She would bring herback.
Beads of sweat trickled along Maeve’s brow as the lifeblood of magic coursed through her, amplifying with each passing second. Her knees trembled. Her breath left her in a cold shudder.
There was a loud crack, so deafening it caused Maeve’s ears to ring.
Power exploded from her soul, a blast of such magnitude, it tore through the fabric of the worlds.
Maeve shattered the realms.
And then, everything fell silent.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Maeve expelled ancient magic in a force so powerful, it blasted Tiernan away from her.
He landed hard on his back, and pain splintered up and down his spine. Glaring light left him blinded as he struggled to get back on his feet and regain his bearings. He stumbled in a daze, blinking against the harsh outburst of radiance. His body continued to throb from the loss of his wings, and even though Brynn had saved him—died for him—he’d lost a significant amount of blood. He was weak, his magic nearly depleted. But nothing would stop him from returning to Maeve’s side.
Nothing, perhaps, except the void looming before her.
She’d ripped apart the fabric of space and time, and a gaping chasm extending from the bloodied earth to the churning sky fractured the heavens. Veins of darkness eddied from the tear in the realm. The sinewy shadows fanned out like strands of midnight silk, twisting around the radiance emitting from her, extinguishing the light. The seam stretched wider, opening like a gaping mouth of impenetrable dark, ready to devour the world.
Ready to devour her.
Maeve faced the abyss of her creation, where the threads binding the separation of worlds had been severed. Rowan stood next to her, the Astralstone gripped tightly in one hand, staring up at the swirling mass of endlessness before them.
Deafening silence befell the battlefield, as though the void had absorbed all sound. Tiernan called out, shouting their names, but his voice was swallowed by the unnatural quiet. His warning would never reach them.
Tiernan lunged forward, but it was like moving through a dream. He swore he was running, racing to her, but he wasn’t covering any ground. He was too slow, his movements sluggish.
“Save her!”he implored, forcing his thoughts into the Nightweaver’s mind.
Rowan flinched like he’d finally been pulled from the trance that kept him locked in place. He reached for Maeve with his free hand. Tiernan expelled a sign of relief. Rowan would do it. He would save her. Even if it meant dragging her away to safety against her own will. She might hate them both for it, but that was something they would deal with later. Assuming they survived.
“Fuck.” Rowan spat the word out, and then he did the unthinkable.
He shoved Maeve into the void.
“No!” Tiernan shouted, horrified as she was consumed by the darkness. One moment she was there, and in the next, she was gone. Untraceable. Unreachable.
Shock slammed into him, and he sank to his knees in despair. His chest caved, his breathing hollowed out as the cold rush of anguish swept through him. It was as though the god of death himself had reached into his chest and ripped out his heart. His soul wept. She was his song. His beginning and his end. His blood and tears. She was his eternity.
And she was taken from him. Forever.
Tiernan glanced down, ripping at the armor covering his wrist.
The witch thread remained, imprinted upon his flesh. But the bond was silent. He couldn’t feel her, he couldn’t feel anything. It was simply a tattoo upon his skin, a reminder of what was, a connection to nothingness.
Time ceased to exist.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Maeve screamed.
At least, she thought she was screaming. She could no longer be sure. Sound was distorted, a cacophony of heartbeats, rushing blood, and the ticking of what reminded her of a clock.
One moment, she’d been on the battlefield of the Spring Court, watching her best friend die. And in the next, she was…somewhere else.
Her gaze scanned her new surroundings.
