Chapter Twenty-Three

CHARLIE

The Warden was one sick fuck, watching us like a sadistic pig while we roamed the camp, waiting in the wings while we took in the devastation. He was showing off. He wanted us to experience everything he'd done and all he was capable of before he finished us off.

The spell had blasted us back fifty feet or more. I became disoriented as my head smashed against a large rock. I knew I had some sort of concussion, because it fucking hurt. Blood gushed from a wound on my head, and my pulse pounded in my ears.

The desert spun around me, and the Warden's words sounded like they were coming from under water. He'd appeared so quickly that none of us had a chance to react. I couldn't make much sense of anything, until I felt his magic swell once more. I knew he must be going in for the kill. If what Ghost said was true, then the Warden's power was unmatched, even for demigods like us. We were entirely defenseless.

Power that could rival a nuclear explosion burst toward us as the Warden cast his devastating spell— the same one he'd used to kill all the camp's victims at once. At the same time, my bond with Ava flared, and I felt all my magic drain out of me. Oberi gave a panicked cry, and I realized Ava was pulling from every resource she possibly could to cast her spell. Oberi and I both gave her our power, and Spirit magic exploded out of her. A Spirit shield stronger than any spell we'd cast before bloomed upward to encompass us all.

The Warden's power collided with Ava's shield, and the Spirit magic shattered. His magic blew through her shield and slammed into us, tossing us all back another twenty feet.

My breath left my chest, and pain radiated up and down my body as bruises formed all over. It felt like being pummeled by five dragon shifters all at once.

All around us, buildings screeched as they toppled over. The water tower crashed to the ground, making a huge sloshing noise as a wave spread across the camp. The Warden's blow had leveled the entire camp flat. Ava's shield was the only thing that had kept us from being torn to pieces.

Even now, she was the only one that had a chance of standing up to him.

Only a residual bit of magic remained within me, just enough to make out my surroundings. I didn't think I could cast another spell right now if I tried. Forget making illusions; even something as simple as creating a breeze or making a plant bloom would make me faint. Ava had needed every drop of our power to protect us from the Warden's blast, and now I had nothing left to give. The bond between Oberi and me seemed to flicker out of existence, though it didn't shatter. Oberi must've passed out.

Magic swelled one more time, and Ava gave a weak cry as she struggled to form another shield. It didn't come. Her first shield had taken everything we had, and it hadn't been enough. She was drained, exhausted, and unable to cast.

A different type of power bloomed in front of us, and I recognized it as portal magic. Loud shouts met my ears, along with the clang of armor. Battle magic sizzled through the air, and the Warden gave a primal scream that grew distant with each passing second. Someone had caught him by surprise and blasted him backward, but I couldn't make sense of who it was.

"You will not touch them!" a brave voice yelled. I realized it was my grandfather, arriving at the last second to rescue us.

"I will put you in the ground for hurting my daughter, you sick bastard!" Queen Emmaline's voice boomed over the area. She must've been the one to make the portal that brought backup here.

As I gathered my bearings, I was able to make more sense of my surroundings. I felt the powerful surge of Toaqua magic, as well as the chaotic buzz of a Death warlock's power. Kallie's mom wasn't the only one who'd come. Liam and Lucas were here, too.

"Your highness!" Eldin shouted. Her footsteps raced over to where I thought my wife had fallen, though I couldn't be sure. The desert continued to spin around me.

Someone grabbed my shoulder, dragging me to my feet. "Come on, Charlie!" Cameron's voice barked. "We have to go!"

I shoved at him weakly, but he held a firm grip. My limbs felt like they were made of sludge, and I could barely stand on my own two feet. The Warden's blast had taken a lot out of me, but I wasn't ready to give up. "We have to stay and fight!"

"Go, Charlie!" Cassiel barked from several feet away. "You never should've come here! You need to get out!"

Illusion magic filled the camp, and Emma gave a harrowing battle cry. The heavy sound of massive footsteps came, followed by the roar of a great beast. Emma had conjured an illusion monster that must've towered a hundred feet above us, and sent it charging at the Warden.

The Warden's maniacal laugh came in response. I heard the illusion monster groan in pain, then the ground shook as his magic took it down, shattering the queen's spell into a million pieces. Emma gave a cry of rage and sent illusion spells racing at the Warden, but he batted them all away, redirecting her own spells back at her. One of them hit her, and Emma gave a cry of pain as it forced her to the ground.

