Nismera chuckled. “What will they say now that they see the truth of the once proud crowned king?” Nismera asked, her tone gloating. “They will finally say what I have always known. That you are nothing but a being of destruction.”
I had not realized I had moved, had knelt, until my fingers were covered in her ashes. My hands cupped her remains, and they coated my skin a deathly shade of gray. All that was left of my love fit in my palms. Droplets fell into the powdery dust. They were not tears but rain.
I thought losing Dianna would create a violent rage inside me. I thought I’d feel that void, the emptiness snapping like before, and I’d explode in anger, yell, scream, and rage, but my violence did not manifest in that way. It emerged in silence, pure, cold-blooded, murderous silence, as the remains of all I loved slid through my fingers.
One heavy boot slammed down against the floor, and then the other as I slowly pushed to my feet. An iridescent shimmer slid down my silver blade before burning obsidian black. The tip raked across the stone, sparks flying off it as I turned toward Nismera. One breath, then the other, all sound emptying from my head. I watched her eyes flicker toward Dianna’s remains before focusing back on me.
“Stop,” she said as her legion generals flooded the room. She nodded toward my hand, and they fanned out around us. I didn’t need to look. I knew Oblivion hummed in my fist.
The room darkened, and thunder vibrated the air. The wind raged, echoing the howl of anguish that roared from the hole where my heart and soul used to be. This was the beginning of a living storm, and I had no desire to even try to stop it.
Stone bent and cracked as the rest of the ceiling disappeared. Her generals screamed as they were sucked out by the force of the wind, their bodies shredding in mid air. Clouds, dense and thick, towered in the sky. Long black wisps of the same power that formed my blade whipped from the thick, towering clouds, hungrily eating every building and tree they touched. Lakes receded, leaving the water life writhing on the bare ground.
A world ending. If I cared to listen, I could almost hear the planet screaming in pain and terror, but I didn’t care. She had taken my reasons, every one of them.
Rage and hate bubbled in my gut, giving birth to a thousand and one emotions, and none of them were good. My blade sliced through the air as I lifted it, watching Oblivion crawl over the dark metal. The black coalesced at the tip, purple sparks reaching for my gauntlet as I touched it to the shiny metal. It crawled and twisted, drawing out the light until my once prestigious silver armor burned black. My head still lowered, my gaze ripped toward her. Power pulsed within my eyes with such intensity that it heated my face. It ached to be free, and I had just given it the most perfect target.
“There it is.” Nismera smiled, her arms outstretched as she screamed to be heard over the pounding storm. “This is the part of you that is just like us,Brother. Will you use it? Will you destroy this world like you did Rashearim? I remember that, too. They all do. You’re no savior to us and never have been. You wear a cloak of justice and silver armor to hide the one thing you have always been. A World Ender.”
“I will kill you.” My voice was thick and painful, as if I had been screaming this entire time and had not known it.
“Do it, Brother.” Her smile stretched the jagged scar along her face, baring her teeth in a feral smile. “Show them. Show them all the truth of you and your power. They think my power is wicked, but you are Oblivion itself, and sweet old daddy isn’t here to hide that from anyone now. End this world and tell me if they still chant your name or bow their heads to you? I don’t think so.”
“It won’t matter. No one will be left to know what truly happened here.” I flipped the blade in my hand and struck, aiming for her head.
Her smile faded, and her eyes widened as she ducked, Oblivion cutting through the wall behind her. Its destruction spread in waves, eating everything it touched and seeming to revel in its freedom. One of her generals hadn’t moved fast enough, and he screamed as Oblivion ate his arm before consuming his shoulder. He spun and darted into the storm. Almost playfully, a wisp of power whipped out after him before coiling back on itself.
Blade after blade formed in my hand, and I threw them toward her darting figure one after the other. Nismera ran as the world shook and crumbled, her laughter a sick, twisted sound. She seemed to take great pleasure in my desolation.
