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November 14 - November 23, 2025
I watched how they worked together and smiled, resting my head on the soft furs. He had been looking for this for so damn long. Samkiel finally had his queen, and she was worthy of him in every way. She would have torn the realms apart for him and hadn’t even let death come between them. I sunk deeper into my cot. Despite the pain of the burns, my body finally relaxed after months of constantly being on guard. Samkiel was alive, and I was finally safe.
“I promise to make it as comfortable as I can until we figure this out,” Samkiel said, crouching beside me once more. I had forgotten how massive he truly was. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I inhaled deeply, taking in his familiar scent. That was what home felt like.
“It was way before The Hand formed, way before I was friends with anyone.” I swallowed the growing lump in my throat. “That’s my dirty secret, and Kaden used it against me. I got Xavi’s sister killed because I stayed out too late. Instead of going on the mission with Athos, I wanted to sleep off my hangover. They sent Kryella and her team instead, and… Maybe I was always meant to be Ig’Morruthen. It’s the only thing that feels right now, and I guess that’s how you feel at times, too.”
Dianna held my gaze and said, “I won’t lie. I do feel more myself when I turn. Knowing I have the power to protect the ones I loved was a dream come true, and I reveled in it. But, Cameron, you didn’t kill his sister. You were young and drunk and wanted to sleep in. So what? You had no idea what would happen, nor could you predict it. Stop blaming yourself, and if you love him, fight for him. Regardless of what happened between you two, I know he would fight for you.”
Our whole friendship was built on my guilt. I loved a man who I had damned. I was the definition of fucked up.
“Thank you.” And I meant it so damn much. “For everything.” Dianna nodded, sighing as she stood. She wiped her hands along her sleek black pants. “Yeah, well, that’s what family is for, and you said I was a part of yours a long time ago. I won’t let you take it back.”
“She has an armada, Dianna,” I called out. “That much I do remember. A fleet large enough to take over every realm, and you’re her first priority.” Dianna stopped, and darkness built in the room. “She will find, like so many others, that taking me, army or not, is no easy task.” She looked at me over her shoulder, her eyes burning and blazing red. “I fear no gods and no kings.” My smile was brief. “I think she knows that, too.”
In the chaos of everything that had happened to us these last few months and both of us finally admitting what our hearts already knew, I realized I’d never told him. “Samkiel, I have loved you since we left Reggie’s vortex, and sometimes, when I think about it, I think I loved you before that too.”
My eyes widened and filled with tears. “You treacherous snake.” Vincent folded his arms over his broad chest. “I never lied about who I was. You were just too simple to believe it.” “I’ll kill you!” I gritted my teeth, sweat beading on every bit of my exposed skin as I tried to summon my magic to fight, but nothing came. “No,” he said as the world drew dark. “No, you won’t.”
Nismera took a step closer to me. “And you just became useless. I think it’s time to show you what happens when people touch my belongings.” I saw Vincent’s throat bob, and my eyes cut to his. He’d told her… everything. “Bring her forward. It’s time to dispose of my witch.”
I stared at Vincent. Acceptance was a bitter taste in my mouth, but I was okay. This was a fate I thought I deserved after helping Kaden for so long. I deserved to be punished for what I’d done to Dianna, to the world. Nismera released my hair, stepping toward Vincent for a better view of my humiliation. “Now take her hands,” Nismera whispered, placing her hand on his shoulder. “I command you.”
I curled my fingers once more, feeling the heat of the emerald glow one last time before I lost my hands and my magic forever.
I hated that, hated how I reacted to her. She was not supposed to be here, smiling and looking at me like that, touching me as she did. She did not belong to me, and as Nismera had said only moments earlier, she was supposed to be dead.
She was not mine. The words echoed in my head, but I’d keep her, regardless. I just needed to figure out how to eradicate the false king before he found her.
“I know that I still care, and no matter what I’ve tried, I cannot remove you from my fucking veins. You’re it, Dianna. You always have been.” “You killed my sister.” I spat the words at him like acid, keeping my fists raised between us. “You killed my amata, and now you want to erase the memories of the only man I ever loved?” “We had something,” Kaden snapped. “You and I. No one is here but us now. You cannot deny it.”
“Deny it?” I scoffed. “You are the epitome of a walking contradiction. Of course, you’d beg me to come back after I finally destroyed every ounce of feelings I ever had for you. We had something? Maybe eons ago. I tried. You pushed me away. Actually, you quite literally gave up on me.” “I had to,” Kaden practically screamed at me. Isaiah watched him, his eyes blinking rapidly at Kaden’s confession. “You know everything now. The whole truth. Why I acted the way I did, why I had to…”
There is no us. No happy moments or love because I was nothing more than your puppet. A weapon you pointed and used. There was nothing. There is nothing. You. Are. Nothing. To. Me.”
The room shifted, and so did my form, my hands dropping to my sides. I was tired of this game, tired of him. By the old gods and new, I was no longer the scared girl who held back but a queen born of darkness, flame, and anger. “And now I am going to rip you both to pieces for what you’ve done, and when you wake up on the other side, hopefully writhing in agony, you’ll finally understand that I have not an ounce of love for you.”
A ghost of a smile twisted Kaden’s lips. “No matter. You will be mine. I taught you how to fight to survive. You are not trained in war.” “You did.” I nodded, bracing my feet. “But I’ve learned a lot since I left you.” I hoped my eyes burned with as much hate as I felt. “Only one of us is leaving this place. And it will be me.” “Y...
