I dropped down, landing on the grass before the Wolves as they stood above me on the hill. I shifted, casting an air shield around me and striding up the grass naked, the rain no longer touching me as it hammered down from above. The Wolves parted for me and I stalked towards Felix with a knot in my chest and desperation in my soul. Surrendering wasn't in my blood, but for family, I would do anything. I wouldn't sacrifice my own for the sake of my life. If Felix wanted me in exchange for Rosa, then I would have to make that deal.
My heart pounded out a furious beat as I stopped before Felix and one of his pack tossed me a pair of sweatpants with a sneer. I pulled them on and glared at my uncle, my chest heaving as Rosa struggled against his grip in her hair.
"No Dante!" she begged, her features twisted. "Get out of here!"
I ignored her, staring calmly at my flesh and blood. My father's brother. A man who was twisted by jealousy, hate. Who couldn't accept his place beneath me, who fought as an unFae bastardo to try and rise above me. But he wasn’t a true Alpha worthy of the place he’d claimed. He took his power without honour. He was nothing more than dirt and I'd see that he was reminded of that even if I went out of this world in the process.
"Little nipote," Felix purred. He was shielded from the rain by a girl with air magic behind him. The last of the water droplets slid down my cheeks and dripped down my body as I stood in an air shield of my own, waiting for his next words. I was the storm in the sky, and it didn't matter if I was standing on two feet before him or sweeping through the clouds above on wings, it was always a part of me. "You look like your father more and more every day," he mused.
I lifted my chin with pride. "And you look more and more like the rat you really are, Uncle," I growled.
He bared his teeth in anger, kicking out Rosa’s legs so she fell onto her knees before him and she cried out in pain. My heart clenched as I scented blood on the air and spotted the dark stains on the oversized shirt that had been put on her.
"What have you done to her?!" I bellowed, lurching forward but colliding with the solid air shield he was in as several of his Wolves raised their hands to hold me off.
Rage spewed through my gut hot and liquid and full of pain. Because he’d hurt my Rosa. My piccola lupa, my lupa alfa.
Felix held up a hand to stop his pack from attacking me, sneering as he looked down at my little cousin. "I punished her as she deserved to be punished. Now tell me, nipote, will she die here on this hill or will you die in her place and end this war?"
I ground my jaw as lightning struck through the heavens, but I couldn't bring it down on them while Rosa was here.
"Let her go," I demanded in a level tone as some of his Wolves began to yap and howl excitedly.
Felix's face split into a wide grin. "Your heart is your downfall, King Oscura," he mocked. "A morte, Dante. Ma tu non tornerai."
W e were bloody, battered and exhausted from the fight, but as we raced across the courtyard outside the Rigel Library, a chill of fear sped down my spine and I knew this wasn’t even close to over.
Ethan Shadowbrook and the Lunar pack were still warring with Felix's wolves, but their fight had spread out, spilling over the Empyrean Fields so that the sound of canine snarls, barks, howls and whimpers echoed all over campus.
But the sky was suspiciously empty.
"I don't like this," I hissed, looking between Leon in his enormous Lion form and Ryder who had stayed in Fae form to move at my side. "Where's Felix? Where's Dante?"
A flash of movement caught my eye from above and I gasped as I flinched around, expecting an attack but finding Gabriel plummeting towards us instead.
His boots hit the ground in front of us and his grave expression had my heart pounding even before he’d uttered a word.
"Dante needs our help," he growled, his gaze skimming me and Leon before landing on Ryder. "Your answer will be the difference between life and death for him."
I sucked in a sharp breath, shaking my head in denial as I snatched Ryder's hand and spun to look up at him. His dark green eyes were narrowed and guarded, his expression hard and closed off, like he was making every effort not to give away a single thing about his intentions.
"And if I don't give you an answer?" Ryder asked in a low tone which made my heart pound with fear as my gaze swivelled back around to Gabriel.
"Then the three of us will try without you. And you might lose the only thing you really care about in this world you hate so much," Gabriel replied darkly, glancing my way pointedly.
