“Please forgive me.” She’s even weaker now.
“Fight for your life!” I turn toward the horde of seekers and yell for Selene. “Free us!”
She’s sitting atop a marble pillar and inspecting something in her stone hand.
“Selene!” I can’t hear Emma, can barely feel her pulse.
“Hold them fast, witch.” Eraldon rips the blade from his side and hurls it away. “We had a deal!” He jumps down the stairs and heads toward her.
“Like the one you had with Lex?” She tosses the ember stone into the air and catches it. The seekers hiss.
Eraldon stops. His minions do, too. The entire room goes eerily silent except for my warriors scuffling and fighting to get free.
“Put that down, fool of a witch.”
“Why? You’re just mad because you can’t touch it.” She throws it into the air again, and Eraldon backs away a step. “That’s the problem with a stone like this, isn’t it? Your ancestors brought it to the Nightlands as a trophy. And it’s pretty neat to look it. But no one from the Nightlands can actually touch it without getting burned. And you—” She cackles. “A seeker. Why, this thing could incinerate you, couldn’t it? You’re darkness incarnate. This—” She tosses it again to more hisses. “Might end you.”
“If you break this deal, the magic will—”
“Will what?” she screeches. “Turn me into a foul creature and send me to the Spires?” She stands, balancing on one foot with the gem in her palm. “It’s too late for all that. Would you consider this a quintuple cross?” she singsongs discordantly, then wobbles. Wobbles harder. And then she and the ember stone fall into the mass of seekers below.
The stone goes dark. The seekers pile onto the spot where she fell, covering up the light and protecting their master.
Eraldon turns to me and rushes through the throng, murder in his cold eyes.
And that’s when I sense it. That’s when I pull even harder on the iron chains. This time they give. I pull with all my might, and the metal whines and loosens. Before I can finish the job, a tendril of black magic whips out beside me and sweeps the nearest seekers into a python’s embrace, squeezing them so hard it starts to cut them in half.
Tristano yells, and I see he and Everett hacking through seeker after seeker with whatever weapons they managed to wrest from their captors. I have to get to Emma.
Eraldon keeps coming for me and pulls another blade from his long black sleeves. “This is over.”
“You never should’ve touched her.” I pull sunlight into my palms and advance on him. The seekers closest to me burst into flames, and others back away. “No spell can protect you from this. From me.”
“I made her. I will always be her master, not you.” His fangs lengthen, his claws splayed.
My feral answers, demanding I take him apart. My pleasure. In a blaze of sun, I launch myself at Eraldon.
He strikes out with his blade but misses me as I connect with his jaw. Fire bursts along his skin, and my light sears him down to the bone.
With a cry, he slashes at me again, this time catching me on my side. He backs off, putting some seekers between us as I stalk after him.
Bladin emerges from the fray and circles around to protect my back.
“Find Emma,” I bark.
“Where is she?”
“There. Under the crush against the wall.” I point but keep my eyes on Eraldon. Ending him is the only way to truly save Emma from his thrall. “Free her, get her out of here. Get the others to help. She’s my priority.”
He doesn’t hesitate, and I plunge through the mass of seekers, burning them where they stand as I follow Eraldon deeper into the throne room.
My power is enough to take him down, but I can’t defeat them all, not in this realm. I have to trust my warriors to keep Emma safe while I do what I must.
He circles to my right, and I follow him, keeping him in view as I burn through his minions. “All this for a changeling?” He tsks. “Seems so beneath one such as you.”
“Truly? You tried to make her your queen.” I grin, baiting him. “She refused. She would rather die than feel your touch.”
His eyes narrow, anger etching lines in his pale face. “She’s nothing to me.”
