Taavin let out a scream.
He fell, and Vi dropped the scythe alongside him in shock. He writhed on the ground, clutching his head. Vi stared on, helpless, as veins bulged at his neck and temples.
“Make it stop,” he begged. “Make it stop!” he screamed loud enough that Vi was certain someone had to have heard.
“Taavin, Taavin!” His thrashes were too violent, not even allowing her to get near. “Th-Thrumasana!” Vi tried again, trying to imagine the glyphs going away.
They did not.
The magic began to shine brighter. The noise filled her ears. Taavin’s mouth was locked in a soundless scream and Vi watched in horror as his whole body tensed and arched off the floor. The glyphs condensed on him like ropes, sinking into his flesh. He shuddered with each one that collapsed in on him.
Taavin gasped for air; tears streamed down his face, his eyes wide and unseeing as the assault continued. Vi covered her mouth, collapsing to her knees beside him. He may have betrayed her… but she had not wished this on him, had she? Hadthrumsanasomehow done this? Had the word somehow known the dark corners of her heart?
“Taavin…” Vi said his name weakly, helpless as more glyphs poured from her watch into him. She did everything she could to bring the magic within her once more, but the powers had a mind of their own and Vi was helpless.
He curled into the fetal position, crying out with each circle of light that crashed against him. His eyes were unfocused, his mouth hanging open, fingers contorted at odd angles with pain, his whole body quivering. All she had ever been to him was pain… and now she may well kill him.
Vi unhooked the watch from her neck and thrust it toward the flame. “Take it!” she cried. “Yargen, make it stop!”
The watch shattered. Light tinged with blue filled the room—but this was not a vision of the future overtaking her. It was Yargen’s pure magic. And rather than seeking out the scythe as she had hoped it would, it all flowed into Taavin.
One final scream, and it was over.
He lay on the ground, limp and lifeless. Tendrils of magic swirled off of him, fading into the darkness. Soon there was nothing—no sound, no movement.
“T… Taavin?” Vi whispered, crawling on her hands and knees to him. Her eyes were still adjusting to the dim light of the flame. “Taavin.” Vi rested a hand on his shoulder and he flinched.
At least he was alive.
“Taavin, I—”
“Get out,” he rasped.
“But you—”
“Don’t touch me,” Taavin seethed. “Don’t touch me ever again. Not in this lifetime or the next.”
“I didn’t mean for…” What hadn’t she meant for? This to happen? Hadn’t she loathed him for betraying her not hours before?
Nothing between her heart and mind made sense right now.
“I said out!” Taavin roared, sitting at once. The irises of his eyes were a green so bright and pale, it nearly matched the whites surrounding them.
Vi bounced to her feet and ran.
* * *
She sat alone in the darkness on the edge of her bed, clutching herself.
What had happened? What was that?
Questions swirled through her mind. Answers eluded her. Even after using the word, its meaning was no clearer to her. It felt as though a part was somehow missing. Perhaps that was why it had gone so awry. Perhaps a meaning was hidden in those seemingly endless glyphs.
Vi rested her elbows on her knees and sank her face into her hands. The watch was gone. One more token of Yargen had been destroyed and Vi doubted the flame seeming dimmer after was only in her imagination.
Slowly, she turned, looking out the window at the dark city. Maybe this would be the day the sun stopped rising altogether. The end of the world seemed more inevitable by the hour.
The door opened suddenly and Vi’s eyes with it. She turned to face the man in the doorway slowly. Taavin stood, staring at her with a fire in his eyes she’d never seen before.
