by Meg Xuemei X
My people cheered, but I could tell their fears remained.
“The ancient Mysthian prophecy is incomplete,” I continued, “so Earth Mother sent an oracle to complete it. Some of you have heard it. The oracle said: ‘Only when the Earth Daughter and the Sky Power become one will the flesh save Earth and all earthborn.’”
The crowd shuffled again, whispering to each other about the Sky Power.
“I’m the Earth Daughter,” I said. “The one who holds the Sky Power is my mate.”
Complete silence fell over the realm.
“He’s the High Prince of All Angels,” I said. “He stayed behind to defend us so your warriors and I could return home. The monster angel king will murder him tomorrow, destroying the Sky Power and our chance for survival.”
My people exchanged uncertain murmurs.
I licked my lips. “We live in an uncertain, dangerous time, which demands we accept changes we don’t like. I’m grateful that you will go with me to the end, even to extinction, but I want our race to stand forever. So I’m asking you to trust me. I ask you to support my rescue of the Sky Power. Only with him beside me, with his power and my magic, will we drive the angels from our planet.”
Hector shouted behind me, “There are bad angels, and there are good ones.” He gestured to the three angels amid the rank of my imperial guards. “The rebel angels—the Fallen—are a force against our worst enemy, the Lord of All Angels. The Fallen have proclaimed that all citizens of the universe shall be free. They fight for our cause.”
“I’m not the empress of high fey,” I said. “I’m the empress of every fey. I’m the empress of war and peace. And I’m here to hear your voices.”
While the storm twirled in the leyline, I tossed black lightning into it. It struck and sizzled, joining the dark storm. I wasn’t as good as my mate at throwing the bolts, but I’d been practicing.
Ephraim knelt, tears flowing down his face. “Sky Power.”
The other angels followed suit and saluted the sky, their wings arched high and spread widely.
“Lightning is the signature of High Prince Seth,” I said, letting my voice carry far. “And now I have it because I’m his mate.”
My generals, who were beloved by the realm, stepped up beside me. “We’re with Empress Rose,” they said. “Where she goes, we follow.” Then they went down on one knee, their hands on their foreheads.
Within seconds, every fey knelt.
“Morning Star of Mysth,” my people swore their fealty to me, “we’ll follow you to the fire, to the water, to the stars, and to the end of the immortal realm.”
PRINCE SETH
Agro dragged me from the dungeon. Once I was out of the force field, he tossed me toward his sentinels. They knew my lord father’s power still bound me, yet when they first laid their hands on me, they flinched.
But when they saw that I was as weak as an infant, they kicked me.
A black-winged sentinel shoved his fist into my back wound where my wings used to be. I clenched my teeth and swallowed a scream of pain. His peers laughed.
For eons, as the heir to the Lord of All Angels, no one dared to look at me wrong, but when I was down, everyone enjoyed the opportunity to torment me. Who could resist a chance to hit the fallen High Prince of All Angels? They were already bragging and discussing among themselves who would get my leather belt as a trophy after my head rolled off my shoulders.
Then they mocked me, saying it was a shame my wings had been delivered to the fey whore. Otherwise they could keep a torn feather of mine as a lifetime souvenir.
I didn’t attempt to struggle. It would only conjure more insults and beatings from my kind, the most brutal race in the universe.
Before I was a traitor to my race, I had been the most brutal of them all.
Every step was agony as they dragged me ahead.
Then I saw Atlantis’s gate as the four sentinels pushed me toward the long bridge. On the cold, massive gate hung the heads of my warriors, who had defended my mate.
I shut my eyes for a second. Soon I would join them.
My father would probably send my head to the Fallen to show them how he’d destroyed their symbol of Sky Power.
A sentinel yanked my hair, trying to force me to look, but I averted my eyes and looked at the marble bridge. My mate had marched across it bravely when she’d first come to her enemy’s territory. I had tried to terrorize her. Her scent had slammed into my face, arousing me after many millennia of sexual apathy. Since then, I hadn’t been able to stay away from her. That had been my downfall—and my greatest reward.
