Chapter 52

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

FRANKIE

Everest was my soulmate.

Everest . . . was my soulmate.

I wanted to cry, scream, and throw up. We were running through the snow to the battle, to our Coven-mates. But I saw nothing. My entire soul was locked on this revelation. Everest was my soulmate. Everything suddenly made so much more sense. In hindsight, it was painfully obvious. In the back of my mind, I registered the sharp chill of the snow hitting my skin and the sounds of the war happening up ahead.

Everest is my soulmate.

I had so many questions.

Bright light flashed in front of me, snapping me out of my mental spiral. Lily was in front of me shining thick streams of golden sunshine from her palms into the battle up ahead. Vampires burst to dust and ash like fireworks left and right. Cooper knocked a dozen vampires out. With one flick of his wrist, they were all asleep.

I looked ahead and my heart sank. Willow had dragons of all colors flying around and shooting flames, which were really being sent by Emersyn. It was incredible. I saw rainbow mist light up the tree line. Tennessee was a monster zooming through the battle.

Sweyn was up there, I saw her white hair and heard her hideous cackle. Saber and Everest were fighting by her side.

Green flames shot up in front of me, causing me to make a sharp right turn. Sam charged for me, her long blonde hair flying behind her like a cape. My soulmate's betrothed. She tackled me into the snow. I tried to push her off, but she had that vampire strength I couldn't overpower. But she wasn't hurting me. Instead, she pressed her palms to my right shoulder and neck and screamed.

Oh no, she knows what this mark means— warmth covered my upper body all the way up to my jaw. I stopped fighting her and looked down. Sam had somehow used magic to cover me up. I looked up to her with wide eyes.

She snarled and dove for the other side of my throat. I gasped.

‘ I'm not gonna hurt you, Frankie. Stop fighting me or it WILL hurt. '

I froze with my hands on my shoulders as her voice echoed in my mind.

‘ Sweyn CANNOT see that soulmate mark on your shoulder. Everest's cover cannot be blown yet, ' s he yelled through my mind. ‘You have to get out of here. Take The Coven and GO. You can't win this tonight, not like this. '

Then I remembered Sam's voice warning us something was coming in the Land of the Lore.

‘ The Unseelie and demons are coming. She made me call for them. The fallen angels are coming, and there's SIX of them now. ' Her voice wasn't screaming anymore, like she was new to this trick. ‘On the count of three, I need you to blast me with as much magic as you can, then run for the arches. '

I nodded enough for her to feel it.

‘ Three . . . two . . . one—NOW!'

I pushed my magic out and into her chest. I threw it with everything I had. Sam screamed and flew up in the air. I scrambled to my feet just as Cooper lunged through the green flames. He reached down and lifted me off the snow and into a sprint.

We made it around to the rest of our Coven-mates. Tenn and Tegan weren't there. Our Coven Leaders were thick in battle, surrounded by Sentinels and Sweyn. Everest was fighting Tennessee but I could tell neither one of them were trying that hard to kill the other. The rest of us were just trying to work through the vampires between us and the arch. But Lily and Cooper were weak from the Land of the Lore. Their magic was flickering.

"BEYOND THE ARCH OF MAGIC'S LANE!" Bentley yelled as he fought off a vampire. "We're weaker here! Conserve your strength!"

"Get to the arch!" Tim shouted. "GO!"

Tegan screamed and rainbow magic exploded out of her. Sweyn shot into the air and crashed into the snow back by the ballroom's shattered windows. But Tegan slid backwards and slammed into the arch.

Everest threw his hand up and the ground shook like an earthquake, throwing us all to the snow. Only Tenn and Everest stood still. We kept trying to get up, but the world trembled too hard. Gravity kept us down. All we could do was watch.

Black liquid bubbled up from beneath the snow. He flexed his fingers and twisted his hand. The liquid looked like tar. He'd summoned pillars made of tar all around Tennessee. The tar moved and pulsed.

And then the tar took the shape of people.

" What the fuck is that? " Easton breathed.

The tar kept morphing until it was shaped like people with weapons. The tar monsters lunged for Tenn. It was twenty on one. They attacked him with expert moves and skill. Tenn was Tenn though. He moved with speed even the vampires didn't have. Michael's sword sliced clean through the tar people, chopping them into pieces. But the second they hit the snow, they just began reforming.

And then Tennessee froze.

His sword lowered.

Cooper and Timothy were crawling in the snow to try and get to him. Kessler was leaping ahead but kept crashing again. Everyone was yelling. Tennessee had just stopped fighting. He'd lowered his sword until the tip of the blade hit the snow. He staggered backwards. The tar monsters he'd already sliced up were reforming already. They were going to ambush him at once.

Tenn just stared at one of them. His face was pale and a little green. His mismatched eyes were wide. " Libby?

My Coven-mates froze.

The tar monster in front of him shined with a red glow from within the tar until the tar was gone, leaving a very human-looking girl standing in its place—a girl with light-brown hair tied in a side braid and hazel eyes . . . a girl with the Roman numerals XV written in faded gray on her left forearm.

Tenn dropped Michael's sword in the snow. " Libby. "

Libby grinned and raised her sword up above her head and grinned. "Did ya miss me?"