Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

MIKO

W e'd walked into a trap.

There were twenty blood magi in the wide corridor, lined up in two rows of ten, blood dripping from their fingers, eyes blazing pink. Their magic immediately set my guts to roil.

Red mist streamed from Orion's eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

"You won't have him!" I bellowed, unable to move his rigid body.

"I win!" Dawn cried from their mouths. "I win."

A replica moved first, letting out a war cry. He barely got three feet before a flash of red light sent him skidding backward. Slimy energy rippled over me.

Fuck.

"You cannot win!" Dawn's voice bounced off the walls. "You are here because I allow it. I am the end. I am… No! Put it back!"

The ground trembled, a heady scent of cherries filling the room like liberally sprayed air freshener.

"Ori?"

"Put it back!" Dawn screamed.

The magic leaking from Ori turned black, evaporating. He sucked down air, slumping against me.

I held him up. "What happened?"

"Stars…"

"Put the vile fae blood back inside your vile fae body!"

The heads of the magi exploded, a line of balloons popping, spraying blood and brain matter into the air. They all fell, a series of tremors rocking the ground.

"I win. You do not win!" Dawn's voice seeped through the walls. "You do not win!"

Exploding magi heads didn't look like Dawn winning to me.

The tremors stopped, everything silent again.

Ori managed to steady himself against me, holding onto my shoulders. "By the stars."

"What happened?" I asked, smoothing his cheek.

He explained his brief ordeal. His blood resisted Dawn, but not blood magic. Usually. The presence of Dawn changed the rules, Ori's blood pushing through, making those heads go pop as Dawn lost control of the situation.

God, I just wanted this shit over with.

"Doesn't mean Dawn won't recover," Ori added. "We have to keep going. Is my nose broken?"

"No. Should it be?"

He scowled, forehead creasing. "Let's move."

"Can you?"

The glitter in his eyes glinted like steel in sunlight. "Yes."

I loved his bravery, his determination to protect me as much as I wanted to protect him. We were true partners, true mates. Now we just needed to give ourselves a future to explore that bond further.

"Come on," I said.

After a shaky start, he righted himself and walked without my support.

Three replicas stayed with me and Ori in point, the others behind me with my pack. The corridor came to a T-junction, a sign indicating Labs 1–4 to the right, and Labs 5–9 on the left.

"Come on."

We went left, the next corridor wider than before, a series of huge labs behind massive windows on either side of us. Many of the overhead lights seemed to pulse, especially in the first lab on my right. Its window was broken, a severely decayed body slumped over the bottom of the frame. The fucker woke up from its stasis, reaching for a replica. It split in half, the top end landing at the replica's feet, its bottom half hitting the floor on the lab side with a squelchy thud.

Other biters stirred in response to our presence. All slowies, a replica dealing with them before James could.

"I see they're like their daddy," he said.

"Don't ever say that again," I warned my beta.

He shrugged.

The replica waved for my attention, then pointed at a cabinet. Not one of them could speak.

"What is it?" I asked.

He kept on pointing.

My trainers crunched on glass and body parts as I moved past the chrome tables and the wreckage of the lab. But the cabinet remained intact, dry ice swirling behind the glass.

Essence Storage 5.

Eir. Hades. Ares. Thor. Sekhmet.

No Unauthorized Access.

Please handle with care.

More deities.

Great.

I took out Belle, giving her a couple of squeezes before leaving the lab. This shit hurt to read, guilt gnawing at me again with merry abandon.

This is because of me…

Poor Belle got a proper crush for her troubles.

Orion linked his arm with mine. "Okay?"

I nodded, carrying on.

Biters pressed against the windows of the other labs, smearing filth across the glass. The doors were sealed tight, sporting more panels.

Stomping steps restored the tremors on the approach to Lab 8. The sound came from around the corner up ahead, pink light painted across the floor, growing brighter by the inch.

"You will not win," Dawn said calmly with its trademark crackle. "I win. You come to die. I will feed on you. I will grow from you. This is my domain."

A creature rounded the corner, made of pink smoke but properly solid.

"What the fuck?" I said, instinctively shielding Orion.

"Ammit," Paige responded.

The big fucker had the head of acrocodile, front legs like alion, its back legs… What the hell were those? Hippo?

"Or a representation of her," my medic added.

Dawn reared, the ground cracking when it came back down. "I can be anything and everything. I am my own god, not the sum of my parts. And I will be free from this shell. From this binding, stifling existence."

Not so all powerful, then? An artificial god through and through…

I kept that thought locked away.

"What is it you mortals long to hold on to? I have seen your world, the rot within it. Let me give you peace. Let me undo everything."

And then what? Rule over a bunch of zombies? It'd soon get bored.

"Where's your heart?" I clapped back, uninterested in its bullshit.

"My heart is mine, chosen wolf. Not yours. Not to be touched. Not to end. Your blood will not unravel my glory."

Just fuck off.

I saw the sign for Lab 8, its window still intact. If at least one of the replicas slipped past Dawn into it, then?—

Dawn reared again, the paws of its lion legs splitting open. Pink, wormy tendrils wriggled out of them, thrashing, growing in size.

"I will win."

The pink monstrosities burst from the left paw, hitting a replica. The wormy thing snapped taut around its neck, expanding. Another replica tried to free him, the right paw unleashing on him next.

"Fuck!" I barked, charging forward.

Dawn's head opened, a gun rising from its skull.

An actual machine gun.

I stood there dumbfounded, not quite believing my eyes. Back in the day, I'd pass this off as too much beer. One of those rare Saturday nights I got to unwind with my pack. Kick back and drink and stuff my face.

But this was real.

Deadly real.

The gun whirred.

"Christ!" James yelped, slamming the fob onto the panel of Lab 7, bellowing the demanded password.

The door opened, a biter tumbling out. He crashed into the dead woman, his wife right behind him.

Orion grabbed my hand, dragging me to the doorway, shoving some sense into me.

I took the hand of a replica, yanking him inside as the gun let rip.