CHAPTER 24
__________________
––––––––
I’d vowed to returnto my mates at all costs, but I had no illusion that it would be soon.
The battle wasn’t over. I had to make sure that Lucifer and Ares stayed the fuck down in the Void.
But my mates—
I wept openly and loudly. No one was here to hear me cry my eyes out anyway.
My heart ached so much.
A flare of light flickered by the corner of my eyes.
My spine straightened and my muscles tensed.
A gust of wind swept over the valley from behind me, sending my hair flying all over my face.
I drew my demon sword—I’d lost the katana gifted by the Duke of Wickedness in the battle—and turned my head, tears and dirt smudging my face.
A pair of massive, glossy wings spread wide in their glorious rage, carrying starlight on their feather tips.
I was stunned. Before I could shout out in joy, Héctor had pulled me into his arms. The warmth and silkiness of his wings wrapped around me, comforting me. But it didn’t last long. A second later, his wings vanished.
As the wind passed, the rest of my mates landed behind Héctor, with Paxton and Axel supporting Zak on either side.
Zak’s chest was sealed, yet a long, deep scar remained on his bare skin.
Lucifer would pay for that further when I found him in the Void!
The demigods closed in on me, their power and devotion calling for me, heating my blood.
I choked back a sob. “Zak. I saw you die.”
But my Zak lived!
Joy washed over the grief that I hadn’t had time to process.
“Héctor brought him back from the dead before we followed you here,” Paxton said. “That’s why we were a bit late, Buttercup.”
“How?” I asked, gazing up at my Héctor in a mist of tears as gratitude filled my heart.
Then I noticed differences in my beloved Héctor. The death light no longer shone in him, and there was this hollowness inside him where his demigod power used to pulse like a galaxy’s icy fire.
I pressed my palms over his chest, trying to feel his death fire again. And I got my confirmation—it was vacant.