Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

The eight of us faced the phoenix. Maybe this was how it should have been all along, our power versus her power. No games or prisons. No conversations or attempts at redemption.

I didn’t regret allowing her the chance to save herself, but that chance was over now. Now we had to play for keeps, and I would hold nothing back.

Len held back, since he was saving his energy to remove the stone, but the rest of us shot power into her focusing on our individual strengths and magics. The strongest aspects and skills of our races. Reece with his desert power, dry as it ripped against our skin like magical sandpaper. Alistair’s was water-based, but his water turned into large weapons he shot at Dannie in the form of icy green swords, pointed spears, and other missiles. So far, none were penetrating the shield she had formed over herself, but it was all working to weaken her. Angel had her blades, moving up close and personal, slicing and dicing against Dannie’s power, moving like a freaking ninja so that the goddess could never touch her.

Lucien zipped around super-fast, his vampire strength and speed allowing him to pummel into the shields, searching for weak points, and when Dannie winced more than once, I knew that he was finding targets. Galleli still didn’t speak or make any sounds at all, but he was flapping his wings above Dannie, staring down with a look of complete focus on his face.

Everything okay? I quickly asked, worried that he might have spotted something.

Her mind is strong, he replied. But I will continue to try to break through to take control of her.

Awesome. Good luck.

Mentally, I pulled away, allowing him to focus, all the while having a minor freakout that he could take control of minds. As handy as it could be in this situation, there was always the worry that one day he might use it against us.

But, I mean, all of us were powerful, not just Galleli. We were the checks to each other’s power, and that was why our group was so strong and well-balanced. Which meant I had nothing to worry about. On that front at least.

“The shield is falling,” Shadow roared, and his flames were near twenty feet high as he continued to dig at the barrier around the phoenix. At first, I thought he was talking about that shield erected by Dannie, but unfortunately, I was wrong.

It was the mist shield.

Dannie had just been protecting herself long enough for her army to break free. Damn her and her intelligent battle-ready mind. Next time we fought an arch-nemesis, I wanted one who was stupid. It was only fair.

The army raged at us en masse and we all fell under the assault. Dannie added to that by offensively blasting her power into us, sharp and powerful assaults that penetrated into the center of my power. It hurt, and I cried out as I struggled to cut the tie she’d created by tethering her attack directly into my energy.

I expected the others would be doing the same, only to break free and find all of them were being crushed under the fire army and Dannie’s attack. Our mists were holding back what they could, but it wasn’t enough.

“Stop!” I screamed, shooting myself into the air, blind rage at my loved ones being attacked driving me. Shadow roared at me too, and I knew he was working to save our friends and get to me, but he couldn’t do it all.

The power inside of me exploded, a nuclear blast that shot me into the sky, my fire wings flapping powerfully as breaths sucked in and out of my mouth in loud rasps. It was pure rage fueling me since I was exhausted and broken, but maybe rage would be enough.

Dannie and I collided in the air, and that was the first time anyone had been able to touch her. Her feathers were icy cold under my clawed hands, despite the heat she was channeling in her flaming tail and power. “You feel empty,” I screamed in her face, digging into her with all my strength. “Your soul is gone, Dannie, and there’s no way to come back from that.”

Those flaming eyes flashed at me. “You know nothing about souls, child. Or sacrifice. You have been a selfish brat from the first moment I saw you in Torma. A disappointment. But I decided to give you a chance to grow into a being worthy of the legacy you carry.” Even on a bird face, her disgust was obvious. “You continue to fail. You continue to be unworthy. Your parents thought it, your true mate thought so, and so do I.”

Her words hurt. She knew how to use them as weapons, hitting at my soft, vulnerable belly. But there was one truth she couldn’t take from me: Shadow Beast was my true mate, and he had not rejected our bond. He’d fought for it.

We both had and I was no longer that poor pathetic pup from Torma.

“You can’t take me down like that,” I said softly. “A few months ago, it would have worked, but I’m not the same being as I was then. I did best your mind control, and I will best you again now.”

