At least I could admit how terrifying and painful that was. At least I could admit it hurt knowing I had to be the one to do it.
It would be easy, letting him have it all. Give him the power to rule so I no longer had to. Admit to him—and myself—that I couldn’t be what the realms needed.
But there was no easy way to do it. Because it meant death.
And that wasn’t a sacrifice I was willing to make.
“Don’t you see it yet, Dante?” I asked quietly,watching as darkness closed in around us, as his tar-like magic tried to overwhelm my own. “Don’t you understand?”
The male looked at me, blood pooling in his eyes. “Understand what?” he spat, lips red, voice slurred.
Around us, the fight seemed to slow. I felt every one of my bonds move to circle us; each one a tether around my heart. Each one keeping me grounded to reality and not to the pain—or the horror—threatening to crush me.
“No one will win,” I finally said, voice low. “Not you. Not me. Not the creatures around us. There will be death regardless. There will be loss and pain and darkness. There is nothing that will make up for that.” A lump formed in my throat as his gaze cut through me. “There is nothing either of us can do to save them.”
Something shifted in his dark eyes. Not understanding, but maybe a realisation.
It was too late for that, though.
My eyes closed as waves of power rushed through me. The game of tug of war continued, spilling out around us.
My power trying to rein it all in.
His power trying to consume it all.
And the skull between us acting like a conduit, neither protecting me nor helping him.
The bone grew hot in our hands. I hissed as it became too much to handle.
Dante’s body bucked, forcing my eyes open. Through the haze, I saw blood spilling from his shoulder, the tip of a knife cutting through the fabric of his shirt.
It was a moment of distraction that I took full advantage of. I pulled my hand from his wrist and grabbed the skull, spreading my fingers atop the bone and beneath the jaw, ignoring the pain it caused.
“Let go,” I whispered, watching Dante’s eyes widen. “Or it will destroy you.”
When I looked down, his hands were black, rotting away, fingers now bone and sinew. The sight of him literally fallingapart from the power should have made me sad. Maybe even pity him.
But I felt nothing. Not as it inched up his forearms and burned away his clothes. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would drive him mad.
Another dagger cut through his body, this time through his chest. When he screamed, the sound was guttural, painful even to my ears.
But it was another shift of magic. Not towards him, but into me.
My eyes closed as I focused on my breaths, evening them calmly and pulling the magic back into my body. With each breath in, I took the flames burning the forests. The smell of smoke lightened in the air until it was nothing but a whisper on the wind. The fires surrounding the academy disappeared, doused by the magic swelling within me. The wild, magic-stoked fires coursing through Faery fizzled out one by one, leaving behind the remnants of Dante’s actions.
I pulled in the storms next, feeling the rain stop, and listened as the thunder turned to a distant echo of what it once was. The electricity in the air dampened before fleeing, and with another breath, I dissipated the storms raging across the Titan’s Channel and calmed the oceans.
On another breath, I calmed the rumbling earth. Fissures in Faery closed as the realm settled, like a giant returning to sleep. In Avalon, I closed the gaping wounds in the land so that it might heal.
In the Old World, I summoned the magic back into myself to stop the assault on what was once my realm.
When I opened my eyes, snow stopped falling in the Underworld and across the northern islands of Avalon. Ice cracked in the southern lands of the Old World and in the Summer Court.
When I sighed, Winter settled in once more.
Dante stared at me for a long moment before falling to his knees. Blood spilled from his lips, but not once did he take his hands from the skull.
“It was supposed to be mine,” he whimpered. “My power. My magic.”
