“It’s over, Seline!” he yelled, “I have the stones, now.”
Hot anger rushed into my chest. My entire body tightened like I’d been grabbed by a giant. I almost couldn’t move, or breathe, let alone speak. I found the strength inside myself to force a grin and turn my eyes up at him, and I watched his excitement deflate.
“Why are you smiling?” he asked, and then he realized. He was able to apply pressure to the wound on his side because he wasn’t holding his own stones anymore.
Slowly, my body shaking from the effort of containing the stone’s power, I opened my palm. Sitting inside were Wrath and Tenacity. The last time I’d held Wrath, its own power had been enough to tear my skin apart. Phantom cuts bit into every inch of my body, some of them painful, some of them painless.
That wasn’t happening now. The Gods’ blessing had gifted me with the endurance necessary to control it the way Valoel had been able to. To tame it, to bring it to heel under my own willpower. And that meant I could now do exactly what I’d wanted to do.
“Dropped something?” I asked, and with a thought, I severed Valoel’s hold on the Serakon.
A pulse of psychic magic exploded from me and shot out in all directions. I could feel them with my mind; not just the Serakon, but everyone under the stone’s control. I only had to visualize the desire in my head, and the stone released them all at once. Every single psychic chain shattered, and as they did, I watched the Serakon fighting our side suddenly stop fighting entirely.
Many of them dropped their weapons, others handed them over to the people they were fighting against. Valoel watched, his eyes wide, the smug smile gone from his face, my stones still dangling from his closed fist. I raised myself up, keeping my eyes on him the entire time. If I hadn’t, I would’ve missed him falling to his knees and clasping his hands together.
“Please,” he begged. He tossed the locket with the stones at my feet. “Please, don’t kill me…”
I stared at him from where I stood. He looked so small, now. He’d tucked his wings in behind his back, and he was holding his hands out like he was praying. They had blood on them from his wound. I watched a line of it dribble into the cuff of his shirt. He was pleading for his life… I hadn’t expected this.
I picked my stones up from the ground and immediately felt their power rush through me again. It was as if my entire body had started to sing, every inch of my being harmonizing with the stones. I felt whole, complete, stronger than I’d ever felt in my entire life.
“Of all the things I thought you’d do tonight,” I said, “Begging was the furthest thing from my mind.”
“Don’t kill me…” he said, “I’ll go away. You’ll never see my face again. I swear it.”
Draven walked up beside me and dug the tip of his sword into the ground. “He doesn’t deserve to live,” he said.
“I know,” I said, “But the choice isn’t mine…” I turned my eyes up at the Serakon hovering above us. “It’s theirs.”
The Serakon watched Valoel from their vantage high above us. In my periphery I saw Six moving closer to Valoel. She had her wings stretched out behind her back and blood on her face. Her skin was paler than usual, her eyes burning with amber light. She’d had to fight, and maybe even kill, members of her own kind today. People who otherwise she wouldn’t have had to kill.
I could sense the anger in her, as if the Wrath stone were acting like some sort of psychic receiver. She didn’t say anything, neither did any of the other Serakon. Instead, they descended on him like piranhas. I didn’t shut my eyes. I didn’t turn away. I watched the Serakon fall on Valoel and tear into him with their claws, their teeth.
I’d never seen a more brutal display in my entire life. This was a scene I would never forget. But I could accept that. No one should forget the kind of atrocities people are capable of committing upon others. If we do, we open the door to letting it happen again, and I wasn’t going to stand for that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I set the Wrath stone down on the podium next to the others and watched it glow. They were beautiful, these God stones, each possessed of its own inner light. Like little stars were trapped inside of them.
“You okay?” Fate asked, her voice echoing.
We were in the vault underneath the Black Fortress. Above us, a funeral had just taken place for the souls we’d lost in the battle against Valoel. It had rained, and I’d spoken about their bravery, and the sacrifice they made for us. This wasn’t the first time we’d had a big funeral at the fortress, it also wasn’t the first time we’d had one thanks to Valoel.
Thankfully, it would be the last.
“Yeah,” I said, “It just feels weird leaving them here.”
“Your mother hardly carried the stones around with her,” Rey said. “She also entrusted them into a vault where they would be safely kept.”
“I know… we just spent so long trying to get them all together, I guess I was kind of preparing myself for a life where I’d have to carry them at all times.”
“That was before you got your kithe back,” Fate said.
She was right. Without my kithe, I’d felt entirely incomplete. Less than. The Courage stone filled that void a little, offering me my wings of light. Now that I had my wings back, though, that void I’d felt inside of me was gone. For the first time in… as far back as I could remember, I was whole. I was me, the real me.
