My blade slices through a puff of smoke as she rematerializes a few feet beside me. I throw a torrent of thorns at her, but they whiff right through her. I feel a tap on my shoulder and spin to see her disappearing into fog and then waving at me on my left. With an angry cry, I swing the sword wildly, desperate to connect with any piece of flesh.
“It’s time to give up, Caspian,” she says, her voice weaving in and out as she darts around in puffs of shadow. “Come back to the Below. You can’t defeat me. Not like this.”
I scream, spinning in a circle and striking the air. She sighs behind me, disappointed.
“You’re not strong enough, Caspian. You’ll never be strong enough by yourself. Not until you accept it.” She appears right in front of me, a wicked smile on her face. “The Green Flame.”
“Never!” But I can feel it, feel it the way I did at the battle of Voidseal Bridge. The trembling fear and rage coalescing within me. It’s like my chest is a forge, the Green Flame stoking my heart.
We could kill her together, son, a rumbling voice says in my mind.You want to protect these people? You need to end her. I will help you. It would be so easy.
“No!” I scream in my head and out loud. My sword cuts through the smoky remnants of Sira’s neck.In place of the Queen of the Below, you’d have a tyrant. There would be no surface realms, no Below. Only ash and flame.
And from that, a world remade, the voice answers.
“I won’t give in,” I whisper. The sword disappears from my hand. Instead, I reach for all the power gifted to me. The golden bracelet around my wrist warms. “Sira, I thought I needed your love to have a family. But I didn’t. I was able to make one all my own.”
With a roar, energy channels up from the earth and into my bones. Encircling me, giant, spiked thorns crack through the stone bridge.
There’s a sharp gasp, and I spin to see Sira, hanging limply, one of the thorns impaled through her shoulder. I turn, using my hand as a conduit to tease the thorn higher up, impaling more of her chest.
Her body flickers slightly into smoke but then rematerializes. She gives a pained sob.
She’s…she’s trapped. I caught her. My footsteps are heavy as I walk toward her. With slow, deliberate movements, I reach into her pocket and pry out the glowing vial. “I won’t let you hurt Winter.”
Then, my sword forms once more, this time made of shadow.
I will end Sira with her own magic.
Her eyes shine as she watches my approach. “P-please, Caspian,” she whimpers. “I prayed for you. Birthed you. Nursed you. Rocked you to sleep.”
I raise the sword.You also tortured me. Ruined my sister’s existence. Corrupted the natural order of the world.I should tell her these things, but the words are thick in my throat. Besides, she knows. She knows.
“Caspian,” she says, a tear falling down her face. “You are my son.”
“No. I’m just another one of your monsters.”
I arc the sword down?—
My mother starts to sing.
Beneath the earth where shadows lie,
A child of night with star-lit eyes.
The words slither through the air, silken, soft. A whisper from the past, curling around my throat like a noose.
My blade halts mid-swing.
I don’t mean to stop. I don’t. But the song—it’smysong.
Though we dwell where the cold winds blow,
We’ll dream of a realm where the bright sun glows.
Sira continues singing, tears flowing down her beautiful face.
A sickly warmth blooms in my chest. Not love. Itcan’tbe love. But something aching. Something primal, something older than my rage, older than my hate.
