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“What you have done is an abomination of the will of the gods. I’ve been brought here to fix your mistakes and to right what has been wronged in the universe.”
“Not all the gods believe what we have done is wrong, just the gods that talk to you,” Idalia pointed out.
“All the gods talk to me!”
The corners of Idalia’s lips curved up ever so slightly. “Or so you think.”
Footsteps slowed behind her as Shelby caught up. He glared at her sisters and the orange light that built in his palms cast her shadow in front of her. The sky was turning black now and no stars were shining. The winds had come to a standstill.
“You do not deserve her pity or her kindness,” he seethed “Only her wrath.”
Farah stood, her dress clinging to her, damp from several layers of sweat. Water in her staff swayed gently as she moved but otherwise, it did not slosh about as it would when her emotions ran wild. Farah didn’t look so pretty when she sneered.
“Is this why? This man? Or?” Farah looked past them. Rocks skittered mixed with the sound of someone’s shock and their grunts of effort. Ace turned to see Rehan dragged as she had been stopping a few feet from Shelby. “Or is it this one?” Farah’s gaze narrowed. “Has one of them gotten you so confused that you would turn your back on your family?”
“I’m not confused.” Typical older sister behavior. Ace was nothing more than a little sister being picked on by her older siblings, none of whom cared enough to listen or believe her. Ace shifted.
Her parents took several steps away, their attention bouncing from face-to-face. Blazing fire burned along her sword and she pointed it at her sisters. Idalia laughed and both Rehan and Shelby were encompassed in flames that spun like tornadoes around their bodies.
Shelby hissed. “Read it. Ace you have to read it! This is the only way.”
“You know we can fix that problem for you?” Farah asked.
Warmth coated her arms. The two men she had become closest with lit up like small bonfires, though the flames did not eat away at them. They both stood stiff and still. Her sisters were going to kill them. Her sisters would kill Shelby and Rehan and they wouldn’t bat an eye. Another reason why their reign of terror should come to an end.
Farah tightened her hold on her staff. Ace’s bowels turned to liquid and her eyes burned with tears that wanted to fall. Her hands trembled wildly as she flattened the paper in front of her and her vision went fuzzy as a tear slipped over her eyelid. But she spoke. Her voice was weak but with each phrase of the spell her confidence grew and she looked up at her sisters and her parents who stared down at her in confusion.
“What is she doing?” Farah snapped.
“Kill them. Kill them now!” Sienna shouted.
Ace said the words as fast as she could but before the last word could be uttered Idalia slammed her staff into the ground. The earth shook. A crack formed down the steps and split it into two parts, one that led to Shelby and the other to Rehan.
Ace sobbed and choked on the final word as two necks snapped and the paper in her hand crumpled to ash, falling through her fingers like grains of sand. There was another crack as her knees slammed into the earth. Tears soaked her cheeks now, as she stared up at her family. Her mother clung to her father, eyes wide and a hand pushed against her lips.
Ambrose stood several feet behind the other sisters, her attention lost and her eyes glazed over. Farah looked as if she might suddenly grow fangs and leap from the steps. Sienna had fallen quiet, her hands fisted at her sides. And Idalia smiled.
“I loved you,” Ace whispered.
“Now—” Idalia’s chin jerked to the side. Apopof bone passing bone. Her body went limp. The staff fell with her, the globe shattering open as it fell. Wispy tendrils of smoke floated toward the sky as her fire was extinguished. Farah and Sienna both staggered backwards. Farah was at Ambrose’s side in a second. Her parents turned to look at Ace, understanding flickering through their features before—Snap.Snap. Their bodies fell.
Ace’s shoulders shook as she tried taking a breath but couldn’t. She was so full of sorrow, anger, guilt, and every other shade of emotion she could feel there wasn’t room for her lungs to expand.
“No,” Farah whispered, a hand came up to her neck like that might hold it in place.
Sienna cried out only for the noise to be cut short as her neck cracked and she toppled over.
There was no feeling left in her body. Ace didn’t feel as if she were real; she sat there and watched Farah’s neck twist, her body crumple, and her staff hit the steps, cracking open, rolling down, and coming to a stop in front of Ace. The vines inside slithered out, drying up as they left their glass cage.
“Ambrose!” a deep voice bellowed. The way the man said her name filled Ace’s heart with the recognition of love.
Ace lifted her chin in time to see a man, not dressed for war but as if he had come for a celebration. For a moment she thought he was King Osiris, with his dark black hair, skin creeping with blue veins so similar to the Fae king, but she realized it wasn’t him when he reached the top of the stairs, arms outstretched for Ambrose.
Ambrose looked to Ace and smiled. “You did the right thing.” Her voice cracked. “I just chose the wrong side.” Ambrose brought her gaze to the Fae, holding her hands out for him to take. “Just know that I loved you and even after I may still yet.” He held her in his arms but nothing could stop the spell as it took the last royal and claimed her life.
Ace fell forward crying out as her family lay dead around her. The man who had saved her at one side. The love of her life lay still and unbreathing on the other. She screamed into the dirt and slammed her fist into the ground, angry at the gods. The last sounds of victory were the wails of the male who held Ambrose’s dead body.
Ace
