Pretty Spelled by K.A Knight

Atlas

Iknow nothing, and then suddenly, everything is bright again. I feel my heart beating, my blood flowing. My vision clears until I see Lilith above me, her bright blue eyes looking down at me with love and a strength I have never known. She pulls me closer, cradling me in her arms as I hold onto her, just breathing through the weakness.

What happened?

She killed me, I remember now, and then she brought me back? How? And what about the evil? I try to look around, and I find my brothers and their mates watching me from the side with shock on their faces.

“There is always a choice,” Remi murmurs and nods. “She was right.”

“Lilith?” I whisper as she pulls back. There are tears in her eyes, but she’s smiling as she leans down and kisses me.

“I’m here, my love, you’re okay, you’re safe.”

“What happened?” I ask, but she kisses me, and I lose myself in the taste of my mate, my heart beating in sync with hers, our mating bond stronger than ever. I can actually hear her thoughts, feel her emotions, feel the pleasure she is getting from my lips as if it’s my own. She pulls back and licks her lips.

“I saved you. I have much to tell you, or show you.” She smiles. “But you’re safe. We are tied together forever now, it was the only way,” she explains nervously. I grip her chin.

“I was already tied to you, Wildflower,” I growl, and she smiles and kisses my hand, but then darkness enters her eyes.

“I will never be wholly good, my love,” she whispers. “But her, she is the darkness of this world. She can never truly die. She lives on in us, but we must defeat her. We must absorb her and accept that to be good is to embrace darkness. To be the light, we must first have shadows. I need you for that. Without you, I will become her once again. You keep me balanced. Will you help me save this world once and for all?”

“Always,” I answer immediately, uncaring about what has changed in her or me. I know under it all, our hearts are still the same. She might have grown, matured, and became powerful, but she is still that same little girl I handed my heart to all those years ago, and I am still the battle weary general whose heart she stole.

She smiles, even as there is a loud pop. We lift our heads to see the dark mist swirling through the temple, faster and faster. She frowns, and I get to my feet, holding her hand. She stands at my side, not behind or in front of me. We are partners.

My brothers and their mates join us silently, standing at our side. Our powers merge, and there is nothing to stop us now as the mist forms a person. The outline of a woman laughs, her mouth opening in a horrific cackle.

“You fools, you can’t stop me,” she snaps.

“Yes, we can,” Lilith retorts and steps forward. “You are me, I am you. You can never truly die, but you cannot live either. You must stop this. You have lost. You are alone, broken. That’s why you know only darkness, because I took the love, and for that, I am sorry. It’s time to join again. To be who we were meant to be.”

“Never, I still have power, and you won’t steal it from me,” she snarls, barely even a person now, but she’s right. She still has powers—the necromancer and evil side of my love. We feel it. This battle is far from over. No one said saving the world would be easy.

“I can still do this,” she snaps. “I do not need your mortal body, I am free!” she screams, and fire pours from her hands, eyes, and mouth, hitting the stone steps with a boom that has us recoiling. Moments later, the stone itself rips open as if torn by a great force.

“Stop this!” Lilith calls, holding out her hand, but the mist just laughs as the stone beneath our feet cracks further, sending us up the steps to avoid falling into the chasm where the fire only seems to grow, shooting higher and higher until things crawl from that flaming pit. They’re lava-like looking creatures, made of stone and flames, their hands grabbing the edge as they haul themselves up. They are not demons or any supernaturals I have seen before, they are an abomination, a deterioration of her power and evil. Some are tiny and flaming, and others are huge but bent and hardly able to move. More and more pour from that hole, and then all those blazing eyes turn to us.

“Not fucking fair,” Bella snaps.

“Right? Fire’s my thing, bitch, get your own!” Kyro yells.

I crack my neck, looking at Lilith. “We do this together. Your lead, Wildflower. You have the command.”

She smiles wide, her chin raised like the queen she has always been. “Kill her creatures and get me to her, I can stop her.” She looks at the others. “I might need your help.”

“Always,” they reply instantly.

“I think if I share the power, the darkness, we can stop this from ever happening again. Like I did with the amulet, we use ourselves as the storage, accepting it in.”

“Sounds fun. I’m in,” Remi calls.

“Let’s do this,” Mira agrees, not questioning what it means for them, willing to do anything for our family.

