Magic flew from Aleks’s free hand, silver-violet and dangerously precise. It wrapped around Phantom and immediately began constricting, strangling away the shadows surrounding his form. Once those shadows were gone, the ropes of magic didn’t stop; they only wrapped around the solidness underneath, squeezing into Phantom’s body until he was forced to shift into something smaller in a desperate, clumsy attempt to squirm out of reach.
The sight of him struggling brought me quickly to my feet. I swung at Aleks without any thought of holding back, causing his magic to scatter as his focus shifted to parrying.
Phantom lay still, whimpering, even as the magic around him dissipated. Each pained cry sent another shot of heat through my blood, driving me into increasingly ruthless attacks.
Again and again, Aleks met my furious blows, until the sound of clashing steel entirely filled the small space, and a particularly sharpclangbrought me back to my senses.
I kept attacking, but not at full force; I was merely trying to distract him for as long as I could—long enough to figure out what the hell I was going to do next.
But it soon became impossible to merely defend; he was swinging harder and harder, forcing me to do the same if I wanted to avoid ending up on the ground beside Phantom.
“Aleks, stop!”
He didn’t stop.
More magic burst from his palm, curling around my shadows, choking them into submission.
I stumbled, once again knocked off balance by the unsettling sensation of my magic being absorbed by his. As I struggled to regain my footing, he struck toward my grip on Grimnor, trying to disarm me. I sidestepped, but not fast enough; his blade sliced across my fingers.
The sword slipped from my grasp. He followed his attack with an elbow to my face, forcing me to abandon my weapon and stagger backward.
The pain was blinding.
Aleks considered the blood dripping from my hand with a cold, detached expression. Then he turned and walked away, reaching for the pieces he’d been instructed to collect.
I clutched my bleeding hand to my chest.
My heart pounded in my throat.
Something ancient and primal rose within me. An instinct I couldn’t suppress, reminding me of who I was.WhatI was. I was Death. Darkness. One half of a cycle that could not be broken, no matter what it took to preserve it. No matter what it cost.
The man before me was a threat to that cycle.
And I had to make himstop.
He picked up the first shard.
The magic that exploded from my body in the next instant was unlike anything I’d ever summoned before. Shadows completely filled the chamber, and I was aware and in control of every last tendril of them.
I hadn’t simply summoned the darkness, Iwasthe darkness. A primordial beast with enough awareness to send a single, precise shadow snaking toward the one threatening my purpose, my power. That snaking shadow wrapped around the shard Aleks held and ripped it from his hold.
The other shard was swooped up just as easily, and both were dropped into my physical hands a moment later. My fingers closed around them with poise and purpose beyond my understanding—another instinct leading me to squeeze tighter and tighter.
They shattered.
White light streaked into the darkness I’d created, blinding bolts cutting jagged lines across the shadows. At first, they seemed at odds with one another. But soon they were twisting into a unified whole, light and dark becoming inseparable.
The maelstrom of magic billowed around me, dark clouds flashing with occasional bursts of brightness. I stood perfectly still in the center of it all, feeling oddly serene as the storm whipped at my hair and clothing, lashing against my skin with a violence that felt like it was permanently branding me. Reshaping me.
When it finally settled, it was like emerging into an entirely new world. One the gods had only just birthed from the chaos. Power thrummed through every fiber of my being. All of my senses were heightened.
I caught sight of Aleks backing away from me, no sign of his magic—corrupted or otherwise—visible across his skin.
But I couldn’t focus on him for long.
Because Lorien Blackvale had just appeared beside him, his body as solid as mine.
Not a ghost.
