Chapter 61

Cleo almost wished Lyv and Jai were there to see what their daughter could do with her magic, but they would more than likely freak out instead of stare in awe like she was.

Dessa's entire body was glowing, hair lifting with an invisible breeze, her sapphire eyes now onyx with the full use of her magic. The only other time Cleo had seen them that color was when her magic first appeared. Unlike it was then, she was in total control of it, trusting it and herself to do what she knew she had to.

The force of her magic that radiated out of her knocked both Cleo and Adeena back, as well as everyone else who stood around them. Milena was screaming for her, but both Eamon and Archer were holding onto her, shielding her with their bodies should everything go to hell. Dessa's shadowflame didn't touch any of them, through it tore through every street in the kingdom of Arloerin, destroying every dark creature that remained. And even though she only just met Adeena again after all this time, Cleo still knew her magic, a magic the same and yet so much stronger than it was when they were children, allowing every one of those trapped souls find their peace.

Then there was Fin, his onyx eyes alight with fury, trying his damnedest to step forward, but Dessa's shadowflame was fully directed toward him. She tried hurdling them directly at him, but he shot one arm up, creating a warded shield that deflected anything she threw at him. She continued, not stopping for anything as she strode slowly toward him.

Adeena was the next to follow, her quiet magic feeling around for any openings, any cracks in the shield Fin created around himself to somehow latch onto his mind.

And Cleo immediately surrounded them in protective shadows while surrounding him, squeezing in on his ward, trying to suffocate him.

With all three of them going at him at once...well, even a death god couldn't keep up his defenses.

Cleo was the first to feel the weakening in his ward, then the hairline fracture that Adeena almost immediately took advantage of. It was fascinating how quickly it happened, the way her magic latched onto his mind, freezing him, making him lose hold of his magic and his ward. With it, both Cleo and Dessa lessened their own magic, though keeping it close just in case he managed to regain some control.

A swirling distortion in the space behind Fin appeared, starting out as a pinpoint and expanding into a portal just a foot away from his frozen form.

Dessa came to a stop right in front of him, staring at him with narrowed onyx eyes.

Until they softened, fading back to sapphire blue as she reached up to put her hand on his cheek, the corners of her mouth turned down.

"The Fin I knew was my friend," she whispered to him. "How could he not have been with everything we did, all the time we spent together? Maybe he was just an illusion, but this still feels like the death of him. You feel like the death of him...and you're not going to hurt anyone else I love anymore in my world or this one."

For a fraction of a second, Fin broke through Adeena's mental hold. His eyes went from onyx to the deepest of brown, an easy smile curling the corner of his lips. "You still owe me a goodbye dinner, Des."

She made a small sound in the back of her throat. "You won't get it, Fin."

And shoved him through the portal that swirled behind him.

Cleo watched as Dessa dropped to the ground, choking out a sob she finally let free for the friend she thought she had, only for him to betray her in one of the worst possible ways.

But what she didn't see was, just as her portal began to close, an obsidian dagger slipped through just before it did, Fin's furious shout echoing through the square.

Even though Elys was stuck in his own time ward, everything seemed to slow around Cleo as she watched the dagger flipping blade over hilt directly at her, sailing harmlessly over Dessa's head. The metal glistened not only with the sunlight that flooded her kingdom with light once more as the dark clouds dissipated above, but also with the same poison that had been on the oskurreia's weapons.

She would do it. Give her life for her kingdom, her family if that meant getting rid of someone who threatened it all.

Except another stepped in front of her.

Kav's massive frame immediately covered her, light hazel eyes on her face for the first real time in those last few weeks they'd been apart as he prepared for the final blow.

One that was taken by another.

Kav rocked forward as someone stumbled against him, one hand catching Cleo while the other reached behind him to hold onto the other.

A single heartbeat passed after the portal closed.

Kav shifted to her side.

And then Cleo met Adeena's identical gaze as she stared at her, the dagger embedded in her chest.

Her sister stepped forward, but her knees all but gave out from under her. With Kav's hand still wrapped around her arm, she tried to grip onto him for support, but her fingers couldn't manage. Her white leather jacket wasn't just splattered with the blood of others, but her own as she reached up and pulled the dagger from her chest with a sickening squelching sound. It clattered on the cobblestone as it slipped through her trembling fingers.

"Adeena!" Cleo screamed as she lunged forward.

She pushed past Kav just as Adeena fell forward against her, both of them sinking to the ground. Cleo's hands were already pressing against the wound on her chest, but blood slipped through her fingers. Her gaze lifted to her neck where the gray lines of minette spider venom appeared, webbing out in a pattern she recognized from Jai's scars.

When she met Adeena's tear-lined gaze, Cleo choked out a sob and tried anything, everything to get her magic to heal her. It didn't work like Lyv's did, though.

There was one other who could, though.

Just as Dessa appeared on her other side, hands glowing with her newfound healing magic, Adeena swallowed hard and shook her head, stopping her with a hand around her wrist.

"Don't," she managed to choke out.

Dessa growled as she narrowed her eyes. "I can do it."

Adeena shook her head again, eyes flicking behind her at Elys's frozen form. "Save your strength for him."

"I can do it," she told her again.

And still she wouldn't let her.

Dessa sank back on her heels, then slowly looked up at Cleo with tears in her eyes.

But Cleo was staring down at her twin sister, leaning over her as blood continued to seep from her wound, as those gray lines covered her face, making the whites of her eyes go bloodred. "Why?" she demanded. "I just got you back, Adeena. Why did you do that?"

Somehow, Adeena managed to smile even as a scream threatened to erupt from her throat. "Because you're not friends with death like I am...so let me go, Cleo."

"No," she growled, taking her face in her hands. Adeena's eyes slowly closed and opened again, but never left her face. "No. I will not let you go."

But she reached up, covering Cleo's hands with her own. "Just for a little while. Death does not hold me...but I do have someone waiting for me, too."

"Adeena..."

"Just for a little while," she repeated in a whisper.

And her eyes drifted closed.