I wasn’t aware when the screaming started. I was aware when it cut out abruptly.
Liam tugged at me. “Aileen, that’s enough. There’s no more of him left.”
I opened my eyes to find the king a shriveled husk that began to dissolve in the breeze.
The fighting around us slowed and then stopped as the king’s enthrallment ended when he did. Those who’d previously supported him surrendered.
The enforcers weren’t quite so merciful to those who remained from Vitus and Sophia’s forces. They made quick work of ending any who remained.
While they finished up, Thomas sauntered toward us, Vitus’s decapitated head displayed like a trophy at his side.
“Woah,” Jenna exclaimed, her gaze on mine. “What happened to your eyes?”
I couldn’t answer, the bulk of my concentration on fighting the power still roiling at my center.
It wanted out.
“Liam,” I groaned.
Strong hands caught me when I would have fallen.
“What’s wrong with her?” Jenna asked, sounding frightened.
“She’s becoming,” Liam said grimly.
“Becoming what?”
You could tell we were sisters. When confronted with the same enigmatic bullshit, our responses were the same.
My humor was forgotten as I whimpered in pain.
Without an outlet, my power was turning on me.
“Is there anything you can do?” Liam asked, speaking to someone out of sight.
“She was warned of the consequences.” Brin knelt beside me and placed a hand on my forehead. “She hasn’t developed enough for this level of power. If she holds onto it, it will be too much for her current form to contain.”
“How do we stop this?” Liam asked.
“We can’t. She went too far. She didn’t just consume Muiredach. She also devoured his connection to the Summer Lands.”
“Break it,” Liam ordered.
“I would, but I’m not even quite sure how she managed to do it in the first place. Based on past history, she should have becomethe same unnatural thing he was. Instead, she’s caught on the cusp of becoming something entirely new.”
“What does that mean?” Jenna demanded.
“She’s dying,” Brin said simply.
Several voices objected at once.
Amidst the argument taking place, I looked around, finding Arlan almost immediately. Baran supporting a worse for wear Breandan beside him.
There was a simple solution to this problem. If this influx of power was too much for me, I could always just hand it to someone else.
Say, a person who might have come to this power by way of inheritance if Muiredach hadn’t interrupted the natural order of things.
How about it?I thought at him.
