I sucked power up from my well, from that place far below, where light never reached.
Where something waited.
Terror? Evil?
No.
It wasme.
I gathered it up and bunched it together, adding to it while he continued to suck away at thetop of my well, guzzling it down like a beast at the throat of its prey.
His eyes opened, meeting mine, and his smile was so treacherous, it made everything inside me quake.
“No,” I whispered, then louder. “No.” I didn’t shout. There was no need to, because . . .
. . . I was the one in control here.
A touch of fear cratered his face, and his eyes blazed with the realization of what I’d just discovered.
“No more,” I said. “Nevermore.”
He reeled away from me, his arms flinging upward, a bleat of terror erupting from his throat.
I hurtled my power at him, and it scorched across the floor in white-hot fury.
Tracking him.
Finding him.
His guttural cry jerked out of him as my power sliced up the front of his body. When it reached his chest, it turned inward, gouging all the way through to his spine. I swore I heard it crackle as he toppled backward, dead before he hit the floor.
“Release me,” I snarled, and the vines retreated, snapping away and cowering as they slithered back into the tile by my feet. They whimpered apologies as if commanded by a master. With a feral grin, I rose and sedately walked over to stand over the high advisor’s carcass.
“Come now,” I whispered. “Don’t you have something to say about what I just did?” I cocked my head as if listening, but he was past speaking or harming anyone else again. My shrill laugh rang out until I banked it. Stunned it. “I didn’t think so.”
One blast of power turned him to a pile of ashes.
Idid not need to make a dragon do something like that for me.
I pivoted and strode across the room and up to Ivenrail’s cracked-open bedroom door. My hand did not shake as I eased the panel open, and my legs didn’t quiver as I stepped inside and closed the door gently behind me.
At my command, a cloth sack appeared in my hand.
I turned left and quickly made my way around the darkened room. I didn’t generate light, because none was needed. I knew what I’d come for, and I took it.
I gently placed the twisted, thorn-adorned crown inside my bag. No more would he smirk as he stared at something belonging to Lydel.
The fairy still twitched where she’d been pinned to the wax, and with a gentle tug, I drew out the tiny spear, tossing it aside. I closed my eyes and held my hand over her as she lay there, stunned and gasping for breath.
A burst of my power healed her.
She rose to her feet, barely taller than my index finger, and she looked up at me in wonder.
Blessed,she whispered in my mind.I will not forget.Look, and you will finally see. We all perch on the cusp and can fall either way. I know you will choose wisely when you, too, stand on the edge of the blade.
A blink, and she disappeared.
I placed the whispering shards of broken mirror inside my bag. I’d decide what to do with them later.