Ryder's jaw ticked with fury at being given an ultimatum and he tugged his fingers from mine.
"You're asking me to betray everything I am."
"No," I cut in before Gabriel could say anything. "He's asking you to be the man you were born to be. The leader who makes his own path and chooses for himself what's right and what's wrong."
The way Ryder looked at me did nothing to fill me with confidence. There was so much pain in him. And hatred which ran deeper and thicker than the blood in his veins. This choice was so much less than simple for him. And I got the feeling that pushing him wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference.
"There's no time to discuss this," Gabriel said firmly. "Felix has Rosalie and Dante will sacrifice his life for hers. I can strike at the defences protecting them from above and Leon can rip through the Wolves ringing them to make a clear path to her. Then you need to grab her, Elise. Dante won't risk striking while Rosalie is anywhere near him. You need to take her and get her to safety. Once she's out of there, Dante will have a chance..." His gaze slid to Ryder with a frown pinching his brow and I knew he'd seen something more than that which he wasn't willing to say. But the way he was looking at Ryder told me all of this really did depend on him.
"I'm not swearing to anything," Ryder said in a flat tone. "But I want Felix Oscura dead. So I'm with you. As for Inferno...maybe I'll let the stars make that decision for me when I have to."
Leon growled, baring all of his huge teeth at Ryder in a clear threat, but the King of the Lunar Brotherhood ignored him entirely.
"Let's go," Gabriel said, spreading his wings wide so that raindrops were flung from them. "They're on Devil's Hill."
He took off into the sky and Leon bounded away too, leaving me alone with Ryder for a moment.
I took in his stiff posture and the way his right fist was curled tightly so that the word pain stood out starkly over his knuckles. His gaze was an endless abyss of nothing and there wasn't a crack in it to let so much as a sliver of light through.
I didn't know what he was going to do and if Gabriel's prediction was true then I didn't have time to try and convince him, either. We had to go now. And I just needed to have faith in the man I knew Ryder to be deep down inside his soul.
I took a step closer to him and reached out to paint the lines of an X across his heart before returning the gesture on my own chest.
"Please," I whispered, looking into the depths of his green eyes as my heart fractured right down the centre and a tear slipped through the blood on my cheek.
I shot away from him before waiting for him to answer because if he said no to me, I knew my heart would break irreparably. Because he wouldn't really be the man I loved. And my Storm Dragon’s blood would coat his hands so thickly that I might have to kill him myself in payment for it.
I had no idea if he would help Dante or not. He'd given his word to fight against Felix and had made it clear to his gang that Felix's followers were the targets tonight, but the stars had made him and Dante Astral Adversaries. They'd been born to clash and fight over and over until the hatred in them burned too hot to resist and the whole thing ended in death.
I knew asking him to save the man he'd believed he'd been destined to kill for his entire life was a lot to ask of him. But this moment felt heavy with the watchful gaze of the stars on us, like they needed to see him make this choice. And though I didn't understand why I was so sure of that, I knew in my heart that it was true. What he did now was
destined to change everything.
The question was, in what way?
I was about to march up the hill with steel in my heart, my decision firmly made. But Gabriel landed before me, pressing me back, his gaze intense. We were hidden in a group of trees, but some of Felix’s Wolves were circling the perimeter and we’d be found if we remained here too long.
"Not like this," he growled, evidently seeing that I was going to go in there all guns blazing. I adjusted the waistband of my sweatpants, saying nothing. "There's another way and you know it."
I heaved in breaths, sensing our time running out. Felix wasn’t going to stay up there forever so we needed to move. But my mind snagged on the other more subtle option Gabriel was getting at and I nodded slowly in agreement.
"You’re his only chance," he breathed seriously, gripping my arm. "I can’t see what choice you’ll make, but I know what it will cost you if you make the wrong one."
I swallowed the ball in my throat and nodded firmly. I'd made up my mind, I wasn’t going to be swayed.
“Move aside," I growled and Gabriel’s brows pulled together.
