“Of course, he’s the Titan of Light and Fire,” Héctor said. “He understands old, lost magic and rituals more than anyone. He was the true king of Titans before he was betrayed byCronus and his minions.”
“Dad said each one of you contains a spark of ancient elemental essence,” I said.
My mates shared a confused look.
“We’re demigods,” Zak said. “Three of us are direct descendants of the original gods. Axel is the third generation. So—”
“Nope, the drop of elemental essence Dad mentioned is from a being older than the Titans,” I said. “He’s the entity of magic and time, the first native in the Void. He left the realm and journeyed to Earth out of curiosity when the original gods sent the Titans to Tartarus. After eons, he was starving and thus greatly weakened on Earth, but he couldn’t return home. So he hid in the Ever realm at Half-blood Academy.” My voice choked in thick emotions as I remembered Septum and how he went down. “He was safe until he revealed himself to me, recognizing our kinship. And then Lucifer and Ares found him and absorbed his energy and powers. His name is Septum. I think he also saved me by giving his last primordial essence to me when I stabbed myself in the heart.”
A flare of light had shot into me like a supernova as the Ever realm had collapsed.
My mates held me tightly. They’d been devastated and full of pain when they’d thought they’d lost me.
Recognition flashed in Zak’s blue eyes as he wheeled me toward him, cupping my face and gazing into my eyes.
“Yes, Rosebud,” he said. “After the hidden realm exploded and you were taken, we lost our shit. I was trying to find the last trace of you when a glimmer in the ruins caught my attention. Then it flared, divided itself into four beams, and sank into each one of us.”
Axel’s golden eyes glinted with realization, too. “It spoke in our heads, saying something about we would need its help in the Void.”
Paxton nodded. “We haven’t thought much about the elemental entity since all we could think was to get to you.”
“We all have a morsel of Septum,” I said, “and we need to give that drop to Héctor along with a piece of our essence. It’ll create the strongest magical ingredients since we’re all unbreakably bonded. And when the new magic blossoms in Héctor, he’ll be a death demigod again. ”
“How exactly do we do it?” Zak asked urgently.
“Brothers, you don’t need to do this for me,” Héctor said.
“It’s not like we have a choice,” Axel snorted. “Our mate will never feel happy if she loses any one of us. I won’t let her heart break again.”
I kissed the war demigod and smiled at him.
“It’s the first time you ever said something that made sense, Axel,” Paxton said.
“Follow my lead, mates, if you don’t mind a girl leading,” I said before they got into bickering again.
My Flame streamed out of me, forming a spectrum ring around us, calling for my mates’ powers to merge with it.
Paxton’s ice magic stirred, and an asteroid of ice orbed around my flame. Then Zak’s lightning shot out, twisting around my flame, adorning it.
“This is for my brother, given willingly.”Axel took a deep breath, and then his demigod wind fueled my flame, making it dance and leap like a wild, beautiful creature.
A drop of liquid light phased out of Zak’s forehead, then out of Axel’s, and then Paxton’s. I breathed one drop out of my lips for my love.
Each drop was a part of our essence, conjured up by old magic. Together, they floated toward the Flame and fused into it.
The Flame of rainbow rose over our heads, spinning and twisting into two streams of fire. Faster than a falling comet, they speared into Héctor’s eyes.
Héctor staggered back and doubled over. When he straightened up with a curse, twin flames blazed in his eye sockets, whispering an old language of the galaxies.
We stared at him in awe. My mouth hung open as we waited, though I could barely breathe.
If this didn’t work…
“Say something,” I pleaded in a quivering voice. “How do you feel, Héctor?”
His eyes resumed their sapphire color, the flames disappearing. Before I let out a breath of relief, a violent wind of dark flame and shadow tore out of Héctor, and he roared in agony. The wind swept him off the platform, tossing him down the abyss.
Screaming his name, I dove after him.