Vera visibly flinched at those words, and my heart jumped into my throat.
“But maybe you’re just as weak as the rest of them,” he growled. Tension and heat rose in tandem. The sound of Vera’s pulse thumped loudly in my ears.
“All that power, all that potential, and look at you.” Scarven finally staggered to his feet so he was face-to-face with her. “You can’t even get this right. No wonder your mother and brotherleftyou.”
Vera raised her lightning sword, flames crackling along her skin.
I lurched forward to yank Scarven a few inches back. “Vera, wait?—”
“Juststop!” she cried out, closing her eyes as her arm trembled above her head. Wind and magic surged around us in answer to her distress.
Scarven wrenched himself from my grip. He snarled in her face, spit flying from his lips. “Do it!” he roared. “Kill me!”
I threw myself to her side and wrapped a hand around her elbow. “Please, don’t?—”
She let out an ear-piercing shriek as she swung her sword at his neck.
In that split second of frozen time, the air shimmered between us. Pale hands reached out to clutch both Scarven and Vera.
Before I could blink, the three of them disappeared, taking me with them.
79
Nox
My feet hit hard ground. It was as if no time had passed, yet we were suddenly in a different place, the chaos and heat from before now replaced with cold, dank darkness.
My mind didn’t have time to catch up with the change before I saw Vera and Scarven standing across from me in the same position they were just in—him baring his teeth in her face, her with her sword stretched to his neck.
Vera’s battle cry still rang in my ears as her sword sliced through the air.
And cut Scarven’s head clean off.
“No!” I roared, eyes bulging.
Devora.
My knees slammed to the floor.
She’s dead.
The world went gray, my vision going in and out as I saw her lifeless blue-green eyes staring up at me from Scarven’s severed head. I saw his blood as the rushing red waves of her hair, saw her body crumple in the reflection of Vera’s sword.
My entire heart was torn from my chest, the pain so visceral I couldn’t draw breath.
“What”— I gasped out, hands digging into the stone—“have youdone?”
My sister dropped her sword. She stared down at her hands, eyes wide and full of horror. “Nox, I—I’m so sorry?—”
“I have to get to her.” My voice was distant, echoing around my head. “I have to find her.”
I summoned my dragon, only to be met with a wall of silence. Then I realized my magic had been completely snuffed out, leaving a hollow pit deep in my chest. Confusion swarmed me. Why was my magic not working? Where was I?
Where is she?
More footsteps clattered around me, and I whirled to find Arowyn standing several feet above. I slowly began to recognize our surroundings—the trapdoor in the ground, the stone steps leading to the surface, the hay bunched at her feet.
We were at the entrance to the Hollow. The stables where Devora and I had rescued those prisoners almost three weeks ago.
