Vi was torn.
She knew she should run for it. She should make her way to the cave tunnels by all means necessary. This didn’t matter.
Her vengeance didn’t matter.
“Mysst larrk,” Vi uttered darkly, her eyes on Adela. The satisfying weight of a sword filled her hand. She sprinted into battle, bringing the sword across her body. Adela shifted slightly, magic pulsing with the movement.
“Juth mariy.” Vi made a flick of her wrist with her right hand, stopping the shift in power. She danced over cracking ice, her feet remembering every step Sehra’s warriors had trained into her, every movement Jayme refined, each new step Arwin had drilled into her. Vi moved with the strength of each of them and with something none of them could give her—a power that had been bolstered by their teaching but was entirely her own.
Adela narrowed her eyes. There was another shift in the magic, but this time it seemed to split into several parts—none of which Vi could focus her sole attention on. The canal on the next street over came alive, a tidal wave of ice shards roaring over Vi.
She didn’t have time for a word, so she swept her hand overhead, incinerating the deadly hail before it could reach her. Her left foot slipped out. Vi spun on her right, bringing the sword to Adela’s shoulder.
The woman ripped her hand from its column of ice, fingers reforming at her magical command. The limb stopped her blade before it could strike true. Ice chipped off, but Adela was otherwise unharmed.
Vi leaned forward, closing what little gap remained between them. She had no reason to think this would work… and yet…
“Narro vah’deh,” Vi echoed the words of the elfin’ra from earlier, whispering them as a lover would to Adela. She remembered every syllable with perfect, deadly clarity.
There was something about this twisted magic that she didn’t need to understand the way she did Lightspinning glyphs. It was an abomination—an adaptation of Yargen’s words gone wrong. It tapped into the most ruthless, brutal nature that hid in the corners of her humanity.
This magic thrived on hate—not logic or skill.
Adela’s face glazed over. Her hands went limp. Vi saw the world both through her eyes and the eyes of the pirate queen simultaneously. Everything was doubled and vastly too large as Vi occupied the mind of her adversary.
It was a spell to control the mind of another, Vi realized quickly. This explained the world as she’d seen it earlier, when she had been under the same command. It also explained the screaming voice in the back of her mind that sounded identical to Adela, demanding freedom.
Vi pushed herself and the magic.Die, die, die, a voice in the back of her mind screamed. With Adela under her control, she could make the woman do anything.Die, die, die!The voice grew louder, and all too late Vi realized that it had not been the voice of Adela, but the same voice she’d heard at the first tear—Raspian.
There was a thunderous crack in her chest.
The whole world exploded with bright yellow, red, and blue light. Tendrils of red lightning shot out from Vi, exploding against the buildings around her and Adela. Vi was thrown backward, hit a wall hard, and slumped on the ground.
Everything the magic touched seemed to wriggle and thrash, like the tears in the Twilight Forest. Raspian’s magic was breaking down the buildings, turning them to dust before her eyes. Turning the minds of the men it struck to madness.
Vi blinked, trying to bring her mind back into focus. Adela was hunched over on the ground, turning over the contents of her stomach. One of her men, still in possession of his right mind, levied a crossbow directly at Vi.
Move. She had to move. Vi pushed against the ground, struggling to regain her feet, to somehow dodge the incoming shot. Her whole body was a shuddering mess.
The man’s finger squeezed the trigger and in the same moment one of the other pirates crashed into him. The bolt dug into the wood at the side of Vi’s head, but she hardly flinched. She watched in horror as the now white-eyed pirate mounted the man who had once been his ally and began to tear him apart with hands and teeth, like a wild animal.
She’d be sick if she looked on any longer.
Move, she commanded herself again. Everything hurt. Red magic crackled over her skin, splitting it, only to have it heal with the blue and yellow tendrils of flame that coated her.
Somehow, Vi found her feet.
“G-Get her!” Adela struggled with words, pointing in her direction. But there wasn’t anyone able to heed her command.
Vi looked over her shoulder and, for a brief second, debated going back to finish the job. This was her chance to kill the pirate queen…
Ultimately, she didn’t take it.
Getting to her father would be sweeter than any revenge, and the longer she lingered here, the less likely it became that she’d make it back to him. She’d already made the mistake of lingering once.
Vi tried to move faster. Her head was splitting and body aching. Flames still licked over her body, dancing with red lightning. Every time she blinked, there was a red and violent edge to her sight.
A little longer. She was so close now. The darkness of the cave coated her and Vi paused, several steps inside. The mere idea of her magic was like torture, and yet…
