CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Rinla Ramadiel, master of affliction. Of remedy and blight, unmatched power and might.
—Lock Scroll, the Arx.
The powers writhing beneath my skin stood at attention as I made my decision, throwing both hands to the side and splitting my focus.
Flesh sizzled as the pendant on my neck burned through my skin and cotton undershirt. Power tore through my palms. Golden, Transcindiel light spun wildly through my right hand as it engulfed the herd of ashen surrounding Vulcan, while pure darkness ripped through my right, spearing straight for Dark King Daimos.
Clouds formed in my vision as my mind became fuzzy and light. My powers flowed through me like a river bursting through a dam. Or was I their vessel? A ship carrying two gods. I swayed as the powers drained me. Panic crouched, ready to pounce, as hazy visions of Odessa crept into my mind.Focus. Rein them in.
Lyvia!
Someone called to me in my mind. Tiberius. Or was that Olienna? Had she come to save us?
“Lyvia!” a voice growled from behind as something large barreled into me.
I fell. And then a crack. Pain.
Something wet dripped down the side of my head, and a hand slid into mine, a spark of power shooting into me as I lay on the freezing ground.
“GET UP!” Astraeus bellowed as he hauled me to my feet.
I staggered against him, blinking against the icy rain. Blood dripped from the side of his head into his hair, wet and muddy from battle. His shoulders sagged. His features were dark from exhaustion.
His arm gripped mine, eyes scanning the crimson valley in which we stood. Piles of bleeding bodies,elvenandhumanbodies, lay strewn on the incline of the hill. Vulcan lay unmoving among them.
My eyes drifted to Nerissa’s tall frame that lay at the top, to her chest that slowly rose and fell. To the center of the valley, where three elves began to stir.
“Lyvia—” Astraeus began as clanks of armor surged from the south. The pirate lord whipped toward a small group of approaching Nivis soldiers, and I pulled out of his hold, staggering down the hill to where Bayne and Isla lay.
They were moving. They were alive, but?—
A gasp escaped my lips as I neared, the evidence of what Dark King Daimos had done displayed on their bodies. I crashed to my knees as I reached Bayne, unsure where to place my hands.
“Bayne,” I croaked, warm tears mixing with the freezing rain, wetting my face.
A pool of blood surrounded him. A matching pair of black eyes shadowed the brilliant Ravindra green, bordering a broken nose. What had the dark king done?
His left ankle jutted out to the side at an unnatural angle, and his wrists… Broken and twisted. His skin was pebbled in a dark red rash… And as my eyes followed his arms…
“No,” I moaned, a vice tightening around my chest.
Those scars… Those long, deep slices down the center of his forearms. The ones he’d inflicted on himself while here on Kayj over a year ago when he tried to save Lida. Leaching himself…
Blood pooled.
“No,” I said again, shaking my head. “How—” I choked.
Bayne’s brilliant eyes found mine, and his face crumpled. Doubt and concern replaced the pain rippling across his features. He opened his mouth to speak, but he choked, blood spurting from his lips. His eyes shot to my neck, to the thick scar always on display, and a sinister chuckle rasped from behind me. My stomach curdled as it all came together.
I turned as Dark King Daimos stepped toward me. A grin formed on his bloodied lip, and the Ramadiel Bone on his palm glowed a deep, deadly blue. It looked different from when I’d last seen it, twisted and rotten, somehow.
“Bayne the Unbroken,” Dark King Daimos mused. “How easily he breaks.”
Another spasm of power erupted from the dark king’s hands, and Bayne’s body convulsed as a scream ripped through his lungs. I threw my body over his as it shook against the power.
My mind spun as the events of the past year fell into place. The Lady of Tomorrow. Her injuries. Her ailments. As if everyinjury, everyillness, every bit ofdamageher body had ever endured over her lifetime had suddenly slammed back into her. The shock it would cause to a body, to endure it all again, all at once. No one would survive that.
