Black Blood (Series of Blood Book 4) Emma Hamm (popular novels txt) 📖

Lyra in tow. She skipped behind him, whistling a tune Lydia faintly recognized. The others were trailing behind, each entering the room armed to the teeth.

The Siren grinned. “We’re good at fighting too. Especially Malachi and his goonies, we’ve gotten real good at that over the years.”

“I remember,” Lydia said with a sigh. “I’ve watched many of them and nudged the outcomes as I could. You are all talented but we do not know what we are getting into. Malachi could be alone for all we know. Or it could be a trap and five Gods and Goddesses may be waiting for us.”

“Then we’ll be prepared for everything,” Jasper said.

Lydia frowned. She didn’t think they could be prepared for everything, even if she had been able to help. Pitch crouched before her wearing the same expression before he looked over his shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

Jasper nodded and held out his arms for his friends… no, Lydia corrected herself, his family to take. They would teleport with the Fairy to the location Burke had found. Pitch and Lydia would follow on the shadows.

“Everyone,” Lydia called out. “Please stay safe.”

“No promises sweet cheeks,” E said in its thousand voices. “Battles are never safe places. But we’ll do our best to stay alive.”

They stood back to back, creating an impenetrable shield where they could see every angle of the situation they teleported into. Lydia held her breath as they blinked out of sight.

“Are you ready?” Pitch asked.

“I’ve never been to battle before.”

“I have. I will keep you safe.”

She tried to smile, and though it trembled, she hoped it was enough to reassure him. Pitch yanked her to standing, cupped a hand behind her neck, and held her against him as the shadows followed their prophetic choices. Their children.

Their feet touched rough stone ground. Lydia inhaled smoke and ash, clutching Pitch’s arms for a few moments more. She wasn’t ready. Her heart was thundering in her ears and her stomach rolled, anxiety and fear forcing vomit to rise in the back of her throat.

She held her eyes squeezed shut, wanting to feel him. To remember exactly how his biceps flexed under her hands, how her magic blossomed under his fingers, how the whisper of his love echoed in her mind. It frightened her not to know the ending of this battle.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I don’t know how to fight, but I don’t want you to lose focus. Keep yourself safe, and I will protect myself if I need to.”

His lips pressed against her forehead. “You won’t have to.”

“What?”

Lydia snapped her eyes open. Cold wind blew Pitch’s hair back from his face. Shadows rose over his shoulders and snapped at the air like whips. Everything was eerily silent.

“I was never going to let you fight,” he said. “You are more important than this world. You always will be.”

He dissolved into a pool of shadows that flowed away from her. Lydia stood frozen, watching him slid over the edge of a nearby cliff and drop away.

“Pitch!” she screamed. Scrambling, she dropped to her knees and clutched the jagged edge until it cut into her palms.

He had deposited her so far away from the fight that she would never reach them.

They were in the valley of a mountain range, a crater carved into the earth. Malachi and the Five stood in the center where an altar had been formed. There were rivers around them, dark rivers of magic.

A breeze drifted past her, carrying a metallic and rotting scent.

Not magic rivers, she realized with horror. Blood.

Lydia pressed a hand against her mouth. Now she could see them, the bodies. Hundreds of bodies strewn about the crater, their blood drenching the earth.

They had sacrificed so many, and for what purpose? Lydia could hear their souls screaming in pain. Not from their bodies, but from somewhere else. A container? A vessel which the Five had created for Malachi to use at his discretion?

A golden thread reached out to brush against her mind. Weak and trembling, it was almost afraid of what secret it held. She let it nestle in the comfort of her power, drinking the memory from it. Wiping it from existence.

She cried out.

“No,” Lydia whispered as golden tears fell down her cheeks. “No.”

They had destroyed him. A Void was never meant to hold more than one soul. The Void was oblivion, not a container like Legion. But the Five had twisted Malachi’s creature until it was forced to keep the Souls it devoured. They were eating him from the inside out.

The Five didn’t care. They forced him to eat more and more, his own guilt fueling their desire. He hadn’t fought them. Malachi didn’t even try.

Gold tears hit stone, sizzling and burning through the rock.

She couldn’t see her family, her children, Pitch. They were all hidden from her sight and the Five’s. They didn’t want to be seen too early and ruin their chance.

But she had to see them. Her fingers curled into the stone, leaving deep gouges where her fingers lay. She let her mind wander onto the field and found them huddled together.

They snuck out of cover silently. The Five had yet to turn, but Lydia was certain they knew. How could they not? They had not survived this long without knowing how to stay alive.

Razor edged fear burst through her. It was all happening too soon. She didn’t know how to help, couldn’t help, and she was so far away.

Burke and Wren went straight for the jugular. The mother of the brood of monsters, Gaia, laughed as they ran toward her. She didn’t even turn around.

Wren hung back, her red hair fluttering in the wind as she raised her hands. Her eyes were white as snow and Juice poured from her fingertips in waves of power. A sickly yellow cloud surged forward and crashed over Gaia.

Fear.

Immensely proud, Lydia leaned forward as her mind hovered above them. Burke covered his face with a scarf and lunged into the smoke cloud. His sword raised above his head