by Meg Xuemei X
A pain worse than anything I had ever known erupted in me as my brother grabbed my left wing and tore my feathers out.
I couldn’t help but scream in agony.
“You finally screamed, Brother,” he said. “I wish she were here to watch, but no matter, she can picture how you suffered after she receives this gift from us both.”
Agro tore another, then another, tossing them in front of me. Raw flesh clung to them. Blood gushed from my back, soaking the ground at my feet.
Cold sweat drenched me. I endured the excruciating pain without making a sound again.
Losing wings was every angel’s worst nightmare, a punishment worse than death.
At Agro’s every yank, my thoughts dwelled on Rose—her scent, her kiss, her touch. Her every stroke was fire on my skin and a song in my blood. I remembered the time I laid my head on her breasts and slept—my last true peace.
Agro kept tearing out my flesh and feathers, blood spurting all around me. I clenched my teeth at the agonizing pain, my mind never leaving my mate. She had clung to me when I’d taken her to the sky. I had wanted her to see the wonders of the universe, but she was the one who showed me wonders instead.
She made my every cell leap to life. She made my heart beat and my blood flow, and no pain could dull them again. I had pleasured her and made her come again and again. Her moans had satisfied me no end, stoking my lust to a fever pitch. I had thrust inside her like the wildest beast in heat.
We’d fucked as if it were first and last and forever.
We’d fucked in the imprint of time.
When I was around her, I felt home. For her, I wanted to be a better male who deserved her.
Agro stopped ripping out my feathers and panted. My wings had proved to be too strong for him to keep going. Just when I thought he had gotten bored and would go away, he pulled out a scythe.
The need to kill Agro and spare my mate from the sight of my severed wings seared me. I thrashed against the power that bound me and called upon the Forbidden Glory again and again.
The force field didn’t yield, and the Glory didn’t come.
My brother brought the scythe down on my wings.
Fierce, unforgiving pain shot into my every nerve.
I focused on sending my last warning to my mate, though my concentration slipped. I willed our mating bond to send her one last message.
Rose, do not open any box. Leave the planet. Now!
Then, I passed out.
EMPRESS ROSE FAYLINN
Vast wings—bloody and cleaved—flashed before my eyes. No, these weren’t images. They were real, lying at the bottom of an iron coffin, a single rose shimmering atop the feathers.
The torn flesh connected to the shredded stumps of his wings.
The High Prince of All Angels could no longer fly. He could no longer return to me. While the roar of the wind and ice filled my mind, I vaguely heard the angel messengers informing my generals about my mate’s execution date. The sadist angel king would chop off Seth’s head on the bridge and hang it on Atlantis’s gate for a public display.
I had left him alone to face such a fate. Even now, he remained locked in a cage like an animal. I had brought him to this, and then abandoned him. He’d been doomed the moment he set eyes on me. He lusted after the wrong female.
He had known, yet he still wanted me, from the beginning to the end.
Seth’s once glorious wings now lay lifeless. Soon, his wingless, headless corpse would be delivered to me.
The angel king knew he had struck me hard and true by hurting my mate. My heart broke when they tore me from Seth, and now all the pieces of my heart shattered again.
Then I realized that the roar in my head didn’t come from the distant wind but from me.
Magic—ancient, deep, and greater than a mind can perceive—burst out from my soul. It rose higher and higher, until nothing could subdue or cage it anymore. I released it. Let the wrath of its teeth and claws tear apart the broken world.
Storms and fire and wind ripped from me. I did not fall. I did not stumble. The same could not be said for others.
“Empress!” came the panicked shouts. “Please, Empress!”
Were they begging? It was no use.
His own kind had cut off his beautiful wings. Tore feathers out in the most brutal fashion before slashing his wings.
My mate’s magnificent wings were confined in an iron box. I must set them free.
Wings, still trickling blood, ascended into the air. They were flying, not as fluidly as I remembered, but they flew.
