Chapter 132 Part 1

Chapter 132 Part 1
Allissa

Eira flung herself over me, her magic a last-ditch wall of icy blue, but Angelica’s attack punched right through. The pressure slammed me to the bed, pinned me by the throat, and for one long, surreal second, everything went quiet. I saw Eira on the floor, twitching but alive, her hands clamped around her body as she writhed in pain.

Another wave of gold came rushing at me and I moved to protect my unborn baby. Just when I should have been hit, the world tore sideways.

A sound like a violin string being pulled and breaking ripped the air. Time exploded, a million moments shattering into a new and terrible present. There was a woman standing at the foot of the bed who hadn’t been there before. She wore nothing but blue fire and the world’s most obscene sense of confidence. Her hair was a fuse light, white as the moon and long, down past her waist. Her eyes were glowing, no color at all, just light, and her smile was the kind you wear when you’re about to blow the heads off every god in the room.

Fury. The messenger of the gods. The one who’d always shown up at the worst possible times, grinning like she knew the punchline before the joke was even told.

She lifted a single, iridescent finger and caught the tail end of Angelica’s gold blast. It bent around her, like a river hitting a mountain. The air sizzled. The bedframe shook so hard it rattled the teeth in my skull.

Angelica snarled. “You little bitch. This isn’t your war.”

Fury blinked, slow and deliberate. “It is now.” Her voice was the chime of glass, the sound you hear right before the whole thing shatters.

“You can’t intervene! You are betraying the gods—”

Fury cut her off with a laugh. “I don’t care for the gods, especially since you’re one of them. You crossed a line, Angelica, and they’ve done nothing. The god of the gods won’t allow them to touch you. Well, I’d rather burn than watch you break the world again.”

“You can’t—” Angelica hissed but Fury cut her off.

“I can if I’m protecting someone.”

“You’re only allowed to … you clever bitch!”

“As a celestial fairy, I can protect another celestial being. And I am.”

I sat up, even though the pain was everywhere. My muscles kept locking and unlocking, the contractions rolling over each other now in a perfect, terrible rhythm. My vision started to flicker at the edges, colors splitting, reality fuzzing out, and then snapping back so hard my bones ached.

Fury glanced down at me, eyes bright with a small smile. “Hang on, Queenie. Just a few more seconds.”

Angelica hissed, and the temperature in the room dropped thirty degrees. Frost zipped up the walls, webs of white closing in on the light from Fury’s body. “That child can’t be born,” Angelica said, and her words had the force of a thousand broken promises. “I’ll tear the child from her womb and unmake it piece by piece.”

She lunged.

Fury met her in the air, blue light colliding with black and gold hate. The impact cracked the windows, sending Angelica tumbling across the floor. I managed to move to my feet. Every nerve ending was an exposed wire, every muscle a live grenade.

Above me, the two colossal forces fought. Not like humans. Not even like lycans. They tore the air itself, twisted the world to their own laws, screamed words that set my teeth on edge and left the taste of burning chemicals in my mouth. Gold and blue, black and silver, they tumbled through the air, smashing against each other in blinding speed.

Above, Angelica pinned Fury against the wall, a hand at her throat. “You’re just a messenger,” Angelica spat bitterly. “You don’t get to play god.”

Fury grinned, even as her feet dangled inches above the ground. “Like I said, I quit,” she grinned, and then Angelica surged gold power down her throat. Fury let out a scream that I felt in my soul before going silent. Angelica discarded her to the floor and landed gracefully next to the still body. Then her eyes snapped to me.

“Well … it’s been fun, but I really need you to die, right now, before that thing is born.”

She moved faster than thought. In a blink, she was over me, claws at my throat, teeth bared. Lightning tore through my veins, crackling from my fingertips, burning up through Angelica’s hands and into her body. She screamed, a banshee wail that shook the castle to its foundation. She tried to escape but the lightning caught her, wrapped her, welded her to the air itself.

I screamed too, but not in pain. In fury. In love. In a rage so pure it made me see colors that didn’t exist. The lightning bubbled angrily and the color turned to red.

“Fucking hellhound blood!” Angelica hissed as she struggled against the hold my powers had on her. “You don’t have the power to destroy me. This is far from over!” She bit her bottom lip, making blood spill out from it. I watched as the blood grew and surrounded her before she vanished.

Eira moved to her knees, crawling over to me. “Is she gone?”

“Only a god, demon, or celestial being can destroy her soul.” Gujin appeared, kneeling next to Fury. “You finally broke those chains. You always hated the rules,” he said softly as his fingers brushed through her hair.

“Is she—” I started to ask, but Gujin answered before I could say the word dead.

“Sent back to the stars. I bet you will be a shooting star, not bound by orbit,” he whispered, and I could see his body and lip tremble as he lifted her body in his arms. He turned and looked at me as I braced myself through another contraction. “Angelica won’t be back. She has been weakened. Your child zapped her powers away at the end there. She will have to regroup and re-strategize now. She will use the nephalem once they are ready … but that won’t be your fight.” He looked at my stomach. “And they are going to be entering the world soon.”

I looked at him and then down at Fury. “I’m so sorry. Thank you for protecting us.” I watched as Gujin shook his head. 

“Fury didn’t do anything without weighing the risks. She knew she wouldn’t survive against Angelica. She was buying you time to protect yourself. It worked, and she can rest in peace.” He shifted her gently with a sad smile. “I’ll see her to rest now.” And with that, he vanished.

Tears welled in my eyes as I leaned on the bed, battered and exhausted. I still had to have the strength to give birth to my child, and I didn’t have the time to go after Darren. The timing was horrible, but there was nothing I could do about it.

“Call for healers and help. We need it.” Eira took a deep breath and looked around the room. “You’ll need to refurnish the room, too.”

A weak, tired laugh left my mouth. The room was the last thing on my mind and Eira knew it, but she was trying to get my mind off of Darren.

“There was some weird bubble around us. No wonder no one came running in. I think I was able to get a mind-link to Squall. I told him to go and get Darren.” She smiled and tried to reassure me. “Don’t worry, he’ll bring him back.”

I had to hang onto that hope. I felt another contraction rip through me, and knew I had another battle to face.

Bring the royal doctor and healers. The new heir will be born soon!