I staggered toward the spot where she had started. At the end of the bridge rested a guillotine, its arched blade suspended in the air. The executioners would force me to lay my neck at the bottom of the machine like a sheep.
I demanded the universe let me deliver my last blow. I would take down as many as I could, hopefully my father and brother. They would come to watch.
The sentinels hurled me up before I fell, and the black-winged angels lined on either side of the bridge laughed.
“Where are your wings, High Prince?” a soldier mocked.
“He’s no longer our high prince,” another answered. “He’s the fey bitch’s whore.”
Then I felt a stir in the mating bond. I’m coming, Rose’s voice was urgent. I’m coming for you. Hold on!
I suddenly realized that she was indeed talking to me through our mating bond. Terror sliced into me. I shouted back, Don’t you ever come! I warn you, female! It’s a death trap! Stay away!
It was worse than a death trap.
Troopers surrounded the bridge, and in the air elite sentinels patrolled every space. Plus my father would be present. If my lamb came, she would be slain. I couldn’t allow this to happen to her.
Foolish female, I snarled through our mating bond, if you ever cared a little for me, stay the fuck away! I don’t want you. I don’t want you here. And I never want to see your face again!
My harsh words were meant to keep her away. And I wanted to make it easy for her to move on when I was gone.
Bloody, filthy, and broken, I stood before the guillotine and grinned like a fiend at my father’s avatar, who had come to witness my execution.
Agro flew toward us, his black and red wings tucking in as soon as he landed. The inferior thought if he tore out my wings, he would be cured of his low self-esteem issue. Wrong; it stayed with him, as strong as ever.
My brother bowed to my father. The Lord of All Angels ignored him but regarded me, his face revealing nothing.
“Father,” Agro said, “let’s get this over with. I’m sick and tired of the sight of him.”
My father raised a finger to silence his bastard son, his eyes never leaving me.
“You were once my heir, my favorite son,” he said. “There was never one like you. There won’t be one after you. I regret it has come to this. You were beyond valuable. Repent and condemn the Fallen, and I’ll give you a second chance. You’ll live.”
“Father,” Agro protested, “you can’t seriously consider—”
The astral projection of the Lord of All Angels backhanded him, sending him flying across the bridge until he crashed onto the other end.
The sentinels, who had mocked and beaten me, shifted their weight nervously. They hadn’t expected my lord father to change his mind at the last minute. They thought I was done. I could read their fear. If I regained my freedom, status, and power, my revenge wouldn’t be sweet.
But I knew my father was lying through his teeth.
He wouldn’t let me walk off the bridge alive. Not now he suspected I was the Sky Power the seer had foreseen and the Fallen hoped for. He planned to trick me into confessing before chopping off my head, then sending the holographic record to the Fallen to dash their spirits and debunk their beliefs in the Sky Power.
“You want my confession, Father?” I laughed. “My only regret is that I didn’t kill you when I had that one shot in the Deat
h Valley galaxy. I want all angels to know that you can be killed, so hear this: you can cut off my head, but you can never snuff out hope. With one down, another will rise. If not Sky Power, then Star Power or Galaxy Power. You’re the fatal disease in the universe, and you’re my foe. One day, the Fallen will end your tyranny and bring a new era—and my race will see truth and light. So, fuck you, Father. Get on with it and kill me. I’ll see you in deep-space hell soon.”
I knew there were a few Fallen hidden amid Agro’s army, and they would pass the word to their high commander. I hadn’t helped their cause, but with my last word, I called for them to carry on the torch and never give up.
The army shuffled their wings uneasily. No one had dared to talk to the Lord of All Angels like that. But what did I care? I had fought him before this day, and they had cut my wings. How could they make it worse?
Red fury brewed in my father’s obsidian eyes.
Well, bite me. My nasty grin taunted him.
