Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

GWEN

I knelt, shutting my eyes against the world. The air was heavy with pain and anger. I couldn't tell anymore what was mine and what was Luke's. He lay motionless a few feet away, his profile silhouetted by the light of a hundred falling stars. There was no more life in his blue eyes. Luke was gone.

The void he left seemed to howl around me, cold and bitter as the wind. And yet I felt the heat of triumph creep into my bones. He was gone and I was still here, goddamn it. Still me. Tears filled my eyes, joy, sorrow, loss, and relief distilled into a single shimmering substance.

The dagger struck. It hit me hard like an angry fist, but the searing pain deep between my ribs told me this was something crueler, more penetrating. Alexis.

Wetness trickled down my back, warm blood turning cold in the chill air. I felt the blade withdraw, ready to pierce me again. Through half-closed eyes, I saw him at the edge of the smoldering circle. My breath caught. In his gaze was a fire made of hate and rage and grief. I'd taken his son, his most precious possession. He would kill me now and delight in it. Metal flashed in the starlight. The knife floated inches from my throat.

"No!" Valeria's voice rang out.

The knife flew toward her, out of Alexis's control. Its handle landed safely in her open palm, and she tucked it into the belt of her robe. A second later, a wave of fire discharged from her other hand, bathing the clearing in its glow. It struck Alexis in the chest and he flew back, past the ring of ashes. He landed among the bordering trees and didn't stir.

Blood trickled down my ribs, sticking to the lace of my dress. Drip, drip, drip . Little puddles splattered the ground around my huddled form. The world spun and my body gave out beneath me. From where I lay, I could see Jayden struggling to haul himself out of the earth, Valeria rushing to help him. Their movement was blurred, their voices distant.

All the while, Luke gazed upward, unblinking, one arm outstretched towards me. We lay side-by-side in the dirt like lovers interred together. I, too, turned my eyes to the sky. How many times had I dreamed I was hurtling on a collision course through that endless night? As the cascade passed overhead, I felt the earth, cold and solid beneath me. I was no longer falling. For better or worse, I'd landed.

Part of me grieved the boy I'd just killed. It was like I'd cut a tumor from my heart without anesthesia; I was glad it was gone, but it still hurt like hell. Everything hurt. My ribs were on fire, my breaths weak. It was late, and I was so very tired. I felt my eyelids close, a heavy velvet curtain casting the world around me into sweet darkness.

A hand smacked me smartly across the cheek.

"Stay the hell awake!" Valeria said in her most authoritative tone. "If you die, I'll be so pissed at you."

Her presence was fresh air, cutting through the fog of sleep that surrounded me. I smiled faintly and gripped her outstretched hand in both of mine. She pulled me upward with surprising strength. Somehow, I stood, though the wound in my back burned with fresh pain, and my legs quivered. I didn't know how long I could stay on my feet, but my veins pulsed with adrenaline, the raw will to survive.

Branches crunched to my right. Jayden stood over Max's motionless body, his brows drawn together in concentration, his arm outstretched toward the fallen tree trunk. The ancient tree shuddered but didn't lift from Max's sleeping form. Valeria took one of Jayden's hands. Together, they focused on the tree's impossible weight. I pushed, too, with what strength was left within me.

With a low wooden creak, the tree rose. It trembled in midair long enough for Jayden to grab Max by the shoulders and haul him from beneath the trunk, then it fell back to earth with an echoing thud . Jayden fumbled for something at his neck, a small glass vial, and held it to Max's lips.

I watched Max's eyes flutter open. Color returned to his face. In a moment, he sat up, dazed but grateful. A look passed between them, something only they understood.

"Told you," Jayden said to him with a wink.

Branches snapped abruptly at the edge of the clearing. Alexis stood among the trees. Even in the dim light, I could make out the tense lines of his muscles, his body ready to hurt, to kill. He fixed his gaze on me and summoned the Shadow Spell. But something glinted in the dark above his head, starlight on glass. For a second, I saw it clearly: a bottle filled with something red .

What the hell?

It shattered, showering him with broken glass as the liquid rained down. The elixir sizzled the second it touched his skin. He cried out as steam rose from his face and arms. The Shadow Spell at his fingertips dissolved as he clawed at his eyes.

Valeria laughed as if she'd just remembered some long-forgotten joke. "Looks like Celeste finally found a use for that toxic love potion."

Celeste stepped toward us from the opposite end of the clearing, looking terrified but also pretty pleased with herself.

"Turns out it works great on creeps," she said. "Sorry I'm so late, guys. I never should have left you hanging like that."

She hurried to her brother, stepping protectively in front of him. Though her hands trembled, she held them up like a boxer ready for a fight.

