the depths of the water when a face materialised in the stream. “Shit!”
Jumping back, I crouched down and tried to grab whoever it was. When my arm hit the water, a feeling of lethargy washed over me. Hmmm. I guess this wasn’t so bad. The water was kind of nice. I saw now that there were heaps of people swimming in it. They were all just floating, but it seemed peaceful.
Couldn’t hurt to give it a try. Without taking my clothes off, I stuck my right foot into the water. It wasn’t even cold. Weaklings. They could have splashed around a little. Even a backstroke was better than lying there like dead…shit.
The Sea of Souls. When I tried to drag my leg back out, it wouldn’t lift. I was about to try and really yank, when a body slipped past in the water and everything turned cold all at once. Kai.
Without a second thought, I dove into the water. The moment my face hit the surface, weights laced around my arms and legs, making it harder to propel myself through the water. My head filled with a quiet that I hadn’t felt since I was a kid. That giddy anticipation that you felt when you woke up before dawn with the promise of a new day stretching out in front of you.
Relax, the quiet seemed to say. There’s no more need for rushing.
That was right. There was no more need. I was dead. There wasn’t anything more that I could do. Except...when I tried to close my eyes and let my body float up to the surface, I heard Sophie screaming my name. I felt something jolt in my chest beside the demon blade. The apathy dissipated. I cut through the water and reached out. Even in here that Nephilim idiot glowed green. It made things easier. A perfect target. When I grabbed at his T-shirt and tried to haul him out of the water, Kai resisted.
He tried to snap my fingers away. “I’m tired,” he said. I punched him in the head.
“Cry me a river, ya big baby.”
He’d said the same thing to me once after Sapphire House lost the trials in first year. He’d only said it because Obsidian House won. It felt good to throw it back in his face. His pale, ghostly white face that was beginning to twist into