He slashed a hand in the air.
The executioners came forward and yanked my head toward the block of the killing machine. I roared, willing my power to shatter his bond. I poured all I had into breaking free so I could deliver my last blow. I wanted to take down the Lord of All Angels, or at least wound his avatar.
The sentinels struggled to hold me under the blade. A chilling wind brushed over my neck as the blade moved down.
I roared in rage and tried to blast my lightning at my executioners, but my power was contained.
Then a roar joined mine. It was Rose's battle cry.
A current of white light impaled the executioners who held me. Then the light entered me and coursed through me, calling me to act.
My male instinct to protect my female roared alive, and the light imbued me with strength. A new power in me, neither white magic nor my lightning, broke out from the long forgotten abyss.
I heard a snap, and my father’s supposedly unbreakable shackles on me shattered.
My lightning struck out, seeking my father, but he was nowhere to be found. A rank of elite guards who stood where he had been flew backwards, electrocuted by my lightning.
A dark storm tore the machine from me. It twirled in the air and found a sentinel. The blade closed in on his neck with a sickening sound.
The Empress of Mysth stood on the platform of a rudimentary Earth battleship and descended from the sky, beaming light. Six other battleships followed her.
The storm crashed into Agro’s army, raising hell. Those who hadn’t escaped the bridge were swept to the abyssal bottom of the waterfall beneath the marble bridge.
The Mysthian battleships opened fire.
Somehow, the Dragonian and Mysthians had turned angelic blades into killing bullets.
Rose landed beside me in her armor of light. She was the Goddess of Wrath, formidable and beautiful beyond words.
I could gaze upon at her forever. And I smiled, even knowing that I might look demonic with my bloody, broken appearance.
I hadn’t believed it was possible, but she had come for me. My stubborn female ignored my warning and came to free me.
My lovely, vulnerable, strong, brave, and loyal mate came for me.
She hadn’t left her people behind, and she wouldn’t leave me behind either.
Light and storms burst out of her. I wondered what it took for the great Earth magic to finally manifest in her.
“Hello, love,” I greeted her in amazement.
When this was over, I would have to chide her for her refusal to put self-preservation first. Of course, I would do that right after I thanked her and fucked her. I would take her from behind, and then I would flip her and mount her from the front. I wanted her to look at me when she came.
But this wasn’t the time to ponder how I would reclaim her.
Battle raged, and I had a duty to guard my mate.
Regardless of the hostile storm and the battleships, Agro’s army held the line.
Angels were born a warrior breed, and the best trained in the universe.
Half of the angels had activated their armors. Soon they would go on the offensive and launch a full counterattack.
With my mate so close, our bond became fully alive. Through it, I knew her magic resource was nearly exhausted. Instead of sealing the leyline, she had used her vast magic to rewire the portal, travel through it, and land right beside me in the nick of time.
She needed rest and recharging, and I wasn’t in my best combat shape. I could barely stand straight, even though Rose’s white light had freed me from my father’s bondage and given me a new desire to fight on.
The Empress of Mysth sent me a concerned, quick look, dark rage wheeling in her eyes.
“I’m fine,” I told her, “but we need to get out of here. I can fight more effectively when I recover a little. We’ll regroup.”
Ephraim landed with two of my surviving soldiers. He almost choked at the gruesome sight of me. Seeing my soldiers come to my aid, he charged back into the rank of Agro’s sentinels, slashing his blade at them in an uncontrollable rage.
My soldiers grabbed my arms on either side to support me. We were about to leave.
“Going somewhere?” Agro landed ten feet from us after the storm had first swept him off the bridge. He’d gotten over the initial shock that Rose was so lethal. Now he looked pissed. He drew his sword, his green eyes darting at Rose, then me, with pure hatred and deep loathing.
“You maimed my mate, maggot,” Rose said. “I’ll return the favor.”
Mate. She acknowledged I was her mate.
