Chapter 41

**Aziel**


Charles dropped like a sack of potatoes which is very inconvenient since we already have an unconscious Nova to deal with. Eli lifts Charles and lays him on the bed next to our mate and the rest of us stand back to watch them.

“What do we do now?” Asher asks.

“There is nothing we can do. They are trapped within their minds unless you can manage what Charles did.” Eli gives me a hopeful look.

“Charles is one of the strongest Mages in the world, I am nowhere near his level.” I admit.

“What can you do to help them? We can’t leave them like this. Is there someone else we can ask to help?”

“Yeah, Charles’s father.” I tell them.

They curse knowing full well that getting his help would be impossible.

“I can try something, but I can’t guarantee it will help at all.”

I sit at the edge of the bed and close my eyes. Charles had taught me a few things, but I never need them…not until now.

“We will give you some space.” Eli says.

He drags Asher out of the room and soon I’m alone.

“Come on you two. Don’t do this.” I beg them.
I reach for them and rest my hands on their foreheads. Closing my eyes, I focus all my energy on their minds. There is q shock of pain in my head as I try to break through the mind’s natural defenses. When I break through all I see is chaos. There are swirls of power blind up into some sort of cyclone focused on one area and a figure on the other side trying to pull the power away. A second glance tells me it’s Charles. I run his way and the closer I get the stronger the magic becomes.

“Charles! What’s going on?” I call out catching his attention.

“She’s transforming into something too strong!” He yells over the crackling sounds of energy.

“What do we do?”

“You need to leave!” He yells at me, but I take my place next to him and mimic his stance.

A quick rune has me connecting to the magic stream and I start to pull it into myself. I grunt at the sudden rush of energy going through me, but I don’t stop.

“She could kill us both! Just go!” Charles warns again.

“I won’t leave you!”

I step up beside him and create the rune to connect me to the stream of power coming from the giant storm. It hits me like lightning and I grunt from the instant overwhelming power. I have never felt anything this strong before. How did Charles manage this much power alone? There is a sudden tug hard enough that it pulls us closer. A dark figure steps out of the storm and even though it looks like Nova, she isn’t the mate I’ve grown to care about. This is a creature like I’ve never seen.

“Let me go.” She says in a voice that isn’t her own.

It sounds like a lot more like the voices of death. Her eyes are completely black, and her body looks almost like a whisp. It’s as if she is turning into a wraith.

“Nova please come back!” I beg her.

She chuckles and it sounds cold and distant.

“I am not that person anymore. She is lost.” She says with a hiss.

“No! Let her go!” I yell but all she does is laugh.

She pushes more power through the link we connected to her power and it’s strong enough to throw us back cutting off our connection. Charles scrambles back to his feet to try and restore his hold but she throws her powers at him again.

“You’ll kill him!” I yell at her but it’s as if she can’t hear me.

I don’t want to hurt my mate, but I can’t let her kill one of her mates and my friend. So, I rush toward her and throw out a spell to try and freeze her in place. It doesn’t even catch her attention.

“Stop!”

She doesn’t react to me in any way, and the longer she focuses her attention on Charles the weaker he becomes. If I don’t stop her now there is a chance she kill him and the rest of us. The part of the real Nova would be devastated if she killed anyone of us even if it wasn’t her doing it. I run through several different options but if the spells I’ve used had no effect on her then there is only one thing I can do.

My hope is that her ability to heal is still in place because if not…No! She’ll be fine.

I focus my mind and pull on the darker elements that Mages try very hard not to touch. That darkness around us is negative energy and can be wielded as a powerful weapon. I pull as much of that dark energy into myself and when I look at Nova again, I project it at her. Her eyes turn to me just before the darkness hits her and throws her away from Charles. I run over to check on him but he’s barely breathing.

“Charles?” I shake him but he doesn’t respond.

A shock of pain digs into my back, and I cry out. It feels like several knives have stabbed me all at once. Then I’m lifted off the ground forcing my back to arch into the weapon.

“You can not kill me.” Wraith Nova says before dropping me and pushing me onto my back. “I am too strong for your simply tricks and spells.”

She smirks down at me and this close I can see black tendrils running along her neck like her veins were filled with poison.

“This isn’t you, Nova. You don’t want to do this.” I say with the small amount of oxygen I can pull into my lungs. “You don’t want to hurt us. We’re your mates.”

“Mates I no longer need.” She raises her hand high with blood dripping from her nails. “I don’t need anyone.”

She’s going to kill me and go back into the world and do who knows what. I can’t let her, and with no other options the only thing I can think of is to do what she plans to do to me. I may not be as good as Charles in other forms of energy use but there is one thing I can do well.

With one last push I force myself to portal right behind her when her hand is still raised in the air. I grab her hand and force it to bend and the lethal nails sticking out enter her through her chest. She cries out but it isn’t a sound of simple pain, it’s as if a thousand cries of dying souls crying out at once. It’s a chilling sound.

She turns to me and my heart cracks in half when I see my Nova looking back at me. Her eyes are no longer swallowed by darkness.

“Nova?” I ask and grab her as she starts to fall backward.

Her breathing is labored and a dark fluid akin to blood flows from the puncture wounds on her chest.

“Aziel, I’m so sorry.” She chokes out.

I shake my head and brush some of her hair away. “That creature wasn’t you. Don’t worry, you will heal soon, and everything will be fine.”

She shakes her head. “No. I can feel it. I’m not healing.”

“What?” My heart starts to race, and I start to feel sick to my stomach. “No. You can heal from anything.”

She gives me a weak smile. “Not this time. It’s okay. I was turning into a monster. Who knows how many people I would hurt. You did the right thing.”

“No…no…” Her eyes are fluttering quickly like they are too heavy to keep open. “Don’t leave me.”

“I love you all.” She whispers before she takes in one more choked breath and goes still.



**Nova**

I jolt awake and suck in some much-needed breaths. What was that? Was that all a dream? I glance around and see familiar surroundings. Home?

How am I back home? Is this where someone goes when they die? Is this the afterlife?

“Hello?” I call out hoping maybe I’m not alone in this place.

“Hey! You’re up.” My eyes move to the door at the familiar voice and a second of fear goes through me when Samuel steps into the room.

Except this looks like the old Samuel I used to know. He smiles at me and kneels so that we’re eyes to eye.

“How are you feeling?” He asks.

“Fine. I think. What happened?” I ask him.

He smiles wide. “You went through quiet the ordeal, but I have never been happier. You have given me a wonderful gift.”

“What do you mean?”

He glances over his shoulder and my parents appear in the doorway holding a small bundle in their arms.

“It’s a boy.” My mom says as she holds the blanket to me. “What will you call him?”

I glance over at Samuel and smile. “Josiah.”


THE END