My power, which would never harm my mates, passed right through Alaric and smashed into Hades.

A black wind from Hades blasted toward me like an atomic wave. Alaric raised his wall of lightning to counter it, but the hell wind toppled the web of lightning and sent the demigod flying backwards.

“Alaric!” I shouted.

My flames met the death wind. They collided, and time froze for a second in the cave.

My father and I reached an impasse. A surprised expression flitted by his darkly handsome face. He hadn’t expected me to equal his power, but I wasn’t just any hybrid. I was a tribrid, a weapon made of careful genetic calculation. In my rage, my power surged.

A scream from the mouth of the cave broke the stalemate and stillness.   

A massive, three-headed hellhound flew past me with Amber between its jaws, flailing her limbs in the air in utter terror. Ambrosia stumbled into the cave, her face mauled, her armor in shreds.

“No! Leave her alone!” I cried, drawing part of my power back from fending off Hades to halt the hellhound.

“Cerberus is immune to magic, Cass!” Hephaestus yelled.  

A flash, and a black panther rose from where Reys had been and shot toward the hellhound. Only in his panther form did he have a chance to catch up with Cerberus before the beast reached the gate.

Reys knew what Amber, my first mortal best friend, meant to me. He knew I would never allow her to be taken, especially to the death realm. He knew I wouldn’t let those I cared about bear the same scars I bore from when I’d been in captivity. So, he was doing this for me.

At the onslaught of Hades’s dark power, my flames started wavering. He was an ancient death god, and I was a new goddess. I couldn’t compete with him in strength, not yet, not while I hadn’t mastered my powers.

He grinned at me, predatory and all white teeth. “Surrender, Daughter,” he ordered, “or this won’t end well for you and your tiny army.”

The battle still raged on around us. A pillar of lava erupted somewhere.

Fire and smoke and sulfur. 

Lorcan fought by my side, hacking at the enemies with all of his formidable fierceness, keeping them from getting to me. Alaric joined him in protecting me.

While our warriors had a hard time fighting the wraiths, my mates, who had my blood of fire running in their veins, had no trouble keeping the wraiths at bay.

Though, seemingly none could vanquish the wraiths for good. Only dismiss them temporarily.

The black panther rammed into Cerberus before he reached the Hell Gate, forcing the hellhound to drop Amber. Reys shifted back to his fae form and lunged to pick up my friend. Before he could teleport her to our side, Hades waved a hand at the fae prince.   

An iron chain with sharp spearheads on both ends pierced Reys through both wrists, then the host of wraiths and demons were upon him. Reys whipped his flaming sword at the endless horde, cutting and slashing, but they soon overpowered him, latching onto him.

Rage burned in my veins; fear turned my blood to ice.

I couldn’t afford to lose him.

“Reys!” I shrieked, pulling part of my power from warding off Hades to peel the horde away from Reys.

But my power wasn’t enough.

They dragged him toward the Hell Gate in chains.

Lorcan and Pyrder lunged onto the bridge toward the gate. Their vampire and fae warriors charged after them, blades raised high.

Alaric and I had joined hands on the ground, his lightning and my flames having merged to resist Hades.

“You can’t win, Daughter,” Hades said. “You aren’t there yet. You have much to learn.”

His black wind turned into a hurricane, slashing at us, tossing us backwards.

Alaric reached to catch me, but I’d flown past him, my hair being pulled wildly in every direction in the violent wind.

I crashed into granite hard enough to leave a crater behind.

Alaric was at my side the next second, pulling me to my feet.

I ignored my trembling and the bone-shattering pain and lashed into the air, shooting toward Reys and Amber.

Death wind filled the cave, twirling, blinding everyone.

The surviving warriors stumbled, shouting, and covered their heads. 

For a second, I could see nothing but the black wind and burning lava spinning inside a forming tornado.

The ground rumbled. The cave was going to give in.

I pushed against the force, my own wind lashing out.

“Reys! Amber!” I screamed, searching for them.

“I have what you want the most, Daughter.” Hades’s voice resonated in the wind. “You’ll come to me willingly. The Olympian gods will be here soon. They’re sure to have spotted the strong power burst in the region. I suggest you don’t linger, unless you want to lose more mates.”

A red-hot blade flew toward Hades. Somehow Alaric had dragged the unfinished Blade of Five Elements from the Hephaestus’s furnace just to try his luck.

The burning blade pierced into nothingness then buried into the cave wall.

The tornado vanished, as did Hades and his horde. 

Lorcan and Pyrder stood at the other side of the river, bellowing in rage, their knuckles bone-white on the hilts of their swords.

Reys and Amber were gone. Hades had taken them.

Where the iron Hell Gate had been was a column of erupted lava, its sound the shattering of broken glass.

