There is no more cage,she told herself.There is no more holding back.
With a roar, she let her power soar from her to follow Eder’s every move. She pulled at his emotions, his ancient and rotting aura revealing every step before he made them.
“Karr!” Sonara shouted, as she sensed Eder angling the sword towards where he stood.
Karr dove as lightning shielded his body, cracking like the Wanderer wall once had. And then Eder was recoiling again.
“Jaxon, to the right!” Sonara said. A skeleton stumbled into Jaxon’s path, protecting his back as Eder lunged at him and cut the skeleton clean in half instead, the bones spilling only to quickly piece themselves back together again.
Rocks came up from the cave floor, as Karr called to the rubble. But Eder was too quick, spinning to cut right through the rocks, before turning again to cut through Azariah’s lightning.
It was slash after slash, rock meeting sword and bone and lightning slowing its path, a deadly dance of darkness and light and earth.
But when the Shadowbloods began to slow, Eder did not.
Help us,Sonara thought. She pushed her prayer towards the planet’s heart, not even sure it would listen.Help us or we’re all going to die.
As Eder swung again, a shot rang out.
Thali’s body jerked as the bullet went clean through Eder’s chest.
He turned, snarling, to stare at the one who’d shot him.
Cade Kingston, his rifle outstretched, smoke trailing from the barrel like a bullet’s goodbye kiss.
“Get away from my brother,” Cade snarled.
Eder turned, sword steaming from the heat of the electricity.
Cade shot again.
The bullet went through Thali’s eye socket.
“You cannot kill a spirit, just as you cannot kill a soul,” Eder said. He swung the blade. Bits of blood fell from it like a sparkling red rain. Then he ran. Sprinting not towards the heart, but back up the steps towards Cade, blade poised to swing.
And Eder did swing.
But the blade never made it to Cade’s chest.
Because the ground split open as Karr screamed beside Sonara, his body trembling as rage poured from him to create a deep crack in the ground. Eder stumbled, a foot caught in the crack.
Karr slammed his hands together, and the crack tightened around Eder’s ankle, trapping him in place. He fell, face-first on the steps, helpless. Gutrender fell from his grasp.
It was almost silent as Karr took the bait and sprinted up the steps to finish the job. Sonara shouted after him. It couldn’t be this easy.
She sensed theanticipationanddecisionon her tongue, knew that Eder wasnotready to die… as Eder suddenly turned,aiming a small knife that had been hidden inside of Thali’s cloak.
Sonara saw everything fading before her, like Soahm being stolen in the night.
Gone. Soahm wasgone.He would never sit upon their mother’s throne, take back his crown, give Soreia the king it deserved. Her whole life, she’d chased after the ghost of him, hoping she would find him, bring him home.
But perhaps he’d come back on his own.
Not fully. Not the way he should have been.
But as she watched Eder swing that blade at all that was left of Soahm… something inside of Sonara broke. All her sorrow, all her hatred for the Wanderers boiled within her, mixing and tangling until her own magic shifted.
She’d caged it her entire second life. Feared it, deep down, because she believed it controlled her. Like everything always had. When all this time, she could have been controlling it.
