Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

CAMERON

T he power holding me against the wall slackened, and I slipped free and fell to the floor. Around me, the energy streaming from the graynites dimmed. I summoned my beast, urging her to rise and loan me her strength, then ran at Ubron and shoved him with all my might.

He fell to the side, snapping free of the connection.

"It's too late!" Yarrow called. "It's done." He continued to stand there, head tipped up, power streaming from his body.

If it was done, then why was he still channeling? No, there had to be time.

"Ubron? Serath?" I slapped his cheeks. "Wake up!"

He blinked, his gaze sharpening. "Cameron…"

"Ubron?"

"Yes. What happened?"

"He's opening the rift. We have to stop him."

Conflict chased across his features, and it hit me: the rift was his way home, and despite what he'd said about not wanting our world to be decimated, now that the rift was open, he had the option of leaving.

"Ubron…please help me save my people."

He pulled himself to his feet and rolled his powerful shoulders. "His voice is weakening. I believe the more he channels, the less he can control us. Let's wake up my brothers, and we will end him now, while he is weakest."

He charged the nearest graynite, and I beelined for the other one. We snapped them out of the arcane circle one by one while Yarrow merely laughed, unconcerned.

"You're wasting your time," he said. "You can't hurt me. No one can. Not anymore." Dark tendrils of power snaked into the chamber from above and wrapped around him before seeping onto his skin to create a network of inky veins. "I'm ascending just as promised."

The graynites, free from his spell, gathered. "No…" Ubron said. "This can't be. Not here. Not again."

"What is it?"

"The cosmic taint. We've seen it infect many worlds in many forms. Sentient in some places, dormant in others, it feeds on mystical energy and the life force of all things, and it seems in this case it has infected the weave somehow."

"Then we take him down," Enron said. "Now."

"Only the elites can kill him."

"These bodies are from the elite bloodlines, are they not?" Sazon said.

"Yes," Ubron replied.

"Then we do this."

Ubron dropped me a nod then turned to his team. "Attack!"

They rushed Yarrow, converging on him in force, and for a moment, hope bloomed inside me, but a shockwave had the graynites spiraling away from him. They hit the ground, shook off the effects of the mystical blow, then rushed him again.

Once again, they were expelled.

The doors opened, and several cloaked figures ran into the room.

Alchemists!

And they were led by Yolina. The bitch.

Rage bubbled up and stole my reason as I ran at her. I caught her on the side of the head with a solid blow before claws dug into my mind and agony stole all reason.

Feminine laughter rose over the sizzle and crackle of magic, and the talons of alchemist influence sliced deeper.

"No!" a male voice yelled.

The alchemist control on me snapped.

Derek stood in front of me, his body brimming with power as he faced off against the alchemists. They moved closer, forming a circle around us.

"The woman…" I stood slowly, my beast rising to press against my skin. "You keep the alchemists busy. I want the woman."

Derek attacked the alchemists with a jet of power, and I dove at Yolina.

She tried to make a run for it, but I grabbed her by the hair and hauled her back.

"Let me go, you bitch!" she squealed.

I gripped her throat and slammed her into the wall.

Her eyes widened in panic. "Don't. Please. Don't. I'm like you. I need sex to survive. I was just trying to survive."

Like me? A fae blood? A Baboahan sidhe? Yes…I felt the kinship now. But that was where the similarity ended. "You're nothing like me. I would never take what wasn't freely given."

"You would if you were starved. If fire ants were crawling beneath your skin." Her words meant nothing. All I saw was Serath's face. All I felt was his pain.

"We're not the same, Yolina. Because faced with the same choice, I'd rather fucking die." I snapped her neck.

"Cameron," Derek said. "More alchemists are coming."

And Yarrow was still channeling. "We have to stop Yarrow."

The graynites were flagging.

"We need the elite," Derek said. "They're on their way."

"Keep the alchemists busy until help arrives." I rushed to join the graynites as they attacked the platform.

Together we hit the barrier, pushing through slightly before being banished back.

"He's weakening," Ubron yelled. "Keep going."

We hit him again and again.

"Cameron!" Melanie beckoned from across the room. But she'd have to wait.

Shadows blocked out the moon.

Gargoyles!

Shar, Orix, and Curi, carrying Levi.

Yarrow screamed with rage as they dropped through the dome and surrounded his platform.

The energy coming out of him sputtered and died.

He wilted, breathing hard and heavy, amber eyes glowing with triumph. "You're too late. It's done."

"And so are you," Orix said.

We attacked him as one—five graynites and four gargoyles—elite bloodlines. A sharp crack filled the air, and his barrier dropped.

Enron grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air.

All this time I hadn't thought to wonder how the elite would kill the alpha. How it had always been said that they could do it if they were together, but in that moment, a pulsing connection formed between us all, tying us together in a web of power that filtered through to the graynite holding Yarrow aloft.

