CHAPTER 20
The Demigod of Death
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My lamb drove the goddamneddagger into her heart, and pain blared through me until I felt nothing but a world of agony.
She shattered my heart with that one tragic, brave act.
My cousins—my bonded brothers through our one true mate—bellowed in fury and anguish, and I felt their hearts also shatter.
I loved her more than life, more than my own existence. She brought feelings, colors, and light—everything wondrous and sensual—to my ancient, deathly existence.
And now she was gone. There was no more hope, no more light for us.
Yet we still slammed into the barrier to reach her, despite how the foul magic from the devil and the god fried our flesh.
We joined our strength and power again and crashed into the orb. Just as we finally broke through, the hidden dimension inside the Academy imploded, collapsing around our beloved mate like a supernova.
We raced to her through the destruction, only to find there was nothing left.
The ancient tree with twisted branches and red leaves disappeared from our reality. All that remained was fairy dust drifting in the air and dotting the blue pond.
Our mate was gone, as were fucking Lucifer and Ares.
Paxton plunged to his knees and wept.
The cold bastard broke down for the first time in his miserable existence. He’d never dropped a single tear for anyone until this day. His tears weren’t ordinary ones, either—they were blood tears.
Zak stared at the emptiness where our mate should have been, trembling as lightning flashed off him, wanting to kill anyone in his path.
The Dominion sentinels who’d come with us pulled back farther and gave us a wide berth.
Axel howled, his golden eyes glowing a murderous crimson.
“I’ll kill the motherfucker with my bare hands,” he vowed. He meant his father. He’d once worshiped the War of God more than the world.
“It’s my fault,” Paxton whispered as if a cardinal sin tainted his soul, his voice scratchy, broken. “If I’d told you all about the demon half of her heritage, we’d have prevented this. She wouldn’t have taken her own life. She would still have hope, knowing we’d never abandon her. She just needed to hear that, but now we can no longer tell her how much she means to all of us. I’m a selfish bastard. I wanted to keep her to myself. I wanted to have a special bond with her by protecting her and her secrets from all of you. And now I’ve lost her forever...”
The coolheaded Zak rammed his fist into Paxton’s face, and then Axel joined him. They pounded him brutally, cursing him to Hell, taking out their fury, pain, and grief on him.
Paxton just knelt there, allowing the brutal beating, wanting the violence and the pain. Blood streamed down his face, merging with his blood tears.
I wanted to hit Paxton and damage him, too, to vent out my wrath, but I couldn’t. I shoved off Zak and Axel and stepped between them and Paxton.
“Enough,” I said.
“Now you side with the fucker?” Axel demanded, tears burning in his bloodshot eyes. “He cost us our mate!”
“I’ve known about our mate’s demon origin as long as he has,” I said. “I wanted her to trust me enough to come forward and confide in me. I wanted to give her time to trust us all. She would’ve eventually.”