The flames lick and scorch her pale skin. She leaps into the air, away from the flames, and sends another bolt of lightningtoward Asmo. He dodges, and I’m forced to cushion the blow before it can strike August this time.
A midnight black wolf sprints toward Cora’s back. I protect him with a barrier and release it as he crashes into her, teeth sinking into her neck. She whirls, but he doesn’t let go. She grips his thick coat with one hand. I summon wind and force them apart before she can call her lightning. The wound in her neck has already healed, but blood runs down her neck, her raven hair sticking to it.
A portal forms above Cora, and Amaris falls from the sky, two obsidian daggers gripped in her hands and aimed for Cora’s skull. A drabar swoops from the air and knocks Amaris out of the way. She lands with a hiss and fires the dagger at the drabar with an angry bellow. The dagger finds its purchase and it crashes to the ground, landing on a hybrid and witch locked in battle.
I start toward them to save the hybrid, but another witch is there, a flash of red around her wrist. She drags the hybrid out and leaves the other witch trapped.
A bolt of ice flies past me, narrowly avoiding my shoulder, and I jerk away. August joins the fight now, firing bolts of ice at Cora with rapid speed. She throws a hand out, throwing his strikes off course, but one of them sinks into her gut. She screams as she grips the massive icicle with two skeletal hands.
Before she can pull it from her stomach, Asmo pounces on her and hammers sand down her throat. She flings her hands out. They land on Asmo’s chest, and she shoves him away from her. Lightning cracks, but it doesn’t come from the sky.
My chest cleaves.
My heart stutters in my chest. And stops. No, not my heart. The bond inside of me. I scream as his body hits the floor, limp and lifeless. I fall, knees colliding with the dirt with a force that sends my teeth clattering. My vision shatters into something other—something like the very depths of the Icebound Sea and the darkest parts of the night sky—black and empty and desolate, and somehow, I know I’m alone. Agony roars through me.
I fist the dirt, and stagger to my feet.
I can’tlook. I can’t look at the male on the ground. I can’t look at his chest to see if it rises. I know it won’t.
A chill spreads through me, some otherworldly feeling of magic and power and a rage that feels like it might set me on fire. One that might burn me and then consume the rest of the world.
Roots burst through the ground and snap around Cora’s feet. She flicks her wrist, and they fall away. Her lips curl into a cruel smile. “I told you, girl. You’re no match for me.”
I use everything I used the last time—wind, fire, earth. She dodges everything, as expected.
I form a ring of fire around her, blocking her in, watching as she smiles. She and I both know she can get out of this. But she doesn’t expect me to funnel into the fire with her. I land directly behind her and reach for her face, for the bone-white eyes and the cruel smile. A gust of wind tries to knock me off course, but I command it down. A bolt of lightning tries to strike me, but I command it gone.
I am of the Mother. I was made by Her to defeat Cora.
I don’t need Marik, or Elle, or Asmo.
It was always Cora and me. It always has been. I don’t need anyone to help me destroy her. She raised me. She made me who I am.
And I will be the one who ends her.
I grip her face in my hands, fingers splayed over her cheeks and digging into the corners of her eyes. Ivy and roots shoot up her legs. They climb her torso, and she writhes, but I am fueled by a mix of sorrow and an ancient, all-consuming rage that threatens to tear me in half.
I grit my teeth and commandmore.The ivy transforms into ropes of fire, and Cora bellows as they mottle her skin. A bolt of lightning lands beside me, but it is an element, and I am the master of the elements.
I am the Queen of the Forest, of the trees and the flora and the fauna and the storms that ravage them. I was created by Mother Nature. I am born of all things that make this world, and therefore, I am the master of all that is born of this world.
The skin that knits Cora’s chest together is paper-thin. I descend into the tissue, caressing the muscle and brushing against the bones thatprotect her rotten heart. She reaches for me, and a vine encased in fire snaps her hand back down. I wrap my hand around her heart.
I smile. And pull.
Her heart is black, but it beats just like anyone else’s. It turns to ash in my hands. I pull the magic from the circle of fire that pulses around me and step away from Cora, coming to face her. The female who raised me stands before me, held up by branches and vines. Her chest gapes, and her mouth is frozen in a scream.
I set her ablaze, watching as her flesh burns. The smoke from her body rises, curling in the wind and the rain. I turn away.
August, Barrett, and Amaris watch me carefully as I walk toward Asmo, who still lays limp on the ground. Someone reaches for me, but I shove them away and summon a shield as I walk toward my mate.
My chest has cracked in two, and I scream for the bond, but it doesn’t answer. I need to take him away from this fucking place and get him out of here. There has to be something, some way to save him.
When Elle was nearly dead from the cambions, the stag arrived just when I needed him. But the stag isn’t here now. Only me.
I didn’t need anyone else to kill Cora, and I don’t need anyone else to save my mate.
I squeeze my eye shut and imagine I’m running through the forest—twigs snapping, birds chirping, leaves rustling, and crisp air brushing against my skin. I picture jumping over fallen legs and bounding over babbling creeks. I think about walking through the throne room, watching me on the throne, as if I were the stag.
