My arrow pierced through his heart. The massive beast flinched from my devastating shot, simply glancing down at the unexpected attack. This was nothing like firing at Alba or the boar. I harbored no hesitation, no remorse. If I’d just ended Marvoe’s life, I would gladly bear any burden that followed.
But the tail of the arrow simply disintegrated into shadow.
My hopeful expression fell, so I loosed another arrow, aiming directly beside the first. Barely a twitch of the heinous canine’s ear when it struck. I walked forward, firing another. Then again. Nothing but determination in my strides or on my face.
“Ro,” Dante called from behind, warning me about my proximity to the corrosive magic soiling the earth.
But I stepped forward again, and fired the last in my quiver, this time aiming for the beast’s skull. That hit caused him to stumble, and I ignored the nausea sweeping through me at Alba’s memory on that pole. But I didn’t tear away my gaze this time. I watched, engulfed in hope. I wanted to see this creator of destruction fall to his knees. Wanted to behold the moment the light left his eyes.
All my weapons, every attempt to stop this monster, dissolved into black dust. Marvoe shook his beastly face and targeted me, aggravation in his soulless eyes. “That’s enough of that.”
Time slowed as Marvoe launched a ferocious paw in my direction, commanding the magic to surge upward from the ground in a cylindrical wave toward me. I blinked, and with my last moment, peered at Dae. His mouth contorted in what I assumed was a shout of my name. Utter desolation marked his face, and I had no time to offer consoling words as the wave crashed into me, as corrosive and noxious as I’d imagined.
79
Dae
My world darkened. Not because of the insidious smoky black mass writhing around me, not because Marvoe was about to strip my shifting magic, and not because I’d succumbed to the temptation of wielding the addictive, all-consuming dark magic that’d fused to my very essence.
It was the look in those far away hazel eyes in that moment before the darkness clouded her from sight. The look that spoke so many words.
But the most devastating thing they said was goodbye.
Without Ro, I’d be left to the darkness. She was the ray, the light that broke through the haze. The hand that reached out to tenderly cup my face, the warmth that reminded me there were still good things in the world. Smiles. Laughter.
Love.
Through utter agony, I screamed, stretching my arms out and recalling that obsidian destruction with every ounce of strength I had left. I ordered it, demanded it to recoil. My efforts resultedin barely a twitch of the black mist that swirled where Ro had just stood.
Marvoe’s malicious laughter mocked my attempt. Sheer sorrow fell from my eyes in droplets as I felt my abilities weaken. Still, I refused to give in, to stop fighting for her.
It felt like an eternity as the tug-o-war waged. My heart fractured into a thousand fragments, for even if I succeeded, there’d be nothing left of her. She would have withered by the time I’d even attempted to save her.
I felt the dark magic before I saw it. It slithered inside and found my veins, wrapping around the life giving highways and using them to carry itself further, deeper, into all the parts that kept me alive.
Those inky vines spread over my skin. The more I wielded this corrosive force, the more it corrupted. But I would sacrifice every last shred of myself for the woman who restored my humanity, my life, and when I thought of the way her freckle-covered nose scrunched when she was happy or irritated, my joy.
Maybe I wasn’t as powerless as I felt. The dark magic continued swarming in the same spot. Stagnant. Dante remained unmoving where he stood, a man stripped of his magic and defenses, but the curse didn’t advance.
The moment it did, he’d succumb to it, too. I would be next—ifMarvoe didn’t have other plans for me. Even if he did, I wouldn’t oblige. I would chase that fiery huntress into the afterlife, fight for her until my dying breath.
But without warning, I collapsed, my energy so entirely depleted that I couldn’t even catch myself before smacking into the ground. With tear stained eyes, I cried out for Ro, glimpsing up at the dark storm that still remained. Why hadn’t it moved on?
Marvoe spoke so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. “What in the—”
80
Ro
Lost to the sheer darkness of oblivion, the hollow void felt remarkably peaceful.
A reel of memories appeared as vivid as when they’d happened. Laughter and love. Smiles and friendships. The warm embrace of my parents and sister. Instances where I stopped to care for an injured creature. Braxius, tired and cold from a long winter, threatening me with his mighty fire as I approached.
The first time he nuzzled against me.
Radhak taking me in and offering to put me to work. Rav teaching me proper sparring techniques and nodding his first offer of praise when I mastered a simple stance. Tio and I cackling around the fire over the stunt he’d pulled on our first mission together and how I’d saved his ass.
His complete devotion to Melody.