Our allies didn't miss a beat. Though Emma was down, droplets spread across the area as Liam drew water from the dirt where the water tower had fallen. His rage-filled scream filled the area as he sent a massive wave down upon the Warden with the intent to drown him.

The Warden merely flapped his wings and shot out of the water before blasting Liam backward. Liam grunted as the blast hit him, slamming into the earth.

Death magic permeated the camp, so strong the air began to develop a ghostly chill. Bones clicked against each other as Lucas' power surged out of him, turning his body into the skeleton of a reaper. I heard grunts of pain come from Lucas as he struggled to work his necromancy magic on the Warden.

"I'm trying to rip his soul out, but it's not working!" Lucas shouted, sounding frightened.

Shit. That wasn't good. Lucas was a master reaper, the highest caster of Death magic there was. If he couldn't rip the Warden's soul out, nobody was going to be able to.

The spell backfired, and Lucas went flying off his feet. He landed twenty yards from where he'd been standing, the sound of his clicking bones gone. He groaned as he stood upright.

It all happened within seconds, and it became abundantly clear that despite how powerful our allies were, they were no match for the Warden.

"It's not fucking working!" Emma cried. "He's impenetrable!"

"I'll deal with Doctor Taurus!" my grandfather shouted. "Get the children out of here!"

Another portal blossomed nearby at Emma's command. She started shoving people through, yelling at them to hurry into the portal and back to the city.

Fuck that. I wasn't going to leave my grandfather to deal with this alone. The small bits of power I had left surged through me, but I hadn't cast a spell before a hand that wasn't my father's landed on my shoulder, pushing me back.

I slumped to my knees, becoming weak as the rest of my power surged out of me and into another. Disbelief rattled my entire being. I refused to believe it, but when I tried to cast a spell and it wouldn't come, I had to face the truth.

Cassiel had siphoned the remainder of my magic for himself. He didn't want me to fight. He wanted me to flee, and be safe, while he took the blows for me. I sagged against the ground, and Cameron wrenched on my shirt to get me back upright.

My grandfather turned and sprinted toward the Warden, and I heard him draw his sword. Metal clanged, then came the sickening— or perhaps satisfying— squish of flesh and crunch of bone.

Something heavy flew through the air, smacking me in the stomach. Warm blood soaked into my shirt.

I realized that what hit me had been the Warden's decapitated head. My grandfather had just sliced his head from his shoulders!

Relief flowed through me so heavily I wanted to sob. Finally— after nightmarish years of fighting this horrible man, the Warden was fucking dead. My grandfather had killed him. This was all over.

Then… from below me came a horrifying sound. The Warden's laughter. I realized it was right below me, coming from the Warden's mouth, even though his head was no longer attached to his body.

Before I could fully process it, his laughter began to grow distant… like his head was rolling across the ground back toward his body, his hands commanding his disembodied skull to return to his headless body.

No. This couldn't be happening.

"This is impossible," Chancey gasped from a few paces away. "You decapitate an angel, and they die. Every time. I've never seen this happen before."

There was an awful, slick sound as muscle knitted back together and arteries mended themselves. The Warden cracked his neck as he placed his head back on his body, reattaching it like my grandfather had never cut it off at all.

"You are all fools," the Warden mocked. "I cannot die."

"Leave now, Charlie!" Cassiel order. "Don't come after me, no matter what!"

It absolutely petrified me that, for the first time in my life, I heard fear in his voice. My grandfather never got scared. He was always courageous, even when the situation was dire.

His tone told me that he knew we were going to lose, and that sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. Except this time… I was the greater good.

And he was the sacrifice.

Cameron yanked on my arm. My friends' voices disappeared as Emma, Liam and Lucas pulled them through the portal.

"We can't leave!" Ava yelled at Eldin, and I knew from the bottom of my heart she was trying to fight her guard off. "I order you to let me go!"

"I cannot," Eldin replied firmly. "Our orders from the Emperor are to get you out of here, and his commands are above yours."

"We have to help!" I shrieked. "Let me go!"

"You're not going anywhere," my father hissed, and he pulled me in the direction of the portal, despite me fighting him the whole way.

