"Do it!"
His magic flows into me, and it isn't like being a puppet at all. It's like his muscle memory is mine. I wheel the blade around (looking like a badass. Succccck it, Qui-Gon Jinn!) and then charge toward Khadyr. Our blades meet, darkest dark and brightest light. I grunt with the exertion as he bears down on me, forcing our crossed swords toward my face.
Heh. Crossed swords. I am definitely demanding a front-row seat to my demonkin crossing swords when we get out of this. Because we're definitely getting out of this. Guided by Yae's magic, I swoop my lightsaber down and out, pulling it free from Khadyr's. He advances toward me, murder in his black eyes, and I realize I'm going to have to fight dirty if I'm going to beat him.
Good thing dirty is my specialty.
I reach into my coat pocket, and he cocks his head, wondering just what the fancy fuck I'm doing.
I whip my hand from my pocket and toward his eyes, throwing a handful of light at him. "Pocket sand! Uh, light. Pocket light!"
He lets out a bestial howl and drops his blade as he tries to rub the light from his eyes. It vanishes back into the darkest corners of the tomb, and I race forward, stabbing my lightsaber through his chest. I pour all of my will into the strike. My arms shake, aching from the strain, as I drive my light into him, and I grit my teeth and lean hard into the thrust.
He cracks, just a little, but where darkness flooded into me when I cracked, light now floods into him.Mylight. I brace myself and force more light into his darkness, willing my light to burn inside him. I stumble, my boots rasping against the tomb’s stone floor as I’m pushed back by the force of his resistance.
I’m doing this for the shadow realm. Forallthe fucking realms.
Iwillstop Khadyr. I will stop the darkness.
And I’ll do it by doing one of the things I do best.
I pour all of my strength into one final desperate move. I yank my blade upward, just like I did to get the shard from Iradil’s chest, just like I did to the other demonkin of the Light Guard. I send out a silent prayer to them for their sacrifices in life and their sacrifices in death, and I put all my power into the strike.
"I am inevitable!" he cries out before he bursts apart in a blinding blast of light.
When the flare of light dims, I call my shards back to my crown, survey the tomb, find nothing left of Khadyr, and then nod in satisfaction.
My legs go out from underneath me, but Reznik swoops forward and catches me in his arms. He cradles me close and then Yaelyn is at his side, stroking the side of my face, wrapping his tail around my calf.
"You did it, Mischief," he says, soft, sweet awe in his voice.
"We did it," I say, stumbling into his side as my knees give out. Fuck, never mind my light, I feel like I just drained every last drop of energy from my body. If not for the loves of my lives holding me up, I’d be back on the cold, hard ground. "Gonna need to sleep for like a week after this, though." I cuddle into their embrace with a sigh. "So, um, guess it's at least twenty spanks after this one, huh?"
"Spark, we're just glad you're alive."
I look up sharply, though I feel about as weak as a day-old kitten. "Look, I may be the Light Bearer, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't hold me accountable. What I did was supremely shitty. And honestly, my plan pretty much sucked. I came here to hide and die with the shards."
"Thatisa pretty sucky plan," Reznik admits in a low rumble.
"How did you find me, anyway?"
"Yaelyn suspected you were the Light Bearer and that you would do whatever it took to protect the shards. He also figured out that you'd go to the most fortified place you knew. Here."
"Our shards were paining us. We knew something was wrong. But, love, why didn't you say anything?"
I duck away, reminding myself that my men are very much alive and Khadyr very much destroyed. And that Ididprove worthy enough to claim the Light Bearer’s crown (and lightsaber, fuck yes) after all. "Khadyr threatened to do unspeakable things to the two of you. The only way I could protect you was to leave. I didn't... I didn't know I was the Light Bearer until Khadyr told me. I thought he was an agent of the darkness, not the legit darkness itself. That was a bit of a plot twist. And I thought maybe I was some kind of agent of light. I don't know, it probably doesn’t make sense. But I needed to protect the shards." I look at Yaelyn and bite my lip. "You didn't tell me."
"I wanted to be sure. You glow, you know?"
I shrug guiltily and absorb the shards back into my chest, the glow showing through my shirt. "Might have used my chest as a flashlight to make my way around the labyrinth." Talk about headlights. I still think I prefer my little shard buddies in my chest, not crowning my head. Shit, I have so much to learn about this Light Bearer schtick.
"I thought if we told you stories of the Light Bearer, it would trigger a memory or something. But you're not Lux."
"I wish I could be. I know what she meant to you. I know you were hoping she would return."
"Oh, Mischief, no. No. Lux did mean a lot to us. We served her and we came to love her. But you? We loved you before you were the Light Bearer. Before I even suspected. And don't you dare suggest it was because you were carrying shards. We loved you before you stole the first from us. Because you... you're everything we want."
"Brave, bratty, reckless menace," Reznik breathes, and I have to duck my head to hide my tears. "Beautiful, sexy, stabby, troublemaking thief. I meant what I said when I told you to never change."
