At my feet, the floor opens, and the ground rumbles as a fissure appears and begins to expand. From the depths of the opening, thick, black vines creep up and out of the earth.

  Poison.

  I can feel it pulsing inside them.

  Even without cursed skin, I still wield poisoned vines as easily as if they’re a part of me. Their life force thrums inside me, offering their service willingly, and I urge them onward.

  They climb swiftly down the hall, wrapping themselves around the vampires they find along the way. The vamps’ legs are yanked out from under them as the vines coil around ankles and wrists.

  The mate bond thrums alongside my magic, and I can practically hear Legion yelling in my head, telling me to get the hell out of here.

  Not a fucking chance, death dragon.

  At my direction, the vines pull taut around the necks of the Crimson Roses in their path. They struggle against the pressure, but I only squeeze harder—not stopping until the vines begin to cut through flesh.

  From somewhere in the center of her pack of soldiers, Maricha screams for someone to get me. Most are too caught up in avoiding the dragon clawing through their ranks, but a few of them break away and run straight for me.

  I don’t move.

  A step backward would put me within reach of Uziah and his men reaching through the bars of the door behind me.

  Instead, I hold my ground, concentrating on the fissure I’ve opened. More vines pour out of it, creating a wall of vegetation that snags the vamps as they come up against it. Their blood coats my vines, dripping from the black leaves and filling the air with the scent of death.

  Legion’s dragon snarls, the sound sending a ripple of unease through me. I part the vines enough to see him writhing against the bars of the cell we spent the night in. A small, carved blade protrudes from his scales.

  I stare in disbelief and horror as the bond between us fills with pain.

  “Legion,” I scream.

  Maricha whirls, the hatred in her gaze unhinged. “I will kill you slowly,” she declares. “But he won’t be so lucky.”

  Legion’s dragon roars. Hellfire drips from his throat, evidence of his suffering.

  “If you won’t serve me, then you’ve outlived your use,” Maricha tells him.

  Legion snarls at her, and the mate bond snaps closed. For a horrifying second, I think he’s gone, but then I realize he’s only shut himself off from me. So I can’t feel his death.

  Idiot.

  Hurrying toward them, I direct my vines toward Maricha, watching as they wind their way up her legs and around her wrists and throat. She utters another incantation, and the vines break, crumbling and dying at her feet. I send more in their place, but it won’t be enough. I know it immediately. And I won’t be there in time to save him.

  Behind me, there’s a loud clang.

  I look back in time to see the door break open, and Uziah’s crimson eyes blazing with fury as he steps into the cavern. Around him, Crimson Roses pour through, racing toward me.

  Desperation and fear wrap around my throat as tightly as the vines.

  This is it.

  From behind the soldiers, the tunnel echoes with cries of pain and the clang of weapons.

  A voice shouts my name. “Tori!”

  I go still, unsure if I’m hearing things.

  It comes again. “Tor, we’re coming! Hold on!”

  “Kendall?”

  Chapter 42

  Tori

  The first wave of vampires rushing through the door reaches me, distracting me from the sound of my sister’s voice. My vines are fast, but these damn vamps are faster. I’m nearly bitten twice before they’re dragged away from me by the ankles and dragged into the opening on the cavern floor.

  I look up and find Uziah standing several paces away from me. His back is to me as he stares at the new threat.

  My sister stands in the doorway from above.

  Her cheeks are stained with dirt and blood. She wields a short blade in each hand, and the look on her face suggests she’s been using them effectively thus far, though I have no idea how she learned. Beside her stands a wolf larger than I’ve ever seen. He glares at Uziah then lets loose with a howl that echoes off the cavern walls.

  “Surrender, and we’ll consider letting you live,” Kendall tells Uziah.

  Uziah snorts. “Put down that blade, stupid girl. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

  “Why? Because I’m a girl?”

