Page 205 of The Legacy of Ophelia
My stare flicked between her and the exit she’d just cleared—the lives she’d just saved, and the hope that ebbed through that sentence. Spirits, weneededto end this.
“Is it for Echnid?” I checked.
“He believes it is.”
She didn’t offer any more explanation, but reluctantly, I handed my weapon to her. My fists clenched and unclenched at my sides as I waited.
“This will be over soon.” She said it like a vow as she studied the weapon she’d forged so long ago.
“How?” I asked.
“My mother will see to it.”
“Your mother?” The Goddess of Fucking Death? Perhaps I made the wrong decision handing her my scythe.
Xenique didn’t answer. Her eyes closed, muttered words slipping between her barely parted lips and hands locked tight around my weapon. Overhead, dark clouds churned.
The Angel’s wings beat gently, a soft wind stirring up at her feet, amethyst ether spinning faster. One hand extended skyward, my scythe clenched in her fist, as if offering it up.
And from the darkest, most dense part of the night sky, a storm erupted.
Purple lightning cracked through black clouds. In the heart, shadows of humanoid forms seemed to shimmer, illuminating with each violet streak.
A bolt shot down, striking the curved blade of my scythe, and I stumbled back, squinting against the sheen. The lightning didn’t disappear with a single zap—it locked on to the weapon.Power fed along that connection, humming back and forth from storm to scythe.
The whole alley was bathed in a purple glow. Xenique’s features were carved with it, like the statues in her likeness now littering the city.
Above, the clouds tumbled quicker as if reeling something up from my blade.
Then, with an ear-splitting crack and a blinding flare, the connection with the lightning extinguished.
“Excuse me.” Xenique extended my scythe like nothing had happened. I jolted, taking it back, and the Angel added, “I have somewhere I need to be.”
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Ophelia
Zanox roared,blue fire pouring from his jaw as we broke through the clouds. Sapphire’s entire body emitted a gold glow that roiled in time to my pounding heart. These newly unleashed powers of theirs burned brighter than ever.
And that only made me certain. Wehadto be right. The myth was brought back now for this reason.
“Get to the perimeter,” I yelled as Sapphire wheeled around toward the city. “See if that fire can burn through the gorgons and demigods.”
Jezebel nodded, leaning lower over her mount. Just before they flew off, she said, “Be careful.”
“I promise,” I swore.
Then, we split. And I prayed to the Spirits I would see my little sister when the sun rose.
As Sapphire dove back into Xenovia, I didn’t let myself worry for my friends or Tolek. Didn’t let myself fear where they might be—whom or what they might be fighting. There was no room for that fear to seep into my actions.
There was only room for the fury and valor pumping through my blood, the instincts that would sing as Echnid fell to a myth-woven blade and the realms were freed from a tyrant’s grasp.
When she landed, I slipped from my pegasus’s back, needing to maneuver through the narrow streets much more nimbly than her wings would allow. As my boots hit Ambrisk’s earth, a sense of rightness rang through me. Before I ran, though, I turned to my warrior horse and pressed my forehead to hers.
“I love you so much, girl,” I whispered, brushing a hand down her cheek. “Thank you for everything.”
She nickered softly, and then, Sapphire was in the air once again. And I was gone. Sprinting through the tangled streets of the desert capitol, leaping over fallen beams and rubble, heading toward the city center where I’d seen Echnid from above.