I threw another dagger as she ran, and it sank deep into a wall. The world shook, or maybe that was just my body trying to adjust to the loss of my heart and soul. She had taken both of them with her. I guessed that made sense, considering she owned all of me, anyway.
Anger lashed me again, refusing to let me fall into despair. We weren’t done here, and I was sick of being the whipping boy for Unir’s actions. I had paid, like I always had. They had taken revenge on me when I did not deserve it. I was always held accountable for my father’s sins. They had taken my family and my akrai, and they would regret it. I was no longer a child to be punished for my father’s crimes, and I was not someone they could manipulate to their will.
I would make sure my name was the last they spoke and my face the last they saw before I sent them all to Oblivion. The sky screamed, and all light fled. Oblivion yawned above me, summoned from the depths of my soul to avenge the person I could not live without. I didn’t just revel in it. I devoured it, and let it consume me in turn. It spilled out of the gaping wound in the sky, snapping tentacles reaching for buildings and people, reducing them to dark ash.
A part of me that was lost and tired begged for it to claim me, too. Maybe then I could have some peace. I would search the afterlife for any remains of her, but first, I would send Nismera to Oblivion.
My head snapped back as screeches filled the air. A thick swath of legion soldiers riding ryphors raced through the sky toward their bitch queen. I slammed my hand down, and tendrils of Oblivion eagerly ripped from the clouds above them. They hit the few beasts that did not dodge, raining ash on the ground. The others split into two sections, continuing toward us. My arm shot up, and I reached for that raw, dark power again. I felt the ache of the call and its gleeful response before tossing my arm toward the beasts and their riders. She would not escape, never again. A silver blade pierced my hand, tossing my arm to the side, blood dripping onto the floor.
I growled and called down a tornado of wind and pure, dark power. It played for a moment, eating at what remained of the palace before I aimed it at the being who had robbed me so completely.
Her castle melted to floating dust, and she laughed. A demented, cruel-sounding thing as we landed on the bare ground. Oblivion touched down, and the ground hissed as Oblivion ate that, too.
Taking a step back as the world shook. She lifted her hands, but not to aim a blade at me. A ryphor whipped past with a sharp roar, somehow having evaded the tendrils slicing through the air. Nismera grabbed the dangling reins, tossing herself atop the beast and preparing to flee. My hand shot out, teeth gritting as a loud ringing filled my head. It was a telltale sign that I was nearing power exhaustion, but I didn’t care. I didn’t stop, allowing the living, rotten thing my grief had become to pour from me. The ryphor dodged, Oblivion colliding with stone and hills, debris flying in every direction. I’d kill her, even if I had to destroy the world, too.
A heavy form collided with my back, and I faltered, hitting the ground face first. There was so much force on me that it felt like I was being crushed beneath a building. I lunged to my feet, spinning to remove whoever held me and had distracted me from my prey. A fist slammed against the side of my face, causing my vision to flicker.
Cameron’s snarling face came into view. I could see he was screaming something at me, but my ears were still ringing and I only caught part of it.
“… ’re killing people! Innocents!”
He hit me again, and I blinked rapidly, refocusing on everything around me. Ash floated around us like we were in a blizzard made of the dark remains of the people Oblivion had claimed. Rain pelted from the storm above, another violent twist starting to rotate. That was why Nismera ran. That was why she’d laughed. She truly had made me the monster they all thought I was. I raised my hands, but it was too late. A large chunk of the cliff dislodged and buried us.
92
SAMKIEL
Rain pelted us in torrents as we dug our way through the rubble. I crawled from the mud and spat dirt from my mouth as I gained my footing. The world we stood on was a wasteland, nothing left but wet ash and dark skies. My gaze swung to Cameron, and I charged. My fist shot out, catching him on the jaw and knocking him sideways. I had lost my shield of numbed detachment, and my heartbreak and rage were tearing me apart. Cameron was the reason I was aware, so it seemed only fitting that he tasted my pain.
