“Viri!” Jessalyn cried, sobbing harder now as the reaper dragged her away, hauling her resisting form toward the dais with little effort.“Viri, help me!”
“JESSY!”Viri screamed, fighting with all her might but unable to move even an inch.
“Such passion,” the Reaper Lord murmured, watching Viri’s battle. “Maybe love does exist.” He sniffed. “Pity.”
And then he turned and strode after Jessalyn, his cloak billowing behind him as he stepped over the vines and around crumbling coffins, following a glass-strewn, candlelit path to where his obedient reapers waited. They bowed as he approached, then shuffled aside, making room for him to ascend the short staircase up to the dais. There, Jessy was lifted onto the stone slab, with her thrashing wildly until the Reaper Lord waved a hand to flatten her against the surface, binding her arms and legs in place by magic, his burly helper quickly falling back beside the other acolytes.
Viri was going to be sick. She was peripherally aware of the children sobbing around her, the sounds and smells of their fear only adding to her nausea. But her gaze remained locked on Jessalyn writhing against the stone slab, the moonlight streaming down onto her visibly quaking form while the flaming wings of the firebird stretched out behind her.
“Not long now,” the Reaper Lord announced, his voice echoing throughout the hall. His head was tilted back as he peered up through the shattered ceiling, shadows rippling around him, likealways, but they now danced with firelight, making him look like a demon straight from the pits of hell.
Viri fought and fought andfoughtagainst the ellixen holding her to the pillar, panting hard as she tried desperately to free herself, her wrists screeching in pain. But no matter what she did, the magic holding her was too strong.
Helplessness overtook her as the Reaper Lord continued to stare up at the night’s sky, as Jessalyn continued to strain against the bonds pressing her down, as the children continued weeping and screaming. It couldn’t end like this, and yet, there was nothing Viri could do, her years of training having never prepared her to fight someone as powerful as the Reaper Lord. Anger rose within her at the unfairness of it all—at her parents dying when she was a child and never telling her the truth about her own past, at her brother sacrificing seven years of his life just to protect her, at Reeve being forced to abandon her, at her forgotten memories that had stolen so much time from them all, and lastly, at the all-powerful Guardian who had refused to help stop the Reaper Lord, offering nothing more than trite words that—
Viri stilled suddenly as she remembered exactly what the Guardian had told her.
“You already have everything you need to succeed. Trust yourself. Trust your friends. Trust your magic.”
Viri trusted her friends, but they were stuck outside, beyond the cathedral’s impenetrable wards. She also trusted herself, though right now, she was trapped by the Reaper Lord’s power, unable to move. Her magic, however…that shedidn’ttrust. She didn’t evenunderstandit. But if what the Guardian had said was true—perhaps even veiled advice—then maybe it was time she stoppedphysically fighting and tried something different, something…magical.
Her mind scrambled to consider everything she knew about the magewish bond that tied her life to the obelisks, how their pure, potent ward magic flowed within her, heightening her sensitivity to ellixen. She’d learned in the Summit that she could focus that sensitivity to locate warded objects, but…what if she could do more than that? What if she couldcreatewards, just like the obelisks did?
And more importantly…
What if she couldbreakthem?
Viri’s palms began to sweat as an idea came to her. The cathedral’s wards were all that prevented anyone from coming to their aid, so if those wards were destroyed…
It was a long shot, and something she needed to test first, unsure what might happen if she attempted such magic—oranymagic—without knowing what she was doing. She could make the wards worse, unintentionally strengthening them or even making them permanent. She needed to experiment with something smaller, so she closed her eyes and cast her mind back to Reeve’s instructions in the storage room, imagining herself like a mage blossom unfurling petal by petal, reaching for her heightened sensitivity, hermagic, ready to release it.
Nothing happened.
Anxiety rose within Viri, but she forced herself to breathe through it, knowing her desperation was only working against her. She summoned the memory of Reeve’s lulling, hypnotic voice as he’d guided her, willing her thoughts to settle, her heartbeat to slow.
And then she tried again, reaching deep inside herself oncemore, coaxing her magic to flow out, to break past the embankment of her mental river.
This time, it worked.
A gasp left Viri as the power inside her erupted outward and slammed against the wards of the cathedral, the sting of their ellixen so strong that she had to stifle a groan. She hastily reeled her river back in, wrestling it under as much control as she could, using nothing but the memory of Reeve’s calming voice and her own intuition to guide it toward a different point of focus.
Her awareness homed in on her own wrists, making her realize that the bonds holding her to the pillar must be a kind of ward—or perhaps the strange magic within her didn’t discriminate between wards and general ellixen. Either way, she concentrated hard on the tingle binding her in place, brushing her peculiar, unknown magic up against it, like a hand stroking a pet, and mentally whispered,“Let go, let go, let go.”
She had no idea what she was doing, was certain it wouldn’t work—
But then, suddenly, she was free.
Shock stole Viri’s breath, but she shoved her incredulity aside, knowing she could marvel over what she’d done later. For now, all she wanted was to leap up and sprint for the dais, but she made herself remain in place, aware she would get barely two steps before the Reaper Lord waved his hand and flung her away, or worse, forced her back into unconsciousness until the sacrifice was over. His hooded head had already swiveled in her direction, like he’d sensed a change in the magic binding her—ornotbinding her—and it took all her willpower to stay immobile under hisperusal.
A chillingly long moment passed before he looked away again,his head tilting upward once more, causing a shaky exhale to leave Viri. But then his shoulders straightened as something caught his attention, and she followed his gaze up through the shattered ceiling, ice flooding her as she saw a bright purple streak traveling ever so slowly among the stars high overhead.
Aurora had arrived.
Panic rippled through Viri, with it only growing when the Reaper Lord withdrew a white bone dagger from his cloak and held it between his open palms, then began to chant in a foreign language, likely that of the ancient mages.
It was now or never, Viri realized, staring at the dagger in horror and knowing exactly what would happen as soon as the Reaper Lord’s chanting ended.
Her inexperience made her technique raw and clumsy, her intuition still all she had to guide her, but Viri speared the river of her magic outward again, this time letting it slam against the cathedral wards—and stay there. They were so much stronger than the small amount of ellixen that had bound her wrists, like a mountain compared to a pebble, and she strained against them, raising her whisper to a mental shout:“SHATTER! SHATTER! SHATTER!”
