“Ruby,” he said, his voice calming as a blanket of night.
A calm, soothing magic washed over me, relaxing the tension in my muscles. I lowered my sword. Slowly, my canines began to recede, and my gaze flicked to the sky again.
The Heavenly Host were pressing down on us, bodies blazing with light. “They’re here.” My voice trembled.
“Get the stones,” Adonis said gravely. “This is our last chance.”
Right. I rushed over the bodies of the scorpion guards, snatching the blue gemstones. Dirt covered their glittering surfaces from their burial underground. They wanted me to have them, to possess them. But what, exactly, was I supposed to do with them?
The sound of a door creaking open pulled my attention away. I had only a moment to register Aereus’s presence before a brutal force knocked me into the air—a magic that burned my skin and smelled of arid desert winds. My body slammed down hard on the bony path, and I dropped the plant from my hands.
“Why have you killed my guards?” Aereus roared. “I told you the Heavenly Host would arrive!”
Another horseman—Adonis couldn’t kill him. He could only try to slow him down—although given how he’d withstood the poison, that wouldn’t be an easy task.
Adonis had drawn his sword, ready to fight Aereus.
The pale light burned brighter above us, washing over my skin—so pure and perfect I didn’t want to fight them. No, I wanted to bathe in their glory….
The sound of steel against steel pulled my attention back to the earth, my gaze landing on the two horsemen battling each other. Adonis’s dark magic whirled around his body.
“You’re after the Stones of Zahar,” Aereus seethed, his sword cutting sharp arcs through the air. “I buried them deeply, but they rose in the presence of a Light Bringer. Why would you bring her here? You know what she can do to us.”
Adonis grunted, meeting Aereus’s blows.
I scrambled over the path, searching for the fallen plant, its leaves encrusted with gemstones.
“You know what they’ll do to us!” Aereus bellowed.
There—among the bloodied soil—a glimmer of blue, the azure of the skies above Afeka. I reached for it, when another blast of hot, arid magic slammed into me with the force of a train.
My body shattered against a stone wall, ribs cracking. Pain splintered my entire body, and I groaned.
Adonis’s roar sent a lick of fear racing up my neck. He viciously swung his sword through the air. He pressed in on Aereus with an increased ferocity—looking more feral than angelic.
The agony of my broken bones clouded my mind. I was on my knees, fingers on the mosaic path of teeth, blood streaming from my mouth. I rasped for breath, pain ravaging my body.
Gritting my teeth, crawling over the bony path, my mind so gripped by agony that my thoughts were no longer making sense... I could only stare at the teeth beneath my fingers, and wonder who they’d come from, if they’d died in this garden. Would I join them?
I shuffled along the ground, now only dimly aware of the angels moving closer.
If I died here, what sort of a disturbing design would they form with my teeth?
Blood dripped from my mouth onto the path. Adonis’s magic rippled over me, soothing the pain just a little. I have to get to the stones.
I glanced up to see him carving his sword through one of Aereus’s red-tipped wings, and the howl Aereus unleashed pierced me to the bone.
Another inch forward over the teeth, crawling toward the glittering blue gems, and pain ripped through my chest, my legs.
Tentatively, I looked up to the skies, at the gleaming angelic horde, now only a hundred feet in the air, and my heart skipped a beat.
They’re almost upon us.
I pulled myself a little farther along the path, still staring at the sky—staring, in fact, as a golden dragon soared through the air just below the angelic horde. I blinked at the sight of a female form riding on top of the dragon’s neck, her black hair trailing behind her in the night sky.
Hazel?
Uthyr carved a sharp arc below the angels, then arched his back to breathe a hot stream of fire at the oncoming horde.
Idiot—what was she doing? They’d kill her. She was buying me time, and I couldn’t waste it.
I grabbed the stones, and my body surged with warmth and light. My forehead tingled, and I fought the bizarre urge to press the stones against it.
I felt powerful arms around me—Adonis’s arms cradling me, his magic soothing my body. Already, he was healing my bones with his power, numbing the pain. I inhaled deeply, able to breathe a little easier now. Adonis closed his fist around mine, enclosing the stones.
“Now,” he whispered. “Use their power now.”
I clutched them tightly, closing my eyes. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with them—but considering I couldn’t move my body, I didn’t have many options right now anyway.
They tingled in my fist, then a cold, soothing magic whispered over my skin. Light seemed to ignite me from the inside, blazing through my blood, ancient and pure. The power of the Old Gods flowed through me, my back arching with the intensity. The stones wanted something from me, as if they had their own consciousness.
Their desire whispered through my blood. They wanted me to protect the earth—then to return them home.
Pure strength infused my bones and muscles, and my eyes snapped open. I looked up into Adonis’s eyes, and the voice of the Old Gods whispered to me.
He doesn’t belong here. They don’t belong here. Rid the earth of their presence, and bring the stones home.
Another part of me rebelled at the thought, wanted him here, but the gleaming light burned out those protests.
Still cradling me, Adonis pushed my hair out of my eyes. “Now,” he whispered. “They’re here. You can’t stop—no matter what happens.”
At his words, a spark of dread flickered through me. He knew something that he wasn’t telling me.
“If what happens?” I asked firmly.
His eyes flashed. “Now.”
My gaze flicked to the skies, where the eleven archangels raced for us—for this garden.
Power snaked and rippled along my spine, and I flung out my arms. Light beamed from my ribs, burning with a white-hot intensity.
The angels froze in midair, and a dome of blue light arced over the earth. I closed my eyes, my skull whirling with images of caves and rivers, of oaks overgrown with ivy, sunlight burning through the leaves.
The power snapped and buzzed through my lungs, and lower, through my belly. I gave in to it. Among the blazing sunlight, something darker lurked in the power of the Old Gods, too. The wolf taking down the stag, the plants growing from corpse-enriched soil.
My body a vessel for their power. And the stones were calling to me, too, urging me on. The Old Gods wanted them back, needed them returned to their original home.
It was always meant to be this way.
My body trembled, stones gripped tightly in my fist, until I felt as if my ribs might explode with a pure, wild ecstasy.
A crash pulled me from my reverie.