“He definitely already thinks you’re weird.” She points out. Valid. “All I’m saying is I’m lucky to have you as a friend. As a sister. It makes everything that bit easier in this life to have good people around me.” A quiet pause echoes between us.
I know there is nothing I can say that she would judge me on, and I feel the same about her. We just understand each other, and it makes our friendship so much easier. “Georgina — you know, I should mourn her, but I don’t. I should be sad that mysister—my twin sister—is gone. But I don’t feel that. I don’t feel anything at all when it comes to her.” I pause. “But if anything happened to you? I’d be devastated and you’re more a sister to me than anyone else has been. I’m going to start crying even thinking about losing you.”
“No tears.” She nods at Franklin, while tears fall down her own cheeks. “When you were kidnapped... I looked forward to hearing a city was destroyed because it meant you were alive. It meant the king hasn’t killed you and it was so selfish for me to feel that way. It’s how you feel with family though, and it’s not wrong. It’s okay not to feel that way about Georgina. She made her choice. Yes, she was given the worst opportunities in life, but so were you, and look at the difference. You could have turned out to be a villain, and no one would have even questioned the reasons why. But instead of that, you took all that pain, all of that misery, and projected it into something good. You’re now taking your mates and your family into war to save the Vian, to save what’s left of the Nexus world and its people. You’re choosing to help people, even though most of your life other people have not helped you. Georgina could have chosen to help people. Could have chosen any other path than the one she did. But she didn’t. And that’s all anyone can say about her. Okay?”
“Okay.” I nod, wiping away tears before they drop on Franklin.
“So you shouldn’t feel bad.” She adds firmly.
“Not even a little, no.” I flash her a small smile. We both turn, watching as the sun slowly rises above the city, knowing that in a few days — a week, maybe — we will be raiding into the Vian city, with what is left of the good people in this world, to defend it. I never thought I’d be on that side either. But here I am, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect the innocent. To try to save one more person from going through life the way I did. In a strange way... maybe my life led up to this. Everyone I met, everychoice I’ve made, and every time I’ve fought the darkness to live in the light. My sister might have chosen the darkness... but I will use the darkness to win.
Chapter
Fourteen
It only takes a week—a week to set the plan in motion. It feels fast, too fast. But the longer we leave the Vian king, the more trouble he can cause, and at the moment, no one but us knows the Gods are dead and my mates have their powers. It’s better for it to be a surprise for the king, and I can’t wait any longer. I need to see him die, for everything he did, for all he took from me and destroyed. For the torture, the pain, for my parents, Severi, Georgina, for my Nexus…justeverything.
Severi and Finn are at my side, watching the Vian city with me. We waited until nightfall, knowing it would be easier for all of us to attack at night. “I wish I could warn the families and innocents in this city to hide.”
I glance at Severi. He will always be their prince, and I know there is nothing we can do to help the people in this city other than taking down the king who rules them. “Annie and Issan have the left side of the city and will take down the wall, leaving it open for people to run away from the city, into help. That’s the best we can do right now. You have to trust your brother and my bestie.”
He sighs. “I don’t trust either of them, but I trust you.”
I lean my head on his arm and try to unclench my fingers for a minute. Finnegan watches the city and our surroundings endlessly, never lowering his guard. We sit in silence with only the clear night sky for company for a long time before Finn’s phone buzzes, and he shows us a message from Onyx, telling us it is time.
“Remember, I need you to stand back and let my Nexus reign. Make sure no one escapes that we don’t see,” I remind them both, standing up and unclicking my cloak. The black cloak falls to the ground at my feet, and I brush my hands down my leather clothes, over the daggers clipped to my waist, including my Nex dagger. I might not need them if everything goes to plan, but it is better to be safe than sorry in this war. “I’ve been hunted and on the run since I was a kid. It’s literally the only mindset I’ve ever known, and tonight…tonight I will never be at risk again. My life will be mine to live with you. With my mates.”
“And we will treasure every moment with you, Sun,” Finn answers. He is checking his weapons too, and he is armed to the teeth, but he barely needs them. He’s a God now. His powers rival my own, and so do the others. They’ve been testing them this last week, trying not to destroy too much by accident, but Hollis took down an empty warehouse only yesterday by accident.
“It’s time. He’s here.” Severi touches my arm. “He will have a plan, and he will do anything to stop you. Don’t you dare let your guard down.”
