Текст книги "Born of Blood and Ash"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 42 (всего у книги 63 страниц)

As they fled, I left and returned to Wayfair. To my family.

It was not quiet here. Deep, hollow bells rang from the Shadow Temple in a solemn rhythm of death as I limped forward. My gaze lifted to where Ezra remained impaled to the now-cracked wall.

My heart shattered again.

But I would fix it. I was the true Primal of Life.

I could bring them back.

All of them.

My clever, fair sister and her kind, loyal wife. My mother, who had named me after the brave and revered Queen of the Vodina Isles. The small ones in the gutters. Those in the sea, lying in the streets, and beyond Lasania. I would return them to what they were, just as I had with the villagers in Terra.

I moved fast, summoning the eather to draw the spikes from the bodies of those impaled and gently lowered them to the ground. I kept Ezra and Marisol side by side, not changing the direction in which Marisol looked. It didn’t feel right as I knelt beside my sister.

Purpose filled me, and the humming eather rose once more. I reached for Ezra’s hand—

“Sera?”

I spun, eather crackling from my fingertips.

Awash in a fiery glow, Holland stood before me, the heated wind tugging at the white linen pants and tunic he wore. Somehow, the pristine material remained unblemished as he stood among the dead—those he’d shared suppers and stories with. His ageless face mirrored those scattered around him. His expression showed horror. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at everything around us.

Seeing him stunned me and conjured a wealth of emotions and memories—from when I was just a young girl holding a blade for the first time up to the last time I’d seen him in the throne room. In an instant, I was some other version of me. A mixture of that young girl and the woman he’d raised like a daughter.

The eather fizzled out. Pain flared all along the length of my body, and I took a stumbling step toward him.

His head turned back to me, and I saw that his once hickory-hued irises were now like Aydun’s—bursts of silver sprinkled through the colors, appearing like the stars they had come from. “What have you done?”

I jerked to a halt with a wince. I didn’t understand what he was asking. “What have I done?”

“You killed a Primal, Sera.”

I drew back in disbelief. That is what he had to say to me? That? After everything? It took several moments for me to snap out of my stupor. “Do you not see what Kolis did? To everyone here? To my mother? To Marisol and Ezra?” My voice cracked, and, gods, it hurt. It hurt even worse to see Holland’s gaze flicker behind me and witness his flinch. “I gave him a chance. I made him an offer. This was his answer. He nearly killed everyone in the city. He acted, and I am reacting.”

Holland’s chest rose with a deep breath, and he returned his gaze to mine. “And you killed nearly as many.”

My head jerked back as if I had been slapped, even though I knew I had unleashed ruin upon those here and beyond. I inhaled through my stinging nose. “I’m fixing that.” I started walking backward. “I’m going to undo—”

Holland took a step forward. “You cannot do that. You have already brought Marisol back once,” he said. “You cannot do it again. Her soul is now beyond your reach and can only be released by Death—the true Primal of Death. Why do you think Eythos hid Sotoria’s soul?”

Shaking my head, I looked back at Marisol, unable to see past how she had turned her head toward Ezra in her final moments.

“It is how the balance is kept,” Holland continued. “You already gave Marisol a second chance. The realms prevent that from happening again.” His voice roughened. “She is gone.”

I didn’t want to believe Holland, but instinct told me he wasn’t lying. My shoulders curved inward, and a heavy ache settled in my chest. Only Kolis could release Marisol’s soul now. I briefly closed my eyes as sorrow threatened to overwhelm me. I couldn’t allow that. My hands fisted, and eather pressed against my skin. I opened my eyes and turned my attention to Ezra. I could almost believe she was sleeping if I didn’t look at her face. “He doesn’t hold the souls of the others.”

“You cannot bring them back, Sera.”

I whipped around. “I can’t? I’m the true Primal of Life.”

“I know what you are, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

I inhaled sharply. “Do not start with that philosophical bullshit, Holland. My family is dead.” Anger pulsed through me. “My city is nearly gone.”

“I know. I know this hurts.” He lifted his hands, and when he spoke next, his voice had gentled. “And I’m sorry. I truly am. This shouldn’t have happened. It’s not fair.”

“You’re right. This shouldn’t have happened, and it’s not fair. That’s why I’m going to make it right.”

