34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

I jerked on the handle of the iron door, but it wouldn't budge. Heavy steps sounded behind me, and I turned to face Roan and the labryn. The monster stepped closer to Aunt Celeste and Lora.

Lora whimpered.

"What happened to choice?" I asked.

"The threat on my life was your choice," Roan said.

My lightning-coated hands clenched. I needed to buy time, figure out how to save them and Teeg. "What if I offer to help you?"

Roan held up his hand, and the labryn stopped its approach toward them. "You've taken my darling wife from me and Gavriel's son from him. Why should I believe you'd help me?"

Darling? Klareth certainly hadn't been very darling in the time I'd known her.

I scanned the room for something—anything—that might be used as a weapon while I considered how to respond. Everflame torches speared into brackets lining the walls. "Klareth needed me, didn't she?" I asked, gambling. "I imagine my cooperation would make your plans easier." I took a few steps closer to my family and one of the torches.

Roan glanced at them and the Abyssal, considering. It was enough to buy me a few more steps. Almost .

"Souls hold power. I'm sure you saw Travok's inefficient use of them," he spat.

Bile rose in my throat. "You mean the children he . . . consumed."

"He did more than that. He harvested the essence of souls. Absorbed their youth. Do it too much and the effect diminishes. But the Golden Child's soul, well, that would be another story."

My nails dug into my palm. Stumbleduck was right to murder Travok. "But you took Teeg before that," I said, taking another careful step toward my goal.

"Travok promised to share the power of the child's soul with Gavriel and I. He lied, so we took him. Brought him here where the plan would continue uninterrupted." He shot me a glare, and I froze. "Or so we thought."

"And you plan to use his soul for your own purposes?" Another few steps.

"You and the boy have powerful souls. A Divine and the Golden Child. By siphoning all that esprit into the crystals, we would gain a longer life—gain esprit of our own. Enough to bring back those you've killed, with a little help from the Abyss."

I halted. "That's impossible," I said, my gaze lingering on the hulking golyath form the labryn had taken. "Nothing from the Abyss helps anyone for free."

"Precisely why I'm helping it enter Anuvyn."

"The fey realm?"

Roan shrugged. "It's not my business to ask questions as long as I get results. So far, it has been very accommodating, but it grows impatient."

As if to emphasize his point, the labryn tapped its giant mace along the iron floor. Loud clanking reverberated off the walls.

I took another few steps toward the everflame torch. "Thanally punishes those who attempt to play with life and death."

Roan's brows furrowed. "You speak as if the gods truly care. They didn't stop you before you killed my wife, and they won't stop me from bringing her back!"

I lurched for the torch and pulled it free, ignoring Roan's shouts. His fingers snapped, and then the labryn swung its weapon. Before I could do anything, Aunt Celeste and Lora were splattered against the wall, nothing more than mushed heaps of flesh and blood.

The torch fell from my grasp and clattered against the iron floor. I fixated on the bits of flesh, all that was left of my family, sloughing down the iron wall—dripping from that mace.

Roan's laughter filled the chamber.

There would never be another pretty smile from Lora. My last memory of her would be of her raspy voice begging me to run. The shock on her face. Her whimper of fear when the labryn appeared. She and Dorian had been my only light after my parents' death.

And while Celeste hadn't been perfect, I'd hoped for a chance to reconcile. A chance to try to understand one another and the situation we'd both been in when she'd been forced to take me in. I wanted a chance to create memories with them that weren't bitter.

But they were gone.

I stood motionless, staring, tears trailing paths down my cheeks. Roan said something, but I didn't care. This is all my fault . If I hadn't thrown that dagger into Klareth's chest, they would've been safe. Roan wouldn't have involved them.

Teeg and I would still be in that temple, together.

Someone screamed, and arms wrapped around my waist, pushing me down. I rolled across the cold iron floor, and a swoosh sounded next to me—the sound of that weapon being swung.

Caelus held himself over me. Blood trickled from his mouth, and the sight pulled me from my stupor. My fingers glided down his cheek, through the blood trickling from his lips, and lightning danced along his face, mending an unseen wound. His eyes darted to the touch, and then they met mine again, and he smirked. "I'm glad you're not hurt, my Tempest," he murmured.

I didn't get a chance to respond. The golyath's mace flung him away. He collided with the wall and groaned on impact.

It came down toward me next.

My heart pounded and I rolled, dodging it. I scrambled to get myself up. A clang sounded behind me where it struck the iron floor. I turned to face the Abyssal. It stood beside the dented floor and snarled at me.

I chanced a glance at Caelus.

He lay next to the now-open exit, motionless but breathing. A dark puddle of blood pooled beneath his head. My power urged me toward him, and I darted.

