CHAPTER 19
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“Release her!” The demigods’roars echoed through Ever realm.
I trained my eyes to the opening of the portal as I struggled like a fly in the thick spiderweb woven by the god and the devil. Icy rage filled me, yet I couldn’t break free.
All the demigods had materialized outside the ancient tree, their faces twisting into masks of wrath and their fear for me beating in their veins—so tangible and potent it ripped the air apart.
As one, they raised their hands, and their combined powers crashed into the orb that blocked the doorway. The orb reshaped and reformed to absorb the demigods’ blasts and held in place.
Héctor bellowed in rage and rammed into the barrier, his death light crashing into the orb with a sizzling sound, but the shield magic from our enemies sent him flying backward. If he’d been a mortal, he’d have died just from touching the orb.
“Héctor!” I screamed his name. “Don’t touch it! Preserve yourself.”
Next, Paxton slammed into the orb in a black rage. Its dark magic burned him, yet he rammed into the orb again and again like a stubborn bull.
“No, Paxton!” I cried out just as Axel threw himself at the barrier, along with his wind power. “Axel, stop! It won’t work!”
It repelled the Demigod of War as well.
“Let her go!” Axel thundered. “I’ll tear you apart!”
“That’s your son, isn’t it?” Lucifer asked with mild interest.
Both Lucifer and Ares still pinned me down with their swirling beams. The devil’s posture didn’t relax, his hand in the air, palm toward me as his energy kept lashing at me.
“That’s my brat,” Ares confirmed.
“I think he wants to kill you,” Lucifer chuckled in his deep, velvet voice. “That’d be patricide.”
“For Marigold, the boy would kill anyone,” Ares said without a care. “In the end, it’s always about a woman. We need to transport the girl soon, Lucifer. She won’t be able to cause trouble after we siphon off a little more of her magic and put a temporary seal on her power.”
I swallowed another wave of cold fear, knowing their intentions for me were dark, inhuman, and evil.
My mates kept throwing themselves at the orb, attempting to break it with their brutal strength. Even if they succeeded, it’d be too late to reach me. And if they broke through, the devil and the god would take them out before my mates could whisk me off. My demigods weren’t ready—all five of us weren’t ready—to face off against both the devil and the god at once.
Ares and Lucifer closed in on me, and I was almost completely drained.
It was time for my demigods to save themselves and let me go. It was time for me to finally tell them what I was so they’d be able to move on.
“I’m a half-demon. I’m the lost demon princess,” I called, loud enough for all of them to hear.
The demigods paused at the barrier.
They knew now. They wouldn’t come for me anymore. I wasn’t worth their efforts anymore.
The four of them stared at me, faces pale as the dead. They were all burned to various degrees from colliding with the orb. They could stop hurting themselves now.