I would never be able to go back home, but that didn’t matter, because looking at Fate—at the Order, at the fortress—I knew, I was already home.
I took a deep breath. “Yeah,” I said, turning around to look at them both. “So, this’ll probably be the first day in a long time where we aren’t facing some kind of ridiculous, external threat.”
“Yup…” Fate said, letting her response hang. “Now what the hell do we do with our time?”
I laughed, probably for the first time in this vault. “Now,” I said, “We have to start working on the Order itself.”
“Working on it?”
“C’mon, you can’t tell me the Order is exactly being the best organization it can be. Remember the way they brought us in?”
“They basically kidnapped us, yes. How could I forget?”
“We need to get them to stop doing stuff like that. We need to turn this place into a place where people like you and me can be brought not as forced recruits, but as people who are willing to learn more about our kind, expand their abilities, and help other people like them. That kind of change doesn’t happen overnight.”
“The Serakon sure changed their tune about us overnight.”
“In their defense,” Rey said, “Their entire species was being mind controlled by a sociopath with a God stone. Their kind wasn’t always violent.”
“It wasn’t?” Fate asked, “That’s not what I heard.”
“Compared to how long I’ve been roaming this universe, you’re little more than a newborn barely crawled out of the womb. I think I know a thing or two more about our history.”
Fate pointed a finger at the little silver tabby. “Yeah, about that. All this time you could’ve told us a whole bunch of stuff about our past and you didn’t. I don’t understand much about these rules you’ve told Seline you had to live by, but I think it’s a pretty shitty thing to keep our histories from us.”
“I don’t know everyone’s individual history, but I promise, I will help Seline and Ness write a detailed history about our world. Together we’ll build a library of information that we can give those wandering souls we find. We can show them that not only are they not alone, they come from a rich and vibrant world that still exists… and may one day allow them to return.”
“I don’t think we’re gonna get their hopes up on that idea,” I put in, “But I like everything else you’ve just said.”
“I should hope so. It’s going to take months, if not years.”
I smiled at him and scratched under his chin. “Who’s a good little kitty?” I said.
“Who’s a good boy, huh? Who’s a good boy?”
“Me…” he grumbled, already starting to purr.
The vault door opened. A moment later, Draven stepped through, though he waited by the door—he didn’t come inside. “Am I interrupting?” he asked.
I straightened out again. “No,” I said, “We’re just about finished in here.” I pointed at the stones sitting comfortably on the platform that had been created for them.
Draven nodded. “Six and the Serakon ambassador are waiting for you upstairs, we should go and talk to them about their living arrangements.”
“Oh, yeah… of course.” I started heading for the door, but he stuck a hand out.
“Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you first.”
I nodded at Rey and Fate. Rey bowed his head and bounded off past Draven. Fate winked at me as she walked by, then she left the room, leaving Draven and I alone. He shut the door and walked over to me, slowly.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yes… in fact, for the first time in a long time… everything’s fine.”
“That’s a relief, huh? I was starting to wonder if we’d ever find a decent normal around here.”
“Me too…”
I could tell there was something on his mind. Draven was rarely this impatient, rarely this easy to read. I took his hand. “What is it?”
“Last night was intense,” he said.
“I know. I’m sorry some of us had to die so that we could be standing right now.”
“They knew what they were getting into. They chose to fight, and they died with honor. We’ll never forget them.”
I nodded. “Rey, Ness, and me are going to literally write the history books. I’ll make sure they aren’t forgotten.”
“Don’t let history forget what I did, either.”
I had to breathe deeply in order to fully absorb the weight of what he’d just put out there. “Draven… you weren’t yourself.”
“I know I wasn’t. I know Valoel had a hand in making sure their lies embedded themselves in me like a poison. But my actions were still my own.”
“Just like every action you’ve taken since then has been your own. You are not the same person anymore, Draven. None of us are. You need to give yourself credit, you need to see yourself the way I see you.”
“I didn’t come here to find sympathy.”
“I know you didn’t, I’m just saying you need to remember who you are… you need to see the man I fell in love with.”
His jaw clenched tightly, but he didn’t speak, so I decided to continue.
“I remember us more clearly than I ever saw us before,” I said. “The sneaking around, the gifts we’d give each other, the way you looked at me under the moonlight. You helped me understand the world was bigger than my home. You opened my eyes, Draven, in a way no one around me had ever done before. Not even my own mother.”
A pause. “You were a little naïve, if I remember things right.” The most playful little smirk appeared across his lips.
