Page 232 of The Myths of Ophelia
It had felt wrong to move from his side, but there was such a finality to his tone, I couldn’t argue with him. Like that was the one thing that would have comforted him. And now, it was that demand that burned through his agonized stare. The heated despair that required us to finish what his sister stood for. To win a sense of freedom for the warriors she’d tirelessly protected.
And if Tolek wanted to scorch this world to ash, I’d burn beside him with the light of the Angels.
“Okay, Tol.” I inhaled, and it was rough.
Pushing onto my toes, I pressed my mouth to his.I love you, I said with the gentle kiss, sealing my grief with his. I took the burden of all the heartache he was going to feel in the coming days and wove our souls into one because Tolek and I couldsurvive anything the Angels threw at us so long as we were together.
Take care of him, Lyria requested. I fucking would. I’d give every drop of cursed blood in my body for Tolek Vincienzo.
Pulling back, I whispered, “For Lyria.”
Three more emblems.That was all remaining between us and fulfilling the Angelcurse.
Tolek’s fingers wove through mine as we approached the statue, and I couldn’t tell who was leading the other. Was it me, escorting him through his grief, or him, guiding this path with a hot vengeance?
Perhaps it was the two of us, equals.
“Thorn, Ptholenix, and Damien,” I said, talking simply to fill the silence Lyria left behind.
“Damien last.” Tolek’s tone was too focused for what he’d endured—for how he’d been wrecked and sobbing—like he’d shoved away all emotion in light of fulfilling his sister’s wish.
My gut squirmed at the cold sound and the knowledge that he’d have to feel all the grief after this, but I held tighter to him. I couldn’t help him until we got out of here, so I forced myself to focus, as well.
“Malakai said Ptholenix’s gilded petal came from a tattoo on his back. Between his wings.”
Tolek tugged me around the statue, to the side that faced the larger cavern?—
“Spirits,” I gasped. A figure lay bleeding from a brutal slice to the gut at the foot of the platform.
“Good,” Tol said, voice icy.
Brystin’s unseeing eyes watched the chasm of a ceiling. Dead.
The only fae still alive were Lancaster and Mora, both slumped on the seats of the theater. Rina and Celissia were questioning them while Barrett and Dax dealt with Nassik, all of my friends sporting minor injuries. Jezebel scampered down the stairs toward us while Malakai passed her to get to Mila. Cypherion and Vale had joined Erista near Lyria’s body, and Sapphire still hovered above us all.
I wished I could feel relieved by seeing everyone else alive, but my pulse pounded. We weren’t done.
“There,” Tolek said, pointing up with our locked hands and pulling my attention back to the statue.
Between Ptholenix’s wings, a faint outline of a tattoo was visible, looking like nothing more than a crack in the stone. It was an orchid missing a singular petal, an indent in the stone marking it.
“How did we skim over all these details?” I asked, stretching up to return the emblem to its rightful home. Still not releasing Tol’s hand, I braced for the tremor that would rack the earth as it clicked into place.
This one cracked, like the igniting of a flame. A wave of heat blistered through the chamber, licking across my scratches and bruises with a soothing kiss of fire. And like when we’d returned the others to their statues, power mounted within me. Everyone else stilled and looked our way.
No one told us to stop, though. There was an aura of retribution among us all now, a thread that tied us together after one of our own had fallen.
“We didn’t know what to look for before,” Tolek deadpanned as the shaking ceased.
Power thrummed through my veins, the fiery strand of Ptholenix’s Angellight nearly incinerating the others at the surge. I gasped, and the light I’d sent swirling above the cavern flared orange and red, a flame being fed.
“You felt it?” Barrett called.
Warmth poured over my body as I turned to the prince. “Did you?”
But Barrett shook his head. “Not this one. But earlier, when you returned Bant’s ring, I’m guessing.” He exchanged a look with Dax and Celissia, the former hunched on a step and gripping his gut. “The power we felt was...it was stronger than anything we’d ever experienced.”
Barrett’s eyes glowed, hungry for power after being betrayed by his councilman.
