Page 167 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

Dread had steadily built as the conversation continued, but with the way Julius skewered the demon king, I gathered that none of us had truly believed the finality and gravity in the Vissimo ruler’s words.

“Father,” Kyros exhaled.

He broke into a blurring sprint, Basilia hot in his wake. Andie and Sascha burst forward after, but I remained still.

I’d finally understood something.

Julius roared and a surge of power that I’d never experienced from a Vissimo burst from him, flinging the four supernaturals back.

From my knees, I watched as red cracks started to show in the arm Julius had plunged through the demon. The red spread over the king’s grim-streaked and bloodied torso, then spearing up his neck. Red filled Julius’s eyes.

Blood started to leak from them, but Julius didn’t make a single sound. Only as blood appeared to push out of his every pore did the Vissimo shake slightly.

“No.” Wild’s voice was filled with the horror I was frozen by.

When it seemed like all the blood in the ancient’s body had vacated to make way for the foreign power forcing itself inside, there was a high keening like fingernails on a blackboard.

Kyros was on his feet and surging forward.

Basilia was getting up, a look of pure panic upon her face. Andie was helping Sascha to stand.

“Thank you,” Wild whispered to the dying king.

Julius was there one moment.

And then only red smoke remained.

I realized too late that the way King Julius’s threads curled around his body meant he’d chosen his fate with complete certainty before this encounter.

Kyros’s father knew this fight with the demon king would be his last.

And it was.

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Kyros’s roar was rage and loss. His battle charge was murder.

And we’d all watched the demon king kill his father. The rest of us didn’t need Basilia’s scream of anguish to spur us into gear. All of us had to fight now.

There was a crack in the air, and a portal opened.

I’d barely made it up off my knees, and Kyros was only halfway to the demon king, when a magus in thick robes stepped through.

The magus lowered his hood, and Wild froze.

“Varden,” he said in confusion.

Varden. What was he—? My eyes widened at the sight of his threads curled tight around his body.

“Varden, no!” I opened a portal and sprinted through.

Erupting out the other side, I was just in time to witness Varden’s body erupting with white light. The purest of magic. That of sacrifice in the name of love. The kind of magic that could only be used once because the use was final.

“No,” I screamed, dropping to the ground to shield my eyes from the fierce glare.

Kyros was on his knees, not far from me.

The glare faded, and though the baffled demon king registered in my mind, most of me was focused on the spirit floating toward me.

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