I arched an eyebrow. “Seriously? I just told you that I love you, and you—”
He didn’t let me finish the sentence. Draven plunged his hands into my white hair and kissed me with the force of the sun. I surrendered to it fully, wrapping my arms around his neck and giving myself up to the kiss. It was deep, and passionate. My lips parted for his, and his did for mine, and I knew not only that this was real love, but that this was love in a way we never would’ve reached if not for the way our lives had played out.
This was the kind of love that had crossed the barrier between worlds. The kind of love that had survived unimaginable pain. The kind of love that had been lost, and then found again. It was forged in fire, and it would burn until all the suns in all the universes died.
When the kiss broke, we simply stared at each other for a time. Neither of us spoke for what felt like whole minutes. Finally, it was I who broke the silence.
“Where’d you learn to kiss like that?” I asked.
Draven grinned. “Is that a trick question?”
“No tricks, just… wow.” He released me, and I regained my balance a little. “What were we supposed to be doing again?”
“Serakon ambassador.”
“Oh right, and Six is with him?”
“Yes, Felice also. She and Aaryn are making sure our new guests get settled in properly, so she should be present in these meetings too.”
I nodded. “Okay… well, let’s make sure we don’t keep him waiting much longer, right?”
Draven gestured at the vault door. “After you, princess.”
“Please don’t call me that. I was going to make Felice do it, but it just sounds weird.”
“Whatever you say, princess.”
“That’s Goddess to you.”
THE END.
How about jumping into your next adventure? If you liked this series, the Wardbreaker series is an exciting spin-off that follows one of the mages you met. Which one, you’ll have to find out. Here’s a link for you:
HEART OF THE THIEF
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Also by Katerina Martinez
**(NEW)** THE WARDBREAKER SERIES
Book 1: Heart of the Thief
Book 2: Soul of the Storm
Book 3: Crown of the Queen
THE OBSIDIAN ORDER SERIES
Book 1: Wings of Light
Book 2: Wings of Night
Book 3: Wings of Shadow
Magic Blood Series
The Warlock
Book 1: Demons and Deception
Book 2: Mages and Masquerades
Book 3: Scions and Sorcery
Book 4: Hellfire and Homicide
Book 5: Warlocks and Wickedness
Magic Blood Series
The Primal
Book 1: Hunter’s Calling
The Blood and Magick Series
Book 1: Magick Reborn
Book 2: Demon’s Kiss
Book 3: Witch’s Wrath
The Half-Lich Series
THE HALF-LICH BOXED SET
Book 1: Dark Siren
Book 2: The Void Weaver
Book 3: Night and Chaos
The Amber Lee Series
THE AMBER LEE BOXED SET
Book 1: True Witch
Book 2: Dark Witch
Book 3: Shadow Witch
Book 4: Red Witch
Book 5: Devil’s Witch
The Cursed and Damned Series
Book 1: The Dead Wolves
The Order of Prometheus Series
Book 1: Smoke and Shadows
Book 2: Cloak and Daggers
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I’m writing this note over six months since the release of Wings of Light. I can’t even begin to tell you how incredibly humbled I am at the way this series has been received. You, dear reader, are an amazing person for sticking with me throughout this series, and I hope you’ll continue to stick with me as we move into the next phase. This universe is only getting bigger, and if you’ve already read any of my “Half-Lich” books, then you’ll have already seen the connection between the mages in this series, and Isaac Moreau—the leading mage in that series.
I can’t tell you who, but a certain “reader favorite” character will be getting a spin-off series launching IMMEDIATELY after this series is wrapped up… which is right now! So, even though this particular chapter in Seline and Draven’s lives has been closed, that doesn’t mean we won’t be seeing them again, even if it is through the perspective
of another character in their extended network.
This is only the beginning of this universe. I can’t wait to tell more stories for you to enjoy. Please join my Facebook to keep in touch, or sign up to my reader list to stay up to date on what I’m doing. All of the links are on the next few pages.
Thank you again for reading my books, and I’ll see you again soon.
xoxo,
Katerina
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katerina Martinez is a widely known author who writes supernatural fiction with a creepy, thrilling, and romantic bent. A veteran of many years of writing, she is the author of Dark Siren, the first book in the breakout Half-Lich Trilogy which became an instant bestseller in 2016. She continues to expand her back-list with books such as Magick Reborn, The Dead Wolves, and Smoke and Shadows. Though she took a brief pause during 2018, she is now back with her brand new Magic Blood series, which she intends to expand into a huge universe of interconnected novels and characters.
WINGS OF FIRE
The Obsidian Order
Book Four
Copyright © 2019 by Katerina Martinez & LJ Sampere
Visit: www.katerinamartinez.com
***
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental.
Reproduction in whole or in part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book, or tell your friends about this serial to help spread the word!
Wings of Fire (The Obsidian Order Book 4) Page 22