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“I have never stopped loving you, Dianna. I just need to get rid of all that anger. You will be mine again, and this time for eternity.” Terror gripped me at what they planned to do. “No. I’d rather die than have you ever touch me again.” “I’d never let you die, Dianna, and I promise to keep you safe.”
“She’s too far away from me,” I said, my voice breaking. “If I may, Your Majesty,” Roccurem said as the sky opened and rain pelted us. I turned to him, blinking against the water soaking my face. “I once told you that love has power, and the purest, truest of it can defy great odds. It is something I have witnessed before, and I will witness it again. If it gives power, take it. Harness it. This,” he pointed up, “is your power in the sky, no one else’s. To save her, simply call it home.”
Now I understood the look on my father’s face and my mother’s tears as she held me that night. I did not make Oblivion. I was Oblivion.
The swirling mass of power in the sky halted and turned as if it had just been waiting. I threw a single arm up, and my power rushed forward, the silver racing so fast night turned into day. It crashed into my fingertips before spreading, surging into me in waves. My body claimed the power, my cells soaking in the energy. I dropped my arm as my helmet slid over my face, the ground burning under my boots. Reggie smiled at me, and it was the first real one I had seen from him in a long time. “Bring your queen home.”
My muscles finally seized. A battle lost. My arms dropped. My eyes closed. “I’ll remember that I love you.” I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I made the vow just in case. Silence fell, and the world paused. Everything stopped, and I fought to find a way to lock a part of him away in my mind, to choose just one memory for safekeeping. I could save him, revisit it. It was a lifeline for me to hold on to until I made it back to him because I would make it back to him. My world. My heart. My lost soul.
Everything around me was suddenly gone. A residual vivid silver light skittered across the sky where a hole had been punched open. A portal. I took a shaky breath when I noticed that Isaiah and Kaden were gone, nothing left of them but ashes floating on the wind. And I knew. “Samkiel.” My voice emerged as a whisper. I knew what this meant. Everyone would know he was alive. She would know he was alive. I wrapped my arms around myself because I finally understood the stories and the legends. Samkiel never needed the Oblivion blade to be feared. It was clear now why so many bowed, why they
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“You are supposed to be dead,” Kaden snarled from behind his horned helmet. I flexed my wrist, the power flickering over my skin to coalesce in my hand. The shadow of a blade formed in my palm as dark and hateful as they’d made me. The sword solidified, purple and black tendrils of magic reaching, searching for their next victim. I pointed it at Kaden. “I am not, but you soon will be.” “Oblivion,” Isaiah whispered. “How did you get that from Mera?” My lips curled in disgust. “I did not get it. I am it. Oblivion is not something anyone can take from me.”
“You stole our amata mark, so I did the next best thing. She is my wife, my only, and she will never again be yours. Never.”
“I’d destroy several worlds if it meant keeping you safe. You have no idea the limits I’d go for you.”
Killium sat up, his hand holding his cracked ribs. “You think I made a weapon for a fate? You’re as dumb as you look. I made a weapon to bridge a gap, to fix what you broke.”
I had only seen one other person move that quickly, only one, and I’d helped murder him because no one else could. Unir. Our father. There was searing pain and then nothing but darkness.
Curse the old gods and the dead. He had it all back. He’d ripped his power from the very sky for her.
Kaden was gone, and I had no doubt I would soon join him. My chest felt like it was about to cave in. I’d never see Imogen again and left unattended with the others… I wanted to scream.
“No one has ever protected me like you do. I’m always the one taking care of everything and everyone else. You’re supposed to protect the world, not me.” “You are my world.” He pulled me flush against him and tipped my head back to kiss my forehead, his hand running idly up and down my back. “I’ll always protect you, akrai. No matter the consequences,” he whispered against my forehead. “Even if I break the sky.”
“What of her soul?” Death tilted his head toward me. “That’s what worries you? Not the return, but her soul?” I said nothing. “Soul?” Death tsked. “The fractured thing it is. It’s a jagged, crushed thing, the remnants buried within him.” My back straightened, and Death caught it. My mind whirled. I had not seen that outcome either. “Her soul is in Samkiel?” “What is left of it. Two beings in one. It seems Samkiel was strong enough to bear it,”
Yet, no matter how bad it got, a flicker of hope sat idly by. It was a spark of life, an ember I protected with all my will. It was the memory of shimmering hair, the color of the sun, the scent of mistwood, the rich fragrance heralding the turn of fall, and a laugh that could heal heartaches and broken bones. He was home, and he was so far away from me now that it felt as if a part of my soul was missing. I would have sworn he was a dream, only I did not dream here. Yes, death would be better.
There was a crack of thunder, and the world turned dark. Rain pelted me even if I could not feel it. The stone bridge rocked, and the guards I could see turned to look. I knew whatever had landed behind me was bad because they turned and ran. Hot, blinding silver light raced past me, and my heart leaped. I knew that light, knew what it meant, knew how it felt. It was not Nismera, but it was a god. Samkiel.
The woman twisted her wrist, and her helmet melted away. No, not Dianna at all. “Xavier,” she purred. “My yeyras. I’ve missed you.” Kryella.
“How are you alive?” I choked out. Athos did not hesitate. “We are The Eye.” The lethal soldiers behind her stood tall, holding the thick silver shields I remembered from before the fall of Rashearim. Gods, so many gods. “We are the last rebellion against Nismera the Conqueror. What we need to know now is how many more of you are alive?”
