“You forget who you are talking to, Isla. Nothing happens by chance. You may not be susceptible to Sebastian’s abilities, but those men who attacked your father and brother—theywere not so difficult. Why don’t you tell her, Sebastian, darling?”
Isla swore time stopped. Blood pounded beneath her flesh like a drum. Slowly, Isla turned to the man behind her.
“I manipulated the men on the road to attack your family as they traveled. It made sure you would be near the Aataran Mountains since I couldn’t influence you directly.” Sebastian’s words were hollow, and his throat bobbed as he finished.
“And then, he appeared to your lovely Rynn here.” Celesine gestured at Rynn, whose brows furrowed in confusion. “Sebastian compelled him to descend from his cave at the same time you were coming across the savage lot at the campsite, then made him forget he’d seen him. Once you were together, the rest happened rather naturally.”
Isla couldn’t breathe. “But—you didn’t have to hurt myfamily! You could have just made Rynn come find me in Lockhurt!” Her father’s injuries…it had all been because of her. Because this twisted immortal neededher. Her chest tightened and tears of anger pricked the backs of her eyes.
“I do not relish harming innocents, but it gave you a reason to work with the elementals,” Celesine said. “Would you have believed Rynn if he came to you claiming to be this mythical being? Of course not. You had to have proper motivation, a common goal to work toward. The five of you desperately desired to stop the ‘dark god’—thatisrather catchy, I’ll admit—and you wanted to protect your family, which brought you to the prophecy and the dagger. With a little nudge in the right direction from myself, of course.”
Celesine had been behindeverymove: the raids and attacks among kingdoms, her finding the elementals, even her family being hurt. How had they been so blind? They played right into her hands.
And Sebastian was simply another pawn. He’d been one for far longer than any of them. Isla had figured it out andstillhadn’t been able to prevent this moment.
“How did your control over Sebastian work?” Isla blurted before she could stop herself. “Was everything he has said and done for the past two years all really you?”
Celesinetsked. “Has someone grown to care for the poor king? I wonder what your Rynn has to say about that.” She smiled at Rynn, who tried to take a step forward before his leg gave out and Aidan had to pull him back up with a grunt.
“Don’t look at them,” Isla growled, an errant flame sparking at her fingers. “Answer the question.”
Celesine bristled. “At first, I appeared to Sebastian to promise him riches and contentment for his kingdom. Which was true—that has always been my deepest desire, but I needed to wipe the world of the elementals and assume their roles myself. Once I gained his trust, it was too easy to break his mind to what I needed him to be: a vicious, apathetic ruler, who would stop at nothing to find the dagger and who could be convincing enough to serve as the foe from the prophecy.
“There were times when he struggled against it. Tried to rid himself of my influence.” Isla watched on high alert as the spirit elemental drifted past her to where Sebastian stood, running a finger through his light hair and down his pale jaw. “That was why he showed up in the mountains that day. Hoping he could weaken my hold on him. It almost worked; it took more of my power than I thought it would to appear in physical formandfight him off. I was weakened, and he very nearly broke loose. Even now, he fights me. It’s intriguing: he fought the strongest when he was with you.” She turned back to Isla and cocked her head to the side. “Does that bring you comfort, Isla? Do you have peace knowing his deeds were not his own? That you got through to some part of him that wanted to overcome me, to fight, to protect you?” She jeered at Isla, whose heart picked up speed.
“Celesine, I…I thought you cared about us.” Jade’s voice shook, and Isla felt her pain like it was her own. She couldn’t imagine discovering the vile truths of someone she’d put her entire trust in for thousands of years.
For a moment, Celesine’s face softened. She strode to Jade and gently took her hands. “I did. But I care for the good of this world more, and you are not what the realm needs, darling. You have failed. I will not.”
Isla saw Jade break, her heart shattered in the palms of this dark spirit that had ruined them all. Isla’s fury on behalf of these beings whom she’d grown to love kindled inside her like a raging inferno.
“And you thinkyou’rewhat this world needs?” She rounded on Celesine, the elements singing in her indignation. “You’re nothing but a selfish, manipulative immortal who felt so insignificant that you were willing to tear apart kingdoms to get what you wanted. Tell me, how is that any better than what you claim these four have done?” Isla ranted, her elements bubbling passionately. Sebastian touched her spine again in warning, but she shrugged him off as she stalked toward the spirit witch, her sights set on her prey. The huntress and the hunted.
“They’ve existed in this world for millennia, and while they’ve made mistakes, they’ve also done more for the kingdoms than you could ever accomplish. They’ve walked among humans, experienced firsthand what the people of this world need to survive, and have provided for them, time and time again.” Isla waved a hand at the others. “They decided to forfeit their lives because they saw the mistakes they’d made and wanted to make things right. Wouldyouhave been able to do that? They’ve fought and—and hoped andloved. The true elementals are more fit to dwell in this world than you’ll ever be.”
Celesine’s eyes snapped to Isla, the purple of her irises now a swirling storm. “Beautiful sentiments, darling, but it doesn’t make a difference. You have actually made this much easier for me. Instead of dealing with all of them, I must only worry aboutyou. You, whose veins hold the power of not one, not two, but all four elements of nature.” In a heartbeat, Celesine was inches from Isla’s face, her cheeks grasped in the spirit elemental’s long nails. “What does it feel like? To harness the power of the gods in your mortal form?” Her soft voice slithered across Isla like oil.
“You’ll never find out,” Isla whispered back, before summoning her anger and sending a blade of fire straight into the elemental’s chest.
Chapter Sixty-One
Isla
Aburstofdarkpurple energy shot from Celesine’s hands, easily blocking the attack. Then, shelaughed. As if Isla had thrown nothing more than a burning stick at her.
“You might be brave, Isla, but you are out of your depth.”
Isla didn’t know how to control these new abilities. She could think quickly on her feet when carrying a weapon made of steel, but this? It was like her body was trying to speak a different language, like trying to cup her hands in an ocean and watching water slip through the cracks of her fingers. It wasthere, but she didn’t know how to fully grasp it. She was surviving on instincts alone, and that was no match for the spirit elemental. There were no tricks up her sleeve, no backup plan. There was only her.
Celesine sensed her uncertainty, and her red lips curved upward. Without warning, violet shadows leaked from her palms and hurled toward Isla. A shot of fear so potent jolted through Isla’s body, and her immediate reaction was to hold her hands up to cover her face.
Nothing happened. The power strike didn’t touch Isla. Something tugged at her core and through the gap between her hands, she saw a wall of sand shielding her, the particles packed together so tightly that she couldn’t see past it.
Sebastian’s voice came from her back. “Isla, I can help you—” But he was cut off by Celesine’s frustrated grunt right before a force slammed into Isla’s wall of sand so powerfully that it crumbled at her feet.
Panicking, she thought back to what the elementals did during their battle and tried to envision the same vines Jade had used. She pleaded with the earth through her mind, searching for that same pull in her stomach she had felt before. To her surprise, thick vines snaked from the ground with ease, winding their way around Celesine’s small body as if they had a mind of their own.
With a smirk that chilled Isla to her core, the female simply disappeared in a flash of purple light.
