The magic hit him like a two-ton semi. It hit him hard and he was winded. He could see, but he couldn’t stop her as she turned on Saren. The wind went to her feet and began circling her. It picked up speed as it started up over her feet, her calves, her legs, her waist. She was drawing power from the ground.
She was going to kill Saren. He felt her intent and tried to help. “No!” he yelled.
It was too late.
The Immortal shot Saren with a blast of magic.
The blue-leathered warrior fell back, stunned by the hit. Her eyes rolled to the side and she began to fall.
“No!”
Lucas thought that was him. He was shouting in his mind, but it wasn’t. It was the other sisters. They surged ahead and Talia stepped into Saren’s body. He blinked by the sudden transformation. The blue leather was gone, and instead the red hair grew and a similar white dress formed over the thread-holder.
The Immortal stepped back, shocked, too.
“MOM!”
Talia’s eyes widened. She paled and turned. The Immortal did as well. Lucas saw the little girl run past him. He didn’t know what had happened to her. The Immortal must’ve placed her down, but she ran right by him. Her arms and legs were pumping as hard as she could and her eyes and mouth were flat, looking determined. “MOM! Mom!”
“No!” Talia gasped.
She lifted horrified eyes to Lucas. “Stop her—”
But she was past him. It was too late. Talia moved to scoop her daughter up, but The Immortal was there. She grabbed the child before Talia could and swung her away. She lifted up in the air and laughed down. “It is too late now. I will end all of this foolishness.”
“NO!”
The Immortal placed a hand against the child’s cheek and closed her eyes.
“No, no, no.” Talia was whimpering. “She can’t kill her. It’s all over for us then.”
“Lucas!”
He heard Davy shouting to him. “What?”
“Throw Talia up here.”
“What?”
Talia turned to him, hearing him. “What?”
He ignored her. “What, Davy?”
“Throw my sister up here. Just do it. The child has a knife. She’s going to plunge it into my body. The Immortal’s distracted. Now’s your chance to free me.”
“Davy, I don’t know—”
“DO IT!”
So, he did. He hurried to Talia and said, “I’m only doing what I’m told.” His fingers wrapped around her arm and he circled once, gaining enough momentum and then he let loose. Talia was launched in the air.
“Mom!” The child saw her coming and like Davy said, she pulled out a dagger that was inside of her shirt. He recognized it as one that he had given Wren as a gift. Then, right as The Immortal saw it, it was too late. It was plunged into her stomach.
“NOOOO!” she screamed, crashing back down to the ground, but he didn’t have time to figure why that one cut held so much more power than the others. The Immortal’s body was writhing on the ground and he stepped forward. A hand touched his. Brown was beside him. She said, “They need magic for this so hope you’re ready.”
“Wha—”
Again. He didn’t have time to question anything. He was overtaken by her magic, but it wasn’t just hers. He sensed all of the Mori as one. He sensed his friends. Gavin. Gregory. Wren. Tracey. Bastion. They were all connected. His brother, too. Mavic. Everyone. A moment later, he felt all the thread-holders, too. Brown must’ve connected to them, or to Talia, and they were all being channeled into him.
“Come in, Lucas!” Davy was calling him. He was on another plane. He wasn’t in his body form anymore. He had become his mind, but he followed her voice. “Davy, lead me!” he shouted back.
“I am. I’m pulling you to me.”
He stepped forward, feeling intense power all around him. It wasn’t his. It wasn’t Davy’s. It was angry, but it was distracted. It was blind to him until he was in front of Davy. He reached for her hand. Relief pouring through him. “Davy!”
His hand went through hers. He frowned, pulling it back. “I can’t touch you.”
“I know.” She was concentrating on his hand, her eyebrow bunched together. Her mouth turned down and she said, with authority in her voice, “But I’m going to grab you.”
He waited, holding his hand up, and as he held his breath, she started to lift her hand to his. He felt an immense pressure pushing back against him, but he held strong. Davy was breaking through whatever was holding her in.
A gasp.
He heard it in his ear. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t Davy.
A reeling sensation zipped around them. An anchor began to sink inside of him. The Immortal knew what they were doing.
“Davy, you have to hur—” Her fingers touched his and the last of his sentence fell from his lips, “—ry.”
That was all the connection she needed. Her eyes closed and he felt the power radiate from her. It was like a blanket coming from her, one thread at a time. It was covering The Immortal around them and he felt a shift in gravity. They were going down.
Davy’s palm fit against his. She tightened her hold on him and grunted out, pain laced in her tone, “It’s working. She’s weakening.”
She kept breaking through the barrier until her other hand was holding onto his, then her arms, her elbows, her legs, her knees, her feet, her waist, then her entire body. They were crashing to the ground. It was The Immortal, not them. He realized that now until he was holding Davy in his arms again. As the entirety of her body fit against his, perfectly and how it always had, he was back in his own mind. He was in his own body and he really was holding Davy.
She opened her eyes. Tears burst forth, and she smiled at him. “Hi.”
