Page 76 of Eboenia

I tried to pull it out, but it bristled like a porcupine, stabbing tiny needles deeper into me.

“War,” I whispered, before collapsing to the ground.

The needles pumped a hot poison into my heart. “No—no!” War shouted, scooping me up. I coughed up a thick stream of blood.

“It hurts,” I gasped, trembling.

War scooped me into his arms as a portal opened.

“Go ahead! We’ll stay behind to clean up this mess,” Grim told War, while three other masked warlocks—whom I presumed to be Civil, Crash Out, and Steel—walked over to him.

My wings were losing their sheen, growing dull—a sign that the end was near for me. Above our heads, I saw the shadow of a fairy in a gold wrap dress, her matching wings shimmering faintly as she hovered. She was a spirit, an ancestor come to guide me through the transition.

“No… please, no,” I whispered, coughing up blood.

War laid me on the cold, stone table inside his dungeon. His hands trembled as he hovered over me, and for the first time, I saw him—really saw him. Beneath all the menace, beneath the psychotic killer’s stare and the blood on his hands, his naked soul flickered through. His eyes glossed with unshed tears, raw emotion breaking through the monster he was known as. If War could show this kind of purity, I knew it meant only one thing: he could see I was dying.

“What happened to her? Eboeniaaaa!” Sin’s scream echoed from his cell.

“You aren’t going anywhere. I swear on everything, you better not die on me!” War’s voice cracked as he pressed his palm over my chest, desperate to heal me, but I felt myself slipping further away—drifting toward death’s cold embrace. The golden fairy appeared again, and this time, she wasn’t alone. Two of them hovered above, their wings shimmering like heaven’s sunlight.

I squeezed War’s hand, my grip weak, lungs burning as I suffocated on my own blood.

“You killed her! She was safe before you kidnapped her and turned her into a Hex13! It’s your goddamn fault! Let me out of this cell right now!” Sin’s cries tore through the dungeon.

“I told your bitch-ass to shut the fuck up!” War’s rage exploded. He hurled a dagger through the bars, and I heard Sin’s body hit the ground with a thud.

“Ahhhh!” Sin groaned, pain twisting his voice.

War’s hands pressed onto me again, and this time, crackling tentacles of electricity shot from his fingertips, surging into my body. But I felt nothing—just the numbness spreading, swallowing me whole.

“We’re here to guide you. Don’t fight it,”a melodic voice whispered inside my mind.

“War,” I rasped, my voice barely a breath. “They’re calling me,” I managed.

“I don’t give a fuck about them! You belong to me, damn it! Tell them they can’t have you!” he shouted.

“We’re waiting for you,”another voice sang.

My back arched off the table as I choked on a gush of blood, curdling in the back of my throat. This was the same table where War had once bound my soul to his—and now, it was where I was taking my last breath. The final moment was silent as I slipped away…

The air was impossibly fresh, tinged with the scent of wildflowers and honey. Water cascaded from the sky itself, a waterfall of liquid crystal pouring down from the clouds above, scattering rainbows through the air. At the base of the torrent, a family of fairies stood in a circle, as if gathered for a special ceremony.

The men were dressed in pure white, their feathered gold wings unfurled and gleaming in the mist. The women woreflowing wraps of gold silk that caught the light, their hair crowned with headpieces woven from gold and white roses. Their singing, delicate as wind chimes, washed over and filled my soul with peace in the afterlife.

A fairy with long, ground-length curly locs turned toward me—and it was my mother.

“Mother!” I cried.

I soared to her, and she caught me in her arms, holding me close. Her hair smelled just as I remembered—jasmine and vanilla, sweet and soothing.

“We were waiting for you,” she whispered.

“I know. I missed you so much!” I sobbed, clinging to her.

She pulled back, her cheeks glowing with pride and love. “You’ve grown so beautiful. Look at you,” she said, her eyes shining.

A tall man with a long beard and silver-tipped locs stepped forward. Though he looked young, perhaps in his mid-twenties, his eyed held a depth of ancient wisdom.

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