My eyes fixed on the coffin. It should be melted, so no more cages remained for Seth.
The iron box flapped into the air, knocking over those in its path who failed to dodge it. When it dropped to the floor, all that was left of it were dark smudges.
Gasps of awe and shouts and cries filled my throne room. It was chaos. It was joy. It was fear.
They hadn’t seen the real deal yet.
Behold!
The great and terrible Earth magic was in me! It was in my bones and my blood. Only now it had awoken.
Power roared through me, seeking an outlet. I let it go and sang with it.
“I am violence,” I declared. “I am destruction. I am not the beginning; I am the end.” My voice was the dark music that thundered underwater and in the night sky.
Earth shook under my feet. My throne rocked. Windows shattered. And my people’s pleas increased, but I was darkness now and would not stop.
I remembered how the mountains trembled when Seth roared as he spilled his seed inside of me. Now I could do the same, and it was for my mate, for his loss and love.
A storm whirled into the sky above the twilight realm with howling fury. As it sought its victims, it deafened the cries and prayers in my realm. It swept forward, passing my Silver City, passing the red forest, and passing the magic walls.
It rolled across the ocean and over the mountains, raising waves and toppling mountains, before crashing into my enemy’s war camps. It tossed the angels into the air, churned them, and tore out some wings with its teeth and claws, as their king had done to Seth.
I heard screams miles and miles away and laughed with vengeful delight.
But I wasn’t done yet. My magic wasn’t done. It was barely a warning. It was just the beginning, for I was the end.
I could keep going. I could destroy the entire world.
I had become the destroyer.
“Empress, please!” they pleaded. “Control your magic, or you’ll destroy the realm.”
“We’re your people! Look at us: we’re your people! Protect your people. Remember your vow please.”
I remembered my people. I’d done all I could for them. I’d sentenced my mate to a horrific fate for them. I remembered my people. I was born not to rule, but to protect.
Seth once asked me, “If I keep your kingdom intact and your people safe, will you cross the galaxies to my new homeland of violet seas and most stunning night sky?”
I would. I would go with him anytime.
The roar in my blood quieted to a hum.
The storm receded and then ceased.
But I was falling from the high sky; from the stars Seth once took me to see.
Hector and Lexa caught me. I steadied myself and gently pushed them away.
I looked around, my sight no longer the goddess’s but my own immortal’s.
Hector knelt, as did my generals and my court, surrounded by shattered glass and residual fire dancing here and there.
The angel messengers knelt among my court, staring at me in awe. Their dulled eyes now sparked with new hope, as if I could be their savior. As if I could save their High Prince.
I radiated light.
My court started weeping. They weren’t crying for the angel I loved and lost. They sobbed in joy because the Earth magic had finally awoken in me; because their faith in me had paid off. I would lead them to final victory just as the prophecy said.
General Go
odwin cleared his throat. “Empress Rose, you’ve shattered all the windows in the realm. It will be expensive to replace them all.”
The other two generals gave him a glare, and Goodwin shrugged. “We’ll have to bring the Empress back to win the war.”
Power, so deep and growing, still hummed in me, making me drunk. It arrived too late. It hadn’t aided me when I needed it the most.
It hadn’t saved Seth and my perished courtiers and loyal guards.
It failed to bring them home.
And Seth’s wings had been torn from him.
Purple tears streamed down my face. I was slow to wipe them off.
Souline, my lady-in-waiting, sobbed. Unlike the rest who wept for hope, she cried for my heart.
Only when a Mysthian’s heart breaks does he or she cry purple tears. It’s rare for a fey to have a broken heart. Once a fey has a shattered heart, it will never amend.
I’d fallen in love with one of my enemies, but he was no longer my enemy. He was my mate. My mind only caught up with it now, and it was too late.
My heart had broken for an angel.
You’re too late! I scolded my magic.