I would condemn myself to the worst pain the supernatural world knew before I allowed Cassiel to die here alone. I would not let him go down, and if he did, I would go down with him. I'd die with my grandfather, because that's what family did, and that's all I ever wanted. My father would not prevent me from perishing at my grandfather's side, because that's where I belonged. I drew my fist back and punched Cameron hard in the face. He reeled back at the blow, but his grip on me only tightened.

"We have to go!" Cameron screamed. He looped his arm around my neck to put me in a headlock. My concussion pounded with pain, disorientation growing stronger as I struggled to breathe.

"Where's your demigod army?" Cassiel taunted the Warden.

"Off following my orders in other parts of the world," the Warden replied coolly. "I don't need them to kill you all."

My father dragged me back while I struggled to free myself from his hold. The tingle of illusion magic filled the desert. My grandfather must've been using it to blind the Warden. It worked for a split second, giving my grandfather enough time to race forward. The Warden merely scoffed, and the illusion broke.

But Cassiel was already within arm's reach.

The Warden gave a gurgling sound as my grandfather grabbed him by the throat. The Warden's shoes made a scratching sound against the sand as Cassiel lifted him off the ground with one hand, strangling him.

I knew what his plan was. The Warden was too strong physically, but my grandfather knew exactly where to hit him. He was using his Elf power to turn the Warden's own memories against himself, pulling out the Warden's worst recollections and replaying them back to torture and weaken him. My grandfather wasn't usually powerful enough to read demigod memories, but when he siphoned my magic, it must've given him just enough of an edge against the Warden to do so.

"These memories… can't hurt me," the Warden rasped.

"Remember who you are," Cassiel urged. "Your father would be disappointed in you. You think you're so powerful, but you're merely a worthless, weak child who everyone thought would grow up to be nothing, and you're still nothing. Everyone picked on you and kicked you around, and instead of learning from your past, you just turned into the people you despised."

My grandfather's memory magic resonated throughout the camp in waves, so powerful that it hit me square in the chest. The desert seemed to close in on me, and my own screams faded until everything around me was happening in slow motion.

A heavy fist sank into my stomach, and images began to form inside my mind. I saw the remnants of the camp flying by me, until I was lying on my back in the middle of a crater formed by the impact of my body. I continued to scream, but my voice was far off in the distance. Without choosing to, I rose from the crater to my feet.

It was then that I realized what was happening. My grandfather's powers were so intense that he was projecting his memories of this moment outward, so that I could see what was happening in real time through his eyes. I didn't think he intended for it to happen. He was so focused on killing the Warden that his powers had flared beyond anything I'd seen him use before, and now, I was witnessing it all.

Cassiel stood to face the Warden. The Warden was at least fifty feet away, and he gave my grandfather a wry smile, like he merely found this amusing. In the blink of an eye, Cassiel shot a battle orb at the Warden that was crackling with power. It blasted straight through the Warden's chest, leaving a mangled hole where his heart should be. I saw organs, like his lungs, poking through the hole, as well as gnarled rib bones.

The Warden merely walked forward without missing a beat. His chest began to heal itself automatically, and the hole in his body that the battle orb had made became nothing more than a burn in the Warden's suit.

I felt my grandfather's panic like it was my own emotion. He took a step back, but the Warden had already spread his wings. He launched himself on Cassiel and grabbed him by the collar.

The Warden flew high into the sky, and the camp became smaller and smaller with each passing moment. Through my grandfather's eyes, I saw that our friends were already gone. Liam carried Oberi through the portal, until only Ava and I still remained.

The Warden must've flown my grandfather a mile up before spiraling downward, punching him through the sky. Cassiel spun through the air and landed on the ground so hard I heard the crunch of bones as the Warden's fists smashed him into the Earth.

Delirious pain surged through my grandfather's body, and he cried out in agony. Still, Cassiel didn't give up. He staggered to his feet, ignoring the pain of his broken leg and wiping the blood from his face as the Warden landed in front of him.

Cassiel lifted a hand, and tendrils of magic began to siphon out of the Warden. He staggered, forcing his crushed arm to remain outstretched as he struggled to take the Warden's abilities, giving moans of anguish as he did so.

The Warden merely smirked. "You cannot siphon my power, you filthy Elf. You will never be able to contain it, for I am more powerful than anyone in this universe has ever been."

