Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

BASH

My lungs seized as I placed my hands on the edge of the coffin. When I raised the lid, the hinges creaked and I closed my eyes tight. I didn’t want to see it. My body quaked and the breath left my lungs.

“Open your eyes, Brother. Behold your beloved.”

Her power forced my eyes open, and I was trapped in my own personal hell. There lay my Collins. I pressed my hand to my mouth to stop the sob from escaping my lips.

“How bloody and broken she is.”

“Bash.”

There she was—her face nearly unrecognizable with dark bruises. Cuts and blood coated her body and face. Her eyes were wide open, glazed over, and sightless. My knees gave out, and I hit the floor next to her coffin. I reached for her hand, searching for her soft skin. But all I would find was her cold, dead touch.

"BASTIEN!”

I gasped and sat up, my eyes flying open, but a warm hand was pressed to my forehead. “ Collins? ”

“I’m afraid not,” an unfamiliar female voice said softly right in front of me. “Take a deep breath.”

I sucked in a deep breath as the woman instructed, then slowly exhaled. The hand lifted off my forehead as the person leaned back. My eyes widened. It was the angel Eloa, Sandra’s biological mother. I knew all the angels by name, though I did not have a lot of experience speaking with them. However, of all of them, Eloa was the most . . . human.

She had pretty almond-shaped dark eyes and bright-red hair. Despite being an angel, she had that typical petite build of a fae female. I did not see a lot of Sandra in her. Then again, since I’d met Sandra, she’d been mostly in her Nephilim armor. Whereas her mother Eloa wore leather pants and a crop top and leather bracelets covering one arm from wrist to elbow, with solid silver bands on the other arm.

Then reality came crashing back around me. I sat up straight again. “Collins?—”

“Collins is stable. For now.” Eloa put her hand on my shoulder and held me down. “It’s still a watch and see situation.”

My heart sank. My eyes burned with unshed tears. I rubbed at my chest and closed my eyes, but my memories of Venus’s twisted mind games came rushing back—the pressure in my mind lightened. The memories vanished.

Eloa gave me a small smile and pressed her finger over her own lips. “ I am not supposed to do this, but I’m suspending your memories of last night. Of what Venus made you see, ” she said into my mind.

My jaw dropped.

“ If you don’t defeat Tephine, all the realms will fall.”

My stomach turned. I nodded. I knew that to be true.

“ So, you’ll have to process your trauma in its entirety later. For now, you don’t need those bits. You need to stay focused. Do you understand? ”

I nodded.

“Good.” She smiled and leaned onto one knee, which was when I realized I’d been sleeping sitting on the floor against a wall. Eloa pointed over her shoulder to Collins’ bed in the infirmary. The other angels had left, but Sandra, Nickel, and Jada sat at her bedside. “They've got Collins lying on her stomach so her body doesn’t have to fight so hard to breathe. And to treat the . . . wounds on her back.”

I groaned and tugged at my hair. “Her wings.” My voice broke.

Eloa’s face fell. “Do not yet give up hope on her life or her wings. Fight for them, Bastien.”

I will.

Eloa stood and turned toward her daughter. She must have said something because Sandra cringed and nodded. Eloa took a step to the side, then vanished into thin air. In her wake, Sandra looked like she was going to be sick.

“I’m sorry,” I heard myself say out loud, making Sandra flinch. “It’s my fault?—”

“No.” Sandra shook her head vehemently. “We are all in this together. A decision was made, and we all supported it. We’re on this boat together, whether we rise or fall.”

“All of us,” Nickel said softly. Her hazel eyes were locked on Collins. “Two weeks ago, the twins and I thought all we had to do was defeat Ladarious and get the Astral Stone back. How naive.”

Jada reached over Collins’ body to squeeze Nickel’s hand. “The important thing is that you did succeed. Now you can help us. If we manage to pull this off, then we’ll be ready to help the next Stone Keeper.”

“I’m glad you think so.” I climbed to my feet and the world spun for a moment. When the room stopped moving, I stretched my back and neck. “Can one of you call the twins, please? Ask them to bring Ellie, Stellan, and Savina here. I need their help.”

Jada reached behind her just as her turquoise-tipped-golden wings popped out of her back. She plucked one feather, then scribbled on her skin. Her eyes narrowed on her dark skin for a second, then she nodded. “They’re coming.”