Warmth and pride swelled in my chest, and the endless sharp pain no longer dominated my thoughts.
A dagger appeared in Agro’s hand, and it flew toward Rose. My instinctual lightning, which I feared had departed me like my wings, flew off my fingertips and knocked it off course.
Earth fire erupted from the Empress of Mysth. She must have all five of Earth’s elemental forces in her. The empress intended to burn the king alive for what he’d done to her male.
The fire lit his feathers like numerous candles. Agro screamed in pain and rage.
The Lord of All Angels, whose astral image had flicked off when Rose’s first storm hit, had returned. He sent a powerful wave of shielding toward Agro—not because he loved his bastard son, but he had an image to keep. The fire went out, but Agro’s black wing were half melted and half cut. There was metal in the fire that cleaved his wing when my father put out the flame.
Rose had made sure our enemy would lose at least one of his wings.
My father pushed a red wave toward Rose. If it hit my mate, it would melt her.
“You’ll not harm her!” I roared in wrath as the new power that I had no name for hurled toward him. My lightning and the white light joined forces. Together they wrestled away the red wave from near Rose and pushed it toward the dark lord, intending to squash him.
My father threw out another killing wave. Even his avatar seemed to have endless energy resources.
The two opposite forces crashed into each other. The shockwave caused by the impact roared outwards like a tsunami. The lesser angels dropped to their knees and struggled to breathe, as did the Mysthian warriors.
A surprised, dark look moved across my father’s face. He hadn’t seen this new power of mine.
Yeah, dickhead, there’ll be more coming. As soon as I sneered, I felt a force ram into my chest. I staggered back. A massive, unseen wave had shoved back my defenses. He was the Lord of All Angels after all, and I wasn’t at my best.
Rose threw her hands in the air. More white light and fire storm shot out of her toward my father. The pressure in my chest decreased.
The sky thundered; the earth trembled. The angel sentinels near us groaned on the ground, their eyes bleeding. Our side remained standing since Rose’s light and my lightning created a membrane to shield them.
We threw all we had at my father until the red wave thinned and teetered. My unnamed and untamed new power speare
d into him.
The Lord of All Angels shrieked terribly before his astral image shattered.
We hadn’t killed him, but we had weakened him by vanquishing his avatar. Today, we’d crushed the myth that the Lord of All Angels was invincible.
I swept a glance at Ephraim, who was some distance away, and spotted tears of hope glinting in his eyes.
As for Agro, the coward had fled.
The thunder grew louder. It wasn’t from the sky, but from under our feet.
The marble bridge shook violently and collapsed.
“No!” I cried in terror. I had no wings to lift my mate. Both Rose and I were spent. There weren’t wind and storm anymore to drive us up.
“Ephraim, to my mate!” I shouted.
Ephraim stared at us in horror. He leapt into the air and fought toward us while we plunged downward, along with chunks of the bridge, toward the waterfall at the bottom of the deep abyss. There wasn’t a trickle of magic or power to slow our fall.
I grabbed Rose to my chest. When I hit the bottom, I would make sure to take the brunt of the impact.
EMPRESS ROSE FAYLINN
Fear impaled me as I spotted Seth being pushed down on the block of the beheading machine, a blade waiting to drop on his neck.
He roared, his black lightning sparking from his naked, bloody torso, but it lasted for only a second or two before winking out.
Some kind of unseen power or spell held him immobile. My mate, once a formidable angel, was now treated like a rabid animal that needed to be put down.
Wrath—cold and hot—blinded me.
My storm whammed into the angels’ golden tower and tore its top off.
Amid increasing shouts, a flock of angel sentinels flew toward the tower, their swords drawn. The twister of dust inside my storm ripped into them, their feathers raining down.
That was a distraction. I needed to get to Seth and retrieve him quickly. I had used up the reservoir of my magic to rewire the leyline. Fatigue lurked at the bottom of my magic well, warning me that my elemental power wasn’t inexhaustible.