Chapter 90
Envy
Xavier, Haiden, Noah, Levi, Layah, and I all meet back in the place where this truly began, where we first shifted together, under the weight of bloodlines, prophecy, and magic we hadn’t yet understood. A field soaked in memory and old power. Now, it’s soaked in something else too. Destiny. Ending. Becoming
Above us, the sky fractures with veins of silver light, flickering like lightning beneath skin. It’s wrong. The sun bleeds gold into the underworld’s red mist. The air tastes like copper and starlight. Time bends here, old and new, past and future, colliding like storm fronts.
‘Is everyone ready?” I ask, voice steady despite the pressure mounting inside me.
My mates, my soulbound, my lovers in fate, show no signs of fear. They nod, solemn, and then, one by one, they kneel. Four gods in the making, lowering themselves before the storm of what’s to come. I look to Layah. My hellhound. My bond–sister. My mirror and my flame.
“Are you ready to mark your mates, Layah?”
“Ive been ready.” Her eyes gleam with pride, with power. “Let’s end this.”
We move first to Xavier. He tilts his head, baring his throat without hesitation, complete trust in his gaze. I place my hand against one side of his neck, magic pooling in my palm, already reacting to the overwhelming pressure in the air. Layah steps to the other side, nuzzles gently, and meets my eyes. We move together. One mind. One act. She bites while I release the flood of my magic. Xavier gasps as his body arcs slightly, like lightning passing through him. His pupils blow wide, silver bleeding into the whites of his eyes. I hear it first in my mind, his voice, crystal–clear, “Mate“, before he even breathes the word aloud. Layah gently licks the wound closed, her tongue shimmering faintly with hellfire. I remove my hand, and where I touched him, a glowing handprint now burns bright against his skin, opposite Layah’s bite. Two halves of a single mark. The earth trembles. The sky screams. A shriek echoes above as the Veil tears wider, visible now like shredded fabric, letting in light and shadow that do not belong to this realm. Souls pour through, some in agony, some simply lost, all drawn to the power we’re wielding. But we do not stop.
We move to Haiden. He kneels taller than the others, chin raised slightly, always the soldier, the guardian. My protector. Layah and I move in unison again. Her fangs sink into his flesh with precision, and my hand flattens against his collarbone, just above his heart. I push, and the magic takes hold. His gasp is a growl. His fingers dig into the grass. His eyes flash molten gold, and for a split second, I see shadows curling out from his skin, as if the power is reshaping him. “Mate“, he says in my mind. “You’re mine now too.” “Always“. I reply.
A new crack rips through the sky above us. The clouds twist unnaturally, spiraling in a cyclone of red, violet, and midnight blue. Fire flickers along the horizon, and the ghosts of creatures long dead whisper through the air. We continue.
Noah is trembling, not from fear, but anticipation. His hands are steady when he places them on his knees. His eyes are locked to mine, shining with devotion. He knows what this means. I smile, letting a tear fall. “You’ve always seen me, even when I couldn’t.”
Layah’s bite lands first, and then my magic surges into him. He chokes out a cry, clutching his chest as the connection takes hold. My magic, interwoven with Layah’s crescent–shaped bite.
He laughs through the bond. “This is what it feels like to belong to a Queen.“”
“Queens, Layah corrects“.” I touch his cheek before stepping back. “You belong with us.”
The earth splits, a fault line tearing open just meters from where we stand. Wisps of dark smoke rise from the wound in the land. Screams echo from beneath, the voices of those lost, those sacrificed, those used in Marcus‘ twisted blood magic. And still, we continue. Levi. My shadow. My mystery. He kneels last but does not bow his head. He holds my gaze, burning and unrelenting.
“No turning back,” he murmurs.
“There never was,” I answer with a smile.
Layah bites him and he growls, low and deep, and I follow, pressing my hand over his throat. The moment I release the magic, it’s like the sky itself inhales.
The world stills. Then, it explodes. The Veil shatters completely above us, shards of invisible glass tumbling in waves of energy. The realms are no longer bleeding; they’re overlapping. Divine wind rushes through the field, followed by the scent of death, then of spring, then of stars. The Underworld pulses like a heartbeat. The Mortal Realm groans. And somewhere in the distance, something divine laughs. We fall to our knees, the six of us breathing as one. The marks glow on each of their necks, Layah’s bite, my handprint, but now the marks are shifting, merging, becoming a single symbol, a glowing red skull on
each of their throats.
