Seth pulls harder.
Riley’s magic spreads farther.
And somewhere in the chaos, something is about to break.
Chapter 53
Bree
Breathe.
One of you. Please.
The word isn’t mine—I don’t know if I think it or whisper it—but it breaks the silence between screams.
Movement on the ridge.
A cluster of Feeders surge toward Marcus—three of ours who were supposed to be retreating. They hit him before he can react, teeth bared, Ether sparking wild.
His concentration shatters.
The binding on mesnaps.
The world slams back in all at once—sound, heat, pain. My lungs drag in air like I’ve been drowning. The mist surges around my feet, wild and uncontrolled.
But it’s already too late.
Ethos feels it at the same time.
His head jerks, silver bleeding out of his eyes. He turns toward the wall—toward Seth—and realization twists his face from calm to fury.
“No,” he snarls, and the word hits like an earthquake.
He charges.
Seth doesn’t run.
The Void is still coiling from his hand, black threads laced with silver dragging Ethos’s light with it. For one heartbeat it looks like he might actually win.
Then Ethos reaches him.
One hand closes around Seth’s throat and lifts.
Effortless. Like he’s nothing.
The sound Seth makes isn’t fear—it’s defiance—but it’s cut off fast. The Void flickers. The silver dies.
My knees hit the ground.
The Ether tries to rise with me, to fight, to dosomething—but it scatters, wild and useless. The mist writhes around my feet, reaching toward him, but it can’t cross the distance.
I can’t move.
Can’t breathe.
I’ve spent every moment since the crown swearing I’d never be powerless again.
And now I’m watching the two of them—light and shadow, both mine in different ways—destroy each other.
