Aidon’s image blurred before her as she tried to focus.
It’s the inside wounds I struggle with more.
Her heart was slowing – she could feel her pulse weakeningas she turned inward and faced that essence she’d buried deep, now locked beneath that block on her power.
It’s the inside wounds I struggle with more.
‘You’re being reckless,’ Dominic thundered from his throne. ‘Do it now, Aidon!’
Aya needed more time. She met the king’s gaze, her breath rattling as she tried to bring his face into focus. ‘Gianna was willing to give you me,’ she wheezed. ‘You could have kept me prisoner.’
‘Your queen would never part with such an asset,’ Dominic bit out. ‘When I pressed you at Pysar and you had no idea of her plans, I suspected she had no true intentions of such a marriage. I know your queen and the mask she presents. Just as I know she would offer you up and reclaim you as soon as we agreed to join you in war.’ His hands flexed on the arms of his throne. ‘Allies, indeed.’ He spat the words as if they were poison. ‘And even if she stayed true to her word … why keep a saint when I can become a god?’
Aya’s lungs seared as she took another breath, throwing herself against that wall inside of her. Her power trickled through, but it was too small to close the wound.
‘Finish it, Aidon,’ Dominic commanded as he pushed off his throne, his long stride gobbling up the space between them. But Aidon didn’t move. His gaze stayed fixed on her face, his eyes tracking her every breath.
Aya reached down and ripped the knife from her chest.
Will’s screams reverberated throughout the throne-room, mixing with Aidon’s and the king’s as he roared his fury. Aya fell to the floor, and banged against the shield inside her, begging as blood seeped out of her chest. She had mere seconds.
She slumped to the side, her eyes finding Will’s as her head rested against the cool marble floor. He was on his knees, his body folded over on itself as he bellowed her name.
Fight, he had told her.
Aya sobbed as she pushed and pushed against that wall. As she focused on closing that hole in her chest.
Fight.
Aidon was yelling, his arm wrapped around his uncle, hauling him away from her, but Aya kept her eyes trained on Will. On the way his lips moved as he begged her to stay.
Fight.
She had made him a promise.
And it was that promise she clung to as she threw herself against the wall one last time.
A resounding crack echoed through the throne-room as her shackles snapped.
And Aya exploded into light.
Aidon dove to the ground as light pulsed through the room, so bright that he couldfeelthe heat of it crackling across the space. There was a shout and a thud, and through his searing eyes he saw Will slump to the floor, Peter’s knife embedded in his stomach. Aidon hadn’t even seen his friend move. But Peter held Aidon’s gaze, a grim look on his face as he tugged the blade out of Will’s gut with a vicious twist.
Aya’s scream of agony was unlike anything Aidon had ever heard. Her very skin was alight with power as she flung out a hand toward Peter. He dropped like a stone. The guards advanced, but she sent another pulse of light, and they crumpled like puppets whose strings had been cut.
Aya ran to Will, his name falling from her lips as she dropped to her knees, her hands flaring with healing light as she begged him to stay, stay, stay. She had eyes for nothing else – would let nothing distract her from trying to save him. Aidon knew it as his uncle advanced on her, the knife thatwas still coated with her blood raised, ready to plunge it into her back as she bowed over Will.
Aidon lunged toward his uncle, a flash of silver catching his eye. He looked up just in time to catch the knife his mother flung to him.
And to plunge it into Dominic’s heart.
77
Aya registered the sound of a blade cutting through flesh. The gurgling of death. There was a thud behind her, and she turned in time to see the king fall, the knife Aidon had embedded in his chest flashing in the sunlight streaming into the throne-room.
She expected someone to scream. But there was nothing but silence as Dominic took his last breath. Aidon’s face was cold and distant as he stared down at him. ‘I hope you rot in hells,’ he breathed.
Aya opened her mouth to say something – but Aidon’s eyes flicked to Will, and she was pulled back to his shuddering breath.