  “Because you are a Seer, not a warrior,”

  “You know, for a guy older than dirt, you’re surprisingly limited in your world view.” She grins, a flash of teeth that is more dangerous than amused. “That kind of small thinking is going to get you killed someday. I mean, why can’t I be multi-talented?”

  “You’re no match for me.”

  “Maybe not,” Kendall tells him. Her eyes gleam with a certainty that makes me pause. “But you’ve never met him. And death comes for us all.”

  The wolf rushes forward, teeth bared at the ancient vampire. Uziah blurs with speed as he rushes to meet his attacker. The two of them colliding is a gnarled, bone-breaking sound in my ears.

  With Uziah and the wolf battling, the rest of the vampires throw themselves into the fight. I don’t think beyond the power I’m wielding and nearly send a vine to attack my next incoming target when I realize it’s Kendall cutting my way to fight at my side. Her blades sing where they clash against the vampires’ weapons.

  Our eyes meet.

  I recognize the question in her gaze, so I hold up my gloveless hands. “The curse is broken.”

  She starts to speak, but something over her shoulder has my eyes widening in warning.

  Kendall spins just as Uziah stumbles within her reach. She shoves her blade out to meet him, and he gasps as it pierces his heart. His weight sags against her, and I help her shove him back.

  He falls to the stone floor, his eyes wide as if he can’t quite believe Kendall managed to stop him. Blood leaks from his chest. It’s thick and dark, pooling around the knife buried an inch to the left of his heart.

  “You…” Uziah tries to speak, but his breath catches.

  He winces.

  Kendall bends over him, her expression grim. “Me,” she says. “Sucks to be finished off by a stupid girl, doesn’t it?”

  Uziah grunts.

  The wolf prowls closer.

  It looks intent on finishing off the vampire, but before it gets close enough, Uziah jumps up, snatching the blade free from his own chest and pointing it at Kendall’s throat.

  I shove her aside at the same moment the wolf plows into the vampire from behind. The blade he held clatters to the ground. I pick it up, closing the distance to where Uziah is attempting to scramble to his feet again. With both hands gripping the hilt, I shove it through his heart and twist.

  Uziah falls again, and the wolf is there with claws and fangs, ripping out the vampire’s heart.

  I watch in silence, rage and relief coursing through me.

  Kendall comes up beside me and gently takes the blade from my hands. The calm look she wears feels reassuring, as if she’s the one comforting me. “Nice work, sis.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Great question, and I’d love to tell that story, but it’s not over yet. You have any of that vine magic left in you?”

  “Plenty,” I assure her.

  “Show me.”

  I turn with her to meet the last of Maricha’s soldiers. Kendall cuts through them with her knife, and I drag them off with my vines until the wolf rips them apart.

  Between us, every last vampire falls.

  When we’re done, I look over to see the wolf already prowling toward Legion’s cell where Maricha stands over him. He’s back in his human form but he’s no longer fighting her.

  My heart lurches and I study the demon bitch, already planning how I’ll kill her.

  Kendall stops me. “Is that⁠—”

  “His mother,” I tell her.

  “Wow.”

  “And the wolf?” I ask.

  “Klyn.”

  I nod, glad to have an ally like him in this moment. But I’m not sure it’ll matter.

  “You’re all dead.” Maricha’s words are twisted with hate.

  “Let him go and you can have me,” I tell her.

  “Take him. My work here is done.” Her smug smile is pure evil.

  I take a step toward her but Kendall blocks my way.

  Legion groans but doesn’t move. Maricha stands over him, murder in her eyes and in the whispered words she continues to utter, as if her grip on him depends on her continuous effort.

  “She laces her knives with dark curses,” I explain.

  “I know,” Kendall says, her eyes locked on Maricha.

  Klyn merely stalks to meet her, his fur standing on end as he bares his teeth at the demon. Kendall grabs my hand and tugs me to follow Klyn.

  “Come on,” she says.

  “Kendall, she’s dangerous,” I begin.

  My sister looks back at me and winks. Like, actually winks. “She doesn’t win,” she tosses over her shoulder and waltzes forward to meet Maricha like it’s already done.

