CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Aeriden.
—From Lyvia’s list.
Fury surged into the chasm of my powers. Saros’s blue eyes narrowed before his lips curled over his teeth, and he attacked with a viscous blast of wind.
But I was ready.
My magic gaped at the raw strength of the king, his power somehow greater than Carina’s…than Queen Antares’s... My shield held against his attack, though it buckled and pushed me back, my boots sliding toward the bloody hall we’d come from. His arms rose above his head, the wide sleeves of his robe floating down and revealing his thin, gaunt arms as he rallied more strength, more power, ready to snap through my shield. I braced myself as a strange, foreign sensation tapped against my mind.
I blinked.
So did Saros.
His momentary hesitation was enough. Wrath, devastation, and the need for revenge collided with whatever force linked my two powers as I tapped into my amplifier. Two thick ribbons of darkness snapped through the air as they slashed at King Saros’s shield.
His eyes widened as he caught sight of the darkness, and he twirled his staff around him, a new sort of energy snapping into his being. His lips tilted upward as he hammered his staff against the stone floor.
A force rippled through the ground, and as it hit my shield, my ribbons dissipated. I caught my balance, reinforcing my shield, as the king launched himself at me.
He leaped forward, his staff pointed at my shield, as he rallied another blast of magic and raised his blade high above his head.
Nothisblade.
Snowflakes and delicate flowering vines danced up the elaborate hilt of the ancient sword.
Enya’s blade.
A snarl ripped through my lips as rage pounced. The sight of her blade in his hands snapped whatever restraining tether remained connected to my powers, and I unleashed myself.
Two sets of glowing, golden eyes blinked open as they raised their dark heads, their twisting bodies and black scales flowing from the power in my palms. Saros’s eyes widened as he took in the twin snakes of darkness rising through the air.
I smiled, reveling in his shock. No, the woman whose blade he held… The elf hemurdered… The warrior he killed for the power of death had commanded the shadows, but she’d nevertransformedthem.
His eyes glazed over for a moment, awe, fear, and greed slipping into their depths. And Ilunged. I threw everything into the serpents of death. Pain seared at my chest, and my energydrained by the second. My snakes of shadows snapped through the air as they ripped through Saros’s shield and wrapped him in an armor of darkness.
His staff crashed to the floor as their tongues flicked the air and tails rattled, twisting tighter. I raised my hands from a distance and let my powers lift him into the air, the darkness shining with a hint of gold in the rising moons’ light that crept in from the back window.
Emotions flooded me. Being here, back in Mount Telum, over a year after my discovery of Enya’s burial site… The betrayals and deaths that followed. Morwyn. Aeriden. My father. Eira. Oslo. Xenelpha. Bear.
The Tribute. The war. The bodies in Odessa. The slaves on Kayj. It was all his fault. This man. I fed my rage to the union of Obscura and Transcindiel might that streamed from my palms in a constant flow.
Rage.
Loss.
Devastation.
Shouts of battle and the clang of weapons in the room were distant as I kept my gaze on the king. The king, who seemed to have ageddecadesover the past year. His tan, weathered skin sagged, the wrinkles forming along his cheeks deep and harsh. He looked weary as he hung suspended in midair, his gray brows pinching in disgust as he watched me.
Kresida’s curse drew my attention as she spat a mouthful of blood on the shining floor. She bellowed at her opponent, the final kingsguard left in the grand tower, possibly the kingdom. Dark liquid stained his black armor, and his white cloak flew as he spun, meeting her attack with unmatched fury. Kresida crouched, ready to leap, as he paused for the briefest moment. His sapphire eyes caught mine from across the room.
Impossible, impossible, my heart chanted as it beat frantically for a moment before everything stopped.
My breath, my blood, my powers, my rage… My entire being came to a halt as my gaze met Cantor blue eyes staring through the slit in his helmet.
“STOP!” I screamed as Kresida lunged for my brother.
