Rhiannan POV
I wasn't alone.
Not really.
A talking lizard named Gregory clung to my shoulder like some self appointed guardian angel. He had a chip on his scaly shoulder and a voice like a drunk professor. A scorpion named Janet had taken up permanent residence between my boobs, sharp, sassy, and somehow always judging me. And Kevin? Kevin was a deranged bird that hadn't shut up in hours.
"The gods are DOOMED!" he screeched again.
"Tell me something I don't know," I muttered, dragging one foot through the sand, my skin peeling, my lips cracked. Every breath tasted like heat and copper. I was dehydrated. Bleeding. Feral.
But I smiled anyway.
"They're coming for me," I whispered.
I didn't know how I knew. I just did. That soul deep, gut born knowing. Like a storm on the horizon you could feel before it ever hit.
I made it three more steps before my knees gave out. The desert sucked me under.
But then...they were there.
I felt them first. The heat of Kaleb's fury. The chill of Elisha's wind. The wild spark of Arwen's power. The velvet hum of Liam's magic. The slow, thunderous pulse of Sable's rage.
They found me.
One by one, they dropped to their knees, arms around me, calling my name, touching my face, trying to breathe life back into my broken body.
And then the ground moved.
The desert moaned like a wounded beast. Sand slithered beneath me, sucking me down.
A voice boomed overhead like a divine decree. "Only one may remain behind to save her."
"No!" I screamed, panic ripping through me.
Sable stepped forward.
"I'll do it," he said.
My chest cracked in half. "NO. NO, YOU FUCKING WON'T!"
But he smiled. That soft, broken smile. Blood streaked his face. His eyes glowed with something holy.
"I was made to be a weapon," he whispered. "Maybe now I get to be her shield."
Light burst from beneath his feet. The ground split, and instead of being devoured...
The Chalice of Truth rose from the sand, glowing gold and ancient.
Sable dropped to his knees, gasping, marked by the goddess herself. A halo of light burned around his throat like a collar made of starlight.
"You are free," the voice said, "Forever."
I screamed his name as I lunged forward, clutching the Chalice to my chest. "You will NOT take them from me!" I shouted at the gods, cussing them with every breath I had left. "I swear by blood and bone, if you touch my mates again, I'll burn your thrones to ash."
The Chalice pulsed. Warm. Powerful. Alive.
We'd done it.
We barely had time to collect ourselves before..
A thunderous CRACK split the sky like a whip.
And then she appeared.
Nythera.
Radiant. Terrifying. Her hair whipped like a comet made of starlight, and her voice boomed across the battlefield with divine fury.
"HE'S BREACHING THE VEIL!" she screamed, her wings stretching wide, eyes wild with panic. "This isn't part of the trial...he's forcing his way through!"
The ground trembled beneath us as black tendrils began to claw into the divine realm, dragging howling shadows behind them.
Nythera spun toward me, golden fire blazing in her hands. "You and your mates are the only ones who can stop him..NOW."
No time to question. No time to hesitate.
The trial was over.
This was war.
Darkness.
Thick. Malicious. Hungry.
The golden realm shimmered and cracked, then peeled itself open like a second skin. Pillars of radiant crystal exploded upward. Rivers of silver water twisted through the air. Forgotten gods materialized in blinding armor.
Arwen's voice broke through the awe. "Oh. We just fight with gods now? Cool. That's totally normal."
Kaleb growled. "What's the plan?"
"Not dying," Elisha rumbled.
Liam just laughed. "Ten bucks says I take down more shadows than all of you bastards."
I growled and bared my teeth. Let's fucking go!
The entity came like a plague. Tentacles of shadow. Wraiths. Hollow eyed horrors riding winds of fire. He didn't sneak through the cracks...he ripped through.
I raised the Chalice, my voice steady. "Let's remind him what it means to face a goddess."
The gods surged forward.
And we followed.
Lightning carved the battlefield. Elisha became a dragon of molten gold. Kaleb tore through enemies with white wolf fury. Arwen flipped and danced like a panther possessed, slicing through shadow. Liam blinked through portals, his fangs dripping, laughing like the lunatic he was. Sable fought beside me, claws wrapped in flame, eyes glowing with something divine.
And me?
I burned, with starlight and fury.
The Chalice became a weapon. A blade of truth. A beacon of wrath. I shattered illusions, broke curses, forced the truth down the throats of every corrupted soul in our path. The shadows disappeared suddenly.
And then there was silence.
Like a vacuum, the battlefield vanished.
Light swallowed us whole.
When I woke, I was tangled in limbs and blood and roses.
The garden. We were back at the estate. Alive.
Barely.
I sat up first, groaning. "Did we win?"
Arwen rolled over and whimpered. "Define win."
"I think my spleen is on the outside of my body," Liam groaned.
Kaleb cracked one eye open. "We need water. And possibly a new universe."
Elisha exhaled smoke and didn't argue.
Sable was still out cold, a smug, exhausted smirk on his lips.
I clutched the Chalice in my lap. It glowed with silver liquid...divine, sacred, pulsing like the heartbeat of something ancient.
Whatever the gods had planned next?
We'd face it together. They obviously needed us. That battle was fucking wild.
But first…
"Y'all," I muttered, falling backward into the grass. "We earned a nap."