“I thought the Fates couldn’t interfere?”
“We can’t. But my siblings and I are willing to pay the price for it.” Seraphina lifted her chin, eyes blazing. “I am tired, and I want to see that witch burn for what she did tome.”
Caelan’s words floated to me on a memory.My sister hasn’t been the same since.
“You are the sibling Morgana trapped all those centuries ago.”
Seraphina nodded, her gaze slicing behind me and back again. “We don’t have time to go down memory lane. Not that I would. But we are out of time, and I must act quickly.”
Seraphina turned to face Gunnar, and he seemed to pale further as she hobbled toward him. She stretched out her palm,and Gunnar stared at it as if it would poison him. “Come on, old man, I haven’t got all day.”
The moment he made contact with her skin, both of their heads snapped back, and their eyes glazed over as a swirling mist of blue leapt from her skin, surrounding them in a swirling torrent of wind.
“Gunnar!” I shouted, but he couldn’t hear me, and I tried to get to him, but that blue mist only snapped at me, tiny electric burns igniting on my skin. I winced and gritted my teeth as I watched Gunnar nod slowly, as if agreeing on something.
Another blast of light shot from Seraphina and it slammed into Gunnar’s chest, his head snapping forward again, as his eyes glowed with that same eerie ancient blue light. The mist started to clear, and the glow returned to his normal ocean-blue. His hand was still in the Fate’s and Seraphina’s gaze landed on me as she smiled softly, her eyes unfocused.
“Don’t let our sacrifice be in vain, boy.”
And then her eyes were rolling into the back of her head and her body crumpled. Gunnar managed to catch her before she hit the ground, and he lowered her softly so that she was now lying unconscious on the wet grass. I waited, holding my breath, but noticed Gunnar’s pinched face as he reached for her now vacant eyes and lowered her lids. That slight smile still hung on her lips.
“Gunnar, what just happened?” I asked nervously.
Gunnar’s expression turned solemn as he looked down at the witch. At the vessel the Fate had occupied.
“She gave me the power to take down the ward,” Gunnar breathed and hope bloomed in my chest for the first time today—but wait.
“What happened to her? To Seraphina?”
“She interfered, and the Fates aren’t allowed to interfere.” He sighed, but I wasn’t able to ask more, as the last horn blared loudly around us signaling that Morgana’s forces had started to advance forward.
Fuck.
“Go!” Gunnar commanded. “I’ll take care of the ward!”
I turned and ran. My body contorted, wings erupting from my back, scales and talons bursting from my skin as I launched myself into the sky. My roar, a battle cry that shook the very earth, was met with cheers from my soldiers, their weapons clanking as I flew overhead. I had no time to search for my friends, my gaze fixed on the ward as I soared towards it. I'd instructed everyone to stay half a mile back, but the daka were advancing rapidly, already past the ward and halfway across the field separating us. Their cries reached me on the wind, their claws tearing into the earth, heads swiveling as they roared and charged towards my people.
Flames erupted from my jaw, showering the invading beasts. Their agonized cries echoed as they writhed and fell to the earth. I swept the area, then doubled back as a new line of enemies broke through. They weaved through the fiery corpses, advancing toward my people and another ear-shattering roar left my lips as I rained more fire upon them.
My gaze landed on someone moving through the bodies below, and I watched Gunnar stride determinately toward the ward. Gunnar raised his palms, both of them glowing with a bright blue light. It radiated from him as he moved his arms and fingers, forming symbols in the air. His movements were swift, and the symbols, as if drawn in ink, hung in the air before him, spreading upward and outward like wildfire.
I turned to see Morgana snarling in our direction. Smoke billowed on their side of the ward, her people shouting as Lex's rebellion began its attack within her ranks. The sounds of fighting broke through, and I smirked as Morgana spun, shouting orders I couldn't hear. My gaze landed on Zara, and I snarled. She knelt on the ground, her arms pinned against her sides as if magically bound. She was looking at Gunnar, eyes wide.
My attention snapped back to him and,fuck. Daka were almost on him, and I dove. Fire spewed from my mouth again, taking out the few beasts that had been closing in on him. I circled back and blinked as the symbols in the air multiplied, stretching high and wide across the field. It was just as vast as the ward but I couldn't make out what the symbols meant. I'd never seen anything like them before.
The massive, glowing blue wall solidified, and the approaching beasts slammed into it, unable to pass. The daka wailed against it, thrashing and roaring as they continued to try to advance. Witches fell from their seats, trampled by their own beasts.
Panic and rage filled the air, but I could only watch as they piled up, tumbling and rolling, the massive wall of symbols pushing them back to their side of the ward.
I landed on the ground next to Gunnar as the magic met with the ward. It pulsed and sparked and seemed to fuse with it, becoming one. Gunnar threw his hands down, then pushed them forward as if striking a wall. Blinding light erupted, my vision turning white as a deafening boom shook the earth, causing even me to stagger from its force.
I gritted my teeth as a surge of power washed over me. It felt like a second skin, both light and dark, life and death. Itwas suffocating, my lungs filling with it, and then it was gone. I blinked, a shiver tracing its way down my spine.
The ward was gone.
The magic, once solid, shimmered in the wind as if burned and floating away like ash. But that wasn't what had my mouth hanging open in shock.
The daka. All of them… were gone. Vanished, as if they never existed. Their green poisonous sludge not even a taint on the muddy earth.
