Page 48 of Oath-Maker

It was working. I was pretty sure weweredoing it.

But then Lucius fell once more to his knees and his half of our power lashed out wildly. I dug deep, anchoring myself on the feel of his love, the depth of his shared bond, and the oaths I’d taken as a paladin time and time again. As Queen of Alastia.

On the promise I’d made—and broken—to Isabel and so many others.

“Ayla,” I heard before footfalls sounded behind me. One set, then dozens. Thin fingers closed around my free hand while I held Lucius’s with my other.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that several of the remaining paladins and dozens of demons had left their skirmishes with celestials to join Lucius and me here, as one, at the tear in the Veil. Their magic crescendoed with our mate bond, feeding the potentiality in Lightport until it was something tangible, something so very real, that a magical lock formed over the tear in the Veil.

We watched as hands and tendrils appeared out of either side of the lock, hands and tendrils that mirrored the paladins’ and demons’, and pulled closer the sides of the tear.

“Use it,” I told Lucius. “They’re helping us. We’re doing thistogether. It’s already working.”

His eyes were squeezed shut in pain from the rapidly worsening light sickness. But he managed to open one and take a look around. Hope swelled within our bond—I felt it as clearly as his love—and then our magic did, too. He squeezed my hand, words never quite reaching his lips, and our mate bond pulsed.

Our magic poured out toward the lock and pulled the tear in the Veil shut, but not before celestials everywhere were pulled through. The celestial-kin were left untouched as their full-blooded brethren were forced through back to Soltar just before our lock snapped shut and we all, every single one of us, let out a breath of relief at the same time. I fell to my knees with exhaustion and the weight of the effort of what we’d just done.

Lucius groaned in pain beside me. I caught him before he totally fell over and held him in my arms. I smoothed back his black hair and pulled on the power of our mate bond again to heal him. Like I’d done before, the last time. But it only started to stave off the effects.

“Cure!” I said, and then I yelled, “We need a cure for light sicknessnow. There are higher paladins who know how. Ian, find me one on our side.”

Ian appeared, saluted me, and then leapt off the building on paladin wings. Jessa joined me at Lucius’s side. The demons—hispeople—crowded in around us.

I was exhausted, but I willed my arms to help me hold him upright, my mind to keep reassuring words on my lips, as I held Lucius. I willed our mate bond to keep him alive with all the possible futures we’d just raised by saving Serenia.

After far too long, Ian returned with a paladin who looked terrified—and like clergy, like the one who’d come to Alastia. Just like with him, I didn’t recognize this woman. But once I saw her red-tipped wings and crimson radiant magic, I understood why.

“I’m here to help,” she said as she met my gaze, which was no doubt a venomous glare. “Please, forgive me. We were deceived.”

“Heal him and we’ll see about your future.” I hadn’t meant to be harsh, especially after all we’d just endured, but Lucius was dying in my arms.Again. He’d held his ground for so long against the Guardian, against full-blooded celestials, against who-knew-what before they’d gotten to the tower and I’d been rescued. He would not die here and now after the fight.

The woman nodded. She knelt beside me. Her auburn hair fell over her cerulean eyes as she pressed her pale hands to Lucius’s wound and got to work. The cracks of radiant light receded, but she didn’t stop there with curing the light sickness. She didn’t move a single inch away from either of us until Lucius was healed entirely. No more wound. No more light sickness. No more blood.

Then she turned to me and I held up a hand. “I’m fine. Heal the innocent. That’s yourjob.”Since you’ve forgotten. But I didn’t say it. I was just grateful Lucius was still alive.

“I’ll take care of her,” Jessa said, then to me, she added, “like you’ve always done for me.”

“Like we all do for each other,” Ian added as he regarded Lucius, for the first time, with what could only be a nod of respect. He had several wounds along his abdomen and head as well, but it looked like Ian had used his magic to at least stop the bleeding. “You fought well.”

Lucius returned the nod. “You as well.” His hand found my face and held it. I turned my cheek into his palm. He smelled of sweat and fight and shadow, and it was perhaps more reassuring than it should have been. “And you, my love. My queen.”

I smiled and leaned in to kiss him. “My king.”

And king he’d be for a long time now. We’d fix these wrongs.

The hard part was already over.

CHAPTER 21

ONE WEEK LATER

Rebuilding hadn’t been easy, and we were far from done even a week after the Fallen had nearly destroyed our world a second time. They’d tried to move Soltar here—rather than simply opening a doorway between the worlds like they had during the first war.

Now all that remained of that event a week ago was rubble, injuries, and a slight sparkle in the sky over the Order’s tower in Lightport.

It was, to some degree, amazing the tower still stood, considering what had transpired within its walls. But with assistance and ambassadorship from Alastia, that was now Ian’s domain to maintain. I’d handed over—officially—the leader role to him. It should’ve been his all along, especially once Lucius and I had discovered our mate bond. I knew I kept thinking it, but everything had changed in that moment.

With Ian in charge of the Paladins Order and most of the high-ranking paladins shuffled around or changed out completely, I was able to place my sole focus on helping Lucius rebuild the rest of Serenia. The Fallen were no longer a threat, and so what had once been seen as a draconian rule of Alastia was no longer needed. With both of us, we could be anywhere within Serenia where there was danger very quickly. There were no more hard borders, except where humans wanted there to be some. Those borders weren’t enforced, though, but were rather suggestions.

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