Hi. She said hi. Lucas felt a stupid grin on his face. He grabbed her face, rested his forehead to hers, and asked, “Is it done?”
Her smile spread as wide as his and she nodded, bobbing their heads together. “Yeah.” Happy tears slid down her face. “It really is.” She grasped his head too and dipped so her lips met his. One kiss. Two. Three—he couldn’t let go. It’d been so long, so damn long. He groaned, his hands going around her. He pulled her in. He just wanted to hold her and reassure himself that she wasn’t going anywhere anymore.
“I’m here,” she gasped against his lips. “I’m not going anywhere. She can’t break free. She doesn’t have the power. I do. I’ll never let her have it again.”
As they kept kissing and hugging, they began to hear sounds of sobbing. He didn’t want to pull away, but he did with reluctance.
Lily was kneeling on the ground beside Talia. Tracey was next to her, and Wren was standing on Tracey’s other side.
“Momma.” Lily stroked Talia’s cheek. She bent down and pressed her forehead to her mother’s. She whispered, “Momma, I love you.”
“Talia.” Tracey was moaning, rocking back and forth. Her hand went to touch her sister’s cheek, then lifted away. She started to touch her niece’s cheek, but her hand raised once again and began to go back to her sister. She couldn’t decide who to touch and in the end, she merely bent forward and pressed her forehead to Talia’s stomach. She grabbed ahold of her on both sides and cried.
Wren let out a soft breath and stroked Tracey’s back.
“Oh no.” Davy’s hand found Lucas’s. “They’re gone.”
Brown stepped forward. She told Davy and Lucas, “They gave their power to Davy—”
Davy finished, “I needed more. I couldn’t break through the barrier. They gave everything to me so I could and . . . it cost them.” She lifted her haunted gaze to him. “They died so I could live.”
“No.” Brown grabbed one of Davy’s hands. She held it to her chest. “They died so The Immortal would be defeated. If it was another thread-holder, if it was another time, you would’ve done the same.”
“I’m alive, though.” Tears were fast falling down Davy’s face again but the celebration had gone. There were lo
sses to mourn.
“And they won’t be forgotten,” Brown said. She readjusted her hold on Davy’s hand, holding even tighter. “I promise, Davy. They will never be forgotten. We will remember. We will live for them now.”
Lucan joined the circle. His face was a mask. His lips were in a flat line. His eyebrows were fixed. He wore a bland expression before he turned to Brown. “I hate to strike while there are grieving ones here, but . . .” He lifted his eyes to his brother. A smirk showed and a chill sliced through Lucas once again.
He growled, his hands forming fists. “What are you doing, Lucan?”
“Well.” He let out a frustrated breath. “You see, everyone forgot why I was helping. I mean, yes. Take down The Immortal. Hear, hear. All cheers for her demise, but,” he cringed, smiling at the same time. “No one thought about the afterwards, and well . . .” His hand gestured to Talia and to Davy. “I have to strike while I can, and the time is now.”
He stared at Davy, but Brown gasped. Her head flew back and her chest arched up. Her hands spread out. She cried out, “Davy!”
“Brown!”
“There’s pain.” A bloodcurdling scream ripped from her. She cried out, hoarsely, “Something’s happening inside of me. I can’t—oh my God! I can’t—Davy!”
“What?” Davy grabbed both of her hands. “What is going on? Lucan! Stop it. Whatever you’re doing, stop it!”
Lucas started for his brother, but he was grabbed and hauled backwards. Five Mori warriors restrained him. He scanned the group, and all of his warriors were being held back by Mori. A high-pitched scream sounded from Lily as she was picked up and handed off to her mother. “Mom!” She hit at the Mori mother, but her futile attempts were ignored. She was whisked away.
Tracey kicked out. She tried to break free, an animal-like growl coming from her. She couldn’t. She was too weak. So was everyone else, Lucas himself, and his eyes found Davy’s, too. She was the weakest of all.
All that power, everything that had been given to them would be for nothing.
Lucan double-crossed them. As Brown kept screaming, Mavic moved around so he was standing in front of Brown and Davy both.
“Yes. Yes.” Lucan stood in front of his twin. His breath was hot as he was laughing. “You’re starting to piece it all together now, aren’t you? You were my way of breaking the thread from existence, but you’re my enemy. You were my weapons against her and it all couldn’t have worked better for me if I had planned it myself.” He leaned close and said softly, “Thank you, brother. Thank you for putting one of my own coven members in touch with a Bright witch. Thank you for allowing him to mold her into his own weapon, because you see, her magic wasn’t released at all. No, no. He’s not able to perform miracles, but he was able to channel other magic inside of her. She was the trusted one. She was sent here to help you and one of mine traveled with her. So while she was in The Immortal’s head with you and Davy, she thought she was helping you free Davy, but she wasn’t. Her magic wasn’t created to do that. Her magic was weakening Davy so that now I can kill her. Finally. The thread will jump to Brown, and then right to me. It’s all been planned. I’ll get what I wanted. I’ll be the first and only male thread-holder. I’ll be the final thread-holder.”