When I’d been chained in the king’s chamber like a wild animal, the Earth magic never stirred. And when Seth and I had been forced apart, I begged it to rise if it had ever been in me, and it hadn’t twitched.
I’d been so sure I was a dud and a failure.
Only when Seth had been truly taken, set to be beheaded, his cleaved wings placed at my feet, had the great elemental magic burst alive in me.
It had become one with me at the cost of my mate.
I threw my head back and roared in black hatred.
Earth shifted and opened and lava spewed into the air from the rift. My wind storm tore into the Earth Goddess’s favorite red forest in the twilight realm, with black lightning at its center.
That was Seth’s lightning!
I passed out before I could ponder the significance.
PRINCE SETH
I was forced to kneel, immobile, in a pool of my own blood. I commanded my body to stop trembling, but it wouldn’t obey.
Endless pain hovered in my mind, generating from my back where my wings had been severed.
Agro had sent my destroyed wings to Rose. I tried to spare her from the gruesome sight by warning her through our mating bond, but it seemed our bond was a one-way path. Rose had no idea of our link. It was chewing me alive to realize that I was powerless to protect my own female. I, once among the most formidable warrior angels, had become the least powerful being in existence.
My only hope lay in the Mysthians’ ability to seal the leyline. I had taught Rose how. The Forbidden Glory had rejected both my lord father and me. As long as Rose’s people closed the portal and stayed inside the magic walls, Agro and his army couldn’t touch them.
But security was an illusion.
I had no means to know what was going on in the outside world, but I expected Ephraim to fulfill his promise and bring Rose to safety. My spaceship should have landed on Earth by now. Ephraim would pass on to Gabriel and his crew my strict order not to come for me. My mate was their High Princess now.
Pain kept echoing in my every nerve point.
I should have killed Agro when he first laid eyes on Rose. And I should have gotten rid of my tyrant father when I had had one slim shot a millennium ago.
My father thought he would kill the hope for the Fallen after my death, but after eons of wandering in the bleakness of the vast universe I had learned that you can never kill hope.
Rose’s image swirled in my head, soothing my pain.
I’d crossed the light years to find her. It was all worth it.
Then I felt a shimmer through our mating bond, and my mate whispered, I’m coming for you. I’m coming, love.
I chuckled dryly. I had lost too much blood and started hallucinating. Rose wouldn’t come for me. She would never call me “love.” She had called me “savage” or “prick.”
And I didn’t want her to come to this city of death.
But how I loved to hear her voice and feel her touch, even though it was all in my head.
I talked back to her through the mating bond, Baby, just talk to me. Don’t stop. Stay with me for a few more moments.
I heard her sob, which made my heart bleed worse than my back. Don’t cry, eroma. You’re breaking my heart.
Tomorrow I would dream of my mate when the blade came down on my head. As for now, I committed her scent, her smile, and her voice to my every memory.
Even when I was gone, my love would always be with her.
I’m coming for you, Rose’s voice insisted.
And although I knew it couldn’t be real, I snarled at her, You’ll never come for me. You’ll never return to Atlantis!
EMPRESS ROSE FAYLINN
I’m coming for you, I called him again and again through the link—he’d once heard me when I’d called for help during an assassination attempt, and he’d come. That link had snapped alive when he’d come so hard in me. That was our mating bond. It had always been there, even before we’d mated.
I would go to him. No one could stop me, not even the realm. But I needed help. I summoned Hector and my other elite warriors, including Bhaltair, the former head of the imperial guards to my father.
“We’ll go to him on your behalf, Empress,” Hector said.
“It’s best you stay inside Mysth’s walls, Empress Rose,” Bhaltair agreed. “If we lose you, we lose everything.”
Lexa joined them. “The great magic in you has awoken, Empress. We must protect you and the magic at all cost.”
“There’s a reason for it to awake now,” I said. “If you go to Atlantis without me, none of you will come back alive, and my mate will lose his head.”
