“Saba—”

“Tell me why!” she said. “Tell me why I would show mercy to this vile and corrupt world.”

What reason could he give her? The course of history never changed. Empires rose and fell. Humans and vampires both seemed determined to kill each other in the most horrendous ways. Greed was rampant. Children cried. The rain fell on the just and the unjust alike.

Saba knew all those things. The pain of countless millennia lived in her eyes.

“But Saba, children still laugh.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Humans explore the stars. Mothers nurse their babies and fight for them. Boys sing and dance.” He let out a breath. “And even warriors can fall in love.”

Saba’s face softened.

“The earth has not given up on humanity, despite every abuse we hurl at it,” Lucien said. “Maybe someday it will be time to wipe all of us from existence,” Lucien said. “We may reach that night. But not tonight, Emaye. Not when so many innocents will be lost.”

“There are no innocents.”

“Then have mercy, Mother, on those who are still learning.” He took her hands between his own. “Have mercy on me.”

“I have given them”—Saba choked—“so many chances. And they refuse to see the beauty before them. The gift of life and death.”

Lucien pressed her hand to his cheek, anchoring her with his blood. He knew that, should she want it, Saba might be able to break the earth from the inside out. Plates would shift. Rifts would form and tear the continents in two. “Mother, do you hold the earth?”

“Always.”

“Then hold it gently,” Lucien asked. “For me.”

She turned her eyes from the destruction around her to his face, and he felt her touch soften.

“Hold it gently, Emaye. For my mate. For our children.”

“So much you ask of me, my son.”

“I would have a little more time to love her,” he whispered. “If you would give me that.”

Roaring silence swirled around them, the elements at war with themselves. The sea roiled. The wind churned. Fire lit the sky above them, and the earth buckled beneath his knees.

Kato came to stand beside him, Laskaris held by the neck in the giant immortal’s grasp. “What would you have me do with him, my queen?”

Saba’s eyes flared. “Kill him.”

Kato squeezed, and Lucien tried not to wince when the spray of blood splashed across his face. The sea calmed around them, and the water crept back.

Ziri landed in similar fashion before Saba, kneeling before her with Jason held across his legs. He took a curved blade from his robe. “My queen?”

“Kill him.”

A quick slice and Jason was no more. The wind died down and ash fell in fat flakes.

A scream sounded in the distance, then a massive fireball rose from the mouth of the volcano. Arosh appeared seconds later, soot staining his face and his hair singed at the ends. “I killed her.” He put his hands on his hips. “I didn’t need your permission.”

Saba walked to Sofia, and the earth around the other vampire tightened. Cracks formed and receded like waves in a sea made of stone.

“We are their mothers,” Saba whispered to Sofia. “What have you done to your children, Sofia?”

Sofia’s eyes drifted closed, and her smile glowed in the darkness. “Laskaris,” she whispered. “We shall be gods.”

Saba reached up and stroked her hand across Sofia’s cheek before the stone hand circling the vampire constricted, and Sofia’s head fell to the ground.

The earth beneath Saba came to rest.

Makeda was soaked to the skin, Carwyn and Brigid next to her on the yacht, Tenzin flying back and forth between the boat and the rumbling island of Alitea, giving them progress reports of the battle.

She held on to the thread of Lucien’s energy, knowing as long as that thread was there, he was alive. She couldn’t face his death even if she was furious with him.

And she was very furious with him.

The battle continued in the water and the air around her. Many of the Alitean guard had been crushed by the collapse of the temple; Makeda was surprised there were enough left to fight. But Kato’s forces were kept busy by the water and air vampires loyal to Laskaris who continued to attack the few boats of survivors from the island who held up their hands and begged for mercy. Baojia had joined Kato’s forces, helping vampires into the hold below and sequestering them until Kato could decide what steps he wanted to take.

“He infected them all,” Makeda said. “They were supposed to die with him.”

“He was evil,” Brigid said. “He killed so many people. Human and vampire. His ambition had no mercy. I’m glad he’s going to die.”

The volcano gave one last rumble and fell quiet. The sea calmed. The sky went still.

The conquest of Alitea was over.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

“How many?” Lucien dragged himself onto the boat minutes before dawn. Saba, Kato, Arosh, and Ziri had remained on the ruined island, taking shelter in the mountain and in each other’s arms. “Inaya’s daughter said there were survivors.”

“Thirty-two,” Baojia said quietly.

Lucien stopped in his tracks. “Thirty-two?” By his estimate, there were over two hundred immortals who’d been living on Alitea.

“The ones who got out… Laskaris and Jason had guards waiting for them. The guards killed whoever they could find, most before we could reach them. Some of the survivors swam toward the Alitean guard with their throats bared.”