Twirling her hand, a translucent containment dome encircled them in a wide berth. It hummed with gold light as static prickled gently against her skin. No magic would be sensed outside of it. Dyna slid into a defensive stance and her hands flickered green, but she hesitated.
Lucenna clenched her teeth. “Istolefrom you, and yet you don’t fight? Pathetic.”
She thrust out a spell and struck Dyna, sending her crashing across the forest. Cassiel bellowed in rage.
“Lucenna,” Zev roared, his yellow eyes blazing. “Stop!”
With a snap of Lucenna’s fingers, purple mist wrapped around their mouths. Dyna rose to her knees, wincing in pain as she clutched her bleeding arm. She needed to stand when things were hard. To fight and not back down. Lucenna waited for her to counterattack, to do something.Fight me!
But she only wobbled to her feet and did nothing else.
Lucenna shook her head in disgust. “You’re right, Dyna. You’re a soft and scared little girl. A sorceress cannot afford to hesitate. She cannot afford to be careless or to trust anyone, or she would die.”
She attacked with a purple blast, and Dyna hit the ground with a cry. Gods, she didn’t block or even dodge. The spelled bindings muffled the men’s furious responses, but Lucenna read the hate in their eyes, the need to rip her apart. They didn’t understand why she was doing this. None of them did. They didn’t know the injustice in the Magos Empire or how easily the powerless were crushed.
She was done being helpless, and done seeing it in others.
“You have always had someone there to protect you, didn’t you, Dyna? A big strong man to take the blows for you. To fight for you. Kill for you. Well, I have taken them away. Now what will you do?”
Tears glistened in Dyna’s eyes. “Why are you doing this?”
“The time for crying is over. Get off the ground.”
“Tell me why.”
“Get. Up. Stand on your feet, or I will break your legs and leave you here.”
Dyna pushed off the ground and faced her, clenching her fists. Finally, some sign of anger.
“I taught you how to use magic,” Lucenna said. “I gave you the lessons. I showed you how to reach it so you may protect yourself and those you care for, yet it sits uselessly in your hands. You don’t deserve to have the journal.”
She cast out another Essence Blast.
Dyna rolled out of the way, barely evading the attack. “Is that it, then?” she demanded. “Now you have it, and all we went through means nothing to you?”
It meant a lot more than Lucenna had let herself see, but it was there, raw and new. A kinship grown over shared days of training and a mutual understanding of loss. But she refused to let that show on her face. Dyna didn’t understand what this was about. She would have to be ripped out of her. It was the only way she could survive this world.
Lucenna said, laying a hand over the Luna Medallion. “I told you from the beginning,no onewill stand in my way. I know what I’m fighting for. Do you?”
Dyna scowled. “I fight for my village.”
She chuckled dryly. “No. You wish and pray you can save them while hoping for luck to help you. When things get hard, you drown in your panic and wait for the others to rescue you.”
Her face flushed red. “That’s not true.”
“Say it again and mean it. Why are you here?”
Dyna blinked, taken back by the question. “The Shadow—”
“Why are you here?” she repeated, circling her.
Dyna’s boots scuffed in the dirt as she turned with her, keeping her in view. “I told you. To save my sister from the Shadow.”
“Stop lying to me.” She threw another spell.
But Dyna thrust out her power, and the spells clashed in an explosion of light, knocking Lucenna back a few paces. “I’m telling the truth!”
She laughed, surprised by the counter and the claim. “You have lied to yourself so much you believe it.”
