And I snuff the flame out.
There’s no fighting it this time—the rush of my magic works too fast. The fae’s eyes go blank, and he hits the floor, dead. There’s a wave of heaviness as a chunk of my celestial magic drains from me all in an instant, but I don’t care.
Instead, I turn toward the next fae nearest to me, the big one with his hands currently wrapped around Hyllus’s forearm, twisting it backward as Hyllus yells in pain and tries to yank himself free.
I find the flare of celestial fire inside the attacker and let my darkness swallow it.
Hyllus groans as the heavy fae falls backward. The floor shakes with impact as he hits it, his lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling.
My hearing starts to fade. The noises of the fight slip away from me as blood rushes in my ears, muffling the world. I don’t pay it any attention, moving further through the chaos, finding another attacker—this one fighting Stratton with one of his dark-clothed friends—and snuff his life out.
Stratton stands back, bewildered, as the other intruder looks wildly around him, searching for the cause. His eyes fall on me, and he goes pale, making some reverent sign with his hands that I assume is a prayer of protection.
He shouts to his friends, though I can’t hear what he says. Their heads turn, and I make sure they see it when I wipe out this faetoo. As his body crumples to the ground, darkness dances at the corners of my vision.
I think I’m about to faint, but I reach out to Stratton, who helps me steady myself. The intruders are spooked now, I can see it in their wide eyes, and with that fear comes distraction. Our side presses their advantage. Within a minute, five more intruders are dead. The tide has turned, and everyone knows it.
The other dark-clothed fae start to back away down the corridor, shouting to each other and pointing to me. Leon and the others follow them. Duke Ribold lifts a curved blade just as my hearing starts to come back to me.
“Finish them off, friends!” Duke Ribold crows as they cut the intruders down one by one. The ferocity seems to have left the dark-clothed fae, and they quickly fall.
When there are no more left, Leon turns to the duke.
“My people will search the house and the grounds to make sure there aren’t any others.”
“By all means,” Duke Ribold says breathlessly, watching the soldiers sprint to the end of the corridor, fanning out into the rooms beyond.
My hearing mostly returns to normal, and as my vision clears and the darkness ebbs, Tira appears at my side.
“Didyoudo that?” she asks, a note of awe in her voice as she nods toward one of the fae I killed. There’s not a mark on his body.
“Yes,” I say, finding it hard to process the swirl of emotions. There’s some negativity there—fear and maybe shame—but I also have a sense of triumph at having helped end the fight.
“Did you hear what they were calling you?” Tira asks me.
I start to shake my head, but I’m distracted as I notice Lafia emerging cautiously from the room Tira was crouching in front of during the fight.
“Is it over?” she asks, a slight tremor in her voice.
Tira must’ve taken my request to heart, protecting the young woman from the battle and guarding her room. It throws me a little how much things have changed. I used to worry about looking out for Tira, but now she’s become someone else’s protector.
“No, I didn’t hear,” I say. Whatever it was that one fae had shouted to the others before I killed him, it clearly scared them. So what was it?
“They called you Mithanas,” Tira says.
I frown, recognizing the name but not being able to place it.
“Mith—what?” I ask.
Lafia clears her throat beside me.
“One of the old deities,” she says. “No one really worships her anymore; she fell out of fashion centuries ago because she was considered too dark. But she’s mentioned in some of the Ethiran texts.”
“What did she do?” Tira asks. “And why were those fae using her name for Ana?”
“She was supposed to be a soul harvester—along with her brothers Hastoni and Ouska,” Lafia shrugs when we stare at her blankly. “Mithana is a goddess of death.”
Chapter 14