I’d been building power in my center, every ounce I had, in preparation for the attack that she was about to send my way. Only she once again went for my vulnerabilities and continued to use her power against my friends. The tethers she held to them, the ones they couldn’t break, were killing them. At least the ones who were easily killable, and the others would soon have their energy stripped away until there was nothing left.

I tried to stop her, sending out my power in a bid to break those tethers as I’d done for myself. But it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t take her on alone, and my small attempts were just delaying the inevitable. Dannie was powered by a stone that could build and destroy worlds. Its power was near never-ending. Our attempt to best her had always been a long shot, and dammit, we’d given it all we had.

“You know you can’t win.”

She saw it in my face, and I schooled my expression, unwilling to admit defeat yet. I had to hold on to hope, for it was the strongest motivator that there was.

“It will not hurt, and you’ll all be together,” Dannie told me softly, and there was a warmth under my touch finally. She still felt something, even if it was crushed beneath the ice in her soul. “Don’t fight any longer.”

This approach worked differently to her last attack because this time it was true. My family was hurting. They were broken and bloody and burning alive. I couldn’t allow that to keep happening, and if I couldn’t beat her or save them, what was our other option?

Never stop fighting her, Sunshine.

His voice was in my head, his love and strength surrounding me, and I squeezed my eyes closed for a beat knowing that Shadow was right. Fuck. I did not lie down and die on command under a bully hurting me. I’d never done that, and I wasn’t about to start today. Torma had unknowingly been preparing me for this fight, and I would not waste their training.

Streams of light and fire burst from me, but unlike my last attack, which focused on brute force, this time, I went for a different strategy. Distract, deflect, and detain.

Drawing on the strength of Shadow, Midnight, and my creatures, the bonds I had to them fueled my power. I only took enough to boost my own strengths as I wove my power around Dannie in long beams of light.

Angel, my beautiful best friend, tried to reach out to me through the bonds as well, but she was weak. Instead of taking, I sent power back to her, the connection between us stronger than ever. It was so strong that when Dannie saw what I was doing and changed her attack to focus solely on Angel, I felt the full force of her crushing blow.

I screamed as Angel’s presence flickered in my mind, each beat of her lifeforce fading as Dannie decided to take her out and remove one of my strengths. No matter how hard I held on, there was no way to counter the goddess.

Angel, I sobbed, holding on to her with all my power. Pull from your land. Take all the energy. Fight her.

The touch of her mind was so strong and calm, the ancient being that she was did as I said and used the last of her strength to draw on her ancestral power. It was at this point that I felt some hope, right up until a burn of power shot down our bond. Take this, Mera. Take this and finish her off.

Angel gave me the strength of her family. Strength that could have saved her life, but she knew without it, we’d all be dead against the might of this goddess. In that moment, I didn’t care though.

“Angel, fuck, no!” I screamed both mentally and through our bond. “Save yourself.”

It’s too late, Mera. My power base is fractured and I’m leaking my life force. I can’t replenish it fast enough, and this power would be wasted. Use it to save the others. Save yourself.

I tried to pull away from Dannie, but she wouldn’t release me. And with more power funneling into me as Angel faded from this realm, a scream built in my chest. Hopelessness crashed into me and I was crying and screaming and fighting, but there was nothing I could do.

It’s my time, Mera. You saved me and now I can repay the favor. I’ll be at peace, with my family. You need to let me go.

No.

I was an ungracious stubborn asshole, but I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t let her go.

No, I repeated. If you fall, so do I.

Angel chuckled, a whisper so weak, it crushed my heart into a million tiny pieces. This was our last moment, I knew it even as I fought against the inevitable. But how could I accept that I’d never hear her laugh again? Or sit by her side in the dining hall, teasing her about her love of smelling apples? I’d never hear her formal talk when she was ready to kick ass. Or see her warrior outfits as she palmed weapons like she’d been born with them in her hands.

This was our last moment, and I knew that even if we won against Dannie now, I’d lost.

I love you, I told her because there was no time left. Our bond, that fluttering feeling of home and family in my chest, was nearly gone.

I love you, treasora, Angel whispered until her voice faded out. Death had stolen the last of her, leaving the rest of us to mourn in its wake.