Chapter 37

Lavinia's terrible power carved through the sky, and I flew as fast as I could to escape it, the arc of light and shadow daggering toward me. I swooped low, feeling the intensity of that incinerating power, certain that if it touched me I was done for. There was something rattling in the back of my mind, a memory of the vision Arcturus had shown me and Orion of a woman on a battlefield, wielding a power that resembled this deadly light. But that power had come from the stars, and I didn't dare to believe this magic had been offered from the same source.

Vengeance bayed a bloody tune in my heart and Phoenix fire blazed against my palms. My need to destroy Lavinia for all she'd done to Orion consumed me to the point of madness. I didn't know what this monstrous power was that she possessed, but it changed everything. She was unstoppable. The strength of it was able to tear through our flames and gutter them before they could even get close to her.

Tory swept along beneath me on fiery wings, her lips peeled back as she went in for another strike while I worked to keep Lavinia's attention on me.

I flew higher, darting this way and that to avoid the blasts of her power, her eyes as black as sin as they followed me through the sky.

Rain poured down from the heavens, forcing her to blink and I urged it on, feeding my own power into the storm so she was pelted with bullets of water.

Tory flew up from below, slicing through the pillar of shadow Lavinia stood upon and the shadow bitch stumbled, falling towards the lake with a shriek of rage. She turned her attention to Tory, catching herself with her shadows and carving through the fire my sister sent her way. Lavinia sent shots of that violent light towards her, forcing Tory to turn and dive for cover.

I free-fell from above, tucking my wings and wielding the Elements around me, churning up the lake below into a tornado of water that reached higher and higher.

The water sucked at Lavinia's legs, dragging her into it, but she blasted it away from her with that ethereal light, freeing herself in an instant.

My breaths came heavier as she turned her gaze to me once more, a sneer lifting her lips. She was utterly formidable. A creature without end. Whatever power lived in her was like nothing Tory and I had ever faced. And we were growing more exhausted by the minute. We couldn't keep playing this game of cat and mouse, luring her one way while the other attempted a shot. It wasn't working, and we couldn't go on like this indefinitely.

Nymphs were gathering on the lakeshore, working to capture any unfortunate souls who got washed up there. The lake was no longer brimming with earth-made boats full of brave warriors. Tory and I were the only ones out here who had survived this long, and Lavinia didn't seem to have tired at all.

My gaze caught on Caleb as he shot down onto the lakeshore and drove his twin blades into the chest of a Nymph who was about to kill a washed-up rebel. The cry of war carried all across campus, Dragon shifters swooping down and blasting our people with hellish fire, leaving bodies burning in their wake.

The clash of winged Orders sounded above us in the thick clouds, a clamour of roars and the collision of huge bodies so close, yet impossible to see.

I raced for Lavinia once more, her attention now on Tory again who was flying beneath her in circles, casting illusions of herself in every direction to keep her confused.

I called on all the hatred in my heart and tempered it with the determination of a queen, setting my prey in my sights. Lavinia deserved a death as bloody and as cruel as the torture she had offered my mate. And I would take her from this world in the most agonising way I could conjure.

I cast a net of steel, wrapping it around her arms and binding them to her sides, setting the metal ablaze with Phoenix fire in the next second. Lavinia screamed and thrashed, working to harness her power while I swooped down on her, ready to finish this once and for all.

The blaze of fire that left me was hotter than the pits of hell and more punishing than anything I had cast before. My hair was aflame with it, my wings a burning beacon of destruction as I blasted every drop of fury I had at her, demanding her death from the stars.

The fire took the shape of a Phoenix bird, slamming into Lavinia full force, and her scream lit the air with agony.

Victory blazed inside me and hope raised its head, her death a promise that was about to be delivered at long last.

In seconds, her skin shone like a light lived within her flesh, tearing out from her and swallowing my flames like they were nothing, and every searing wound I had burned into her skin knitted over like she was made of life itself.

"No," I gasped in horror, finding Tory hovering across from me in the sky, her eyes as wide with terror as mine.

We couldn't defeat her. That truth was as clear as night and day, a reality so undeniable that the weight of it almost suffocated me. I hadn't for one second believed this was it. That this fight might be the final one we fought. That I might never see Lance again, or the rest of my family.

I flew towards Tory, our hands coming together and locking tight as Lavinia turned her deadly gaze upon us.

"This can't be it," I rasped, and her fingers tightened on mine.

"At least we're together." Her eyes blazed at me, and injustice seeped into every corner of my being.

"We'll fight until there's no fight left in us," I whispered, and she nodded, the certainty of that so undeniable, I'd hardly needed to voice it.

"Stay with me," she breathed.

"Forever," I promised, my heart beating furiously at the pain of all that was about to be lost.

Lavinia smiled like she knew it was done, and her eyes glowed with that awful magic that lit her skin with an unearthly glow. Shadows slithered across her body like serpents hungering for blood, and all of that ungodly power came tearing towards us at once, promising to consume us and send us into death.

Tory and I screamed our fury, Phoenix fire tearing from us in two beautiful Phoenix birds that swooped together, diving from the sky in a spiralling dance that promised to be their last. They plunged into the shadowy light that came tearing towards us, snuffed out of existence just as surely as we would be in moments, the power curling high above and far below, promising no escape. We turned as one, racing away towards the only patch of freedom at our backs, flying faster and faster while the blast of all that power blazed a path of death behind us.

It was gaining on us by the second, no matter how fast we moved. It was closing in around us on all sides and sweeping up to block our way on.

Darkness fell and all I could see was the glitter of light within its depths and my sister's bright green eyes. We embraced, because that was all there was left for us to do. To hold onto the other half of our soul, and pray The Veil stole us away together, placing us somewhere we would never part again.