The ground rushes up towards us.
Summoning every last smidgen of magic I have left, I create a black flame of despair and slam it right into Jessina’s chest.
She cries as hopelessness and despair flood her entire soul. A vicious snarl twists my mouth. Because this is the final thing I want her to feel before she leaves this world. All-consuming, endless despair. I increase it until it’s all she feels. Until there is nothing left inside me to give. And like a pure fucking villain, I drink in the sight of the hope dying in her eyes as she drowns in a black sea of despair.
The arm blocking mine wavers as tears pour from her eyes.
I yank up my hand.
And slam my dagger right into Jessina’s heart.
We crash into the ground.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Pain explodes through my abdomen. It’s so violent that my vision blacks out. For a few seconds, my mind cannot comprehend what just happened. Then I stare down into Jessina’s pale gray eyes.
Tears of despair still roll down her cheeks, but agony now fills her entire face as well. She coughs blood into my face. Then her body jerks underneath mine. Once. Twice.
Revenge and relief crash over me like a flood as her body goes still.
I memorize every second as her eyes at last glass over.
And so dies Empress Jessina Iceheart.
In pain and despair.
And with my blade, stained by fish guts, buried in her heart.
I scream in victory.
But only broken wheezing and blood escape my mouth.
Shifting my gaze down, I at last take in the source of the agony that is pulsing through my body like wildfire.
When we hit the ground, I drove my dagger into Jessina’s heart. But because I was on top of her, the hilt slammed right intomy own abdomen due to the force of the impact. I pry my fingers from the hilt, but the top part of it is still stuck in my abdomen.
With a cry of desperation, I manage to yank my body back. But my legs don’t move when I try to crawl off her. Everything inside me hurts so much that I can barely feel anything at all. The impact must have shattered half of the bones in my body and damaged most of my organs.
With a wheeze, I simply roll over. I hit the grass on my back and gasp in a strained breath right at the same time as Draven smacks into the ground.
Black smoke washes over the landscape, obscuring the sky for a moment.
“SELENA!” Draven screams.
It’s a scream torn from his very soul, and raw enough to break the heavens.
Winds wash over me, clearing the smoke. And then Draven becomes visible. His face is white with terror as he rushes over to me. Grabbing Jessina by the dress, he tosses her corpse away and drops down next to me.
In the sky above, the silver dragons have jerked to a shocked halt. Around them, white and red dragons are casting panicked looks between us and the rest of our army. And somewhere to the right, a large orange dragon is speeding through the air.
Then the view is blocked out entirely as Draven bends down over me.
“Selena,” he presses out, fear pulsing in his eyes.
Agony courses through my entire body, and all I manage is a strained groan of pain.
Tilting his head up, Draven bellows, “Rin! Hurry!”
