“I see you’re still letting others fight your battles for you,cousin,” Auraelia spat as her gaze raked over Davina. She was all black except for the crimson breastplate and cape fluttering in the delicate wind that drifted over the field.
Davina scoffed as her blood-red lips pulled up into a sneer. “I’m not here for them. I’m here foryou.”
Auraelia’s magic responded before she’d even had time to think, her lightning searing through her veins at the onslaught of Davina’s magic that was determined to take root. The battle around them faded into nothing as Auraelia focused on the enemy before her.
Davina’s assault on her system pulled her concentration into defensive strategies, channeling her strength into fighting off the ice that threatened to crystallize in her blood. She’d trained for years, but not even Ser Aeron could prepare her to fight something she couldn’tsee.
She couldn’t defeat her if all of her magic was going to stave off Davina’s attacks.
She needed to attack hard and fast.
What she needed was a distraction.
Grabbing hold of the rich brown thread that connected her to the earth, Auraelia pulled on the ground beneath Davina’s feet in an attempt to knock her off balance. It worked, but only enough to give her mere seconds to strike. Throwing out a bolt of lightning, her heart sank as it only grazed her cousin’s shoulder.
Davina’s assault stopped as she brought her hand to where blood had begun to trickle down from the wound and let out a guttural scream. When her crazed gaze met Auraelia’s, she hissed through clenched teeth, “Big mistake, little cousin.”
Frigid magic assaulted Auraelia’s system harder and faster than her own could respond; her lightning fizzled out as it came close to the icy bands that constricted her veins and wrapped around her heart. Every breath felt like she was sucking daggers into her lungs. Every movement sent streams of ice so cold it burned down her limbs. Blinding agony shot through her, causing her muscles to lock.
Auraelia cried out as she clung to her threads, begging them to aid her against the onslaught. But as Davina’s stranglehold over her body tightened, her magic began to slip through her fingers. The fragments of her magic dimmed, growing limp like a wilted flower on a vine. And the more she fought, the harder Davina hit her.
Summoning the strength she had left, Auraelia threw everything she had into one more strike. But it failed, her lightning sputtering as it left her hand and dying completely before it reached Davina.
Lies.
It was all lies.
Davina hadn’t wanted her at her best. She’d wanted her at her weakest. She hid behind people who had no stake in this war until she found out Auraelia was worn down. And she’d gotten her wish.
She was exhausted; her magic spent.
And she’d failed.
Failed her family and her people.
Daemon. The thought of him and the future she’d looked forward to exploring with him had her heart stalled in her chest for an entirely different reason.
She could feel the life draining from her body, her heart slowing to stagnant beats. Blood began to trickle out of her nose, the taste of copper filling her mouth as her knees threatened to give out. If this is what the Goddess Dalia had in store for her, then she had no choice but to accept her fate.
Davina’s laugh echoed across the field, its shrill tone stabbing into her skull as she staggered to stay on her feet.
“Auraelia!”
She could have sworn she heard Daemon screaming her name, but through the pain-addled fog, it didn’t make sense. He was in Opal. There was no way he could be there.
Auraelia tried to shake the cloud of agony from her mind, but it was like trying to uproot a mountain. She heard her name again, closer this time, but her knees buckled, and she sank into the muck as the world around her went black.
Daemon
War was a brutal part of life. There would always be the ones who died and the ones who lived to tell the story. But as Daemon watched Auraelia fall to her knees, every shred of humanity he had left crumbled with her.
“No!” he screamed, his voice cracking from the strain. He could feel her fading. Could feel her heart slowing as if it were hisown, the thread tethering them together weakening with each draw of breath into his lungs. “Auraelia!”
Daemon spooled down to a depth of his magic he’d never explored, letting his power unfurl around him and fill him with a darkness he’d never known. Shadows spilled out around him, shrouding the ground in a heavy blanket of rolling black mist as snake-like tendrils dove into the mouths of their enemies, suffocating their screams as their lives became forfeit.
Drawing his sword, he began to cut his way across the field. It didn’t matter if the wounds left by his blade were what leeched the light from soldiers’ eyes; his shadows had become a living, breathing entity. They shaped into creatures that would haunt even grown men’s nightmares before extinguishing the souls that dared get in his way.
Taking advantage of Davina’s focus on Auraelia, Daemon slipped between the shadows until he was in front of her, and his hand was wrapped around her throat.
