Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41

CAMERON

T his couldn't be happening. There had to be a way to stop it. Derek, can you sense me? Where are you? Help us. Find us.

But the connection between me and my shield is ominously silent.

No one intervened when Yarrow released us from our cells. No one came when we attacked him and he blasted us into the wall with an expulsion of power. And no one came as we were led up two flights of stairs into a large circular room with a domed glass ceiling.

A raised circular platform sat at its center, and arcane symbols painted the stone walls and the cream marble floors.

"This is it," Yarrow said. "My Channel."

"This isn't a machine," Serath said.

"Oh, but it is. A mystical machine that has taken decades to perfect. Every symbol, every rune is in the perfect place now, and when the moon hits its apex in a few minutes, we can begin."

A door on the far side of the chamber opened, and a woman dressed in dark slacks and a cream blouse clipped into the room. Her mouth was a ruby pout, dark hair piled high on her head to leave her slender neck exposed.

"The beasts are ready when you are, boss," she said to Yarrow.

Beside me, Serath tensed.

The woman looked over at him and smiled, a small, smug smile that made my skin crawl.

I stepped closer to my mate on instinct. "Do you know her?"

Serath made a soft choked sound.

"Serath?"

"Ah, I see you remember Yolina," Yarrow said, his mouth turning down slightly. "She played the part of Cameron in our clinical consummation." He shot me an apologetic look. "Creating a chemical reaction requires some physical manipulations, I'm afraid. You weren't supposed to remember, Serath. I'm sorry that you do."

" I'm not," Yolina said. "You were simply delightful."

All the color drained from Serath's face, and my stomach dropped with the awful realization of what had happened to him. Heat rushed from my toes to my head, and I rushed the bitch, swinging my fist to break her face.

An invisible barrier sprang up between us, knocking me on my ass.

She laughed, husky and throaty. "Aw, look at you, getting all riled up. Don't you like to share?"

The pulse in my throat beat hard and fast, and my vision bled to crimson. "I'm going to kill you."

She leaned in. "No, you're not. When the new world hits, I'm going to shackle you to a wall and make you watch while I fuck your mate."

"Enough!" Yarrow snapped. "Yolina, we discussed this."

She rolled her eyes and looked over at him. "You promised me a boon. And I want him." She pointed at Serath.

Serath's chest rumbled, a low growl spilling free of his lips a moment before he charged, slamming through the barrier as if it was nothing to grab Yolina by the throat.

She squealed, legs kicking as he hauled her into the air.

"You die now." His voice was thick and bestial.

"No!" Yarrow roared.

Serath staggered back, dropping Yolina, who made a break for the exit. She paused to look back at us, sly smile on her face, hand on her throat. Later , she mouthed before vanishing.

Any sympathy I'd had for Yarrow died. "You're a monster. How could you let her violate him?"

Yarrow's eyes flinched. "Sacrifices must be?—"

"Fuck you! You're sick. How can you think any of this is okay?"

Serath stood, shoulders slumped.

I went to touch him, and he flinched away. My heart hurt. "I'm sorry…"

He turned to me, shaking his head. "No…" He pulled me into his arms. "I'm okay. I'll be okay."

But he wasn't. I could feel his distress, his disgust, and his horror through our bond. He'd forgotten, but seeing her had reminded him. The only way to help him heal would be to end the bitch's life.

The door opened again, and this time the other graynites came in. They had a glazed look about them, as if they were here but not here. They took up position around the chamber, standing on specific symbols as if they'd been ordered to.

Ordered by Yarrow.

Yarrow was the voice.

Of course he was.

"What are you doing to them?" Serath asked.

"Let me show you." Yarrow tipped his head to the side, and Serath cried out in shock.

"Serath!" I made to grab him but was pushed away from him by an unseen force. His head fell back, his eyes closed, and his body slumped even though he remained upright.

"That's right. Sleep," Yarrow said.

"No!" I rushed forward again, and this time, the disembodied shove sent me into the wall, where an invisible pressure held me firm. "Let me go!"

