When she claps his hands, the light between them turns a gorgeous, rich blue, like the color of a deep lagoon. It’s surprisingly alluring and I nearly take a step out of line before I stop myself, watching carefully as waves crash in the beam of light that rises above them, revealing a squall that resembles a tropical storm.
Koda winces when Crone’s purifying white light hits his chest, almost as if he has more to cleanse than his siblings, but he maintains his balance, not waiting for the lights to fade before he strides back to his place in the line.
Finally, Crone steps in front of me, and it’s my turn for purification.
Whether I’m ready for it or not.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Crone’s eyes darken as she stares up at me where we stand opposite each other.
Like the other royals, I’m tall and physically strong. I’m also smart enough to know that physical strength means nothing when facing a being as powerful as Crone. Tonight alone, she has used her energy to draw out and purify the royals’ power. It’s scary to think of what else she can do, though I suspect that some of her current power comes from her role as interim leader.
“Nova,” she all but purrs in a voice filled with contempt.
The crowd’s whispers grow louder out there in the darkness, and behind me, my wolves shift forward as if they’re preparing to attack if needed. I splay my fingers at my side, a stop sign, hoping they will remain calm. I have to get through this if I’m to have any chance of freeing my sisters.
“Are you ready for purification?” Crone asks me, and it doesn’t escape my notice that she fails to refer to me as the third daughter of Jareth, or to ask me if I’m ready to fight for the chance to rule Pyra-Mortem.
I don’t give a shit about the insult to my lineage—my family name is my mother’s, and that’s the one I’ll always claim—but I do care that she’s diminishing my royal status in front of the crowd. Underestimating me is fine, and can even work to my advantage, but not if I’m dismissed altogether.
“Yes,” I say.
She blinks at my blunt response, and although she waits for me to expand on my answer, she’s forced to continue when I don’t. “The power of nightmares is passive with active components. Wielded by one who has no idea how to control its strength.”
I don’t respond to the barbs in her speech. She wants to shame me, but it’s her actions that will affect me.
She holds her hands out to me, and I see the challenge in her features, but I don’t hesitate.
I grab her hands. As soon as our palms connect, the initial white light bursts up between us. I choke on a gasp at the burning heat that fills me. It starts at my toes and shoots through every part of my body, streaming into my mind. Invasive. Controlling.
Crone’s energy slides through me at the same time, her power riffling through my thoughts, prodding within my physical form.
My wolf rises up, her energy striking back as soon as Crone gets close to her, but Crone chuckles in a hard way. “You must not fight me, Nova, or this will be much more difficult than it needs to be.”
Calm,I tell my wolf again, and even though she doesn’t like it, she pulls her claws back and allows Crone to find the part of me that holds my nightmare power.
Crone drags my demon power up toward the surface of my body, wrenching it so fiercely that I have to fight against the urge to shove her away, to push back against her power.
The fire filling my body is intense and painful, but this aggressive method of stealing my energy makes me grit my teeth. I barely hold back a string of curses and the need to fight.
With a final heave, so much harder than Crone appeared to use with the other royals, she draws my energy out.
My power screams.
A literal, piercing sound that throws Crone back from me as if she were hit with a physical force, her cry bouncing around me as though my power burnedher. Terrified shrieks rise from the crowd as a mass of midnight purple and black fills the air around us, spilling so far that the other royals jump out of the way. Only my demon wolves stand firm, their eyes glowing violet, their bodies on fire in my vision like burning onyx.
The space above us fills with the most horrifying and grotesque images I’ve ever seen… of blood, death, torture, loss, violence, pain… so confronting that I can’t breathe.
And it’s not only the images, but the energy that follows, a cold terror that seems to grip every demon around me, their rapid heartbeats drumming in my ears along with their screams. I’m suddenly drawn to the pulse at the base of Crone’s neck, the way it pounds—the way the images have expanded across the entire crowd, so many that they blur into each other as if these fears belong to those who are watching me now.
“Abomination!” Crone snarls, bracing and righting herself before she slams the next burst of white light into me. It wipes through my body like a cleansing stream, taking the fire away.
I slump with relief. The Purification is finished.
But another fear fills me.
Even though the purification light fades, the nightmare power continues to swirl above us, thickening over the crowd in such a way that they’re cowering now. It’s growing larger, and I blink at it, not sure why it’s still manifesting. Definitely uncertain about what I’m supposed to do to return it to me.
