Pain blooms inside my chest, so sharp and unexpected that I gasp. It’s severe enough that for a fraction of a second, I assume I’ve been hit by some spell or stabbed with an adamantine blade.
But then I recognize the cold sweeping over me. That empty, shadowy link.
Fuck. No.
Not right now.Not right now.
I fight it, trying to breathe through the pain as my vision blurs. Only this time, I don’t expire.
Instead, I hear him again, clear as day inside my head.
You were what I made you to be. A masterpiece. A scourge. Even in your betrayal, you honored me.
What the fuck is he talking about, and why is he talking about me in the past sense like this is a eulogy? I grit my teeth through the pain, distantly aware that Everett is freezing anything that comes near and repeating my name in alarm.
Here is your elucidation. The time has come.
For a moment, the battle before me cuts out as a vision sweeps through me. I find myself watching a scene unfold—a moment that Amadeus is sending through his link to me.
But it doesn’t feel like a vision of the future.
What I’m about to see is happening right now.
I recognize Engela Zuma as she runs through an empty street in some abandoned city on the East Coast. The elemental looks uncharacteristically frightened and is covered in blood. She sends a blast of power behind her before rounding the corner onto a new street—where Bertram waits.
But instead of a lover’s reunion, he darts forward with unparalleled speed and buries his teeth in Engela’s neck, ripping her throat out.
Horror floods me as I realize what’s happening. The twin demons’ words swim in my head.
A tricky legacy. A secret mission from the citadel.
Oh, my gods. When Amadeus learned about my gambit, he decided to outmaneuver me.
And he hired…fucking Bertram.
The vision wavers as Bertram removes the bracelet from Engela’s pocket, setting it on the asphalt. He pulls out a knife and poses it above the etherium.
Just as the knife falls, Amadeus’s voice echoes through my head one final time.
Your purpose is fulfilled, daughter. May the Beyond embrace you.
No.
This can’t fucking happen. I absolutelycannotlet this?—
The etherium shatters, and the vision dissipates. A cold unlike anything I’ve ever experienced sweeps through my system. I’m so numb that I don’t even realize I’ve hit the ground until I roll over and stare at the billowing winter sky streaked with flashes of lightning.
What just happened? Where are you, sangfluir?Silas’s voice demands in my head.
Distantly, I can still hear the screams and mayhem of the fight. But I feel nothing. I’m…going. This is it. The end of my purpose, and therefore, the end of me.
Fuck.
“Maven!”
Everett’s shout seems so far away, but suddenly, I’m cradled in his arms with his beautiful, half-bandaged face above me. The ash and blood streaking his skin are in sharp contrast with his soft, blue, panicked eyes.
“No, no, no, no. Breathe. Damn it, why aren’t you fucking breathing? Don’t you dare?—”
