their souls are ripped from their bodies by his invisible hold. He’s banished them, their soul-light popping out of existence just like that and reappearing who knows where.
I know my sisters and I can reset souls or annihilate them, but I have no idea what Lucifer is capable of. I see the infinite possibilities in his eyes as he extinguishes another massive group of Morax’s demons before the snake-haired bastard can even get back on his feet. Shock hits Morax like a freight train as he scrambles up and takes in what’s happening, whirling around at the disarray as Lucifer’s army collides unforgivingly with his demons.
Morax yells something, but I can’t hear him over the commotion of the battle that’s broken out all around us. Morax’s face crumples with rage, and he turns to Medley’s and Delta’s mates, no doubt to get my sisters back in line, but they’re already a step ahead.
Medley’s and Delta’s bodies are still standing next to mine, but their darkness is shooting out of them and pouring into their mates from afar. The blinding black light fills them up and then blasts back out of them, shoving out the toxic compulsion that gripped them. In the blink of an eye, Medley and Delta have cleansed their minds, wiping Morax’s taint from their thoughts and souls.
One by one, daggers clang to the ground as love and light and darkness work their magic and free Rafferty, Jerif, Echo, Crux, Flint, and Alder from Morax’s evil hold. They blink around them as if seeing where they are for the first time, and then they don’t waste a second hardening their resolve as power begins to billow out of them in an impressive array. Fire and ice, shadows and destruction, emanate from them as they start to move and attack, fighting their way to my sisters with unrelenting force.
I don’t bother looking for Morax’s rage, I can feel it rippling out of him at this turn of events, but I give the delusional balance-traitor my back as I turn my attention to the portal and the demon making it.
I’m by Toreon’s side in less than a heartbeat, all thoughts to the battle raging all around me gone. I hear Lucifer call the Sins, and a cheer goes up in the distance, but my eyes are for my mate only. I feel the thread of life he’s barely clinging to as the portal he’s been forced to create tries to greedily suck away the last of his essence.
Over my dead body.
I don’t waste time cutting my wrists and bleeding for Toreon. But as soon as the first drops mark his skin, I realize this will take too long. I can tell by his waning soul-light that he has minutes. Maybe only seconds.
My heart breaks for what’s been done to him and the horrors he’s had to endure at Morax’s hands, the loved ones he’s witnessed being drained until only husks remain, all for some psycho’s inferiority complex. But I won’t let that happen to him.
The threads that lead to the portal grow dangerously thin, and I reach out to Toreon with my darkness. The black light instantly swirls out of my body and lifts him up. I brush the dull, stringy hair from his face as I reach inside myself and direct the darkness to feed into him. With his body levitating off the ground, my black light whirls around him from head to toe, blocking him from view, and then it starts rushing into his body.
His back arches, and his lips part to pull in a gasp as I fill him with my essence. I shroud his every cell in my power, healing him and coaxing him to come back to me. Immediately, I see a difference. I thought my blood healed him quickly, but it’s nothing compared to this.
His sunken cheeks start to fill out. His sallow skin grows healthier and deepens to a lustrous sage green. His lean muscles bulk up, and his thin, brittle hair thickens until the strands are shiny and long and black again. Finally, I push one more trail of black light into him, and then my darkness sets him back down on the ground, his pained gasps evened out to steady, strong breaths.
Toreon’s hands are still outstretched to the writhing, massive portal above, but I’m relieved to see that the threads of power don’t grow fatter or pull more from him. Instead, the light of the portal flashes, as though it’s being