Alexis's skin stopped smoking, and he trained his eyes upon us again. He drew the Shadow Spell into both of his hands—one aimed at Valeria, the other at me, the traitor. I remembered how he had held me in the doorway of that creepy old house, how his embrace had felt like a python tightening its grip around its prey. I forced myself to face him now. Even as the life bled from my body, I would not let him swallow me.

As the Shadow Spell flew at us, we met it with our own magic: sunfire from Valeria's palm, moonfire from mine. It was the first time I'd used my power in unison with Valeria's instead of at odds with it.

The two spells lit the clearing in an eye-watering blaze of crimson and silver. He staggered backward, where we held him for one glorious moment. But he was stronger than us, his power fueled by the agony of a loss we did not feel, hatred we could not equal. I could practically see it radiating off him in toxic waves. Revenge was all he wanted now.

His spell gained on us, striking Valeria first, making her cry out. An icy tendril wrapped around me, cold death forcing itself into every empty space within me. We landed together on the hard ground. The mirror lay in pieces between us, reflecting the Shadow Spell against the black sky.

My eyes met Valeria's, a moment of silent desperation passed between us. Her gaze traveled to the fragmented mirror.

I don't know which of us reached for a piece first. We seemed to move simultaneously, guided by the determination that all would not be lost.

I took the cold glass in my hand, felt it bite into my palm. Together, we aimed our broken pieces at Alexis and resumed the chant.

"Malevolent man, face yourself and see your wrongs—" we choked out the words.

Beside me, Jayden rushed to grab another shard, followed by Celeste.

"Malevolent man, your dominion hath ended." The words were louder now, a chorus of angry voices.

Alexis held the Shadow Spell on us both. Though pain enveloped me, I kept going, kept forcing the words out, each breath a battle won.

In my periphery, Max dragged himself toward us and the mirror. With slow, determined movements, he reached my side and took the final piece. As he joined the chant, our voices became one, neither male nor female, neither old nor young, our words an echo of every struggle against evil. The spell had needed all of us to really work; I could feel it as our voices blended.

With Luke gone, our coven was complete again, every heart emblazoned with the sacred circle, every member working against a common foe.

The mirror had been meant for Luke, but the same malevolent magic ran through Alexis's veins. As I held it, I felt it thirst for his power. A plume of smoke began to rise from his chest. It coiled outward, dividing again and again until it was five black rivers, each flowing toward a different piece of the mirror, the churning darkness emptying itself into the cool silver. The Shadow Spell around our throats loosened, then released. Valeria scrambled to her feet, but I couldn't. With every ounce of strength I had, I held the mirror up to the man before me.

Alexis's face was contorted into a mask of rage and fear. The Shadow Spell gathered at his fingertips, but it was weaker now, diluted like ink mixed with water. His eyes darted wildly over each of us as if he didn't know which one of us to attack first. We held him from all sides, our chant ringing through the trees.

He set his gaze on me, gathered the last of his power, and sent it flying straight at my heart. But the tendrils of his spell were as light and insubstantial as a spider web now. They dissolved harmlessly into the wind. And still the dark stream of magic flowed from his chest, thicker than before, until the last of it emptied out of him into our mirror. When it was done, the shards were stained a sickly black.

Alexis hit the ground like a felled tree, landing near Luke in the bloody dirt. His face was pale, his expression blank. He'd become an empty vessel, a shell. His son was dead. His power was lost. There was nothing left for him now. No revenge, no dominance, no Meteoric Union. I stared at him, unashamedly transfixed by his ruin. His eyes were like Luke's, only so much older. He glared at me, blinked once, and those blue eyes closed forever.

The last drop of adrenaline seemed to drain out of me. Blood still poured from my wound. I hadn't felt it until now—its warmth running down my ribs, my heartbeat growing weaker with each spilled drop. My grip on the mirror released, and I collapsed.

Luke was gone. Alexis was gone. And soon, I would be too. The pain that seared between my ribs grew fainter. Tears blurred my vision. I had just taken that first, terrifying step into a world where I answered to no one, clung to no one—I had been ready for that. But it was over now.

Above me, a few weak rays of sunlight began to emerge from behind the darkened moon. I heard the shouts of the others, their quick footsteps on the ground. They were alive. Valeria was alive. Everything else was just a drop in that ocean of sky.

Jayden's voice sounded in my ear. He was saying something, urging me to do something.

"Drink," he said again.

Cold glass touched my lips, and I tasted bitter herbs. My body warmed as the liquid trickled down my throat. I hadn't realized how cold I'd been until the moment I wasn't. My breaths grew deeper, easier. All the hurt I held inside seemed to empty into the gaping sky. At last, I slept.