“That may be,” I murmur, watching Ashen’s dark form ripple, his body slowly expanding. Tendrils of living shadow coil around my fingers. “There’s not enough left of him to heal, but there is far more to me than you understand.”
Ashen bares his teeth, the air crackling as he grows. His bellowing snarl cuts through the cavern. I trail a finger along his jaw, then press my wrist to his fang.
A slice of agony. A bloom of blood.
Anethesis takes a startled step forward as crimson drips to the floor.
I breathe through the sting, head lifted.
“Pain,” I whisper, feeling it surge inside me, hot, untamed. “Pain is my true gift.”
Green light crackles through me, threading like vines beneath the surface, glowing through my veins. My body shudders, spine bowing, as the cut on my wrist seals with a hiss. My magic has always been tied to healing, to life, but now, it’s different. Wilder. Hungrier.
And the collar feels it.
The metal tightens like a noose, a searing ring of fire at my throat. I gasp, clutching at it as it burns, branding me from the inside out. Magic clashes with restraint, power with prison and I am the battlefield.
But I do not stop.
I will not be broken.
Anethesis stumbles back, eyes wide with horror as the green glow bleeds from my pores.
I hear the fear in his voice now. I see it plain.
“Stop!” he shouts, voice cracking. “You’ll kill yourself. You’ll destroy everything!”
Good.
Let it burn. Let it all turn to ash.
“Please!” he pleads, stepping forward, hands raised. “You don’t understand… if the collar stays on and your power keeps rising…”
“I know exactly what happens,” I snarl, power surging again, but I can’t ignore how different it feels.
I glance down and my skin is no longer just aglow with emerald. It pulses with shadow too. A marriage of verdant light and oily black, not smoke, not vines, but something new. Something more.
The collar lashes back violently, its enchantment tightening with a cruel, serpentine strength. My vision blurs. My knees buckle. Ashen snarls. The pain is blinding now, stars bursting behind my eyes.
Still, I do not yield.
Because I know Anethesis’ fatal flaw. He cannot watch me die. I am the linchpin of his plan. The key to power. His precious trophy. He cannot bear losing me.
So I scream, daring him to look away. Daring him to let me burn.
And just when I think he will, just when I think he’ll let me perish, a husk of power and blood and flame, the door swings open.
The heat blasts outward as Anethesis stumbles through, shielding his face, his long robes catching the shimmer of magic in the air and with a trembling hand, he grabs the collar, fingers curling around it, mouth twisted in disgust, and yanks it free.
The moment it’s gone, the world shatters.
My magic explodes outward. Green and black fire licking the walls, wrapping around my limbs, spilling from my chest like a storm. My scream rips through the cavern, fury and freedom and grief all in one violent crescendo.
And I rise.
No longer just a princess. No longer just a prisoner.
But somethingelse.
