One second of distraction. That’s all I need.
Instead of switching tactics, I pressed harder. I threw rock after rock, barreling them into the elite’s wards and forcing them to focus all of their energy on my frontal attack. Then, praying to those damn stars above that she understood, I nodded at Zura.
Luckily, she was ready for me. I watched as her hands lit with blazing magic, followed by the solidifying of dark daggers, the shadow weapons piercing through wards and flesh as she swung into the elite. Whoever was below the mask seemed determined not to die, because they let out a high pitched screech and whipped around, pushing a piercing chunk of shadows at Zura. It landed right in her gut, sending her to her knees.
Furious beyond words, I summoned my chains, wrapping them around the elite’s neck from behind and lifting my arms back. I choked them with all the strength I possessed, their taller build making it hard for me to stand my ground. But I wasn’t just persistent anymore. I was livid and desperate.
On my last forceful yank, their neck audibly snapped.
Zura and I were breathing heavily, her hands putting pressure on her wound as she kneeled on the ground. “Can you shadow walk to Az’s cottage? Desi is there. She can heal you.”
Zura winced, but eventually she nodded, gritting her teeth as she stood. I helped her, watching with genuine terror as she disappeared beneath the veil of magical darkness a moment later.
That meant one of the five people I was searching for was ideally safe and sound. Three elites were dead, but how many more were on the island? Pounding footsteps could be heard all around me, the clank of connecting metal and the vibrating hum of magic everywhere.
Through the smoke I could make out figures, but nothing concrete enough to really make any difference. I wasn’t the strongest fighter, especially not against fellow elites. Magically, I was nothing special without the stars. What could I do? How could I save them?
The stars!
Maybe they didn’t exist within me anymore. Maybe I didn’t have access to them in the same way. But had they not always said that they heard and saw everything? Hadn’t they directly spoken to and aided Azazel?
Terror and fury warred within me as I shadow walked back to the top of the cliff, Snake Lodge a beacon of hope and pain at my back. Breathing deeply, I mustered up my most annoying, nagging, and sarcastic mental tone.
So, you’re really going to let us all die just like this? After all your hard work? How positively boring of you.
No response. Not even a flicker of their consciousness within mine.
I mean, really? This is just sad. The all powerful stars, useless in the end.
A flutter occurred in the back of my mind, tickling in a way.
There you are. Have you decided to play after all?
No words came, but I felt them abruptly arrive, a heaviness to my mind that wasn’t there before. While I did not feel like I wasone with them in the same way I had been before, I could still taste their power. Could sense it there, as if ready to be snatched.
Let’s see just how mighty you are.
With that, I stared at the volcano in the distance, clenching my teeth as I lifted my arms as if to touch the mountain. Then, with the faces of all four cores flashing across my vision, I tugged my arms into me.
I pictured the lava flowing up and out of the volcano. I willed it to scorch the lands, the ruins, theelites.I envisioned it parting around all four cores, seeing the blazing magma sliding around their feet. And then, I watched the volcano burst.
Faint chuckles echoed at the back of my mind as the lava seemed to expand as if it was alive. It spread rapidly down the mountainside, not at all like it naturally would. As I gasped in surprise, I watched the momentum slow, the fading of my focus and will causing me to lose control of the steady stream. Once more I gritted my teeth, throwing my arms out to the sides and staring wide-eyed as the magma spread too.
Screams echoed out across the land, the thick cloud of smoke rising and giving me momentary sight of the scene as all over, masked soldiers burned. Relentlessly, I urged the lava on. I willed it to crawl up the elite’s bodies, to slip into their mouths, to burst through their eyes. I felt the magic in me pulse, the stars continuing to giggle somewhere deep in my mind.
I reveled in the deaths, the last shreds of my humanity fading as the elites bubbled, burned, and burst.
Then, right as a flash of silver hair peeked through the smoke, someone grabbed me from behind.
I startled, trying to duck out of their hold, but darkness encircled me.
“Nova!” Azazel screamed in the distance. Then the tiny, burning island was gone, replaced by the sight of the largest castle I’d ever seen.
Chapter Fifty-One
Azazel
“Father made me sleep in the dungeons last night. He said it was important to understand what captivity truly feels like.”
