TW- sensitive content ahead
Niall could hear his name being called and scooped Shawn up in his arms. With the demons temporarily distracted by their deceased leader, the angel exposed his wings and flew to the house.
Zayn and Louis were leaning over Ares who struggled to stay awake. Zayn was about to shout for the angel until he felt a hand on his shoulder, moving him out of the way.
Niall placed his palms on the sides of Ares' face, breathing deeply and concentrating on pushing his healing energy to the tips of his fingers.
Harry sat with Vincent who had turned back into a human and wiped Elara's blood from his mouth. Harry held tissues to his dad's eye. The blood spread across the tissue at an alarming rate. The wound was deep and needed immediate attention, but Vincent was patient. He wanted his friends to heal first.
When Ares was better and able to sit up, Niall moved onto Eirene and healed her broken bones.
Zayn felt like he could finally breathe, knowing that his parents would be okay. As much as they've angered him and lied to him, he loved them with all his heart and losing them would have been the worst outcome imaginable.
Louis patted his brother's shoulder with eyes moving around the room.
Zayn looked up when Louis' hand tightened and started to hurt him.
"Athena," Lou whispered, seeing the old woman lying on the ground. Carlos had lifted his wife's head and placed it on his lap. He twiddled her grey curls around his fingers, humming gently to himself.
Evander and Lyssa sat together, and Lou couldn't tell if they were crying or not.
Zayn scrambled to his feet and ran across the kitchen. It felt like his legs wouldn't move fast enough like he was running through mud.
"Nana!" He crouched next to them, his heart thumping in his chest.
"Is she- is she breathing?" he asked Carlos. A cold tingle of dread stabbed the back of his legs when Carlos' eyes looked devastated, despite the calm smile on his lips.
"She hit her head hard. We have ancient bones you know" the old man said softly. A tear fell from his eye when his gaze fell to his wife. "I've been ready for death for a long time. Now that it's here, I'm not sure if I was ever ready at all."
Zayn's breath caught in his throat, refusing to think about what his granddad's words meant. He pulled Carlos' hand away from Athena and rested fingers against her neck.
He waited, counted, ignored the fact that Athena's skin was cold and he felt no warm blood running through her veins. He didn't see her chest rise and fall; he felt no breath coming from her mouth, he felt no heartbeat.
Nothing, Athena was gone. Her soul was no longer in her body. His Nana was dead.
Carlos watched his grandson's hands as they started to shake. Zayn's face paled and his eyes heated with approaching tears.
"Niall?" he whispered. Feeling the muscles in his mouth twitching, wanting to scrunch up and cry with agony. "Niall!"
The angel climbed to his feet, but he could feel it. Her death weighed down his heart like someone tied it to bricks and chucked it in the ocean. Death suffocated him. He knew when a body was a body.
No life. No soul. No spirit.
"I'm so sorry Zayn," he said quietly, resting an arm around Shawn's shoulders.
"There's nothing I can do." He approached them anyway, knowing by the horrified expression on Zayn's face that he would scream at Niall to try, not believing that this was the end.
Eirene was now staring in disbelief. Her feet stuck to the ground like she was a part of the floor. Vincent had also frozen, looking at the lifeless body of his oldest friend.
Zayn watched Niall place his hands on Athena's head. He watched the angel shake his own and take his hands away. He watched Eirene fall by his grandmother's side and scream so painfully, Ares grimaced with heartache. He watched his mother embrace her father, crying hard against his shoulder, gasping for breath like her own heart was breaking.
Then he felt Carlos touch the side of his face, wiping away tears Zayn wasn't aware were falling. "My dear boy, death finds us all in the end."
"B- But-" he stuttered. The swell of sorrow in his heart started to hurt.
"I'm not ready to say goodbye!" He fell into Carlos, hugging him tightly.
"It's not the right time!"
"We've had more than enough time in this world. If it weren't for Liam, we would have died thousands of years ago." Carlos held an arm out for Vincent when Zayn moved onto Athena, staring at her face, memorising every wrinkle, the shape of her eyelashes, the curl of her lips. She looked so peaceful.
"Lou, we might not have known that you were our grandson by blood, but you have always been a part of this family."
Lou hugged him. The lump in his throat watered his mouth, and the tears fell without his control.
Oh, how he prayed for more time to know them as his grandparents. To live among them and be treated like a family member was enough.
Athena and Carlos loved him even without knowing that they were related. They had always been grandparents to him. They always will.
"I can't hold on much longer," Carlos smiled and went back to cradling his daughter in his arms.
"How blessed we have been for this wonderful life."
"I don't want you to go!" Eirene cried as Niall started healing Vincent.
Vincent sat on the floor next to Zayn with the same lost expression. One minute Athena was alive, the next she was dead, and nobody paid enough attention to see how it happened. She was pushed over. Something so simple ended her life.
Vincent wished that he told them to stay out of the war, but knowing Athena and how stubborn she was, they would have never left. Fighting until the end seemed like the most natural way, the way he had always seen her death.