“But you won’t, Sera. You will just end up repeating everything that led to this very moment. You’ve already started to with those you brought back.”

“This is different,” I insisted.

“Listen to me. Please,” he said, the stars in his eyes brightening. “You know what happens if you bring them back. Other lives will be forfeited to take their place.”

Oh, gods.

I hadn’t even thought of that. How many villagers had I brought back? A hundred? No, more… Two hundred? Three? That meant…

I briefly closed my eyes. “I don’t care.” I turned back to Ezra.

“You must care,” Holland insisted. “It is the only way balance can be kept.”

“Fuck balance!” I screamed, and lightning streaked overhead. “Where were you to remind Kolis of balance when he ordered this? Where were any of you? Where—wait.” My entire body jerked. “Did you see this, Holland?”

Holland’s eyes closed.

“Did you know this would happen?” I shouted. “And do nothing? You knew these people! You knew Ezra—” My voice gave out, and my hands fisted.

“Sera,” he rasped, pain etching his features. “There are many threads, many possible outcomes. Ones we cannot interfere in—”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I had to force myself to move back and look away from Holland before I lost control.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated.

I looked down at Ezra and then swung my gaze to where my mother now lay on the ground. A shudder went through me. The gnawing pain seemed endless as another lightning bolt raced across the smoke-filled sky. “I told them to call my name. Said I would come. Ezra didn’t do it. But I heard her shrieks—” I cut myself off. Anger and anguish flooded my senses. “Why didn’t she call for me?” I looked back at Ezra. “Why didn’t you do what I told you? Godsdamnit!” I screamed. “Why?”

“You know why,” Holland said softly, sadly. “She would never willingly endanger you.”

That made it worse.

Because this—all of this—wasn’t just Kolis’s fault.

“Ezra will be with Marisol and her father once more,” Holland said. “You need to let her go.”

I shook. “My mother…”

“You need to let them all go, Sera.” His voice was closer. “This is not where you are needed, and you’re in no condition to continue as you are.”

Tremors ran up and down my arms as I closed my eyes again. “And where am I needed?”

“A god who serves in Lotho must be Ascended soon,” he said. “The energy Embris’s death released is making its way across all the realms. It must return to a vessel before it circles back—”

“I know what will happen,” I cut him off. “That doesn’t change what I must do. I have to bring Ezra back. I have to bring them all back.”

Holland’s sigh was heavy. “I don’t want to hurt you, Sera.”

Crushing agony formed a tight ball in my chest. I opened my eyes, slowly faced him, and all I saw at that moment was an Ancient standing before me. One who had known all along that those he’d laughed and fought beside would die like this.

Streaks of swirling eather brimmed beneath his flesh. “Eythos once found himself in a similar position. A plague struck down a village he favored. He brought them back—all of them—even though that was not what the realms needed. And he continued to do so, each restored life leading to others believing there would always be a second chance. And each life cost another theirs until he had ended the lives of as many as he restored. By the time he realized his folly, it was already too late. It was expected from him. You need to be better than that, Sera.”

“I don’t care what Eythos did,” I spat. “Nor do I care about being better than him or anyone. That is what led to this!”

“How?” Holland shook his head. “How can you think that?”

“Because trying to be better is what stopped me from going after Kolis. Trying to be better is what prevented me from refusing his deal and entering the eirini.” My wounded hand ached as I lifted my fists. “Trying to be what I’m not is what allowed this.”

“And what are you, Sera?”

“What you trained me to be,” I snarled. “A fighter. A killer. Not some fucking benevolent ball of goodness.” I shook. “If I had just listened to my gut from the beginning—”

“Things would’ve been different?” he finished. “Maybe. Perhaps if you had rejected Kolis’s offer, this never would’ve happened. Or maybe you would’ve lost those here and more in the battles that followed. Maybe if Kolis hadn’t kept all his pain to himself, he would’ve turned out differently. Maybe if you hadn’t held in all your pain, you wouldn’t have given in to it now. Many things could’ve been different, but this is what happened,” he said. “Now, you must do what is right for the realms.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the realms.”

The bands of churning eather stilled in his flesh. “You don’t mean that.”

“Believe what you want.”

The skin of his cheeks began to thin. “I will not allow you to make the same mistakes those who came before you made.”

