Spending It All

EKON

Through everything—the pain, the wailing siren, the relentless blasts of magic—there was Bambi.

I held her like a lifeline. She was saving me, even as I was dying.

If I could give her anything before I went, before we went together, I wanted to give her a last bit of comfort.

But still, she was the one comforting me.

“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered, holding my head in her hands as if she could stop the pain and heal my fatal wound.

I nodded, opening my eyes.

Though my vision was bleary, I could see that she was crying.

I wiped away her tears, once again struck by how soft her skin was against my rough and calloused fingers.

~How did I get so lucky?~

~How had this angel ended up bound to a cursed man…fated for destruction and war.~

I had really thought we could do it. I had held onto the last hope that my mother and I could defeat my evil sister, even though Devina had proven me wrong at every turn.

I gazed out at the wretched battle, where the two witches fought.

They were no two witches in the world more equally matched.

No one in the world could defeat Devina if not my mother.

But as Mom burned her hand deflecting a bolt of Devina’s hateful fire, I saw that her strength was fading.

The building itself could not withstand their duel…

The very earth shook as Devina’s voice lowered into a blasting demonic howl.

I held Bambi even tighter to me as a chunk of ceiling fell, smashing down onto the battered dining room table.

I protected her head, praying that, above all, she would make it through this awful fight.

As I scanned the room, I saw Kalindi and Max cowering together, holding one another, a mirror of Bambi and me.

Toward the corner of the room, Hunter shielded Ela with his body as the ceiling began to crumble and fall in larger, more precarious chunks.

Holly, with her hands over her head, bearing the weight of the whole compound, was chanting, hoping to keep the compound from collapsing.

She fell to her knees, and I sensed that our time in this life was coming to an end.

“Bambi,” I said.

I held her chin as I kissed her for the last time. I kissed her so tenderly I hoped I could make her forget the whole awful scene around us.

I wanted her to remember the most important thing.

The two of us…

“My mate,” she whispered. Amid it all, she was able to smile.

I replied: “If we end up in the afterlife… I’ll still be your guide.”

HUNTER

Sure, it wasn’t the best time.

But the building was falling, and all hope was nearly lost, so it could have been my last opportunity to tell her.

After being away from her, I could no longer deny how I felt.

“I have something to say!” I shouted as I protected her body beneath mine, feeling her heartbeat through our touching chests.

We couldn’t have been closer, but still we could hardly hear one another over the sizzling blasts of magic.

“And I should have told you sooner…” I went on.

Even with the chaos surrounding us, my mate smiled up at me like a minx. As if we were in our bed, about to make love.

“You love me,” she replied.

“Hey!”

The woman never ceased to surprise me…or beat me to the punch.

“Wait a minute, you can’t—” I went on, flustered. “You can’t say it ~for~ me!”

She shrugged not-so-innocently.

As much as I wanted to be frustrated, I couldn’t stay mad at that smile…

Fuck it. How I said it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that it was true.

And that she knew it.

“I love you, Ela,” I said, and instantly, I felt calm. Like I could die right then, and everything would be okay.

“I love you too,” she replied.

With that, I closed the space between us, pressing my lips against hers and feeling her body under mine…

Finally, I had told her how I felt—no jokes, no funny business—for the first time.

…And maybe it would be the last.

ROSE

With every spell I slung, I surprised myself with my own strength.

It was as if I had accessed a hidden reserve of power I didn’t know existed…but it still wasn’t enough to triumph over Devina.

She sent a flash of lightning toward me, but I reflected it, sending it into the already compromised wall of the compound.

Her petulant attitude had devolved into unadulterated rage. I was watching my daughter grow old before my eyes.

In order to summon a strong enough blast, I would need to be smart.

I needed to pull from the depths of the reserve within me. I needed to deplete myself.

I needed to give myself…in order to take her away…

I closed my eyes, imagining the cry of my daughter when she was born, the murmur of Matthias when his small belly was full of milk…

And Ekon: I imagined the honorable leader he had become.

I concentrated all of that love into one final blow—and sent it soaring from my hands.

When my eyes opened, the blast of light had met its target. Devina had not been able to deflect it; its potency was too pure.

It struck her directly in the heart.

I watched as her mouth fell open and the evil confidence left her eyes.

She fell to her knees. And then she was no longer a villain. She was only my daughter.

My daughter, looking up to me helplessly.

But this time, I would not abandon her. Where she was going, I had to go with her.

Tears of compassion filled my eyes as I, too, felt my soul give way. I staggered toward Devina and collapsed on the ground beside her.

“It’s time for you to pass on,” I managed with my breaking voice, “but you aren’t leaving alone.”