  I stare at Kendall, confused—and impressed. Whatever happened to my sister while I was away, I think I like it.

  Klyn stops at the open cell door.

  He bares his teeth, growling, and Maricha answers his challenge by stepping forward to meet him. Black wings unfurl from her shoulders. They are razor-sharp—weapons all on their own. She uses them as such, stabbing one of them toward the wolf, but he darts out of reach, snapping his teeth at her. Maricha’s movements are light, her feet barely touching the ground as she meets every one of Klyn’s blows with a block of her own. She’s not winded. She’s barely even watching him as she moves left and right to counter him.

  Despite Kendall’s assurances, my insides twist.

  Legion groans, and I look over to find him studying me. The bond is still quiet, but in his eyes, I see all I need to know. Maricha’s magic is draining him. Even if Maricha doesn’t win, I’m not sure how to stop what she’s done to my mate.

  Forgetting the danger, I rush forward, slipping past the fight and into the cell. Dropping down beside Legion, I grip his face in my hands until we’re eye to eye. “Don’t stop fighting,” I tell him. “That’s an order.”

  He snarls, but it’s weak.

  My eyes land on the hilt of the knife protruding from his shoulder. A whisper of voices sound in my ear. I can’t understand the words, but I reach for the knife anyway.

  “Stop!” Maricha’s scream is unhinged. Desperate.

  I look up in time to see her swipe the wolf with a sharpened wing. The wolf howls, and a bloody wound opens along his flank.

  “Shit,” Kendall says and steps in front of him. But Maricha is no longer focused on the wolf.

  She rushes toward me. I have no idea why she’s suddenly so unhinged about me touching her knife—so that’s exactly what I do.

  The moment my hand closes around the hilt, the dark magic slams into me. Whispers fill my ears. Shadows slither through my vision. The earth trembles around me, and I grip Legion with my free hand to keep from falling over. With all the strength I can muster, I yank the knife free from Legion’s body.

  Maricha falls to her knees, wailing.

  The second knife she held clatters to the ground.

  Legion shifts beside me, black scales sliding over his skin, replacing his flesh. I watch as the knife wound begins to pulse, the dark poison spilling out of him onto the ground. The symbol carved into his chest starts to heal and close.

  Relieved, I look down at the weapon I hold. The knife is warm in my hands, coaxing me to never let it go.

  My mind is a whirring of dark thoughts.

  Death. Destruction. Domination.

  I look up and see the second knife lying still on the stone floor. Without thought, I lift my hand, and the blade responds, sailing through the air and landing in my palm.

  My fingers curl around the hilt possessively.

  Power whooshes through me.

  I look at Maricha, noting the way she’s fallen to her knees. It was never her power that I needed to fear. It was the power of these blades. Rising to my feet, I step over my mate to where the dark demon cowers on the stone.

  “Those don’t belong to you,” she accuses.

  Her eyes aren’t on me, though. They’re locked on the blades.

  “You will never hurt me or my mate again.” The knives seem to echo my words, urging me to use them. I raise them both overhead, tips pointed straight at the monster who caused all this pain.

  Before I can act, a dragon darts out of the cell, its teeth closing over Maricha’s thigh. She screams, and the teeth bear down, crunching through bone. Maricha’s wings stab at the dragon, but they bounce harmlessly off Legions’ scales. Another crunch and Maricha’s screams fall silent.

  Her eyes remain open, her breathing shallow, as she stares up at her son.

  Legion retreats into the cell, shifting back to his human form. I can feel him standing beside me, watching me, just like Kendall and Klyn. But I can’t shake the feeling that the task isn’t complete. Nor can I seem to make myself let go of the blades.

  Their whispers guide me, and I repeat their words. Words I still don’t understand, but they flow from my tongue as if being coaxed or pulled by the magic itself. “Lissnim Roraouth Azrepkeer.”

