Her gaze shifted to Kalon’s once more. “Stay here. Your magic is almost gone. We’ll end this.”
Her wings splayed wide, and she took to the skies again, allowing her magic to churn and darken the horizon, blocking the slivers of sunlight that tried to break past the eclipse far above.
The Corvids flew around her.
To the ground. They need your help.
The Corvids descended as one, all shifting into their human forms and fighting against the monsters below. Fire charred the massive beasts as Elco dove down.
Lightning began, once more, to rain from the sky, striking the demonic beasts in deathly blows.
Silence follows bloodshed.
Victory doesn’t shout from the rooftops; it gently releases a long-held breath. It amplifies your senses, making the most minute sounds the loudest, like the distant chirping of a bird or the soft crunch of gravel as someone you love steps by your side.
Seda looked up into Cahir’s emerald gaze, at the green blood soaking his shirt, and released a ragged cry as she wrapped her arms around him carefully. She could feel how drained her magic was, like the last drop of water trying to drip from an empty glass. Tears of joy and exhaustion slipped free as she pressed her ear to Cahir’s chest and listened to the soft thumping of his heart below, steady and strong.
They did it. They defeated the Monster King and his malevolent power over the land.
They finally possessed the Dark Stone, the Stone ofPower.
She closed her eyes as Cahir gently placed a warm hand at the nape of her neck, holding her close, then leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
She opened her eyes to see her friends and what was left of her family surrounding her.
They were alive.
A whimper escaped her lips when her eyes landed on Elco, and she slowly pulled away from Cahir and walked toward the one friend in her many lives who had stuck by her side the longest. He was the guardian of the mortal realm, the keeper below the stars, part of her divinefamily, and together they brought peace once more to their world.
“Thank you, Elco,” she said into his inky mane.
“Look around you,” he said in response, and she pulled away, looking through the destroyed streets of Joro at the hundreds of Corvids, waiting for her command.
Roya stood closest, and she bent down on one knee, placing a hand over her heart and the other toward the still-heavy moon in the sky.
“To the Guardian of the Celestial Vault! The Bearer of Moonlight, and our angel,The Corvid Queen! ” Roya shouted.
Like a vast wave flowing through the ocean, the hundreds of Corvids lining the city streets followed, bowing before her and chanting her name.
It was then that she began to feel the quiet happiness take root in her heart. It was then that she pulled the Stone of Power from her pocket and held it aloft as a symbol of hope, smiling as everyone cheered around her.
And it was then that Feich emerged out of thin air, stabbing into her chest with a claw sharpened like a blade, and stole the stone from her hand.
“This belongs to Supay,” he shouted, his eyes flashing crimsonas the dark power surged through him. He quickly disappeared, vanishing out of sight.
The very last of her magic surged through her, a violent storm rumbling across the skies as she tried to strike back, but that last drop of water fell from its cup, landing onto the parched earth below.
Seda collapsed to her knees as she heard the echoes of chaos surrounding her, felt the earth shake from Elco’s mighty roar, and saw shadows begin to blur her vision before she closed her eyes to nothingness.
She had, for the first time, depleted all of her magic.
Chapter 51
Ael
When her body fell to the ground, it felt like Ael’s world had ended.
Both he and Kalon had rushed to her side, and Ael fought the urge to push him away, biting the inside of his cheek in irritation.