“Don't go for Felix until after the third flash of lightning in the sky." Gabriel stepped aside and I felt the twinge of pain in him that was a warning of how badly this could go. Nothing was set in stone. But there was a chance to kill Felix Oscura now. And I had to gamble my life on it.
I walked out of the trees and strode up the hill with a plan swirling through my head and my heart crushing in my chest. Felix's wolves howled as they spotted me coming and I slowed my pace, my jaw locked and my gaze set on Inferno who stood before Felix, ready to fucking die. I'd felt Elise's pain when she'd considered his death. I knew her heart was his as much as it was mine. But that didn’t change the years of hatred between us, the raging feud between our gangs ran deeper in me than my soul. It was who I was. The only thing I knew.
"Felix!" I roared and the Oscura asshole looked over at me with a frown. His Wolves growled at me as I got closer and I kept my hands at my sides, showing I was no threat as Felix decided whether to unleash his pack on me. "Are you going to kill Inferno without offering me a front row seat?!"
Felix considered me with a sneer pulling at his lips. I could sense members of the Brotherhood watching me from around the hill's base and I knew what I was risking by doing this. But my decision was final.
A single flare of lightning ignited the clouds in a deep electric blue far above and I quietly took note of it.
"Let him pass," Felix instructed and his Wolves parted for me, still snarling as I moved through their ranks and set my gaze on Dante's uncle.
Rosalie was on her knees before him. I knew it was her from looks alone. I could see more of Dante in her than her father though, and the fire in her eyes was all Alpha even if she was just an unAwakened girl. But I could see the power in her brimming under the surface, waiting to explode when the time came. Just like mine had once been.
Felix’s hand was wrapped in her hair and I inhaled deeply as I felt the pain rolling from her body into mine. The physical wounds lining her flesh were nothing to the mental pain that was scoring through her mind. I could taste the torture on her and it set off a deeply primal feeling of protectiveness in me. Because her pain tasted exactly like mine.
I drew my eyes up from her to Dante and his upper lip peeled back as he glared at his uncle. I felt him drop the air shield around his body, exposing himself in a clear sign of surrender. “Release her, Felix. I said you can have me, but not until she’s away from here.”
I couldn’t deny the inch of respect I gained for him for offering his life in place of his cousin's. I could see the resignation in his eyes as he accepted that this action would equal his death. And I felt the pain burning from Rosalie as she screamed for him to run. Felix cast a silencing bubble around her, acting as if she wasn’t there as she thrashed wildly against his grip.
“You don’t call the shots right now, little nipote,” Felix purred, his gaze shifting to me and his cold eyes scoured my face. "So, the Lunar King has come to watch his enemy die, has he?" he purred. "I asked his death of you once and now you have lost your chance. So I will gladly let you watch him fall at my hands instead and you can see who really is strong enough to defeat the Storm Dragon."
"Dead is dead, I don’t care either way," I hissed, moving to stand behind Dante. He glanced over his shoulder at me, baring his teeth in a snarl.
“And yet you cut Mariella apart piece by piece,” Felix hissed, his eyes sharp, telling me he wasn’t going to let me walk away from this hill with my life.
“Mariella’s death was personal,” I growled. “And for Inferno to die at your hands is the most insulting death he can be offered.”
"You're happy for this traitor to kill me, Ryder?" Dante growled with rage in his eyes. "I thought you were a worthy enemy, but I see you for what you really are now."
"And what's that?" I spat.
"UnFae," he growled with scorn and lightning flashed above me in the clouds once more.
I lunged at Dante, throwing my fist into his jaw and he hit the ground with a growl of rage. Felix laughed darkly and his pack joined in as I dove on top of him, wrapping my hands around his throat and squeezing tight. Dante threw furious fists of his own and managed to roll so he was on top of me. Electricity blazed through to my core, my pulse jerking out of rhythm as he almost short-circuited my fucking heart.
I launched him off me again with a shout of anger, throwing savage fists into his face as the laughter around us grew to howls of excitement.
