Chapter 97

"That's something you need to learn about being a monarch; you should never apologise for making the hard decisions," a deep voice rumbled from above me.

As if his words had been a shot of adrenaline into my faltering heart, I gasped, my pulse leaping, eyes snapping open. The gateway between realms had parted for me at last and something had given me the power I needed to yank it wide open when I'd been so close to tumbling through it instead.

The distant sky was awash with orange and pink streaked clouds, the blue surrounding them so bright that it was blinding. Standing among it, a shadow hiding his features from me, was a man so much larger than life than I'd imagined him to be. He was achingly familiar, though I'd never really had the chance to know him at all.

Hail Vega reached down and took my hand, heaving me to my feet with a wry smile on his face. He towered over me by more than a foot, but as we looked at one another I found nothing but pride and wonder in his gaze.

"I told you they'd become far greater than you or I," a woman spoke from beside him and I whirled to my mother, falling into her embrace and releasing a choked sob of longing.

I could still feel the cold clay of the statue's body which she had taken residence in, but on top of that was the feeling of her, of a mother's embrace which I had never known.

"You came," I breathed in awe.

All of my most desperate, final hopes had been pinned on this, but I hadn't really believed it would work until this moment, standing on top of a barren mountain with my parents either side of me.

"We serve at the command of the True Queens," my father said, bowing his head to me.

A laugh spilled from lips as I found myself in this impossible situation, looking between the parents who had died to give us this chance. And I vowed in that moment that we would not squander it.

"You have until the battle is won, one way or another," a rasping voice spoke at my back, and I turned to find The Ferryman there, his cowl pulled low to hide his features, his paddle gripped tightly in his fist as though even here, he stood with one foot in the river of the dead. And if I strained my ears, I was sure I could hear it flowing. "Make it count."

A savage smile took my lips captive, and I stepped back, looking from my father to my mother, then to the next statue which had yet to take on the features of a departed soul. But as I looked at the blank stone face, a scrap of parchment landed on it, burning the name scrawled there to nothing.

Azriel Orion.

As it fell to ash, features pushed out of the stone, the solid chest expanded as the creation took a breath of real air and suddenly I found myself staring at the face of a man who looked so like his son that I would have known him regardless of seeing that name burn.

"Lance is down there," Azriel growled, drawing his sword, the pommel remaining as stone while the blade seemed to form out of pure light. "And he needs me."

My mother had stepped up to Gabriel, taking his face between her hands and kissing his brow as he bowed into her embrace, tears painting his cheeks as he clung to her.

Hail moved to embrace him too while all around us more and more scraps of parchment found their hosts and the souls of the dead came rushing past The Ferryman, hurling themselves into bodies of stone and rending them into their once-living features.

"The Nights ride again!" yelled a ferocious-looking blonde woman as she moved to stand with a group of other souls and they beckoned Leon to them, cooing about his hair and his triumphs in thievery.

My gaze caught on Washer who had of course claimed a stone body with a huge cock carved on it and Principal Nova who claimed the one beside him.

"You died?" I breathed, the grief hitting me like a stab to the chest, but Washer just shrugged.

"I can't think of anything I'd have rather given my life for."

Catalina and Hamish appeared, plus Antonia Capella and her murdered pack and many others who had not long lost their battle in life, but were still willing to return and see this fight to its bloody end.

"There is someone else you should meet, son," Hail murmured, and he turned to a statue which was just waking at his back, a dark-haired man appearing within the stone who blinked up at the sky in awe before dropping his gaze and staring with abject longing at Gabriel.

"Come, Marcel," my mom encouraged and the man who I realised was Gabriel's biological father stumbled closer to meet his son.

"I've been thinking of you," Gabriel told him. "Darius said you'd been fading and I was worried you might have passed on-"

"I couldn't have left without finding you first," Marcel swore, pulling Gabriel into a hug. "I knew we would get our moment to fight alongside one another. I saw it a very, very long time ago."

A blare of noise sounded from the battle behind us, and the moment of awed reunion shattered like a strike of thunder carving the sky apart. I whirled to face the far side of the mountain again and strode up to its peak before looking down into the basin where the bloodshed was reaching its crescendo.

My mother moved to stand at my side, taking my still bleeding hand in hers and lending me her magic to heal the wound. It didn't feel like Elemental power though, more like a surge of raw energy which carried the essence of her being within it.

I smiled at her, tears of joy and sorrow glistening on my battle-stained cheeks. Hail came to stand on my other side, and I pointed to the fresh ranks of Lionel's army who were almost upon the eastern side of our forces. They would clash within a matter of minutes and there would be no surviving those odds.

"These bodies of clay will hold the souls for the duration of the fight unless shattered," The Ferryman spoke from behind us. "I have a tight grip on each and every one of them though – no other shall be stealing a second chance from me."

I nodded, knowing that no matter how much I might have wished to steal my parents back from death the way I had done with Darius that I couldn't do that. I had bought their time here while we fought and not a second longer. This was a chance to give them vengeance and to give our army the numbers we so desperately needed. No more.

"Here," Gabriel said, lifting two swords from the ground, the ones he and my sister had been wielding for some time. The black one belonging to my father and the white to my mother. "The Savage King and his Queen cannot be without their weapons."

"By the stars," Hail sighed, taking his sword and testing the weight of it in his hand. "I have dreamed of a time when I might wield this blade again."

"This sword will run thick with the blood of those who have harmed our family soon enough," Merissa growled, kissing Gabriel's cheek in thanks and he held her close for an eternal moment.

Gabriel stepped away and moved into place beside us with Leon, their families and Azriel with them.

"Tell the poor choice," Hail murmured in my ear as we prepared to charge into war. "He did…okay."

"Darius?" I asked, a smile lifting my lips for a brief moment. "Did he help in this?"

"He offered his power to you while you were balancing on the edge and together, you managed to open the way. But when this door closes, I expect the two of you to stay on this side of it for a long time yet. Understood?"

"I'll do my best," I agreed, the solid thump of my heartbeat making me feel closer to my husband than I had been since before this bloody battle had begun.

I looked across the faces of the dead, sorrow tugging at my heart as I spotted Milton and his herd. Antonia and the rest of Seth's pack grouped together, along with countless others who had already died in this battle and been summoned back to fight again. Justin was there too, and I nodded to him, saddened by his loss, but he only smiled and raised his sword.

I gasped as I spotted Diego, a bright smile on his face and no hat to be seen.

"Let's kill those pendejos, mi reina."

"About fucking time," Hail rumbled.

"For Solaria!" I yelled so that every one of them could hear me. "And for Lionel's fucking head!"

And with that, we broke into a sprint, tearing down the sheer mountainside in a tide of death and destruction. As it became too steep for living feet to traverse, Gabriel grabbed Leon and launched the two of them into the air on his wings, and I flew up from the cliff face to join them.

The army of the dead didn't falter though, their feet remaining solid on the ground, their movements defying the restrictions of living flesh as they almost seemed to glide down the sheer slope, a chorus of death screams tearing from every throat. And as I soared above them, Phoenix fire blazing to life across my flesh and Leon's whoops of excitement ringing in the air while he swung from Gabriel's arms, all I could think of was how much I was going to enjoy ripping Lionel's bloody corpse to pieces.