Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44

UbrON

W ake up, Serath. Wake up, damn you!

I can't get to her.

I won't get to her.

He won't see. He won't get to see.

I push deep into the gray place inside me, grab hold of his consciousness, and drag him up and out.

SERATH

I surface mid-flight and hurtle toward the ground before catching myself and rising. Where am I? What's happening? What is that…Oh no. The rift. There's something flying into it.

Ubron answers in my head . Cameron…She's going to die…

"NO!" I push myself, wings beating harder and faster than ever before as I eat away at the distance between us.

But I won't make it.

I won't fucking make it.

"Cameron! No!"

CAMERON

The gray rushed to greet me, and the power emanating from the ring tightened its grip on my body, squeezing and seeping into me in waves of heat that intensified with each beat of my heart. The energy coalesced at my solar plexus, filling me and blocking out everything else. It kept pumping as if sensing how much would be required to implode the rift. So much power. Much more than my body would be able to withstand.

It would hurt.

It would kill me.

I was going to die.

I closed my eyes and summoned all the faces that I loved. Touron, Shar, Palia and Ginia, Levi and Curi, Romi, and finally Serath. My heart ached because I hadn't had time to love my mother or Ivor. To be a family. I hadn't said goodbye.

"Cameron…" Melanie whispered in my ear. "I'm here."

"Mum…" My voice trembled.

"Yes, sweetheart. Take my hand." I felt her fingers wrap around two of my clawed ones, and a gentle calming warmth spread out from the contact. "I wish I could have seen you grow up. I wish I could have held you. Nursed you when you were sick. Told you every day how much I love you and how proud I am of you. I wish so much that I could have been a part of your life."

Hot tears burned my eyes. "I know. I know. I wish it too."

"I can't get back the time that we lost. But I can give you a little more time." The heat from the contact between us cooled and grew icy.

What was happening? "What? What are you?—"

Pain stole my breath as the ring constricted on my finger, cutting off my circulation before the pressure vanished.

I snapped my eyes open. The ring was gone, and my mother floated ahead of me, glowing and solid, her hair flying about her head in rippling waves, skin laced with golden veins of power.

The ring glinted on her finger.

Ice crawled over my body. My wings missed a beat, then another. "What did you do?"

"I'm borrowing what I need, sweetheart. Your power. Your essence. Enough to do what needs to be done."

She was siphoning from me. Oh god. She was going to detonate in my place. "You can't. You'll die."

"I'm already dead, sweetheart."

Which meant… "No! Mum, your soul will be decimated. Stop!"

"I love you!"

Energy rushed out of me, leaving me limp and helpless as I was propelled away from the rift. The ground hurtled up to meet me, but I landed in taut arms instead.

Serath's arms. "Ubron?"

"No, it's me. Serath."

"Serath. Oh god…My mum…Serath, my mum!"

He hugged me tight, cradling me as my mother began to shine brighter and brighter.

Her smile filled my vision. Her love filled my heart, then it filled the world with its blinding, dazzling beauty.