“Why are you saying that?” Xavier growled as he pushed himself to sit up, but I knew he knew.
“We can’t all escape him,” I said, my words falling to a cry as my magic shuddered and I knew we only had moments before it would gutter out entirely.
“Live brave and true, my sweetest girl,” Hamish said gruffly, taking Geraldine’s limp hand in his and squeezing tightly as a pained moan passed from her lips. “I know that you will overcome this evil in the end.”
“Tell Darius that I love him,” I whispered to Xavier, my heart shattering at the knowledge that I would never see my boys again while the force of Lionel’s magic crashed against our shield with an unrelenting strength. “The two of you made my life complete even when I could never show you how much you meant to me. My love for you never faltered.”
“Mom, please,” Xavier’s voice broke on that word and pain ripped through me because I knew I couldn’t give in to what he wanted of me.
“Go,” I said, my gaze snapping to Sofia’s before I met with Tyler’s wild expression. “And make sure you love him the way he deserves to be loved.”
They still resisted, Xavier begging us to come with them and I gritted my jaw, steeling myself with all of the power I owned and lacing my voice with Coercion as thickly as I could manage, shattering Tyler’s mental shield as I directed that power at him.
“Run!”
The command hit him hard and he took off in a gallop, tearing away into the tunnel at our backs while Xavier’s cries of anguish carried back to me in an endless world of pain.
I turned from the tunnel as Hamish pulled the shield in tighter around us, our magic pulsing and cracking while Lionel continued to try and burn his way through it.
It was only a matter of time. We both knew what this was. A final stand but not one we could survive.
I pulled a small blade from a sheath at my hip and met Hamish’s dark gaze as he looked to it.
“I won’t risk him capturing me alive,” I breathed, the pain of that commitment flickering in his eyes as he acknowledged it and drew his own blade too.
“I won’t allow that either, my dear,” he swore, knowing full well what I would be subjected to if that happened. I had suffered far too long at Lionel’s mercy, and I would never be his plaything again.
“Together?” I asked, pain assaulting me as I looked at this man who had offered me the world and made my life complete long after I’d given up on any hope of happiness for myself.
“Always, Kitty. We are bound as one, you and I.”
I pushed up onto my tiptoes to kiss him, tasting the sweetness of our love in his kiss as our magic stuttered and cracked for the final time, the shield falling apart under Lionel’s assault and his flames burning out as he stepped through the smoke with a victorious smile.
“I never thought I’d see the day that my bride would betray me for the likes of this rebel piece of shit,” Lionel sneered as we broke our kiss and turned to face him, still hand in hand and filled with defiance towards this false king. “I hope the taste of his cock was worth the suffering you will endure for it, Catalina. Because I plan on making you pay for every traitorous moment you spent away from me.”
“You will never have anything from me again, Lionel,” I sneered, letting him see the disgust and contempt I felt for him as my grip tightened on the blade.
“And you will never be a true king,” Hamish spat.
Lionel laughed cruelly as he stalked closer to us, fire building in his palm as he set his murderous eyes on Hamish, and I knew he wanted to make me watch as he killed him. But I was done allowing Lionel Acrux to take from me. So he wouldn’t be having a single thing more. Not even our deaths.
I looked away from the monster who had stolen my life from me and looked into the eyes of the man I loved for the final time.
“Into the evermore we go, my love,” he breathed.
“Don’t let go of my hand,” I replied and the last thing I felt before I swiped my blade across my own throat was the tightness of his grip on mine. And as he plunged his own blade into his heart and we both fell to the ground together, we held tight to that promise and slipped into the embrace of the stars as one.
T he rebels had all run from me as I’d commanded, retreating to the tunnels and hopefully making it to safety. Only Justin and I remained on the battlefield, tearing through the Nymphs who came at us with the desperation of starving souls spotting the last scraps of food on earth.
I’d lost sight of everyone else and could only hope that they’d escaped as I focused on the one thing I was determined to achieve in this fucking hellish fight.