That was the wrong thing to say. Grief gave way to ruinous fury. Eather spilled from my fingertips, pooling on the blood-soaked ground. “Try,” I whispered—or yelled. I wasn’t sure. But my voice was both everywhere and nowhere. “Try to stop me.”

Mist drifted from him, spilling onto the ground. It sparked with a thousand dazzling stars as Holland changed, became taller and broader. His features sharpened. His flesh became starlight as the mist formed wings and then thickened, solidifying until I thought I saw glossy, black feathers in the glow of the nearby fires.

“What in the actual fuck?” I whispered.

Holland shot forward, and instinct kicked in. I spun to the right, summoning the eather. I didn’t want to hurt him, either, but I wouldn’t allow him to stop me. I threw my arm out, and eather erupted from my fingertips. The raw energy slammed into Holland, rippling over his body before seeping into him.

His now hairless head tilted. When next he spoke, his mouth was full of starlight, and his voice boomed like thunder, rattling my bones. “You know better than that.”

My lips parted as he rose into the air, his massive wings stretched high. Wisps of pure white eather swirled around his arms.

I took a breath.

That was all.

And then I was no longer in the courtyard but standing on the white limestone and granite steps of the Temple of Keella. I was in the heart of Croft’s Cross.

Or what was left of it.

Holland grasped my shoulder. “Look.”

The tall, narrow tenements had been reduced to piles of rubble. The already uneven cobblestones were shattered. Bodies lay everywhere. Survivors scrambled up heaps of jagged stone. There were screams for help, pleas for the gods to bring aid, and among the chaos, a dark-haired woman robed in white stood in the cluttered roadway, cradling a limp babe against her chest. She hummed and smoothed her hand over a pale cheek.

I recognized her.

She was the Priestess I’d seen when I came to retrieve Norbert’s children, Nate and Ellie. The one who had said the age of the Golden King was over and that no Mierel sat on the throne.

And never would again.

The Priestess’s sorrow-filled gaze lifted, meeting mine.

My body jerked, and then we were suddenly in the Garden District, bells chiming. The air was thick with smoke, and the destruction was vast. Homes were leveled. Fires raged. Survivors rushed toward crushed hills of stone as pale, gaunt, black-robed Priests moved through the debris, ringing the death knell.

“Look,” Holland ordered. “Look at what has already happened to the people you were willing to die to protect.” His fingers dug into my shoulder. “Are you willing to exchange their lives for your Ezra? Are you willing to take their lives?” He turned me to the left.

A man and woman huddled on the ground, their arms around two small children. They were all wounded, smudged with dirt and blood, but they were alive, a family still intact.

“Them?” demanded Holland. “That is who will pay the price. Everyone who walks will.”

My chest cracked, somehow deeper and more unforgiving than before.

“And do you think those you bring back will not know the price that was paid?” His massive wings stirred the thick billow of smoke. “They have been dead long enough to know, just as many of the villagers were. They will return to see their family and friends dead in their place. Do you think they’d want that? Do you think those you’ve sentenced to that fate wanted that?”

My lungs burned when I dragged in a stuttered breath. My heart pounded as I stared at the family, the death knell continuing to ring.

I couldn’t do that to them.

And that made the pain unbearable.

I wrenched myself free of Holland’s grasp, trying to swallow, but it got stuck. I saw that he no longer looked like such an otherworldly being. His wings were gone, and his skin was no longer full of starlight. I recognized every inch of his features and saw sorrow in the kaleidoscope of colors in those eyes. I couldn’t bear to look at him.

I turned to the once beautiful garden. Men and women, children, and the elderly were strewn about, their necks broken and twisted at unnatural angles.

This was Kolis’s fault, but…

I couldn’t let myself finish that thought. I couldn’t. But I had to. Because Holland was right. Not only Kolis’s choices had led to this moment. Mine had, too.

Pressing my hands to my temples, my chest tightened.

So many lives had been lost.

So many.

What have you done?

What I’d done was right in front of me.

Oh, gods.

A shudder went through me, and I stumbled forward. My legs went out from under me. I didn’t hit the cracked streets. Instead, my knees pressed into damp soil as the weight of it all fell upon me. Each act of vengeance and retribution fell like the stones I had torn down and the mountains I had crumbled. I pitched forward, placing my hands on the grass.

Oh, gods.