I nod, watching as the Vian king comes out to stand in front of his army. His red crown glitters, matching his blood red cloak, and his presence can be felt even from this far away. There is something so wrong about him, a feeling of unnaturalness. A hundred thousand, if not more, Vian soldiers are lined up, their lines stretching for miles behind the castle. Miles and miles of them. The entire army, or at least most of them. So many Vian.Each of them drops to their knees, one by one for their king. For the monster who would happily send them off to kill a city full of Nexus, Vian and humans. The king begins his speech, some bullshit to make them admire him. I can’t hear it from here, but I can imagine it. I know I’d fall asleep in seconds.
The minute I start my plan, the other side of the city is going to be attacked by my aunt and her army at the same time. They will take the city at my aunt’s side and leave her to come to me at the castle. Rhodes and Hollis have the castle surrounded, and they’re going to lock it down quickly. The king has nothing to defend himself with when all the guards in the castle are dead, when his army is useless, and his city is under attack and not defended well.
His city is going to fall.
I squeeze Finn’s hand and Severi’s at the same time. “Bye. I love you both.”
I step into the darkness of shadows, into the place that feels right with my Nexus’s help, and appear right in the centre of the first lines of the army, looking up at the king. At first, he doesn’t notice me, and I was right, his speech is boring and about him. “And if we finally take this last city?—”
“How do you think you found out where it is?” He goes silent. Countless eyes fall on me, and I smile up at the king as the wind blows my hair around me. It smells like fear. “It is easy enough to send a message of where the city is through a spy of your sons, and make sure you gather your army up in one big solid place for me to kill. Thank you for that; you made this ever so easy. That is the only thanks you will hear from me tonight though. Are you ready to die?” I meet his dead eyes. Eyes that show who he really is, the immortal monster in a pretty crown. This world needed a monster like me to stop him. “The Gods screamed as I killed them. Will you scream too?”
Two of the stupid soldiers move to attack me. I spot them from the corner of my eye, but their powers don’t work. My Nexus is holding all other powers at bay—a new trick of hers. I click my fingers, turning the soldiers into dust in seconds. No one else comes closer, and the smell of fear gets stronger. My Nexus loves it. The king glares down at me, and for once, I think he might be speechless. “You should run,” I tell him with a smile of pure malice. “It’s more fun when they run. I’m not like you, and I prefer to torture my enemies myself rather than just watch.”
He snarls at me. “You’re a lying bitch! Let my army rip you to pieces!” He turns to them. “Kill her!” he screams at his army, and I smile, seeing the pure panic, the fear in his eyes, before he turns and leaves, assuming his army will destroy me.
“Spoiler alert,” I shout loudly to the crowd as I turn around. “Anyone who tries to kill me is going to disappear into dust and be forgotten forever. There are no Gods left in the night sky to help you…there is just me. I am the Goddess of death.” His army still turns on me despite my nice advice. Idiots. “Well. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I release my Nexus—our full, unstopped potential. My white hair falls to my waist, her snake appearing like a weight around my chest and arms, its head resting on top of mine. We glow with starlight, so bright that no one can look directly at us unless they are Gods like my mates. Only they really see me.
“Today is your judgment,” my Nexus shouts through me, loud and clear, walking forward and burning the ground with starlight. I close my eyes and I don’t even look as they come for me. Instead, I just walk, letting my magic flow out in waves, taking lives—hundreds of thousands of lives—in a heartbeat, in seconds, and only leaving those who my Nexus can see can be saved when she looks at their souls. I look up at the stars twinkling above me in the night sky as screams and panic eruptaround me, as people try to run, try to escape. But there is nowhere to go. Her power cannot be stopped. She is a Goddess, and they tried to kill her.
For my whole life, I’ve tried to leash who I am, and it’s done nothing. This is me, and I am finally free.
I walk until I hit the end of the line. Until there’s nothing but grey dust and orbs floating up into the sky—so many of them that it almost looks like a second blanket of stars. In the grey piles of dust are figures, thousands, at least a couple of thousand, that have been chosen by my Nexus to survive. They are weeping and shaking, but not one of them dares to get up off their knees in her presence. “You have been judged and found worthy enough to survive. Break that…do anything evil, and my Nexus will come back for you. For she is judgment, and she is death.”
I turn around and walk straight up to the castle where Severi and Finnegan are waiting. They both have drops of blood on them, but they are unharmed. Severi whistles as I shift back and sigh. “That wasn’t as messy as I feared.”