  I watch as poison coats the wounds Legion left behind; a darkness seeping into Maricha’s body just as it had done to me up on that mountain. It creeps into her blood. Her heart. Into the soul already damned to the realm of hell.

  I watch her die, a grim satisfaction setting my expression.

  The breath leaves her lungs, and the whispers finally, finally go silent.

  The cavern is quiet.

  It’s over.

  I start to turn away, but the whispers come to life again, calling me, coaxing me, asking me to rule them or be ruled by them.

  “Wait,” my sister calls.

  I look up at her.

  “Let me,” she says gently.

  “You don’t understand. I can hear them.”

  “I know.” She slides her own blade into a strap on her belt then takes the blades from my hands.

  Instantly, the whispers intensify. She looks down at the blades, a strange look pinching her expression. I watch as she walks over to where Uziah’s body lies. She holds up one of the blades and mutters a string of words I don’t understand. Words that sound like the language Maricha used. The language I used just now. The language of the blades themselves.

  At her words, the whispers instantly quiet.

  Then she plunges one of the blades into Uziah’s chest right through the space where his heart has been ripped free. He gasps, his eyes flying open despite his lack of the life-giving organ. I leap into motion, disbelief and fear sending me racing toward my sister.

  “You could have been a great weapon for our side,” he rasps.

  “I am my own weapon,” Kendall tells him.

  She whispers something to the blade again, and poison leaks from its surface into Uziah’s body. The vampire-god groans and then falls back again, motionless.

  “It’s done,” Kendall says quietly. “He’s gone. For good this time.”

  I stare at my sister, not sure whether to be horrified or relieved.

  “What did you do?” I ask.

  Kendall eyes me warily. “I sealed their deaths. And I claimed these blades for myself.”

  “How? And where did you learn to fight like that?” The questions I’ve been battling since she arrived spill out one after another.

  She smirks. “You always underestimate me, you know that?”

  Before I can answer, Legion is beside me, pulling me toward him and wrapping his arms around me. I cling to him, squeezing my eyes shut until the whispers filling my ears finally go quiet.

  When I open my eyes, Kendall is watching me with relief in her eyes. “We have a lot to catch up on,” she says, nodding at the way my bared skin touches Legion’s.

  “That goes for you too,” I tell her.

  We share a smile as I lean into the strength of Legion’s arms around me. When he pulls away and meets my gaze, I see an uncertainty in his dark, depthless eyes.

  “She won’t hurt you again,” I tell him.

  “I killed my own—” He stops, and I grab his face in my hands, forcing him to meet my eyes. “You may have taken life, but you are not a killer. There’s a difference.”

  His mouth quirks up at that, and I know he’s going to be okay.

  “Whoever told you that sounds very wise,” he says.

  I grin. “They seem to think so.”

  His smile is radiant—and free. “I told you I’d follow your orders.” He kisses me and whispers, “Master.”

  “Ew, you just made it weird.”

  He laughs, hugging me tight. “I kind of like it. Unless you want to call me that instead.”

  I don’t answer, too busy soaking up the feeling of no longer being threatened with death in order to be with the male I love. I cling tighter to him, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. His hand strokes my hair, his fingers brushing my cheek.

  “It’s over,” he murmurs.

  “It’s over,” I agree but then pull away to examine him. “Are you okay though? The poison⁠—”

  “Is gone.” He looks at Kendall then the blades she holds. “You understand them.”

  “I do,” she says quietly.

  “They corrupted her.”

  Kendall doesn’t look particularly thrilled with her own words as she says, “They were meant for me. I’ve seen it.” Her gaze darts to me.

  “Kendall,” I say, utterly at a loss.

  “I saw this too,” she reminds me. “Back before this all started. I saw you and him, remember?”

  “You said I had to choose,” I tell her. “And my choice would determine whether I lived or died.”

  She nods. “You don’t die alone anymore in case you’re wondering. You live. Together. For a very long time.”

  Her gaze is sober, though. No hint of relief or victory.