Carlos slowly fell limp in his daughter's arms. One arm was around Eirene, and the other rested softly on the side of Athena's face. Eirene cried harder against him. She was unprepared for losing her parents. It happened so suddenly.
Ares rubbed her back, staring at Carlos' eyes as they focused straight ahead of him, empty and blank.
Lou shook Zayn's shoulder when he stopped breathing. Zayn also stopped blinking, only able to stare at his deceased grandparents with a strange shimmer in his eyes.
"I'm not-" Zayn started and choked on his words. He took a moment to compose himself, or to at least control the trembling in his hands. "I'm not grieving for anyone until these demons have paid for what they have done. I promised Li I wouldn't grieve. I can't."
The demons were still standing around, shocked by their leader's death. When Zayn changed into his wolf and charged into the nearest demon, ripping the arm from his body, the rest saw that as an opportunity to fight once more.
"This is not good" Niall murmured to his soulmate. "The demons will do whatever they want now that Lucifer is dead."
Shawn watched Zayn tear into another demon. He may not be grieving, but he was quite clearly losing his stability.
"We should tell Liam to find the tear they've come from; he can close it."
"How will we handle all the demons? We're getting outnumbered." Niall was nervous. Too many lives were lost, and it seemed like the demons were only now starting to enjoy the battle.
Shawn too felt like his hope was fading until he saw his son tripping up a hell-hound and stomping on his head.
"We are the prodigies," he whispered, staring at his son's beautiful gold eye as it shined in the moonlight.
"We have powers too. Maybe we can use them?"
Niall stared into his soulmates eye, catching the ring of gold around his pupils, meshing perfectly with the blue. He then thought about Zyaire's gold wings and wondered how strong their power would be if the prodigies worked as a team.
"We need to get everyone together," he said, suddenly forgetting about the death of Athena and Carlos and focusing on winning the war, so they didn't lose anyone else.
Zachariah had joined Castor and Cilian, who fought with Kylo and Em. Nobody seemed to be struggling, but nobody seemed to be making much progress. Demons lay in the grass along with angels and werewolves. Still, the crowd looked like
it had barely shrunk in size.
"Celeste!" Niall shouted, pulling Shawn along with their hands tied with the shoelace that soaked in other peoples blood. The elder angel stood to the side, analysing the situation with a grave face.
She didn't look like she was bursting with hope either. "What do you know about our power?"
"Your power? You mean to say, the power of the gold that swirls in your son and husband's eyes? The gold that covers Zyaire's wings, and the gold that lives on the surface in Em, Kylo, Alexis, Arzhel, and yourself?" She watched Niall nod, and her eyes brightened.
"You are the golden prodigies for a reason. Your power, once activated, is as powerful as a God and more. Imagine the strength you'll create with Liam involved too."
Niall knew she was indirectly saying that their powers would defeat the demons. He wasn't sure why they didn't think about themselves sooner. They were designed for this war. The angels might be flawed, but they are not stupid enough to expect ordinary beings to fight for them.
"Let's get to Liam!" Shawn yelled when demons started to pay attention to them.
They worked as a team as they ran through the crowd. Niall's heart didn't thump quite as hard when he felt Shawn's small hand gripping his wrist, and his body pressed up against him.
Tying their hands together was the best thing they could have done. The pain of being separated would have occurred more times tonight than what they could count on both hands. Demon's liked to torture before they killed.
Liam fought off a big group of hell-hounds who thought they could overpower the God. It was satisfying for Shawn to see how much Liam had grown regarding his confidence. He was dominant, and he knew it.
"You need to find the tear!" Niall yelled, helping fend off a demon with blood gushing from what seemed like every pore. "There's just too many-"
"I know where it is!" Liam replied, looking around for Zayn and spotting him ploughing into the biggest demon he had ever seen. It was a tall man with huge muscles ripping from his clothes.
Judging by the demon's menacing grin, he was ready to sink his hands into a wolf's throat.
"Close it, then gather those who were made for this war. It's about time we end this. We can't lose more people!" Shawn said, wincing at an angel who showed her wings in a last attempt to get away, but the demon's caught her and started pulling out fists of her feathers.
"We'll look out for Zayn."
Liam zapped the demon's with crackling lightning bolts, and the angel fell to the ground, scooping up her precious feathers.
"Cordelia, come with me" Liam ordered, glancing one last time at his mate before turning and running through the woods. He knew about Athena and Carlos. The pain in Zayn's heart made his own body tremble with misery. Athena, the sweet old lady with words of wisdom and a cheeky personality was gone, and the world had lost a remarkable woman.
Carlos, Athena's number one fan and a loving granddad was lost too, still being held in the arms of his daughter, even when he couldn't hug back.
He knew their souls had gone to heaven and they were together and in peace. It would take a while for Zayn to come to terms with that. Liam knew with the right care and affection, his mate would learn to live without his precious Nana. He had no
choice.