My feet carried me toward Collins’ bed, but as I neared, I saw the blood soaking through the bandages on her back and my heart stopped. I spun away and marched in the opposite direction, then back again. And again. I paced the room, knowing the three Nephilim women were watching me carefully, but there was no way I could sit still and remain sane.

Not while Collins barely clung to life in that bed.

Not while my mother still breathed.

I was on my twentieth lap when the doors to the infirmary flew open. The panicked auras of my mage friends slammed into me, making my stomach tighten into knots. Ellie was the first one through the doors. Her purple eyes were wide and locked on Collins in the bed. She breathed my soulmate’s name and then rushed over. Stellan and Savina stopped just inside the infirmary with matching expressions of horror on their faces. Behind them, the Nephilim twin brothers Weston and Shylock stood with their eyes closed and their lips moving, but there was no sound. I hoped they were praying. She needed all the help she could get in that bed.

Stellan crossed the room but stopped short halfway. He put his hands on his head and cursed. “Did she . . . did she . . . her wings . . .”

I nodded.

Stellan shuddered. “What happened?”

“We went in too confident,” I said with a voice that felt like acid in my throat. “We fell for her trap and were tortured nearly to death. Collins managed to break us free with—” I gasped, “Bart. Where’s Bart?”

A little head made of solid crystal popped up from Collins’ bed, up by her head. I looked and then did a double take. I’d forgotten Collins had somehow managed to shrink Bart down to the size of a tiny puppy before we came through the portal. Now, he sat guard on her bed. It almost made me smile.

Ellie’s eyes glistened. “What . . . was done to her?”

Nickel grimaced. In a soft, whispered voice, she quickly filled Ellie in, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to have any shot at functioning. And I’d called for the mages for a reason.

“Where’s Maren?”

Savina sighed. “There were some issues needing to be addressed at home—nothing serious, but Maren chose to stay and handle them as Queen Consort.”

Ellie frowned. “She’s your soulmate.”

Savina arched one eyebrow. “Um . . . yes. You knew that . . .?”

“No, no, not you.” Ellie lifted Collins’ left hand ever so slightly, just enough to show the single line of black script on her arm. “Collins has a soulmate.”

Stellan’s gaze snapped to my arm. “As does Bash.”

I looked down and found my own mark was visible. A cold chill slid down my spine. “My mother and Venus know now too. They’ve already used that against us.”

They all cursed in various forms.

I stopped and sighed. “I summoned you because I have an idea.”

Savina nodded. “We’re listening.”

“We have to figure out how to sever the bond between my mother and Third Realm, but I haven’t the slightest idea how to do that. It’s magic that I don’t have.” I rubbed my palms together. “So, I thought . . . why don’t I bring Ellie with me into Third Realm and see if her magic can pick up something?”

Silence.

All of them just stared at me with wide eyes and slacked jaws.

But then Ellie nodded. “I’ll go.”

“ What? ” Stellan jumped up off the stool he’d sat on and held his arms out to the side. “No. Hell no. Why would that be an idea for you?”

“Because he’s got to be right.” Ellie stood. “The kind of magic Tephine would’ve wielded to bind herself would be unlike anything Bash knows. That’s mage business.”

“And you’re not the only mage in this room.” Stellan pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll go then.”

I cleared my throat. “Prince Stellan, I have the utmost respect and admiration for you and what you did all these years for your people, so I mean no offense when I tell you that your magic is not the kind I need to fight off my mother or Venus.”

Stellan gasped.

I cringed. “You are powerful, but it won’t be enough against them, and therefore they will pick you off easily.”

Stellan cursed. “I mean, you’re not wrong.”

I pressed my hand to my chest. “I promise I do not ask this of you lightly. My own soulmate lies in that bed because of my rash decision. But we cannot defeat my mother until that bond is severed, and I don’t know how to do that. Ellie’s magic is the best shot I’ve got.”

“I don’t like it at all.” He hung his head. “But I guess I get it.”

Ellie walked around Collins’ bed to stand beside her soulmate. “Stellan, if we don’t help them kill Tephine, she’s just gonna come for us next. We have to.”

I held one hand up. “Let’s make a deal, come with me, and the second there’s any sign of trouble, you take off and get out.”

Savina stepped forward. “I’ll go with you. You may need my . . . touch.”

This almost made me grin. “I would never turn that down.”

Shylock cleared his throat from the doorway. “Might I suggest running this by the big guys upstairs?”