They mean to kill me.
I have no choice, so I reach for my magic. It’s there, coiled in my chest, hot and powerful and waiting to be unleashed. I pull at it, trying to draw it forth.
For a second, nothing happens.
Another guard slices his blade at me. I twist away, feeling it graze my shoulder. Blood blooms hot and wet.
I try again, pulling harder at the magic. Demanding it to obey.
Still nothing.
Panic rises in my throat. The magic is there. I can feel it. But it’s like trying to grab smoke. It slips through my mental grasp, refusing to answer my call.
It’s been dormant for too long. I don’t know how to use it anymore.
I need to calm my mind. But how?
Another guard punches me in the jaw. I double over, gasping. Another blow lands on my back, driving me to my knees.
The sword is kicked from my hand. It slides across the road, out of reach.
“Not so powerful now, are you?” One of the guards grabs my hair, yanking my head back. His face looms over mine, twisted with rage. “You deserve to die for what you’ve done. For abandoning us.” He holds his sword up high.
“Please,” I choke out. “I’m trying to make it right. I’m trying to—”
“It’s too late for that.” His blade catches the moonlight.
“You left us to her. We suffer under her rule,” the female says.
I close my eyes and my magic surges. It erupts from my chest like a dam breaking. It’s raw power that I quickly realize I have no control over. It explodes outward in every direction, a wave of pure shadow that knocks everyone back.
Guards fly through the air, their bodies ragdoll-limp. They hit the ground and the nearby trees with sickening thuds.
The shadows keep coming, pouring from me like a flood. They writhe and twist, lashing out at everything around me, intent on destroying or killing everything in their reach.
I need to stop this, but I don’t know how.
The power is too much. Too wild. It’s been caged for so long that now it’s broken free, it doesn’t want to be contained again.
I’m on the verge of panic because there is so much more inside me. I tamp down the emotion, gritting my teeth, focusing everything I have on pulling it back. On forcing it to obey. I reach for every lesson I was ever taught, and apply them now, trying hard not to panic, which will only make it worse.
I growl low.
You are mine, I think fiercely.You’re my power. You answer to me.
I push harder, imagining the shadows as extensions of myself. As limbs I can control. I picture them retreating, flowing back into me where they belong.
The shadows slowly coil back, shrinking in on themselves. They flow toward me. There’s resistance, but I hold firm.
Sweat pours down my face. My body trembles with the effort. My chest burns where the marking sits, hot enough that I’m sure it must be glowing.
I growl again, gritting my teeth as the last of the shadows disappear into my skin.
I stand there, gasping, looking at the destruction around me. Bodies lie scattered across the road and in the surrounding trees. Some of the guards are groaning. Others are struggling to stand. But most aren’t moving at all.
Goddess!What have I done?
Horror washes over me.No!I didn’t mean to.
