Anastasia growled and hurled the water in a sharp stream towards him. The water should have sizzled, but it got combined with ice that Caleb sent her way and struck Edyrm. It all melted quickly.
Caleb's energy had weakened to a great extent and he knew that if this didn't work, they were all doomed. So, with one last effort, he swirled his hands in the air and conjured a thick sheet of ice that he immediately hurtled towards the king. That was enough for Anastasia. She thrust her hands forward, ordering the water to meet with the ice, ordering it to curl around Edyrm, ordering it to freeze him. It took fifteen minutes to freeze the demon, but when he was frozen into a statue of ice, Anastasia and Caleb sagged with relief. They had captured him. They had frozen his magic.
Caleb sank to the ground, his knees scraping against the cracked floor and debris. He looked at Anastasia with red eyes. His hair was a mess and his body was covered with sweat.. He was panting and tired—both physically and mentally. He wanted to leave, go back to Elize. He wanted to see her, smell her, wrap her in his arms and be inside her. A distant dream… He was hardly aware of the pandemonium around them. The demons were screaming, the fae soldiers were still fighting with them—now in a better form. Their magic returned because Edyrm's magic was suppressed. They didn't know for how long, but they took full advantage of it.
His eyes went up when he heard Anastasia flapping her wings. She was coming down at an alarming speed with her dagger pointed at the king. "What are you doing?" he shouted at her, but the princess didn't hear. Or she didn't want to hear. In a flash of a second, she was near the demon king. She roared and plunged her sword inside him till the hilt. The ice in which he was surrounded, cracked. Anastasia flew away from him. She watched the ice cracking, along with his body. As soon as the cracks spread all over, she lunged at him, swirled in the air and her kick landed right on his chest. The entire structure fell down and broke into thousands of pieces that contained frozen parts of Edyrm's body.
Silence fell upon the room. The great king of Galahar was dead. The mighty empire built over eons, crumbled.
They looked at Anastasia who was standing there with her violet eyes, which were more silvery than violet, her wings flapping gently behind her. She looked like the goddess she was.
The gale had stopped.
Suddenly, light exploded from where Edyrm's body was lying, shaking the entire palace again. A screech emerged and from the light emerged an eagle. It flapped its massive wings. It attacked Caleb with its claws. Caleb ducked but not without getting his shoulder gouged by the eagle. The flesh on his shoulder split open till the bones showed. Caleb howled and tried to catch the eagle but it flew out of the window screeching all the way, its claws holding the flesh. And right after him flew a raven—black like obsidian. It followed the eagle and no one knew who that was. No one cared.
"Is that Edyrm?" asked Caleb, as he got up somehow holding his shoulder. General Yion rushed to his side to support him.
"It looks like that," said General Yion. He took Caleb's arm across his shoulder. "I am forever indebted to you, Caleb. You have helped our princess to bring down the enemy of Vilinski. You have helped her to end this crazy and long war."
Caleb's lips tugged up. His sweat slicked hair stuck to his forehead. "But Edyrm is still alive," he murmured.
"He is alive in his feral form, Prince Caleb. It will take him a long time to get back to his mortal form but he will be depleted of his powers."
Caleb chuckled. "That's a comforting thought."
---
The two older sons of Edyrm were held in the dungeons under strong magic spells. His daughter was nowhere to be found. His wife had fled the kingdom and his loyalists had surrendered.
Iona and Rolfe were in the fortress when Anastasia came back along with the rest of the soldiers. Ileus was pacing outside the room where Rolfe was being kept under observation by the healers. As soon as he saw his wife, he strode to her and pulled her in his embrace. "Love you," he murmured again and again. "It is all over. It is over!" he said. The journey he had started a year back was finally over. They had taken over the last kingdom that was against them in the Lore. Ileus was hardly bothered about Zor'gan now.
Anastasia sagged in his arms. The feeling that it was all over wasn't sinking in her. She felt strangely comforted, but she wanted to feel free. And why wasn't she feeling free? "How is Rolfe?" she asked when she pulled away from him.
"He is in bad shape. They say he needs demon blood. He needs to drink demon blood to heal the wounds his father has given."
"Then take it," Anastasia said in a sharp voice. "There are so many who would be ready to give it to him."
"They want his family's blood…"
Anastasia jerked her head back. "Why?"
"Because only the royal family has blood that can heal him. Their blood is infused with magic. An ordinary demon won't do." Ileus supported his head over his arm as he leaned over the wall behind her. He looked so helpless. A sob from the room inside made his body tremble. His sister was beside her mate and was uncontrollable. He could feel her agony.
"We have his brothers in the dungeons. Bloody extract the blood from them!" she barked.
Ileus nodded. "Yes, we have sent the soldiers to do that, but we really don't have much time…" His body wrecked with a cry that never came out. "He is on the brink of death…"
Anastasia's lips parted as she let out a shaky breath. Goosebumps lined her skin. The happiness that she felt earlier vanished like mist before sun. Why was life so cruel? It gave you something and then the next moment it snatched something… precious. Why couldn't there be peace? "What are we going to do now?"
"I don't know…" he replied as he heard another nerve-wracking sob from the inside.
"I want to see him," she said, her voice a mere whisper.
He shook his head. "No Anastasia. You won't be able to." His body trembled when he remembered two gaping holes in Rolfe's chest. "Where is Kaizan?" he asked, looking behind her.
"I don't know…" she replied. And all her thoughts went to Kaizan. Where was he? The last she saw him was when he attacked the demons and Edyrm's older sons. "He must be coming back."
---
Somewhere in the deep underground caverns, a demoness sat on a high back chair that was carved out of the black stone. The night had fallen and only a few torches lit the area dimly. Two maids and ten female demon soldiers stood in front of her. She was staring at the man kneeling in front of her.