I held my daughter in my arms, and she leaned into me. I cradled her, just as I had when she was a baby.

She looked up at me with a small smile on her dying lips, and in that moment, the greatest loss and regret of my life was healed.

Because I was able to hold my daughter one final time.

“Mother,” Devina whispered, as if her heart had healed the same way…

EKON

I stared in tragic wonder at the women before me.

My family.

My evil sister had met her match.

And though this was all I had wanted for as long as I could remember, I still shed a tear as I watched mother, in her true form, fade from this life.

Bambi clung to my chest. She heard what had happened, and though the compound was still crumbling around us, she knew the outcome had changed.

As the two women before me struggled for their last breaths, I heard my mother’s voice:

“Don’t cry for me, as this is my greatest gift…I can pass on to the afterlife with my daughter.”

Devina turned from our mother, and her flickering eyes lighted on me.

They were no longer filled with malice. It looked like she was…at peace.

A smile touched her lips.

“I have a gift for you in return, brother. A real one this time.”

BAMBI

I clutched my mate’s body as I held on to every single word.

Without seeing the scene before me, I could sense its healing beauty.

Here was Rose’s destiny. Here was Devina, dying.

Suddenly, the darkness before me began to shift. Light swam before my field of vision…

I could make out movement.

It was happening so quickly I could hardly accept the truth.

~I could see again.~

I pushed myself onto my elbow, taking in the scene around me.

Devina and Rose, fading away. Finally passed on from this life.

And around the room, all of my friends were staring back at me.

Holly, who was supporting a groggy Tyler, my brother Max, who was holding Kalindi, Ela…and Hunter who shot me his signature smirk.

And last, but absolutely not least, ~Ekon~.

I gazed at my mate, and I saw my own wonder reflected in his eyes.

I took in every inch of his face…the hard jaw, the small scars, the stubble on his cheeks, his full lips…

And his ~eyes~.

For the first time ever, my mate and I were making eye contact. For the first time, we ~both~ could see.

And that was so beautiful and momentous that I forgot about the crumbling building around us.

I wanted to exist in that moment forever, seeing and being seen.

Ekon cradled my face in his hands as both of our eyes brimmed over with emotion…

But there was no time for sentimentality.

Because the compound’s very foundation rumbled beneath us—and then cracked.

The ceiling’s failing integrity was finally compromised, and massive chunks of drywall crashed onto the floor.

Holly and Tyler were holding hands, chanting, and the next moment we teleported out of the falling building.

All of us gasped in the cool, night air.

Together, we watched as Ekon’s compound fell into ruin. In mere minutes, the grand mansions were nothing more than a pile of rubble.

I gripped my mate’s hand as we stared. Our house was destroyed.

But at least we were still here.

Ekon was the first to speak.

“I have to know if Matthias is still alive…if he was killed in the collapse.”

“Ekon, no! You’re wounded,” I protested. “And it would be nearly impossible to find him in the dark.”

“I have to try.”

Hunter supported my mate, and they helped him approach his fallen compound even with a wounded back.

I stayed at his side, searching the rubble as Tyler and Holly made light for us to see.

An hour later, we were even more deliriously exhausted, and there was no sign of Matthias.

“He must be in here,” Hunter reasoned. “That bastard was decomposing. No way could he escape.”

“I need proof,” Ekon replied.

“We can look tomorrow,” I offered.

“There’s no use,” Max said. “The rubble is at least ten feet deep. Ekon, we can assume your brother is dead.”

“We can make no assumptions,” Ekon went on, “because if Matthias is dead, that means there will be no third Great War.”

For a moment, my heart soared with hope.

Rose had not only helped us defeat Devina, but Matthias too.

But the prospect was short lived.

“Yeah, about that third Great War…” my brother said. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

MATTHIAS

I was on the ground so long my very skin became dirt.

Soaked through, unmoving.

At last, my body had betrayed me.

My flesh had been failing for years, held together only by Devina’s constant cursed care.

When she expired, my very bones had felt it.

And it was the unspeakable pain of the dead. Or the undead. A living mind in a dead body.

I had used the last magic I had left to save myself, teleporting out of the compound to Goddess knows where.

I still didn’t know. With my face in the mud, time had become relative…

I was caught in the limbo of the undead.

…Until I was found.

A steel-toed boot kicked my decaying abdomen, and a few men rolled me over.

“Who the fuck is that?” one man asked.

“He reeks.”

With my failing eyes, I could make out the curled mustache of one man, the brown digital pattern of camouflage.

They were human soldiers. And I was too weak to do anything but lay before them like a corpse.

“What do we do with him, Commander Smit?”

“This one could be of use,” the man said with an unsettling smirk. “Take him.”

^End of Book 2^