I punched him until blood spewed and Felix bayed like a fucking hound as he watched us fighting in the mud. I captured Dante's gaze and tried to force his barriers down to let my hypnosis in, but he shut me out, continuing to wrestle harder. Motherfucker.
We rolled again so he was on top, slamming my head down against the wet earth as I snared his gaze again and tried to drive my way into his head. A frown knitted his brows and an endless moment passed before he allowed me under his defences, a flare of hope in his eyes. I choked as his grip tightened on my throat, speaking words in his mind that only he could hear through the gift of my Order.
Strike the Wolves behind Felix on my signal.
I released him from the hypnosis just as fast and he continued to pound his fists into me, making me unsure if he'd understood my order, if he was going to obey it at all. But if he didn’t, my chance at killing Felix was fucked.
"Enough, enough," Felix called, clapping as he released another laugh. "Stand before me, nipote. Face your death like the true Fae you claim to be."
I shoved Dante off of me and he stood upright, bloody and beaten as he moved before Felix.
“Let her go first,” Dante snarled and Felix shoved Rosalie into the mud beside me. She screamed in pain as her wounds were jarred and I felt all of it slicing down the centre of me. Fuck.
“There, little nipote. When you are dead, she will be free,” Felix vowed.
Rosalie tried to get to her feet and I could see the wildness in her eyes as she bared her teeth at Felix, a crazy decision in her gaze. I flicked a finger at her ankles, binding them so she tripped and fell back into the mud, serving me a cheer from Felix’s pack and a scowl from her. But I couldn’t let her interfere in this, not when Felix’s death hung so delicately in the hands of fate.
I pushed to my feet, covered in dirt and blood as I moved closer to Felix, feeling the air shield doming around him up close and protecting him.
A girl amongst the Wolves behind him was holding it in place, her fingers outstretched as she wielded it and I fought a smirk at her inability to cast subtly enough for me not to have pegged her the second I got here.
Felix created a jagged sword of ice in his hand, large enough to be fucking theatrical, but I guessed he wanted the whole of his pack and his enemies to see the Oscura Alpha’s head roll.
"Oscuras!" Felix cried. "Watch as the new king kills the old!" He raised the sword high above his head and Da
nte faced his death without even a flicker of fear in his features, which meant he was placing his faith entirely in me. That in itself was a lot to fucking process.
I moved my hand in the most subtle of casts as I waited for that final lightning bolt in the sky, placing my own faith in Gabriel's predictions and hoping beyond hope that I hadn't missed it before now while we were fighting.
Felix hefted the blade back and Dante's spine straightened as he waited for him to swing it. The world seemed to hold its breath and my heart beat an uncomfortable tune as I watched, waited.
The entire sky lit up in a huge spiderweb of lightning, casting the whole hill in violet as thunder boomed in the same instant.
"Now!" I roared and the sky seemed to fall as three huge bolts slammed into Felix's pack behind him, frying the girl holding up the air shield.
In the same instant, I carved the earth apart beneath Dante's feet so he tumbled down into the dark just as Felix swung the blade, the edge cutting through the air so close to his head that I swear a few dark hairs fluttered on the breeze the moment he vanished.
Leon’s roar followed screams of fear as he ripped a path into existence up the hill. Elise shot through it so fast that she was just a blur, and in an instant, she had Rosalie in her arms and was tearing back down the hill all within less than three seconds. Gabriel swooped overhead, cutting down our enemies with spears of wood and ice, lightning illuminating him like an angel of death.
Felix shouted out in fury as I dove into action, dragging up the earth from the very bottom of the pit Dante was in as Felix cast jagged bolts of ice in my direction. I couldn’t shield in time, focusing on Inferno as I launched him out of the pit on a pillar of earth arching directly toward Felix. I threw up an arm at the last second, taking the brunt of the ice shards into it while another lodged in my shoulder and one slammed into my thigh. Pain splintered through my body, but it wasn't enough to stop me. I threw Dante at his uncle with every last scrap of my power and the Oscura King slammed into him, knocking him to the ground, snatching the sword from his grip and rising to stand above him.
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