***
A storm of power. Blinding, suffocating, yet… euphoric.
Jasmine.
She is light and dark all at once, a force neither realm was ever meant to hold. Her power lashes out, snapping at us,intous. The four of us.
I hear shouting. Julien. Sai. Me. But all I can focus on is him.
My brother.
We’re all in agony, but Kane… he’sdying.
I fall to my knees. He’s already down, convulsing, blood leaking from his ears, his nose. His breaths ragged and shallow.
No. No, no, no!
Not him. Not my brother. Please, Goddesses—
“Stay with me, Kane!” I scream through the chaos.
These sounds, the smell, this place…
We’re back in The Divide.
How did we get here?
“Kane? KANE!”
His pulse stutters beneath my fingers. He’s immortal. We’re supposed to always be together. He is the darkness to my light. My hero. My brother.
How is he dying? How is this possible?
Prospero’s on his knees too, hands over his ears, reeling from The Divide’s pressure.
“She’s killing him! All of you! It’s too much!” he yells through the chaos.
I know. I fucking know.
But what do I do? What the fuck do I do?!
“We have to stop it!” he shouts, and we both look at Jasmine.
She’s in so much pain. Screaming. Blood runs from her eyes, but her gaze is locked on me, wide and desperate. Her lips form broken, barely-voiced words.
Kill me. Kill me. Kill me.
Over and over.
The words press into me, curling through my thoughts as if they’re my own. They slip beneath my skin, sinking deep, too deep.
Not shouted. Whispered. Yet I feel them inside my skull.
She knows this destruction is hers, but she can’t stop it. Doesn’t know how.
We could have shown her; we could have taught her. Why did it have to happen like this?
“A rune!” Prospero yells, crawling along the unstable ground towards her. “It’ll suppress her, but…” A blood rune. An ancient one. Powerful but… “It could kill her!”