I dropped to my knees, not caring that they landed on the blobs of lava, threw my head back, and roared my hot fury and icy fear. 

The God of Death had taken my mate and my best friend.

The image of iron spikes piercing Reys’s wrists flashed before me again and again. The fucking death god, my despicable father, chained my Reys and dragged him to hell.

Alaric dropped to his knees before me and pulled me into his lap, wrapping me in his arms.

Lorcan and Pyrder guarded on either side of me.

Pain and devastation fogged their eyes. They’d fought side by side since ancient times. They’d gone through the first war of the gods, then the great dragon war, then numerous wars against other supernaturals and mortals.

They’d formed the brotherhood. It had been broken and re-forged.

They’d found me, their mate, and we should be the unbreakable five.  

They’d just gotten me back, and now we’d lost Reys to Hell. And Amber, one of our pack members and my best friend. She’d taught me to read and write.

I searched and searched.

I was Earth’s heir. I could sense all living things, but I couldn’t find Reys and Amber because they were no longer on Earth’s surface. They were out of Earth’s realm.

They were in Death’s domain, on the other side of the veil that I couldn’t reach.

“I can’t find them,” I said, my voice cracked and caught in my throat.

My heart was broken, but I refused to be so helpless.

I threw up my hands and blasted my tri-fires at where the Hell Gate had been until no fire came out of me. Until the deep well in me was exhausted.

“It’s been sealed,” Hephaestus said near me. “The gate is now beneath the Earth. You won’t be able to blast it open without the hell power. You’ll have to go through the main gate as the heir to the Underworld. That’s what Hades meant. That you’d go to him willingly.”

“Let’s go to the main gate then!” I said, struggling to get up from Alaric’s lap. “What are we waiting for?”

“We’ll all go and get Reys and Amber back, sweetheart, but not today,” Alaric said, steel and grief in his voice, terrifying menace rolling off him in waves. Hephaestus stepped away from us.

“Let’s bring our wounded and dead back home,” Lorcan added. “We’ll regroup and plan before we strike.”

We’d lost many good warriors. A lot of them became my friends. I’d seen Xihin being cut down, and Luke, too. Had Celeb survived? Last I’d seen, a wraith had thrust his claws into my half-demon friend’s chest. I needed to check on him. I needed to help all of them.

I needed to pay respect to the dead.

But I couldn’t move as grief paralyzed me.

My mates surrounded me, channeling me their strength, love, and determination, but none could diminish the hollowness in me.

Agony drowned me. A piece was missing from my soul.

“He isn’t gone,” Pyrder said. “Your mate—my twin—isn’t gone. We’ll get him back. Come back to us, Cass baby, we’re here.”

All I could see was the chains piercing Reys’s wrists.

My mates conversed with each other and the warriors, coordinating the retreat. Their words passed by my ears, their meanings lost to me.

“The Blade of the Five Elements is done,” Hephaestus said. “We need to burn the final runes on it.”

“I said I’d take care of the runes.” Alaric snarled. “Hand me the blade, now.”

“I need to make sure the blade is properly done,” Hephaestus insisted. “I’ll go with Cass and all of you. I’ll swear a blood vow to never betray her.”

“Dulcis,” Lorcan said with heartbreaking gentleness. “We have to go before the gods come.”

Pyrder carried me outside the cave.

A shimmer conjured by Alaric appeared in front of us.

We tore through the veil. 

Harsh wind from the dark space howled, calling me.

In response, a dark storm arose in me, whirling. It was so dark and violent that nothing else existed. Then, in its depth, a spark of ember emerged, expanded, and stretched to distant galaxies.  

My bones ached, twisting, enlarging, and transforming. 

Pain sank its fangs into my every fiber. My flesh tore. My soul split.

A terrifying monster that I’d leashed under the ice lake broke through.

All chains fell off her.

She could no longer be contained.

She wanted to destroy. She wanted to burn everything in her path, until the universe was nothing but ash.

She breathed fire. Freedom!

My bones kept stretching to their limits, agony shattering my every cell. Yet it was less painful than what I felt when the God of Death tore my beloved Reys from me, spearing his flesh and chaining him.

I let pain take me over.

I breathed in pain and fire.  

I had shifted. I’d adapted my fae mates’ shifting ability. I’d finally let the fiery beast out. 

The shimmer from Alaric’s ring was gone.

Atop the cliff, where a dark expanse of ocean crashed against the ancient rocks, perched a dragon.

Cassandra Saélihn was no more. I was no more.

In my stead, a dragon goddess spread her scaled wings and roared fire into the black sky, for her lost mate.

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-  continued on -

The final installment A Court of Earth and Ether

Coming in February 2019