"Stop," Yarrow pleaded. "You're making a mistake. You need me. The rift is open, and you'll need me."

"No one needs you," Enron sneered.

Bone snapped.

Yarrow's head tipped to the side, eyes going dull and blank.

The graynites cried out in unison and fell onto their knees.

All except Ubron, who stood watching as golden ethereal mist rose from the graynites' bodies.

The infernals were free, and the bodies they left behind morphed to humanoid form.

Romi? I fell to my knees beside him. "Romi, oh god!"

He looked at me blearily. "Cameron?"

"Yes." I bit back a sob. "Yes, it's me. It's me and you're here." I blinked back tears and wrapped my arms around him.

He tensed then hugged me back. "I…I was dreaming."

"You're awake now. You're safe now."

"The rift is open," Ubron said to his brothers. "Go now. Go home." The golden forms hesitated, hovering close before flying away.

He watched them leave, a look of raw longing on his face.

"Ubron?"

He shook his head. "We must move. The gray will be coming."

Fuck. We'd failed. Failed to stop it.

Around me, the room fell into silence because everyone had realized the same thing.

But the sounds of battle still raged outside.

"Cameron." Melanie appeared beside me. "You can stop it. There's a way." She held out her hand and opened it to offer me a ring. "This can close the rift, but you're the only one that can wear it."

"What is that?" Ubron demanded.

"What's going on?" Romi asked.

"The shedim queen's power, your grandmother's power. It's tied to the power of every fallen shedim since then," Melanie said. "It should be enough to close the rift, but only a female shedim of the royal bloodline can wield it. If we get to the rift fast enough, you can use it without it harming you because you won't have to channel it all."

"What is fast enough?" Derek asked. "How will we know?"

"If the gray is seeping through, then…" Melanie shook her head. "I can't…" She made to take back the ring, but I snatched it from her.

This was no time for second thoughts. "Derek, can you get me there?" He stared at me in horror. "Dammit, Derek, we're wasting time!"

"Yes, I can get you there."

"Cameron, what the fuck is going on?" Romi demanded. The other goyles, free of the infernals, looked just as confused.

"Orix will explain everything, but I have to go."

"I'm coming too," Ubron said.

"I can't transport you both," Derek said.

"Then I will meet you there." He shot up through the hole in the ceiling and vanished.

I stepped into Derek's arms. "I'll be right back, guys."

"You fucking better," Shar said. "If that rift is too big, you get the fuck out of there. Derek, you bring her back. You hear me?"

I wrapped my arms around my shield. "Let's go."

Shar rushed forward. "Cameron! Cameron, promise me?—"

The world shifted, melting away and reforming a moment later as a deserted landscape painted purple and blue by the crackling aperture that split our world in two.

It rose so high into the sky I couldn't see where it ended. Fifty feet wide and growing, gray matter churned beyond it, held back by an unseen force, but for how long, because already tendrils were seeping out from the edges of the rift and spilling into our atmosphere.

Oh…Oh no…

I looked up at Derek seeing my realization echoed in his face.

"We go back," Derek said. "It's too late."

I wanted to agree. Wanted to run, but… "If we go back, then everyone dies."

He held me tighter. "My Cameron…I cannot let you do this."

I didn't want to do it. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to run away, but if I ran, then I'd doom my world. "This isn't your decision, Derek, it's mine. I need to do it now. Before Ubron or anyone else gets here." Because seeing him, seeing Serath or any of my friends would weaken me. Would make me doubt and then…then everyone I loved would die. "Please…" I swallowed past the tightness in my throat. "I need you to tell me that it's okay. That…that everything will be okay. I need you to make me strong."

His diamond eyes glowed bright in the night, gleaming with unshed tears. "It will be all right. Everything will be all right."

I pushed up on my toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek, then stepped away from him, slipping the ring onto my finger and biting back a gasp as its power rippled over my skin. My beast roared and surged up to the surface with a violence I'd never known. I arched as pain tightened my limbs, and in the next moment, I was rising higher and higher until I was looking down on Derek.

He stared up at me in awe. "My Cameron…You are magnificent."

I held out my arm, stone gray but shimmering with a ruby essence. My hands were clawed, my feet huge, taloned monstrosities that could crush a human. Pressure bloomed on either side of my spine, and tears burned my eyes as I felt my new wings stretch and catch the air.

I was free. Whole for the first and last time. But there was no time to savor it.

"I love you, Derek…Tell them all…Tell them I love them." I turned away, and he grabbed my hand.

"No, Cameron. I am your shield, and we do this together."

The rift cracked and expanded. I wanted to take him with me. To not be alone in this, but I'd be damned if I did that to Shar.

"Not this time, Derek. Go live. Live for us both." I palm-punched his chest, sending him flying, then launched myself toward the rift.

Someone hollered my name, but I ignored it.

There could be no doubt. No second-guessing. No fear.

I closed my eyes and hurtled toward the rift.