And we were doing nothing but feeding him, I realized suddenly.
“This is not you. Cruach is using you.” I entreated, and something sparked in his eyes at my words, enough to push me on. “He is pushing you because the more blood you spill, the more blood magic you use, the more the balance tips toward chaos. It will free him if it goes too far. But we can stop it now. We can save this realm instead of damn it.”
Cyrus watched me carefully during my plea, but once I was done speaking, his eyes went right past me to Calix. My shoulders slumped in defeat. Whatever spark of something worth saving that had once existed within him had been snuffed out. There would be no reasoning with him.
I’d worked hard to see this battle objectively and not let my rage and fear for Cyrus’s past actions influence me too much. To work for the betterment of the realm and my people instead of letting my emotions lead me. It was the only reason I bothered to try talking to him. And now, that familiar rage as Cyrus so easily dismissed me, lit a fire within my heart.
“Is this what he’s told you? That I’ll damn this realm?” He laughed, and it echoed weirdly, making me straighten in alarm.
Lightning cracked overhead, and I watched in horror as he summoned more blood magic, more and more lightning surrounding him until his form was lost in the sea of blue bolts. It crackled and popped, the sound loud enough to drown out the battle around us.
I summoned my starlight and threw it right at him, but it did nothing but dissolve against the bolts. These were no regular bolts of lightning, but fueled by more blood magic than one man should ever hold.
The sky above us crackled, and I looked up in horror as a storm began to form. Ominous black clouds streaked with pink began to gather in a swirling cyclone, nearly blocking the sun entirely. It looked like night had fallen, and in the shadow of the sky, I could just make out Luna’s form up as it appeared above. She and Zhu now both occupying the sky in this weird in-between we’d found ourselves in, where the sun and moon were both visible at once.
“Cyrus!” I yelled, running forward with my sword drawn. Determined to end this while rage swirled at my fingertips in flecks of starlight.
“Asteria, no!” Calix yelled frantically, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me back against him. “If you try to go through that, you’ll be fried to a crisp. I willnotlet you die, you hear me?” he demanded with a growl, turning me to face him.
I nodded slowly, but looked up with a gulp, watching the sky. Calix began to gather his darkness around us, trying to block Cyrus off.
It was good timing, too, as the power around Cyrus suddenly exploded, his scream from the epicenter of the explosion echoing out around him.
“Down!” Titan screamed behind us, and Calix took me to the ground hard. A puff of air left my lips from the impact, and I struggled to look up to see what was happening.
Lightning hit at random all around us. Buildings were struck and caught fire immediately; bodies fell where they were standing when hit. The bolts were indiscriminate. Friend or foe didn’t matter.
I watched as Lord Darcel, one of Dusk’s lords that I used to spy on when he visited the court, was struck mid-battle, his sword falling from his hand where he had it raised to strike. He clutched his chest for a moment before his eyes glazed over, and he crumpled to the cobblestone. One of Cyrus’s own allies, the Lord of Asphodel and head of House Ceirin, now lay dead on a dirty city street.
Oh. Fuck.
Looking back toward Cyrus, I noticed a bolt headed right for us. I summoned all my magic, joining it to Calix’s to form a protective shield around us. Knowing we were strongest together. I jumped as the bolt struck the barrier, the tip sizzling as it tried to work through the magic.
Calix helped me up from the ground and to my feet, moving me out of the way of the lightning bolt. But I wouldn’t let go of the magic, determined to see if I could stop it.
The bolt continued to crack and pop, the blue streak fueled by an outrageous amount of blood magic, making me sweat as I tried to keep it at bay.
I looked up to find Cyrus watching me, his eyes glowing a bright blue to match his magic. It was eerie, and completely unnatural. His hair was tossed around by the storm, and I watched as he twirled a finger, making the dark clouds circle above him. Loud rumbles of thunder and blue streaks of lightning flashed within the clouds, and as the bolt I was facing sizzled out, he sent the force of his storm straight at Calix.
I grabbed Calix’s hand and lifted our joint palms up, our own storm of shadow and starlight meeting his in a crash of power that reverberated in the air around us. Then I let go of Calix’s hand.
“Hold it!” I told him, panting as I ran forward and held my magic up with his at the same time.
Cyrus looked surprised as I twirled my sword mid-run, heading straight at him. He didn’t want to hurt me, and I would use that advantage. No one else could get close to him like I could. He’d use his depraved magic to kill them, but me… he wanted me at his feet, and that would never happen if I was dead.
I raised my blade and struck down at him. He raised his sword to block the blow with a raised brow.
“I don’t want to fight you, Asteria,” he said seriously, that strange echo distorting his voice.
“Too bad,” I growled, rage running through my veins like blood at this point, sparking the fire inside me and making my skin shimmer with starlight. “You want to let Cruach use you, go ahead. I would personally never lower myself to being someone’s tool. It’s the same reason I refused to bed you, after all.”
His snarl was fierce as he flew at me furiously. Our blades crashed together, and I spun around him quickly, coming up behind him and aiming for his heart. But the damn blood magic had made him faster, and he turned too quickly, leaving me to stab his shoulder instead.
Cyrus paused in complete stun as I pulled my blade out. He reached down to touch the blood before bringing his fingers up before his eyes. He looked back at me with a hurt betrayal that he didn’t deserve to feel.
It only made me angrier, and I tried once more to stab him through the heart, but his blade hit mine harder than I expected, and my sword flew from my hand. He reached down like he was about to grab me by the scruff of the neck, and I rolled quickly out of the way, springing up and grabbing my sword on the way.
Calix came up behind me while Cyrus stalked forward, all of us poised on the edge as we braced to attack. My anticipation had my heart racing in my chest, until I was nearly shaking with it. But then… everything stopped.
