Everest threw his hands toward her and a river of black magic coiled around her throat. In the blink of an eye, he had her in a chokehold. She growled and grabbed ahold of that stream of magic, shooting her own red mist back at him. I knew there was a battle happening around me, yet I couldn’t take my eyes off my soulmate. My heart was lodged in my throat. Black and red magic tangled and twisted together like a rope. But then Everest let out a roar like I’d never heard and the whole world shook so hard everyone else was thrown to their asses.

I scrambled back onto my knees and looked up just as Everest’s black magic flickered, burning his own clothes off his body, leaving him shirtless and barefoot and in black pants. I frowned, my body frozen in place from pride and fear. Everest’s short white hair flashed, then grew down to his elbows, whipping around him like a cape. The black lines of our soulmate mark covered his entire body from neck to toes. That heart-shaped crystal all the other soulmate pairings had finally appeared on his chest, pulsing a deep, rich red.

Sweyn threw her hands around frantically, red magic slicing through Everest’s but doing nothing to him. He held his magic coiled around her throat with one hand. Black smoke whipped out around him as if his magic knew what to do without him. Sentinels turned and fled the scene. Unseelies raced for the sky to get away from him.

Then his body began to tremble. The glyph changed from deep-red to jet-black.

Sharp pain laced down my spine. I choked on a gasp, my body arching on its own. A scream slipped through my clenched teeth. My muscles convulsed. My blood felt like lava in my veins. Whatever he was doing was somehow hurting me.

“Everest—” I choked on my own whimpered plea.

His blue and white gaze snapped right to me. Rage faded into horror.

“What did The Coven do to make you turn against your mother?” Sweyn snarled between labored breaths, his magic still strangling her slowly.

Everest growled. “Mother never had me to begin with.”

He flicked his wrist and the rest of us went flying through the air. There was a flash of green, then I recognized the Seelie tunnels around me. I glanced around. My Coven-mates were all here. Braison, Malik, Libby, Saber, and Shi-Shi were all here. We just needed Everest. And the tunnel was closing.

I screamed his name as loud as I could.