Scarlett’s complexion began to return to her normal, healthy color. Relief lifted my heart, allowing me to take my first real breath since spotting the creature. She slept, but her breathing began to even out, rather than the harsh and uneven pants of moments before.
“Run. We have about five to ten minutes before my magic wears off,” Valik muttered, taking up a sluggish jog at my side as I took off with Scarlett in my arms.
After roughly five minutes, the beautiful, white, and expansive Celestial Castle came into view on top of the hill it sat on. My lungs burned and my arms ached, but I kept pushing forward alongside Valik, who seemed ready to drop at any moment.
“Almost…” our eccentric friend panted, “there.”
Another roar sounded in the distance, and my heart twisted, knowing it was the unicorn reverting to its Endarkened state. I glanced behind us, trying not to trip in the process.
“It’s coming,” Valik gasped.
Another roar, this one closer than the last. Then, multiple roars echoed around us in the forest, making my stomach knot. I looked at Valik, panic in my eyes.
More beastly sounds reached us as we pushed forward. The castle wards were only thirty yards away, but with Scarlett in my arms and exhaustion draining me, it may as well have been a hundred.
A blur caught my attention from the right side of the forest. Another Endarkened unicorn charged toward Valik, so similar to the last. Fuck.
From my left, a stampede thundered closer to us. Valik and I slowed, spinning around as Endarkened beasts closed in, surrounding us. We were spent, and Scarlett remained unconscious in my arms. I chewed on my inner cheek, weighing what options remained. Not many.
As the unicorns circled us in, I set Scarlett down on the ground, gesturing for Valik to stand over her to offer some protection. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, turning to my instincts. A calm washed over me as my body began to vibrate with a newfound lightness.
Chapter Ten
Gray
As Chrome turned to leave, Slate finally released me from around the waist. The battle raged on around us, blades clanging, their orange and blue colliding to light up the night sky. Every so often, the ground would rumble beneath me. From the corner of my eye, I spotted the earth cleaving in two and heard screams as people disappeared into the gaping crevice. The wind lashed against us wildly from the air Elementals, while the colorful bursts of the Kinetics’ magic electrified the vicinity.
Seeing Chrome again was the most heart-shattering moment I’d experienced since the day at the King’s Palace. It was him, but it wasn’t at the same time. The man standing before me was a warped version of Chrome. Despite the black hoodie he wore that covered his arms, I glimpsed the blackened veins protruding where his currents used to be on his throat and neck, climbing high enough to kiss the bottom of his jaw. While his hair remained the same—reflective and chromatic—his eyes were wrong. They were empty. Emotionless. Obsidian irises replaced the turbulent metal that usually spoke of his emotions. There was nothing within them thatresembled the Chrome I’d fallen in love with. Not the man who sat at my bedside only a few days before and returned my mother’s letter.
A man materialized in front of him, causing Chrome to skid to a halt. I watched as Shadow stood just a foot before him. The smug expression on his face said it all: he’d caught Chrome by surprise.
Slate grabbed my wrist, warning me not to intervene. “Do you know who that is?” I asked as he batted away another attack. Why did that guy look so familiar?
Slate squeezed my wrist. “Yeah,” he said, bewildered. “I think I do.”
“Who?” I demanded.
Chrome and the mysterious Kinetic spoke in hushed tones at a distance too far to hear. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but in the midst of the battle raging around us, I was lucky only to catch snippets.
“I—killed you.” Chrome’s new shadows slithered from his arms like ebony ribbons.
“...thought you did,” said the Kinetic. The more I looked at him from a distance, the more I began to notice similar traits to not just Chrome, but also to…
That was impossible. Right?
Chrome’s shadows lashed out at Shadow, striking for his throat, but our escaped prisoner blocked it with shadows of his own. Where Chrome’s shadows seemed solid, Shadow’s were much more incorporeal, like a heavy shade cast by the sun.
Attacks pinged off my shield, and I knew what I needed to do; I just hoped I’d be able to do it without Chrome’s help this time.
I shook off Slate’s grasp on my wrist, turning to face him. “This needs to end. Now.”
Slate’s brows scrunched. “What do you have planned, Princess?”
I quirked a nostalgic smile at the nickname. “Just ground me,” I said, then added, “Please.” My eyes flitted back and forth between Slate’s, searching for the cracks in his promise to stand by my side no matter what.
Slate held my gaze, swallowing as he dipped his chin. “Of course.”
I pivoted, spotting Chrome and his old nemesis face off with one another in a battle of weird shadows and blades. The mysterious Kinetic kept absorbing Chrome’s shadows every time they struck at him. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Grim, and I knew Chrome must’ve been thinking the same thing.
