“Cas,” I hear Kel breathe from within the net.
“Shall I deal with him for you?” Faustrius asks.
Sira waves him, Quellos, and the whip-wielding underfae down. “No. I shall remind my son of his manners.” Shadows curl under her feet, rising like a tide. “What a funny little boy you are.You’ve always been petulant. Lazy even, throwing parties and dallying with anything that breathed. I ignored these wastes of your talent because I knew one thing above all.”
“What was that?” I snarl.
She smiles, though it can hardly be called that. More like a baring of fangs. “You love your family above all, Caspian.”
I look to the net, to Rose, Kel, Farron, Ez, and Dayton trapped within. Then up to Sira. Shadows flare across my blade as I stand in attack position. “You’re right about that. There’s nothing you can do to me now. She was braver than I was. She’s escaped you.”
“She?” Sira twirls shadows around her hands as if winding ribbon. “You’re talking about that little wretch Wrenley? Why do you care so much? She’s not your real sister!”
“She’s more my family than you ever were.”
“I am yourmother,” she hisses.
I step forward. “A meaningless word. You wanted a legacy? Children? You won’t have one. I’ll die, Wrenley will die, before we serve you again.”
“How dare you speak to me like this?” Sira’s voice cracks, and she screeches as if the words have any power over me: “I am yourmother!”
“It’s just a word. It’s not love.” My gaze drifts to the net. At one point, every single person in that net wanted to kill me. Well, everyone except Rosie, though I think she’s fancied slugging me on occasion. Through them, I learned things deemed impossible in the Below. Things like forgiveness. Compassion.
Redemption.
“I know who my real family is. And I’ll protect them from you at all costs,” I say.
Silence bellows through the chamber. There’s only the belch of lava below. Sira’s shadows stop curling. Her dark eyes fill with tears. She doesn’t wipe them away as they stream down her face.
Her tears are as dangerous as any dagger.
“My sweet boy, you think these surface-born are your family? Keldarionbetrayedyou. The rest let you be exiled and humiliated. And thegirl?” She spits the last word. “She has Aurelia’s blood. I thought Aurelia was my friend too once. But she’ll grow jealous of your power. They all will. They’ll resent you for what you can do. You’ll have to kill them before the end, sweet boy. And when you do, you’ll be glad for it.”
“Never!” I can’t take her poison anymore. Sheknowsthe darkness I see in my mind. The Green Flame swallowing Rosie, Kel, the rest. Me standing in a field of silent skeletons that once laughed with me. I won’t let the poison win.
Briars crack out of the stone, propelling me. With a downward swing, I slice through the netting, then surge at Sira.
My friends erupt like a stampede. Ezryn sprints to Kairyn, heaving his arms under the massive passed-out man and pulling him back toward the passageway. Dayton and Rosie round on Faustrius. Golden briars pierce through the stone, hovering above him, snakes ready to strike.
“We don’t have to do this,” Rosalina says lowly. “We can work together.”
Faustrius raises his giant black sword. “Our fate has been written since we fell from the stars.”
Flames lick Farron’s heels as he runs at an incredible speed toward Perth Quellos. Aquila throws her spear, which tangles in his legs, tripping him.
Farron cries out, “Kill him, Kel! Don’t let him get away! Kill him!”
Frost crackles in the heat as two massive ice spears appear in both of Kel’s hands. “This has been a long time coming, Quellos.”
Quellos dons a large metal gauntlet. “Indeed it has, Keldarion. The only thing you’ve ever wanted all these years isto make your father proud. But now I’ll be the one making him proud by ridding him of his pathetic waste of an heir!”
They all need my help. Kairyn’s too big for Ezryn to carry; he has to drag him inch by inch. Faustrius easily severs Rosie’s vines. Even Dayton’s beams of water barely hold him back. Farron’s grappling with Aquila, and I’ve seen enough of Quellos’s experiments to know whatever he’s got will catch Kel off guard.
But I can’t stop.
I have to end this.
My briars shoot me into the air. I raise the sword over my head, yelling as I arc it toward Sira.
