Incredible that Azariah was able to stand against it. And if she could keep going, there might still be a chance.
Like an extension of her body, a bit of her soul, her lightning forked from her outstretched palms and clashed against the atlas orb. The orb pulsed like a living thing, fighting back against her power.
Azariah dropped to her knees, her body trembling as she screamed against the power surging from her palms. Her arms had turned utterly black, with blue lines of lightning digging into her charred skin like etched burns. Slowly, the burns snaked upwards. Palms to wrists. Wrists to elbows. Elbows to shoulders.
She was giving everything,everything,towards shutting down the atlas orb.
So why wasn’t it going out?
Release me.
Sonara suddenly heard the whisper inside of her; the call of her curse.
Release me and let me fight with her.
Take away her fear.
Take away her pain.
Years, Sonara had spent hiding from her curse, locking it inside its cage, for it was an uncontrollable beast. Years, she’dfearedit, deep down, for the power it held over her.
But as Azariah screamed, as her lightning burned its way to her shoulders, the retort of each slam against the atlas orb like a whip cracking over and over again…
Sonara knew that each surge of power brought the princess closer to death.
Memories flickered through her like snapshots as she leaned closer to the power source, palms outstretched.
Sonara saw herself as a new Shadowblood, standing beside Duran as he drank from the Briyne.Tears poured down her face, and her head pounded with the effort not to breathe, not to sense all the auras spiraling past her, trying to claw their way into her senses.
The power source rippled as tears poured from Azariah’s eyes now.
Sonara stepped closer to her.
Sonara, hands shaking as she tied a bandana tight around her own face, closed her eyes, and willed her senses to dull, to no avail.
Sonara, seated in a bar as she drank bottle after bottle of oil to try to dull the pain.
She could no longer hear Azariah’s screams over the crackle of power, the fight against the atlas orb. But Sonara felt her own body turning hot, sweat pouring down her skin as she looked at the princess.
The burns stretched upwards, to her neck.
Sonara, years later, her heart slamming against her ribs as Markam pulled her into the shadows behind a saloon. She laughed as she kissed him, as his teeth tugged at her ear. He pressed a hurried kiss along her neck, and she no longer felt alone.
Not until the aura of lust, verging on love, was so strong, her curse trying to break from its cage that she shoved him roughly away.
“Why do you do it, Sonara?” he asked. “Why do you always push everyone away?”
She’d never kissed anyone again, after that night.
The memories sped forward.
Sonara, moving to the corner of a lively saloon, pulling her hood over her head to drown out the sounds of the music. Jaxon, laughing as he downed a mug of oil and asked her to dance, but she said no, always no, for the joy between them would do nothing but awaken her curse until it begged to devour the auras whole.
The only time she let it loose was when she swung Lazaris, when she cut through victim after victim, using her curse only in the moments it could help her win a fight; help her grab a payday; help her survive.
Laughter, joy, happiness… it was all too much to bear.
The strongest emotions, the purest ones, only begged her curse to break through its cage even harder.
