The furious crowd swallows the rest of the soldiers from the convoy. However, they start fighting back with magic. One of them is using water as a cannon and another is setting the civilians on fire.
Horns of distress resound over the plaza.
Even more soldiers are going to swarm this place, and it’s about to turn into a bloody massacre. We need to go.
Now.
Rhett has already taken his place at the carriage’s driver seat behind the horse, and Malik hops inside to join Sam and Thalia. I dash toward them at the same time as Kaiden, and I finally have hope that we’re going to get home in one piece.
In the next second, though, we’re all forced to our knees by a high-pitch sound I’ve never heard before. It pierces my brain like an icepick. The ground beneath us shakes and cracks as if we’re experiencing a magnitude seven earthquake. I slap my palms over my ears, but that does nothing to muffle the horrible noise that could only be described as nails on a chalkboard intensified by a millionfold. My eardrums bleed.
Forcing my neck to turn, I look back toward the source: the king. He’s standing on the dais with an open mouth like he’s screaming. A few fae start convulsing right in front of me while foaming at the mouth. This is how we die.
No! I can’t let that happen.
That’s when something prickles at the nape of my neck. The weird sensation continues to flow through me until it saturates every cell, picking up strength by the second. Without preamble, it ruptures. Explodes from my very nucleus outward like an atomic bomb.
The world turns black.
I am no longer Iris. I am no more than an absence of light seeking the poisoned core that resides inside the king’s chest.
My shadows form a claw that tears through skin, muscle, and bone. I yank the fetid ball of energy and snuff out its remaining light. I have no need for something so rotten. The vibrations stop.
But there are so many other souls here. Ripe for the taking. It would be so easy to reach over and—
“Iris! Snap out of it!” Someone pounds desperately at the fortified door of my mind. No. Not someone—him. The one we love, ourhome.
In the next blink, I’m pushed back in the driver’s seat of my mind. For a moment, I think I’ve blacked out because I see nothing, no light. But then I realize it’sme—I’m the epicenter of the darkness. The inky blanket that enveloped the square isemanating from my body.
Then, the dais bursts into deep scarlet flames, illuminating the king’s cadaver. Someone screams bloody murder over the ringing in my ears. Akin to a cord pulled too tight, the shadows snap before retreating. I double over and start heaving from the influx of overwhelming power blistering me from the inside out as it all flows back into me.
Holy fuck.
I killed the king.
I ripped his soul right out of his body.
That must be what I did to Erik—I rotted him by snatching his soul. But it still doesn’t explain the state of those demons at Adrianna’s apartment because demons are soulless.
I’m pulled to my feet by Kaiden, whose irises are a deep crimson over an obsidian background. His lips move. My discombobulated mind can’t comprehend a single word, though. I grit my teeth and push through the debilitating pain as we run toward the barred carriage, then jump inside.
The soldiers elbowing through the masses in a frenzy to get to the burning dais don’t pay us any more attention. Rhett grabs hold of the reins, spurring the horse into a gallop. We fly over cobblestones at warp speed as Malik murmurs something under his breath. He’s surely using magic to make the horse run faster. The carriage whines and trembles as if it’s going to snap in two.
“Was that you, Iris?” Sam asks, eyebrows raised to her hairline as she holds on to the metal bars for dear life with one hand, the other wrapped around a stoic-faced Thalia. “Your eyes—they’re violet again.”
I can’t respond. I hit my knees as the nausea and violent heaves come back with a vengeance. Nothing but bile comes out. Blood is coursing down my nose in rivulets while the sensation of being stabbed directly in the brain by a fiery dagger completely overtakes me. Everything spins.
“Why is she bleeding?” She inhales sharply before shrieking, “The barrier!”
“Malik!” Kaiden bellows.
“I’m here,” he says and I feel his hands at my temples. I sway as if I’m on a ship navigating treacherous waters but a strong arm banded across my middle is keeping me steady.
“The cracks have widened,” Malik says. “I can only put a Band-Aid over them and hope for the best.”
“Do it.”
After a few moments that feel like lifetimes, the world comes back into focus and the fog of black magic retreats.