Cassiel's body sagged, and he fell to his knees. The power he tried to siphon was already too much, and he couldn't take it. It was terrifying to watch. My grandpa was so powerful, and yet, the Warden acted like his power was nothing.

The Warden gave a smug grin as he stepped toward my grandfather. "I cannot thank you enough, Emperor Cassiel. You kept your people alive for all those years, so that one day, their power could become mine. My siege on Forevermore was merely the beginning. Now, I shall have the world."

Cassiel didn't have time to react. A bright light emanated from the Warden's palm and slammed into my grandfather's chest. His back arched, and his face turned toward the heavens. Complete anguish tore through me as my grandfather's cries echoed across the camp, and I screamed along with him.

My grandfather's pain permeated the memory, projecting outward so that I felt everything. The light magic felt like razor blades slicing through each nerve ending, separating muscle from bone and skin from flesh, scorching him into nothing more than fragments of skin and bone. The light magic tore away at Cassiel's body, consuming him as a covetous, unsatisfiable blaze.

The light grew in intensity, until it became blinding. An explosion sounded, and my grandfather's memory projection ended, until all images washed away from my mind.

Air swept by my feet, sending dust particles swirling around me. Embers fell upon my face from the sky and smeared across my clothes.

It… it was my grandfather.

The Warden had turned him completely to ash.

Ava's tormented cry died as Eldin dragged her through the portal. She had seen it all.

A chill spread across my skin as I felt the touch of a soul, and one last image washed through my mind. My grandfather's spirit ran through me on his way to the great beyond, and I witnessed his kind smile as he whispered, "I love you, my grandson. I cherished the time we had together."

Then… he was gone. It all happened so fast. I didn't even realize he was dead until his voice had faded from my mind forever.

Tears streamed down my face as despair consumed me, and I let out a cry of sorrow. I understood what grief was, because I'd experienced it so many times, but this was different. I'd lost the light that had guided me, and now, I was surrounded by darkness again. My grandfather had made me feel like I was a part of something, and now that he was gone, I might as well be out by myself on the streets all over again.

The palace, my title… it all meant jack shit, because it couldn't repair the damage my grandfather had left behind with his passing. It was an enormous loss, one that changed the fabric of who I was and molded me into someone different in a matter of moments without me realizing it.

I just wanted someone to be there, and not go away. Everyone I loved died, and if they didn't, they turned their back on me. I'd prayed my entire life to find a parent that gave a damn about me, and the second I got one, the universe ripped him away.

The Warden hadn't just killed my grandfather. He had trapped him in the in-between, never able to move on to the Blessed Haven. The Warden had imprisoned him, like he'd imprisoned me. Except this time, it was permanent, and my grandfather would have no escape.

Pure agony turned to unadulterated rage. Cameron yanked me toward the portal, but I gathered all my strength to pull away from him.

"I'm going to kill the Warden!" I screamed. I didn't care that I didn't have any magic at my disposal, that I was alone, that this was a useless attempt to stop a god. I'd murder that motherfucker with my bare hands for taking my grandfather away. I didn't need any demigod powers. I just needed my rage, and the Warden was going to feel every bit of my wrath before I took his worthless life. Every hurt and pain and bit of suffering that I'd ever been through, from the time I'd been born to now, surged out of me and begged to be summoned, so I could make someone else feel every awful thing that I'd ever felt in my meaningless existence.

I didn't care if I died anymore. I only cared if the Warden went down with me.

"He can't be beat," Cameron said, his voice choked with grief. "I'm sorry, Charlie."

A heavy blow hit me from behind, and that was it before the portal sucked us through and the camp disappeared completely. My mind went completely blank as I passed out.

My last thought was of my grandfather, and what he'd given up. He'd exchanged his life for mine, but it wasn't a gift that I wanted. He'd made the wrong choice. My enemies could take my life, because I didn't want it anymore. It wasn't worth living if I experienced these short moments of happiness and had them stolen away from me. I was tired of always ending up alone.

So I swore to myself that I wouldn't. Not ever again. No matter what I had to do, or what price I had to pay, I wouldn't allow anyone else I loved to be taken from me.

If I had to become a monster to do it, so be it. By the ancestors, I swore, I wasn't losing anyone else.

Even if I had to force them to stay.