His brother’s delight repulsed him.
Lucas shook his head. If the thread were pulled from her, she would die. The thread made her immortal and as he watched, it was happening. Brown was connected to Davy still and Mavic was performing a spell on both. Davy’s skin was literally jerking. The thread was going to be ripped from inside of her.
Think, Lucas. He had to think. He had to calm down and just . . . think!
Turned. That was the last piece that Davy told him in his dream. Everything else had come true. The innocent. The forgotten. The one would come back, but she said she would have to be turned . . .
His brother had everything planned.
But what if she died before the spell was completed? That would stop it from going to his brother. No. The thought sickened him. Davy wanted to be human. That was all she dreamt about, to be normal. He couldn’t . . . no, no. He couldn’t take that away, but as he continued to watch—he couldn’t see any other way. Davy would die. He had no doubt his brother would kill everyone else.
He had to do it.
He closed his eyes and focused. He needed to call upon all the Hunters again, but there was other power in him still. The Immortal gave him her power. He used most of it up, but he still felt it in him. He needed to use all of it. He had to make it count.
“Davy,” he thought.
Her eyes found his, so terrified.
He said, “I’m going to kill you.”
“What?”
“Don’t be afraid. I have to do it. It’s the only way.”
She nodded, moving her head only a tiny bit. She was held captive by the spell, but at her signal, Roane erupted into motion. He launched himself backwards and then jumped over his five captors. They were too slow. Everyone was too slow.
He was at Davy’s side within the blink of an eye and in the next, his fangs were in her neck. There had been blood trickling down his arm and he raised his thumb to her lips. He brushed it over her mouth, and her tongue darted out to swallow a drop. His other hand grasped the back of her neck, and as she drank, he told her, “Turn, Davy. Turn for me.”
She gasped, one last needed breath, and he snapped her neck.
DAVY
They told me I slept for three days and I started laughing. Three days. How cliché was that, but it was true. It had been three days since my final death. And I say final because it felt like I had died a thousand times over, but three days ago had been my last time. I was no longer The Immortal. I was no longer even a thread-holder. I wasn’t empathic, and I wasn’t a human.
I was a vampire.
Lucas told me when he killed me, the thread jumped out of me. It hadn’t been in enough time for Lucan’s spell to do whatever it had intended to do. It went straight to the nearest thread-holder, Lily. Talia’s little girl was the newest and according to a prophecy that I never knew about, she was the last thread-holder. Tracey explained that Lily would always be the thread-holder. She doubted anyone would try to separate the thread again, not after word spread far and wide how powerful The Immortal had been.
I felt horrible. I felt Talia’s second death. I felt all of my sisters’ second deaths, but in the moment I hadn’t realized what the impending doom was that I was feeling. I had been selfish. I had been so happy to be in Lucas’s arms again, for real, but Tracey reassured me that Lily isn’t a normal thread-holder. Apparently she was still able to see her other sisters, Talia too. Because she grew up among the Mori, who had their own magic, her body wasn’t normal. I was thankful to hear the sisters still lived on another plane, but I wouldn’t see Saren again or hear her annoying voice in my head.
It was done. All of it. Even Lucan.
When she became the thread, Lily saw Jiyama’s death. She told the Mori leader that Lucan killed her and where he had deposited the body. Any assistance Lucan got from the Mori was done. Apparently, there had been suspicion, but there was proof now. One of their own saw it. Lucan was hauled into their prison while Lucas and the rest of us were treated as guests. Tracey laughed. The Mori were never going to harm any of us, but they were following what Lucan had promised—that they still needed to complete what they had originally set to do, which is to destroy the thread. They weren’t aware of Lucan’s secret plan of putting the thread into himself. They were ashamed once they found out the truth. Kates was set free, as well. It was realized that Lucan forced her to turn on us. When the others discovered the torture she endured from Lucan, she was welcomed back, but I knew it would be a long time till she was trusted.
I was in bed waiting for Lucas to come back. He went to see his brother, one last time, and we were leaving for home the next day. Lucan was going to be executed at the same time, but Lucas didn’t want to stay for it. He knew it would ha
ppen. That was good enough for him. All the killing had been too much. He had kissed me and told me, “I just want to get home. I want to get you home. Finally.”
Home.
I never thought I would be going home again. That night, the first night that I woke as a vampire, Lucas made love to me. I cried the whole time because I never thought I would be in his arms again. I never thought I would have a second chance at life.
The opening to our tent lifted, and Roane slipped inside. I sat up and smiled. “Goddess.” I shook my head. “I will never get used to seeing you. I’ll never take it for granted. I will never,” I paused as he came over, a grin teasing the corners of his lips and I laid back. He started to fall on top of me, but switched to rest beside me. One of his elbows propped him up and his eyes traced all over me, from my eyes, forehead, cheeks, and to my lips. He lingered there. “I will never take it for granted myself.” He