"Calm down," Yarrow snapped. "Once this is over, you can have him back. Both of them." He gave me a knowing look that made my stomach hurt. "I'm allowing you to live, Cameron. I'll help your body adjust to my new world. You and Serath. Consider it an apology for all the pain you've been through. This is the last step. Don't make me change my mind."

"It's all right, Cameron," Serath said. No. Not Serath—Ubron. Awake now that Serath was asleep. "It will be all right."

Yarrow tipped his head to one side again. His eyes glowed brightly, and Ubron jerked forward, his limbs moving stiffly like a marionette.

"Stop fighting me." Yarrow's voice echoed around us, and Ubron moved faster, coming to stand at a spot opposite me. He had the same glazed look on his face as the other graynites now. Under Yarrow's control just like them.

How could Yarrow have so much power? "You could have made people do what you wanted all this time. Why use blackmail and subterfuge?"

"I didn't have this power back then. I had to gather it. Earn it, and let it grow until it was truly needed. Tonight I will finally use it." He climbed the steps to the platform and stood, arms loose at his sides.

The light of the moon filtered down on him, spreading across the room as the moon moved across the sky. The symbols on the ground, where the silvery light touched, began to glow.

My stomach tightened. We were running out of time. "Yarrow, please don't do this. Please stop."

He kept his face tilted, ignoring me.

"Dammit! Yarrow, this is wrong, and deep down you know it. Razing this world won't right the wrongs done to you. Bringing your sister back at the costs of countless lives isn't noble; it's monstrous, and it'll make you just as bad as the coven that used you."

"Shut up!" His voice boomed in my head, and my body froze. "Shut up or I will kill you. I may not have had the power a week ago, or the week before that, but right now, this close to the alignment, I have the power to snap your neck with a mere thought."

"Blake?" Flora rushed into the room. "Blake, what are you doing? What's happening? They said I'm not me. They said I'm a remnant. Blake. I'm scared."

Yarrow tore his gaze from me, releasing me from my temporary paralysis but not from the power that held me to the wall. He turned to the remnant of his sister. "It's all right, Flora. Everything is all right. Just close your eyes."

She swallowed a sob and nodded. "Okay. All right." She closed her eyes.

"Good. You can sleep now, Flora. Sleep and become the dream that you always were."

Her body shimmered, and then it disintegrated into a billion tiny motes of essence that glittered as they drifted up into the air before melting to nothing.

Oh…Oh no… "You killed her."

"She was never truly alive," he said softly. "She served a purpose, but now…" He tipped his head back to the sky. "Now I will bring the real Flora back."

The moon hit the center of the dome, and the chamber flared with silvery light from all the arcane symbols. The graynites jolted and stood ramrod straight as power washed over them in a shimmer of blue, then with a whoosh energy shot out of each graynite and lanced across the chamber to smash into Yarrow. He cried out in triumph, his body shivering and shuddering in the grip of such immense power.

"The bloodlines that closed the way will now open it," Yarrow cried. "The blood of this world melded with the blood of the other will open the way. The cycle is complete." He threw out his arms, and a thick jet of silver power rushed up toward the dome and smashed through the glass and into the night as if reaching for the moon itself.

"Yes!" Yarrow cried. "Yes, it's finally happening."

I'd seen movies like this. Where the bad guy laughed manically as he hurtled closer to completing his evil plan. How cheesy. How fucking pathetic. But now, trapped in the real-world version of that scenario, with dark magic swirling around the room and slicing at my skin, my lungs were gripped with ice, and my insides trembled with horror.

Thunder rolled toward us, and the world above flashed bright with lightning.

"It's done!" Yarrow cried.

In the movies, the hero always saved the day. Bursting in at the last minute or breaking out of their bonds to stop the ancient ritual. But there would be no heroic save here. No last-minute reprieve for our world.

Yarrow had done it.

He'd opened the rift.

And we were all doomed.