Heavy steps chased me. A glance over my shoulder showed Roan was nowhere to be seen. He'd run away like a coward, leaving me with the Abyssal.

I needed to heal Caelus, but the steps only grew closer. There wasn't time to mend him with the Abyssal right behind me. I needed it distracted. Whirling around, I came face-to-face with the labryn.

It hurtled toward me. Azure tendrils formed at my fingertips, and I shot a bolt of lightning toward it. The hit landed, sparks skittering across the iron room, and the monster roared. My stomach turned at the scent of burnt flesh filling the room.

Oozing ink-like blood spilled onto the floor.

I spun back to Caelus, assessing him. His breathing came in short bursts, and fresh blood trickled from his lips.

Heavy footsteps started toward us.

"I need more time," I muttered, and yanked Caelus's sword free from the sheath at his hip and faced the labryn's golyath form again.

A shape began to take form from the hissing pool of blood on the floor. In seconds, the night-black substance shaped into an Abyss wolf, sputtering blue flames at its feet.

My grip tightened around the sword. I had to keep them away from Caelus.

Both the wolf and the labryn's focus remained on me, thankfully. I ran to the opposite side of the room, skirting out of reach of the massive mace. Both followed me, mercifully ignoring Caelus. I came to a stop on the other side of the room and thanked Renelle.

The hulking one-eyed form the Abyssal took darted for me, hauling back the oversize mace. The wolf was a step ahead, claws clicking against the iron floor. It pounced in my direction. The labryn swung. I sidestepped and fell onto my back.

The massive Abyssal roared and flailed its weapon. I rolled to my side, evading one strike, and scrambled to my feet, narrowly avoiding another. The wolf howled and raced toward me. But I couldn't dodge them both. The wolf's fangs sank into my leg. Lightning sputtered from the wound, frying the wolf from the inside out. It seized and yelped, falling lifeless next to me.

The labryn roared again and heaved the mace down. I jerked my leg free and staggered out of range, the blow barely missing me.

How am I supposed to kill this thing? I couldn't even get close thanks to the huge weapon.

I panted, my body tired from the relentless evading. The Abyssal swung, his mace slamming into my stomach and knocking me against the far wall. I coughed up blood and slumped to the floor. I can't let it kill Caelus. My body moved, leaning forward, the blood of my family sticking in my hair. I pushed against the floor to stand, my hands slipping in the mess that remained of Aunt Celeste and Lora.

Its large hand wrapped around my torso, picking me up, and squeezed. Caelus's sword fell from my grasp. The hand grew tighter, and my ribs cracked. My lungs burned, longing for air.

Spots filled my vision, and I knew I was going to die.

I wasn't skilled like Selena or Esteban.

There was never a chance that I could've killed this Abyssal on my own.

A twist of voices whispered in my mind. Embrace your gift. That's what I'd been told by Thalia and Caelus. But there was another voice. I'd heard it once before in the temple. I thought I'd imagined it out of desperation.

Lightning rippled from my body and skittered across the labryn. Its grip loosened, and I dropped to the cold, hard floor. I braced my broken ribs and coughed, taking in deep breaths, each causing a sharp ache to shoot through me.

Blue-black ichor dripped from its hand and formed inky fur—another Abyss wolf, smaller than the last and without flaming claws, sprang toward me.

Lightning surged from me, but I wasn't worried about Caelus. The tempest wouldn't harm him as long as I didn't want it to.

When my lightning made contact with the iron, it cascaded along the floor and walls of the iron room toward the only sources I willed it. All that pent-up energy, never unleashing, because I spent years wanting to be normal—trying to pretend to be normal—just needed a target.

The creature bellowed, the form it took fading into that inky fluid. It tried to reform, a large arm springing out of the substance, only to wither again. The night-black puddle slid toward the grates lining the room—an escape. I willed the lightning to ripple through the puddle of its shapeless form.

The wolf that formed from the blood was gone, rejoined with the labryn's liquid form.

The puddle smoked, boiling. I didn't stop until there was nothing but a stagnant dark unmoving ichor on the floor. The iridescent sheen was no longer visible and instead seemed to absorb all the surrounding light.

I took a tender breath, glancing at Caelus. His breaths were still shallow. I pushed myself up, pain sinking into each movement. I stumbled toward where he lay on the ground.

"Wake up, you poofing idiot," I murmured, pressing my hand to him. Without a thought, the lightning darted from me, covering him like a cocoon. His breaths grew stronger, and after several minutes, his eyes fluttered open.

"Eira," he murmured.

My head spun, a wave of lightheadedness overtaking me. I fell forward and a fierce pain penetrated the dizziness. Caelus caught me, and my vision faded, my power humming beneath the surface in his presence.