My warriors were all shocked into silence. It was the first time I acknowledged Seth, an angel, as my mate. Which meant they would have an angel as their consort emperor if we rescued him.
“We know what Prince Seth means to you,” Hector said, his jaw tightening, “but we won’t risk you for anyone.”
“He saved me,” I reminded him. “He saved all of your lives.”
“Still, we won’t risk Mysth’s future for a life-debt,” Hector said.
“Mysth won’t have a future without my mate returning to me,” I said softly. “I did not ask you to go on this mission with me merely for my selfish needs. To win the war, we need him.”
“I go where you go, Empress,” Bhaltair said. “My loyalty has never been divided. However, you might need to convince the realm about the angel prince. After all, we’re at war with his kind.”
The first obstacle was my generals. As I expected, they fiercely opposed this plan. After a long debate, I blew up. “If you don’t accept him, you don’t accept me,” I said. “Go ahead and find yourself another empress to lead you.”
“Fine.” The generals finally compromised. “You leave us no choice but to accept your terms. However, you must stay inside the walls, Empress. We’ll fight through the siege and bring an army to the angels’ city to rescue the high prince.”
“Don’t ever think you can lock me up in the tower,” I said. “I’m the only one who has the great, offensive magic. If I don’t go, my mate will die.” Over their panicked looks, I added, “You won’t lose me. I went to Atlantis once and returned. I’ll come back.”
No one looked happy.
“Rescuing Prince Seth is a crucial move to winning this war,” I said. “He and his lord father are the only two who can wield the Forbidden Glory, the most fatal weapon in the universe. It can reduce us all to ashes in mere seconds. Even my magic can’t hold it back.”
Or could it? The white light in me had once prevented the Forbidden Glory from killing me, but would it save my people? I needed to convince them we needed Seth to save them because the truth was, I didn’t know if my magic could.
“Even if we’re on board,” General Goodwin said, “the realm—”
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“I promised my people I would listen to them,” I said. “I’ll hear their voices. Gather them.”
In an hour, my people assembled where I wanted them to be—around the leyline, where the angels had torn a rift in Mysth’s ward.
The Mysthians all knelt, fists on their foreheads, and chanted at my approach, “Blessed are the Empress and Morning Star of Mysth.”
I raised a hand for them to rise.
My court stood behind me. The three angels from Seth’s House were in the rank of my imperial guards. They tucked their wings tightly, but my people recognized them as angels and gasped.
So I started telling my people about my journey to Atlantis. I told them how the High Prince of All Angels had saved me.
“Citizens of Mysth,” I called. “Time has changed. Even before the angels came, the world was a different place for us than for our ancestors. Only when we adapt well can we survive and remain the top species on Earth.” I sent the white light toward the leyline, making it visible. The Mysth’s magic walls lit up like rainbows surrounding the Silver City. In the middle where the angels had breached it, huge jagged holes extended forward and beyond.
All voices rose in panic, anger, and doubt.
My generals cursed, seeing the enemy’s leyline for the first time.
“The engineer race has tried for centuries to break down our walls and failed,” I said. “We thought we were safe, but then angels infringed upon our defenses. They think they can come to our realm anytime they want to slaughter us, but Earth Mother has given me this elemental magic to stop them. We’ll welcome them with this!”
I flung a hand in the air. A windstorm formed, creating a twister and slamming into the dark hole. The storm was so violent that my people staggered back and grabbed each other to keep on the ground.
My army that guarded the leyline roared their approval.
“My Earth magic is great, but it alone can’t hold back the angel hordes,” I said, my voice booming over theirs. “Their army is numerous. They’ll keep coming from other worlds. They won’t stop until they make sure none of us stand here. And they have an ultimate weapon—the Forbidden Glory. Its fire never dies. Its fire can wipe out any world. It destroys planets and stars. It erases time and space. It has eliminated many superior species that were far more advanced than we fey.”