She stopped mid-sentence and stared, open-mouthed.
“How terrible to live in my great-grandmother’s shadow all these years. That even after killing her, my mother and my father, and Rovu, you’re still not the prettiest Aellei in the land.” With a blinding brilliance, I released the Light within me. “Rovu could never want a thing as ugly as you.”
Lidra shrieked and returned fire with everything she had.
The pain erased a part of me. Akin to the agony I had suffered under Arim, but worse, the rot inside my aunt latched onto me and started to devour what magic I couldn’t protect.
Not willing to go the way my unfortunate parents had and unwilling to allow Aelle to suffer the fate of the many dead worlds the Dark Lords destroyed, I let my love for Aerolus fuel a righteous anger.
Shadow and Light merged once more, blotting out the decay eating at my energy.
I let my inner Light shine and braced it with Shadow. Showers of fire lit the gray sky.
Lidra’s rage and fear feathered into my consciousness, but as our energies met and clashed, something had to give.
A loud boom rent the air, and we were thrown back. The sick crack of broken bones had me turning to Lidra, only to see her twisted body curdled with age, lying lifeless under a large tree now scarred by magic.
A constant buzzing filled my ears. The taste of blood soured my stomach, as did the smell of burned hair. A glance at the blurred image of the Aellei’s dead queen showed her once-bright hair curling with flame.
Before I could blink, the stinging of a million needles pierced my brain, my magic, and invaded the places of Light within me.
My sight left me, and I hoped Aerolus would find me before I lost my vision completely.
He’d brought me back from the Next once before. But I feared if he didn’t find me soon, I wouldn’t wake to see his face for a very long time, if ever again.
Chapter 32
Aerolus
Tired and sick of fighting these cretins when I needed to find Alandra, I focused on the well deep within myself for ancient power.
Winds and lightning raged, pouring from my eyes and mouth. Torrents of static flew from my fingertips, riding the same air that threw my enemy into a great vortex of wind so vicious that nothing survived its path.
A sudden explosion from the south warned of danger. Ignoring the myriad cuts and blows I’d received from battling an enemy that clearly outnumbered me, I rushed through the same winds that crushed my opponents, only to see Alandra and another woman shuttling through the air away from each other.
Alandra landed with a solid crash, jarring her slight form into a moan but not sending her unconscious. The other woman fared poorly. She hit a massive tree at an odd angle, and I heard her body snap in half. As she fell to the ground, she decayed into a mass of crumbling flesh and bone.
Not wasting any time, I rushed to Alandra as her eyes closed.
I called her name, stroked her head, and cradled her to my chest. She didn’t respond. Worried, I tried to see her aura but couldn’t feel her power. Then it slowly faded from within me.
I blinked at a sudden dizziness, aware I’d taken more damage and expended more energy than I’d thought. I realized we were both in terrible shape.
I couldn’t save her like this.
Darkness clawed at me, breaking my inner Light me into small, useless pieces. My head throbbed, and I kept seeing spots I had to blink away to maintain focus.
Yet I was awake and moving. My affai was not.
Studying the face more precious to me than life itself, I noted her perfect face had been bruised. Her lips bled, and one cheek looked swollen while the other turned a shade of purple. She had been struck, battered, and even now lay perilously close to death.
I ignored the thought that I might have found her too late.
Knowing of only one thing that might cure my affai, I used every reserve of energy I possessed and teleported us into Tanselm, into the shadow of Morn Mountain.
Finally at my end, I laid her down as gently as I could before I toppled next to her.
I reached out and clutched her hand, willing her to recover even as my soul struggled to separate from my body and seek the Next.
