Chapter 71 POSSESSED LUNA
CHAPTER 071: POSSESSED LUNA
The twin bond screams at me. It feels like my heart is being ripped apart.
This is wrong. My sister,. Not really. Lunas body, but something else is controlling it.
"Luna fight it " I shout, trying to reach her.
She tilts her head. It looks too smooth too fake. "Luna's still here. Screaming. It's delicious " she says in a voice thats not hers.
Then she attacks me.
She moves like a wolf fast, with her claws out aiming for my throat. I dodge without thinking and silver fire flares up to protect me.
"Don't make me hurt you " I say, trying to reason with her.
"You won't " she says with a voice thats layered like a being is speaking through my sisters mouth. ". I'll hurt you plenty."
Caius laughs behind me. "The Covenant chose your sister on purpose, Phoenix. The twin bond makes her the perfect weapon against you."
Kieran jumps at Caius. Gets thrown into a wall hard enough to crack the stone.
Alaric moves next using speed. Caius catches him. Slams him into the ground.
Luna comes at me again. I block her. Deflect her attacks but I don't hit back. She doesn't hesitate. Her fist hits my ribs. I feel something crack.
"Fight back " she hisses in that voice.
"No " I say.
"Then die " she says.
Cassian uses his fire on her. She walks through it laughing.
Zev tries to use dream magic on her. She shrugs it off like its nothing.
We're fighting two threats. There are five of us. We're tired and outmatched.
"You won't win this " Caius says, like hes just chatting while he fights off three beings. "Every move you make helps us. If you break the seals you let us out. If you don't break the seals we'll break them anyway. If you kill your sister you hurt yourself. If you let her live she'll kill you."
Lunas claws scratch my arm. I feel the blood warm and immediate.
"Checkmate, Phoenix " Caius says.
He's right. I don't know how to win. I don't want to hurt Luna. I don't want her to kill me. I don't know how to stop Caius while hes attacking.
Unless...
I let my defenses down. I let Lunas next attack hit me and her claws dig into my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Kieran shouts.
I grab Lunas arm. Hold on even though it hurts.. I send everything I have through the twin bond.
Not. Fire, but love.
Every memory we've made in the weeks since we found each other. Every laugh, every moment we shared every time she made me feel less alone. I fill the bond with sisterhood. The feeling of finally being complete after seventeen years of not knowing something was missing.
Luna screams.
Not the fake voice,. Her. Just my sister.
"Thalira " she gasps. "I...can't hold—"
"Yes you can. Fight it " I say.
Through the bond I feel her struggling. The thing inside her Syrax trying to stay in control. Luna pushing back with everything she has.
The twin bond is stronger.
It snaps like a rubber band thats been pulled tight.
Syrax tears out of Lunas body in a explosion of shadow and screaming. My sister collapses. The Covenant being takes form like a shape with too many limbs.
"Clever " it hisses. ". Now you fight us both."
We're going to die
Cassian appears beside me. His hands are burning hotter than I've ever seen with flames on his skin.
"Get Luna out " he says quietly.
"What are you—"
"I'm going to change. I've never done it before. I'm a bit nervous to be honest."
"Cassian don't—"
"I love you firefly. Tell the others I said—"
He turns into fire before finishing the sentence.
Not human-shaped anymore. Just flames, phoenix fire in its form consuming everything in a sphere that expands outward with devastating force.
I grab Luna. Throw us both behind a pillar. The boys do the same taking cover as Cassians fire fills the chamber.
Syrax screams. The sound is agony and rage and something dying that shouldn't be able to die.
Caius shouts something I don't understand.
The fire peaks. Then it collapses inward imploding than exploding, everything sucking back to the center where Cassian was.
When it clears there's nothing.
Just ash. Drifting through the chamber like snow.
"No " I whisper.
I'm moving before thinking trying to gather the ash trying to do something. Kieran catches me holds me back even though I'm fighting him.
"He'll come back " Alaric says. His voice is hollow. "Phoenix resurrection. He'll come back."
"When?" I'm screaming now. I don't know how to help it. "When will he come back?"
"Days. Weeks " Zev says, his amber eyes wet. "It's unpredictable."
Caius is on the ground badly burned but alive. Syrax is gone, destroyed completely.
"Three down " Caius says, struggling to his feet. Blood and burns cover him. Hes still moving. "Four to go."
He grabs something from the rubble. The third seal,. Intact.
". When we rise, Phoenix your precious firebird won't be there to save you."
He vanishes. Just gone like he was never there.
I. Kieran barely keeps me upright.
Sofia runs in takes one look at the ash and Lunas unconscious form and starts barking orders. "We need to move. Now. That fire will have alerted everything in a ten-mile radius."
"Cassian—"
"Is ash. We gather what we can. Go."
She's right. It doesn't make it hurt less.
We collect Cassians ashes in a container Sofia produces from her pack. Lunas barely breathing, her body broken from the forced exorcism. I carry her because I need to need to feel her heartbeat even if its weak.
We fight our way back through the ruins. Morganas still holding the army outside. Barely. She's shadow than solid now her power completely drained.
"About time " she gasps when she sees us.
"We're leaving " I say.
"Thank the gods."
We run.
Behind us the ruined city burns. Ahead there's darkness and uncertainty.
I count heartbeats. Lunas, not mine. One, two three, four.
She's alive. Barely.. Alive.
Cassian is ash.
The Covenant has three seals.
We're falling apart.
We make it five miles before we have to stop. Luna needs attention that Sofia can't provide while running. Morgana collapses the second she stops moving.
We set up in an abandoned structure that might have been a farm once.
Sofia works on Luna with shaking hands. "The possession damaged her. Badly. I don't know if—"
"She'll make it " I interrupt. "She has to."
"Hope isn't medicine Thalira."
"It's all we have now."
Kierans pacing. Alarics still. Zevs sitting with his head in his hands.
We're broken. Completely broken.
That's when I feel it.
A pulse through the silver marks on my arms. Not pain exactly. Awareness. Something fundamental shifting in the world.
Four seals. All activating at once. All across the globe.
They're breaking.
Not broken yet. Breaking. Days at most.
Caiuss voice echoes in my head even though hes not here.
The end has begun.
I look at my family. At Luna, broken and barely breathing. At Morgana exhausted beyond measure. At Sofia trying to hold everyone with medical supplies and determination. At the boys who've lost their brother and don't know how to exist without him.
At Cassians ashes in their container lifeless and still.
"We can't do this alone " I say quietly.
"We don't have reinforcements " Alaric says.
"Then we find some."
"Where?"
I don't have an answer.
The night presses in around us.. Dark and endless.
Out there Caius is moving toward the fourth seal.
Somewhere the Covenant is preparing to rise.
We're here.. Bleeding and holding onto hope by our fingernails.
Lunas eyes flutter open. For a second.
"Did we win?" she whispers.
I look at Cassian's ashes. At Morgana barely conscious. At the boys grief.
"No " I say. ". We're still here."
"That's something."
Her eyes close again.
It is something.. I don't know if it's enough.
The silver marks, on my arms pulse one time.
Four seals breaking. Days, not weeks.
The end has begun.
I don't know how to stop it.