I search the air for something else, something more useful, but Bellanca’s fire is the only other combat magic I sense. I ignore the few healers I feel, and from Frostfire, I already know that Mother’s telekinetic magic isn’t something I can use.
Turning inward, I probe myself hard, and the best I can say is that I feel my lightning lurking somewhere. It doesn’t leap to the fore. In fact, it doesn’t leap at all.
Mother smirks knowingly. “Still need that potion?”
Somehow, I smirk back. “I’m very effective with my bare hands.”
“Ah, I taught you something, then? I did try, you know. If you hadn’t been so poorly influenced by your sister, I’d have made something of you.”
Poorly influenced?Fury boils inside me. My hair starts to rise. I recognize this feeling, this storm inside, and grab on to it. A current coils down my arm and snaps between my fingers.Ha!
I throw out my hand and let a bolt fly off my fingertips.
Mother ducks. “Touched a nerve, did I?”
Despite her flippancy, she sounds rattled. I’m sure she is. And when she’s rattled, she—
Ah!Power punches my brain, and I gasp. I grab my head, just like everyone else except for Griffin. His eyes widen, and he reaches for me.
“Cat?”
I groan. It’s excruciating. I almost rip the pearls from my belt and slap them over my forehead, but I can’t do that. They’re for Little Bean, protecting her from this. I grit my teeth, fighting back.
Mother batters me—batters everyone. Is this what she’s capable of when her magic isn’t already depleted? Or when she’s not wielding it from a distance? The power is staggering. Her compulsion is a chisel pounding away at my brain, shaving off layers, each hit separating me from my will, separating me from who I want to be. I hear her over and over again in my head. She’s telling me to kill. Kill everyone around me. Kill now. Kill until there’s no one left.
Soldiers—hers, ours—turn on one another like animals. They have no hope of fighting off her horrific command.
Next to me, Flynn raises his ax, his face contorting with bloodlust and rage. The blade glints above me, and I stumble back, still clutching my hammering head.
Griffin slams into Flynn, knocking him down to protect me. The two men, fast friends since childhood and alike in size and skill, grapple with each other on the ground. Flynn rears up, still trying to attack me. Griffin’s fist collides with Flynn’s jaw. Flynn shakes off the blow and then changes target, sinking a brutal punch into Griffin’s stomach. They beat on one another again and again and then drag each other down and roll. Griffin on top. Flynn on top. The world spinning out of control.
I shake my head, trying to dislodge the terrible pain and the even more terrible command to kill. My mind throbs, and the desperate struggle against the onslaught of violent urges makes vomit surge in my throat. I’m the only one still fighting her. Griffin is immune, and he and Flynn battle in the stones and dust. Carver and Bellanca battle each other. Flames. Blades. He strikes hard. She just barely dodges, screaming savagely, completely on fire. I don’t see Lukos anymore. Where’s Kato?
I spin, and blood sprays in my face. I jerk back, my vision pulsing like a fading heartbeat. But I can still see soldiers fall, cut down by comrades, friends, and family. Brothers and sisters who came to us together, who trusted us to lead them, rip at each other’s throats, turned into vicious, mindless killers with no free will of their own.
A knife lands in my left shoulder. I grunt in pain and shock. Heat flares out from the wound. I recognize the blade. The Metal Mage must have thrown my own knife back at me. This is Fisan irony, otherwise known as vindictiveness. At least it always gets me my weapons back.
I pull it out and feel blood wash down my side. The sting in my shoulder is nothing compared to the agony in my head. If Mother didn’t have everyone else to control, I think she would have already vanquished me. I don’t know how much longer I can fight her.
Warring splotches of light and dark overwhelm my eyes, and I can’t find her anymore in the chaos. I hear Griffin roar at Flynn to snap out of it. There are grunts and hard punches. There’s Flynn snarling like a wild beast.
Where’s Kato? I can’t see!
I battle for control of my mind while fighting rages all around me. I don’t have to see it to know what’s out there—blood on hands, hate in hearts. Mindless and corrupted.
“Give in!” Mother’s ruthless command hits me with the force of a thunderclap between my ears. It’s shattering, invading, bleeding into all my edges and forcing me down the wrong path—the path I’ll never want.
Crouching down, I wrap my head in my arms. Sykouri and I are one—razed, wrecked—and Mother’s voice is the most terrible of Siren calls as it pummels me over and over. Pounding. Pounding. Pounding.
This has to end. The promise of no more pain seduces my imploding consciousness like a mirage in the desert. But that’s just what it is—a lie. Every instinct tells me that I have to fight for all I’m worth, fight for my life. I hammer at my head with the palms of my hands, trying to beat her pollution out. The darkness is too close. It’s overtaking me, inside and out. My heart resists. It’s too filled up with better things to flood with malice and hate.
I rock. I’ve been here before, and I lost myself. I lost myself to this terrifying pressure commanding me to betray myself and everyone I love. This is what Mother did to Eleni and me. She tore us apart. She made us fight like enemies, like mindless creatures in the dirt.
Not again!I explode upright, screaming. Even blinded by Mother’s crushing magic, I see Eleni with perfect clarity in my head. It’s her image that drives the shadows back. Like a ray of sunshine, her memory pierces the dark, and together, we eject Mother from my mind. In a way, my sister saves me again, and the reverse rip of power leaves me reeling as I come back to myself.
I blink, drawing my nearly fractured mind back together again. Some of the pieces feel like they don’t quite fit. It’s a struggle to make myself whole again, but I know that I can, and I know that I won. I can hardly believe it. This time, Eleni and I won.
Steadying myself, I look around at the utter devastation. Mayhem and bloodshed surround me. I may have won my battle, but I’m the only one. Everywhere else, the savagery is chaotic and loud, jarring and brutal.
