and victory. When she’s ten feet from Nimeyah, she thrusts her arms toward her angelic sister from long ago and makes a pulling motion.
The light in Nimeyah pulses a few times, then draws inward into her body. It seems to completely disappear until there’s only a thin white glow around Nimeyah’s body. For a moment, the two sisters—one light, one dark, neither good at all—just stare at each other.
Then light shoots out of Nimeyah’s chest, along with an anguished scream that’s wrenched from her. The light flies straight at the Blood Stone and enters it, turning it momentarily white.
It lasts but mere seconds, the transfer of the power from Nimeyah to Kymaris, but when the last bit of glowing magic leaves Nimeyah’s body, she bursts apart in a showering fall of white sparks, which signifies her death.
It’s enough to break Deandra and Pyke apart as they stare at the remnants of their mother floating to the ground. Their expressions are blank, as if they can’t quite understand that Nimeyah’s demise was necessary for Kymaris to complete the ritual.
Then Deandra’s eyes flash red and her lips pull back into a feral sneer as she whirls on her brother. She says something I’m too far away to hear above the din of battle, but she attacks with a speed and vengeance I never imagined was possible.
Relentlessly she beats him back. The only thing he can do is to get his sword up time and time again to prevent her lopping off his head.
Pyke stumbles over a rock, landing hard on his ass, and it’s enough of an advantage that Deandra brings the point of her sword to his chest.
He attempts no magic. Doesn’t even try to knock the sword away. Instead, he twists his neck to look up at his love, Kymaris standing just a few feet away. I can read his lips as he pleas for the help of the woman he sacrificed everything for.
Kill her.
Kymaris stares at Pyke, a calculating look in her eyes.
Rather than smite Deandra as he requests, she turns her back on the scene and strolls away.
Pyke screams, and I do hear him above the battle this time. “N-o-o-o-o-o!”
It’s cut short when Deandra rams her sword through his chest, obliterating his heart with the iron. He’s a royal, though, and he’s not quick to die. Instead, he wraps his hands around the sword blade, desperately trying to pull it out before the iron can destroy his heart. Deandra leans her weight into it, holding it in place.
The siblings stare at each other for what seems like an eternity, but, eventually, Pyke follows his mother into oblivion—in a burst of white sparks that float away on the wind. I know I’ll never forget the look of pain and betrayal on his face when Kymaris walked away.
It was no less than he deserved, and I’ll actually cherish it.
Deandra doesn’t even watch the last spark burn out, but pivots on her heel and jumps into the battle by charging at a Dark Fae.
My attention is grabbed by Carrick, his hand taking mine. “Let’s end this now.”
Our eyes meet, and I can do nothing but nod. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.
Holding tight to my hand, Carrick bends distance and flashes us to Maddox first. He lets me go to step in and help his brother, who had easily dispatched half of the Dark Fae in the time it took us to get there.
I keep my eye on Kymaris, though, whose hand has tightened around the Blood Stone. She closes her eyes with a rapturous expression.
As if she’s bonding with the damn thing in a weirdly intimate moment.
When her eyes open, they seem to be staring blankly ahead and I wonder if she has fallen into a trance. Perhaps I should take her on right now while she’s distracted.
But then my heart sinks as I see the air before her start to ripple. It shimmers, warbles, and pulses.
And then a rip slices down the middle as our world peels back on each side until I can see the Underworld.
Kymaris ripped the veil at The Pit, and the glow from the fires casts her body in orange. I see beyond The Pit to the stone mountain of cages I had seen when I had traveled there, and my stomach bottoms out as I note that all the cage doors are open.
Her demons are loose.
“Carrick,” I call out, not taking my eyes off the tear in the veil. When the first demon