He pushed that light down the connection between him and all his Indres.
One by one, the changes that Malysa had made snapped.
The darkness obliterated.
The light shone through.
And all of the Indres shifted toward their alpha.
His to command.
“Turn on them,” he ordered.
And the Indres as one abandoned their fight and fell on Malysa’s army.
65
The Heirs
“Cyrene?” Kael whispered, his blue-gray eyes fluttering open.
“You’re alive,” she gasped.
“There’s…a sword in my chest.”
She laughed through tears as she wrenched Shadowbreaker out of the place where his chest met the meaty part of his left shoulder. She had wanted him subdued, so she could try to cleanse his blood magic and Malysa’s influence but not enough to actually kill him. She hadn’t anticipated the sheer amount of blood loss.
She had only a few minutes, but she worked on the muscle the best that she could. She had basically no healing abilities in her vast well. But they had been so connected for so long that what she was doing felt right. It wasn’t going to be perfect. They would need a much more skilled healer after this. But this would have to do for now.
“How does that feel?” she asked him, running a finger over the newly knit-together pink skin.
“Better.” He groaned. “What did you do to me?”
“I…cured you,” she said, sitting back on her heels.
“Cured me?”
“Yes, you no longer have blood magic.”
And she realized…neither did she. It wasn’t just that she couldn’t find it through the light. It was obliterated. The cleansing that had happened down the bond happened to them together.
“I don’t?” he asked, trying to sit up.
“Whoa there,” she said, pushing him back down. “We need to test out that shoulder before you move again. You lost a lot of blood.”
“I feel…fine,” he admitted. “Better than fine actually. Clearheaded for the first time in a long time. My shoulder is a little tender…but whatever you did to it worked.”
“Good,” she said softly. “And…everything else?”
“No magic,” he breathed. He lay back down on the ground, staring up at the clear sky overhead. “It feels like a relief.”
Cyrene sighed. “Me too.”
“But you still have magic.”
“Yes, Doma magic. The blood magic steals from you. It fragments your soul until there’s nothing human left in you. But Viktor kept you tethered to it. The bond he and Serafina gave to us unexpectedly saved you. Now, neither of us has the blood magic.”
“And I’m just human again.”
She nodded.
“Well, that sucks.” He chuckled and then winced. “And our bond is gone, too. I can’t feel you at all.”
“I broke the curse when I ended the blood magic.”
“Being connected to you didn’t feel like a curse.”
“Sometimes, it did,” she admitted.
“Only because of her,” he said. He eased into a sitting position, favoring his shoulder. Then she met that blue-gray gaze, and he winked. “The rest wasn’t too bad.”
She shook her head. “Well, at least it’s good to know that not all of your behavior was Malysa.”
“Just the worst of me.”
“You’re still a flirtatious shit,” she said, rising to her feet.
“Yeah, that’s just me,” he said. He looked down for a moment. “How’s Elea?”
“Ah, you do remember that you’re married to my sister.”
His eyes moved back up to hers. “She made it to you. She’s safe?”
“Of course. I would never let harm come to her or Alessia.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.” Then, he frowned. “So…what do we do now?”
“I have a goddess to kill,” she told him. She rose to her feet. “You have to stay here and answer for your crimes when this is all done.”
He frowned. “So, you saved me just to kill me?”
“No. I saved you because you did not deserve what Malysa had done to your mind. No one does. But it doesn’t mean that you aren’t responsible for so many deaths, Kael. There are a lot of people who will want you brought to justice.”
“What’s justice in war?”
She didn’t have an answer for that. Just an argument. One that they would have to have later. But, right now, she had more important things to do than deal with Kael Dremylon.
“Cyrene!” she heard a voice calling her.
She turned to find Dean striding into the Ring of Gardens. His light hair was messed up, and he was covered in black blood.
“Over here,” she called. “You killed the Voldere?”
“Yes. Two of them. There are more terrorizing the army. Sarielle and Halcyon went to help take them out of the skies,” he told her.
“Creator.”
“And Ceis’f went off after Malysa alone.”
“What?” she snapped.
“Avoca and I tried to stop him, but he was beyond reason. He kept saying he was this close to avenging his people, and he wouldn’t wait around for you. Avoca sent me to get you and ran after him.”
“Ceis’f,” she growled. “What was he thinking?”
“I don’t think he was.”
Kael slowly rose to his feet. “You can’t trust Ceis’f. He’s one of Malysa’s men.”
Cyrene shook her head. “He’s not a traitor. When he found out that Malysa had killed the Leifs in Aonia, he was a hundred percent with me.”
“Yeah, I think that’s pretty doubtful.”
“I thought you were going to kill him,” Dean noted, crossing his arms to stare Kael down.
“I was,” she said. “But I thought I’d try to fix him first. And, in doing so, I broke the curse and cleansed both of our blood magic.”
Kael tipped his head at him. “Guess I’m here to stay.”
“We’ll see about that,” Dean said, low and menacing. He strode toward Kael. “You’ve killed a lot of people. Ten of my sisters and my entire island home. Just because Cyrene didn’t have the heart to kill you doesn’t mean I won’t.”
Dean got right into his face.
Kael just tipped his head up and met his stare. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Would you two stop it?” Cyrene spat. “We have more important things to do right now. Ceis’f and Avoca went to take on Malysa alone! You two can stay here and squabble, or we can go kill the goddess who started all of this.”
Neither of them moved. They just stared at each other. Sizing the other one up. Dean clearly had the advantage. He had magic, and he wasn’t injured. But that didn’t stop Kael from staring at him like he was lower than the dirt on his boots.
Men!
“Okay, fine. You two kill each other. I’ll go save us,” she said. “I have to do everything around here.”
She picked up Shadowbreaker, wiped the blood off of the blade, and then pushed it into its awaiting sheath. Then she grabbed the Hohl blade she’d brought with her, too. She was ready to depart with both when something happened that Cyrene never would have imagined.