“We trust you,” Slate says, and I know that, more than anything, staggers her. After everything we have been though, they still trust her. I see her eyes fill with love and determination from their confidence in her.

“Together,” she murmurs, and then with a deep breath, she flings her power at the creatures, knocking some of them back in the pits, where we hear them fall apart. The rest charge, and we have to fight side by side on the steps to the throne as the mist watches us, laughing, still underestimating my family.

Lilith is at my side the entire time. We fight together like we have been doing it for centuries. When she ducks, I punch, smashing the rock, and when I turn, she uses my back to kick out at them. The rock is easy to break, the slight singe worth it. With Alejandra throwing magic at them, Bella lassoing them, Cassandra tossing the golden boulders Kyro makes, along with Mira, Remi, and Dabria fighting side by side, we manage to drive them back. Slowly but surely, we force them down the steps until they are fighting at the very edge. Lilith steps forward then, her head going back, and she lets out what I can only describe as a yell, but there is power behind it, drawn from all of us. Like a boom, it spreads out in shockwaves, throwing the creatures back like a hurricane.

It batters them over and over again until they all tumble into the pit and the fires extinguish, even as the chasm opens farther, almost too far to jump. But my mate, unafraid, leaps over it to face off with the darkness.

“You can never stop me. I am too powerful. Like before, it will overwhelm you,” she spits, and Lilith hesitates. Is she right?

“Give it to me,” I yell. “Share it.”

She glances back and seems to come to a decision, a brilliant smile curling her lips, even as Remi leaps over the opening, ignoring Khalid’s warning. She pulls a golden necklace from around her neck. “Here.” She thrusts it at Lilith, who just looks confused.

“I think this was yours,” Remi says, “to help store the darkness.” She hands over the amulet. “It’s filled with the same kind of magic I am, able to steal powers. We fill it with the overflow.”

“I need your help,” Lilith tells her, “to steal it. Are we all ready to receive it?”

They all nod, their hands joining as I strain to reach across the chasm to Remi and Lilith, prepared to keep the circle whole. Our touch is a conduit, our bonds unbreakable, and inside, we are a family unit. Joined.

Forever.

She turns to the darkness, and with her hand in Remi’s, she touches the mist. It screams, its power blowing out, but Lilith sucks it all in. We watch in rapt fascination as the black mist crawls along her arm, and up and over her shoulder before sinking into her chest. Her head falls back with a silent scream, and I jerk, resisting the urge to go to her, knowing I am where she needs me to be. Remi touches her chest with the amulet, and they steal some of the power inside before Remi puts it over her head…but it’s not enough.

I feel it growing inside her, increasing until it’s almost killing her. That was the problem before, she never had anyone to help her with the burden. It kept growing until it got to be too much. But she has me now…she has us.

“Share it, Wildflower,” I demand. “That’s what we are here for.” She turns, reaching out blindly, and I stretch my hand across the chasm for her, our fingertips finally touching. It’s like an electric current, the power flows through her to me, forcing my eyes shut as I jolt. The energy moves to Khalid, who is holding my hand, and then to Cassandra, Kyro, Alejandra, Slate, Calder, Mira, Ciar, Bella, Mishal, and finally, Dabria. It flows through us, back and forth, back and forth, until…

It finally settles.

The power is shared. The darkness is inside every one of us. The touch of evil is drowned out by our own souls. Tempered. Manageable.

Lilith’s eyes open, and she turns to me. There is so much love on her face, it staggers me. Both of us are beyond relieved. This was a million to one chance. I thought I would die here, she did too, but instead, our family is whole.

The world is safe.

The evil is inside us.

Darkness will always exist and so will light. We are neither. We are the balance, the scale, stopping each from overflowing. Without pain, you can’t rejoice in happiness. Without hate, there is no love. We are that line.

We are the grey.

We are the fallen gods found once more.

We are the Fates.

“Well, shit, that was a trip. I feel like I could go for like ten rounds of kinky sex after that. What do you say, Rose?” I hear a smack and a few chuckles. “Fine, let’s get the hell out of here then. Anyone know how the fuck we get off this floating temple?” Kyro calls, making us all laugh.

Lilith and I share a smile, more connected than ever before, our souls linked forever. She didn’t just save me or my family, she saved the world. She saved the future.

She, Lilith, is the god here.

She is the beginning.

The middle.

My end.

The world is safe, as is our family. Now, it’s time to start again.

A new future, together.