Nightmarish images rose as I stared at the Blood Forest I had shadowstepped into. Toppled homes and burning forests. Deep crevices in streets and beneath homes and people’s feet. In my mind, I saw the Priestess cradling the small child—one whose life I might have inadvertently taken in anger. The hills alight with fire. The screams I’d heard after ending Embris.

They were the screams of the dying. Lives I had taken. Maybe not thousands, but hundreds. And that…oh, gods, that was just as bad. It was just as monstrous as what Kolis did.

What had I done?

My fingers dug into the clumps of grass, and I trembled. Kolis had acted.

And I had reacted.

I summoned the eather, and the power responded to my will, stretching out and wrapping itself around each blood tree. I destroyed them one by one, unable to bear the sight of what I’d done. I destroyed all but a small cluster that stood at the foot of what remained of the Undying Hills.

I focused on them, but the eather rolled off them. Nothing I did removed the twenty or so trees that remained. I tried until I was exhausted. My gaze swept over the now-barren fields before returning to the remaining blood trees. For some reason, I could still see them covering the landscape as if all those haunting trees would one day return.

I pressed my forehead against the tainted ground, dragging in air. It tasted of the ruin I had caused.

The line between acting in rightful justice and lashing out in wrathful vengeance was a fine one. Incredibly thin and so easy to cross. I needed no vadentia to know that. I’d always known that. But I hadn’t just crossed that line.

I’d destroyed it.

And had become a true monster in the process.

What rose then was just as choking as the rage. It, too, was an all-consuming tempest, and every heartbeat was an echo of ravenous sorrow.

I broke.

I rocked back, bloody hands fisting in my hair as I screamed. Tears coursed down my cheeks and fell from the sky. I screamed until I thought I might rip apart, until my voice gave out, and there was nothing.

I didn’t know how long I remained on my knees, arms limp at my sides. I heard and saw nothing until I registered someone calling my name over and over.

Hands grasped my arms, shaking me. “Sera!”

Numbly, I opened my eyes, expecting to see Holland, but it wasn’t him.

Attes was crouched in front of me, red soaking his hair and streaming down his face. “Sera? Can you hear me?” He squeezed my arms. “Do you understand me?”

“I…” I rasped hoarsely. “Look…at what I did.”

The Primal shook his head and swallowed thickly. “That doesn’t matter right now.”

How could he say that? My gaze drifted behind him to the crimson leaves.

“Look at me.” He caught my chin, forcing my gaze back to his. “I need you to focus on me and listen. If you don’t, there will be more death and destruction. Lotho needs a Primal, and only you can Ascend one. If you don’t do it and do it now, the essence will circle back, and there will be even more damage. You must stop this.”

The screams…

Those lost when Embris’s essence was released. I flinched, and Attes cursed. Their blood was on my hands.

“Sera,” Attes pleaded.

“I know,” I croaked.

Relief poured into his features, and he helped me stand. As the blood leaves swayed in the wind, we shadowstepped to Mount Lotho.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

At any other time, I would’ve marveled at the beauty of the Athanien Palace. The sweeping structure had been built into the side of Mount Lotho and consisted of far too many floors to even count, connected by spiraling outdoor staircases that looked like death traps to me.

The palace wasn’t the only building that climbed to the heights of the mountain. Tall towers lined Mount Lotho and disappeared into the clouds. I knew that was where the Fates resided.

But there was nothing beautiful about the Court now. It was storming violently. Lightning continuously pierced the dark violet and charcoal clouds, revealing glimpses of the pitched roofs and rain-soaked marble streets of the cities sprawling along the hills and the steep inclines of Mount Lotho.

Draken swarmed the palace, their staggering calls those of restlessness, confusion, and anger. There was also concern.

So much rain had fallen that the gods clustered outside the doors feared mudslides would soon follow. Several were out there now, using essence to hold back the unstable ground. I closed my eyes. It reminded me of Phanos fighting the tidal wave my actions had caused.

“Sera,” Attes called softly.

I turned from the window to see him entering the atrium with Penellaphe.

The goddess’s light brown skin had taken on an ashen hue. “Sera,” she whispered, crossing the distance between us. “Fates, are you all—?”

“There isn’t time for that,” I cut her off. What I said wasn’t a lie, but I also didn’t want her concern. “Are you willing to accept the position of Primal of this Court?”

