Chapter Thirty

**Enid**

I stared at the spot where Hades rested now, and a fury that I’d never known built in my gut.

How dare they? How dare they take my sweet Hades?

I was going to kill them all. Sidious, Morga, her three wretched daughters, Edana, and Tirich.

I glanced over at Sophia’s body, where it lay crumpled on the stone. Sidious may have killed her and Hades, but I blamed another. And I was going to start with him.

The ceiling cracked again, and I looked up. It had dropped several feet now. I climbed on top of the coffin where Sidious had laid, putting me within reach. I placed my hands on the stone and searched. Sure enough, I could feel an Earth witch on top of the rock, cleaving it, and trying to push it down on top of all of us.

“Not today,” I gritted through my teeth.

My sister, my mate, Cass, Finn, and my mentors were down here with me. They would not be taken from me. I would not allow it. I would not lose another loved one.

I lit a flame on one hand and watched it dance.

“I guess I need you after all.”

**Leo**

“What is she doing?” Finn asked.

I realized after a moment that he was talking to me, and I looked at him.

“I don’t know.”

I felt rage and determination through the bond as I watched her. She placed her hands on the stone ceiling that was trying to drop on us. The enormous crack was just above her head.

I felt magic stir in the air. It was powerful and suffocating, tickling my nose.

Rhia was trying to rouse River, who Eris had healed. Finn and Cass supported Eris now, whose broken leg was quickly healing.

Suddenly, water started dripping from the crack.

Rhia looked up and then at Enid.

“She’s pulling all the water from the rock and centralizing it on the crack,” Rhia explained.

“Why?” Finn asked.

She looked at him and then said, “Have you ever thrown a river rock into a campfire?”

He looked confused, but I remembered learning about that.

“It explodes,” I answered.

She glanced at me, a bit of mischief in her eyes.

“You should all stand behind me, because it’s about to get hot.”

We shuffled behind Rhia and watched as Enid’s hands lit ablaze. The ceiling groaned, trying to drop more, and an enormous chunk of rock landed just ten feet to our right, bursting apart loudly.

I felt raw, untethered rage and grief course through the bond, so intense that I nearly fell to my knees. Involuntary tears streamed down my face, as my chest constricted from the pain.

The flame grew like an enormous blow torch, licking up and down the length of the entire crack. The flame started out orange, but was shifting now, growing brighter.

I could hear Enid yelling, screaming in determination.

The surrounding air was steadily growing hotter as the entire chamber filled with the heat of the enormous flames.

Rhia put her hands up, encasing all of us in a sphere of air and relieving the heat.

The flame Enid was creating glowed white hot now, and I watched in wonder as the entire rock cracked, spider webbing across the entire bottom of the surface.

“Ho-ly shit,” Finn gasped.

River was awake now and stood, watching as Enid broke this entire ceiling.

*‘Tell River to get ready,’* Enid said in my head, her voice strained with effort.

“She says get ready,” I told River.

She nodded and lifted her hands.

The entire rock exploded above us, the sound so incredibly deafening that I was sure that my ears were bleeding. We all crouched in response, covering our heads, and River grunted with effort as she caught any pieces of rock that tried to rain down on us.

I looked up again and realized Enid was holding the entire thing. The ceiling, now destroyed, was floating in midair. Her face was red with effort and then she screamed.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

As she did, she pushed it, and it flew apart, giant pieces of rocks flying in every direction.

I looked up and saw the night sky and the stars.

*‘What the fuck was that?! Are you guys alive?!’* Gideon’s voice screamed in my head.

I looked at Finn, seeing that he got the message and was replying.

Rhia dropped the air shield and Enid stood atop the platform still. Her sleeves had caught fire and burned slightly and she was ripping at them, tearing them away at the shoulder seam. She started at the skirt of her dress now, tearing it away until it was just above her knees.

She grabbed the cuffs on her ankles and melted them—the iron liquefying and sliding down her skin without burning her. Last, she grabbed the silver collar, and the flames licked up and melted it as well. She tossed what was left, and it made a metallic tinkling as it fell down the stairs.

I walked towards her, wanting to hold her.

But when she turned, I stopped. For I didn’t feel that I was looking at Enid at that moment, but the Green Witch.

I was standing at the base of the stairs, and she looked down at me.

Holding her hand out, she said, “The spear.”

I looked down and realized I was still clutching Dragonsbane in my hand. I tossed it without hesitation and she caught it, twirling it with an expert grace.

Her gaze lingered on me just a moment longer, and then she looked behind me.

“Cass!” she called.

Needing no more explanation than that, he ran towards her, shifting on the way and bounding up the stairs as the black dragon. She gripped his spikes and jumped on his back at the base of his neck, balancing there with her bare feet.

I was the only one close enough to hear when she bent forward and hissed three words into his ear.

“I want Nox.”