“Something?” I question, though I already know the answer. “Gygarth? But he’s in Baev’kalath, and you are here.”
Daed closes his eyes, shaking his head slowly. “Gygarth is wherever the void is, and the void is everywhere, Amara.” He clutches his chest. “It’s in me, and now it’s in you.” Turning to face me fully, he takes a step forward, crunching the undergrowth beneath his feet. Instinctively, my hands move to my stomach, and I take a step back.
“I told you what happened to my mother. I can’t let the same thing happen to you. I love you too much to watch you be destroyed.”
He takes another step, and another. My heart pounds in my chest, loud enough to drown out everything else.
“You’re scaring me, Daed,” I say, glancing behind me with each wary backward step.
“You don’t know what fear is,” he replies, his voice low. Suddenly, his eyes roll over to pitch black. “But you will.”
Without thinking, I turn and run, but I barely get a few strides before colliding with Zyphoro. I want to scream, but the sound catches in my throat. She looms over me, a dark grin playingon her lips, pinning me between two Mordorin Fae with blood tainted with the void.
“Amara,” she says, her tone unnaturally light. “Did you tell him the good news?”
I can’t answer, my voice trapped somewhere deep inside. When I open my mouth, only stutters and murmurs escape.
“Looks like he didn’t take it well.” Zyphoro leans closer, urgency lacing her words. “Get behind me, dear.”
“Step away from my wife,” Daed growls, his voice low and menacing as he stalks toward us, smoke weaving ominously between his fingers. I brace myself, knowing what comes next.
I do as Zyphoro says, stepping behind her as she clasps her hands behind her back, striding toward Daed with an air of nonchalance that belies the crackling tension in the air. “Now, brother, I warned you what would happen if you lost control. Didn’t I?”
Inch by inch, Death Singer materializes in Daed’s outstretched hand, its sharp point dragging through the earth with a chilling scrape.
Zyphoro halts, a sigh escaping her lips. “Very well. If that’s how it must be.” She reveals her hands from behind her back, brandishing daggers wreathed in swirling black smoke. “Tag. You’re it.”
The forest transforms into a blur of motion as Daed and Zyphoro clash, their bodies weaving among the towering trees. Daed lunges, swinging Death Singer with lethal intent, but Zyphoro dances aside, her movements fluid and precise. She counters with a swift punch that snaps against his jaw, sending him reeling back. He shakes it off, his black eyes narrowing.
Zyphoro seizes the opening, her blades flashing as they slice through the air. Daed deflects her first strike, but the second dagger grazes his arm, a thin line of crimson marking its path.He hisses in pain, retaliating with a brutal kick that sends her crashing into a nearby tree, the trunk cracking under the impact.
But Zyphoro is quick to recover, rolling to her feet and launching back into the fray. She ducks under his outstretched arm, landing a punch to his side that makes him wince. She strikes again and again, relentlessly hammering at his ribs until he keels over. Just when I think she has him, Daed void walks, leaving her fist to collide with the tree trunk, which splinters around her hand.
She spins on her heels, scanning the forest for where he might reappear.
“Zyphoro! Behind you!” I scream as Daed emerges from a plume of smoke, driving his boot hard into her back. She’s flung through the air, crashing into a fallen log, her back bending painfully around the wood.
Zyphoro winces, clutching the arch of her back as blood trickles from her mouth, but she manages a defiant smile.
I reach down to help her up as Daed stalks toward us, but she suddenly clamps her hand around my wrist and flips me over her head, dragging me to the ground and wrapping her legs around me.
I struggle against her grip, watching helplessly as Daed closes the distance.
“What are you doing?” I yell furiously, but no matter how hard I thrash, I can’t break free.
“Stay still,” she growls, and out of the corner of my eye, I see her dagger move toward my throat. “I promise it won’t hurt. Then this will all be over.”
Lying Fae!I manage to wrench an arm free, plunging my hand into the soil, hoping the Souls will hear my plea. Before I can utter a word, Zyphoro slices her blade along my skin—not my throat, but my chest—just deep enough to draw blood that cascades down in a thin curtain.
“Time to test out that rune,” she says, pointing her blood-tipped blade at Daed.
Realization sweeps over me, and I can’t help but smile.Tricky Fae.
I extend my hand, palm facing Daed, as the power builds within me. My veins glow green, my skin darkens, and the hum of energy fills my head, infusing every nerve in my body. A surge of green light beams from my hand, so bright it’s almost blinding, and slams hard into Daed’s chest, catapulting him backward until his back impacts against a tree. The ancient trunk sways, its very foundations rocked, but it stands firm while Daed slowly slides down its bark, crumpling to the ground.
His eyes close, and he doesn’t move. Panic grips me for a moment, but Zyphoro pats my back as her blades vanish into smoke. “Don’t worry. He’s alive. Just going to have a colossal headache when he wakes up.”
I stare at Zyphoro, bemused. When she doesn’t react immediately, I gesture to her legs, still wrapped around me. “Do you mind?”