She stopped short, her fingers curling into the lace on the collar of her blouse. “I am, but there are other gods older than me—more deserving.”

“I don’t know them. I know you.”

Penellaphe took a deep breath. “Then I accept.”

Attes led us to a nearby chair. I’d been relieved when I realized the crimson now dried in streaks over his face and matting his hair was from the blood rain and not something else. It hadn’t just fallen throughout the mortal realm. It also drenched the Courts of Iliseeum. “Do you know how to do this?”

I nodded. “Your wrist?”

Penellaphe extended her arm, and Attes’s worried gaze lingered on me. I took the goddess’s hand. The sight of my blood-and-dirt-smeared fingers against her clean, unblemished skin caused me to flinch. Whose blood was that? Mine? Embris’s? The unknown gods I’d killed?

“Sera?” Attes said quietly.

I shook myself free of those thoughts. The wind and rain lashed the walls. Lifting her wrist, I didn’t waste any time. I bit into her vein. Her sharp inhale reminded me to release my fangs. I hadn’t done that when I’d torn into Embris’s throat. The taste of Penellaphe’s blood reminded me of cherries as I drank deeply and as quickly as I could, hoping I wasn’t causing her pain. I’d already brought about enough of that to last a lifetime. At some point, Penellaphe sat, or Attes guided her to do so. I wasn’t sure which. Soon, I became aware of the pulse beneath my fingertips and its echo in her blood. When it slowed, I closed the wound and then bit into my wrist. Red-hot pain radiated up and down my left arm, and Attes winced. I hadn’t been as clean with myself as with Penellaphe. It wasn’t on purpose. At least, I didn’t think so.

Blood welled and ran down my arm. I lifted my wrist. “Drink.”

Her hands shook when she grasped my arm. Rain-slicked hair fell forward. She sealed her mouth to the wound and drank as I stood there. I didn’t really feel it or know how long it took, but Penellaphe suddenly released my arm and jerked her head back. Warmth had returned to her skin.

“Rise,” I said, guided by the instincts of a Primal of Life. “Rise as the Primal Goddess of Wisdom, Loyalty, and Duty.”

Ruby-red stained her lips, and her eyes widened. She pressed a hand to her chest, the veins along the top lit with a golden glow. “Oh…”

Lowering my arm, I stepped back. A sudden wave of dizziness swept through me. I forced out a long, slow breath. A level of detached curiosity filled me as I watched the essence travel through her veins, disappearing under the sleeves at her wrists to reappear along her throat.

“Sera.” Attes touched my arm, his voice low. “Close your wound.”

I started to lift my arm but halted when eather filled the veins of Penellaphe’s cheeks. Her eyes got even wider, filling with eather until her pupils were no longer visible. Her chest rose sharply, and then she shot to her feet, knocking the chair over.

The air shifted around us, thickening and charging with all the combustible energy. Particles of eather lit up all around Penellaphe, moving throughout the atrium and beyond the palace. The Court of Lotho burned with silver light. Arcs of eather erupted from the particles, slamming into Penellaphe and returning to a source, a home.

Penellaphe’s head jerked back, and she threw out her arms. Blinding light streaked from her, sparking and hissing. She rose into the air, reaching the ceiling. The glow was so intense my eyes watered as eather enveloped her entire body. The howling wind and rain ceased. Through the windows, I saw the thick clouds breaking apart to reveal the clear night sky.

There was silence and then the staggering high-pitched call of a draken. Then another. And another.

The eather around and inside Penellaphe throbbed and then flickered out. She dropped from the air, but Holland was there before Attes or I could do anything. He caught Penellaphe, cradling her limp body in his arms. I was…so out of it that I hadn’t even felt his arrival.

Nice of him to show up.

“I got you,” he murmured, brushing his lips over her brow before lifting his gaze to mine.

“Sera,” Holland called. His painfully familiar features were tense, but his gaze was soft. “Thank you.”

My eyes slammed shut, violent emotions swirling dangerously inside me. I stepped back and turned away, swaying slightly.

“Sera,” Attes started.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” He caught my arm, irritation and concern filling his tone. “You’re dizzy, aren’t you? Don’t even bother lying. You’re walking like you’ve drunk a fifth of whiskey.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“Because I have no idea what you plan to do next, and I doubt you realize the vulnerable state you’re in right now.” The angles of his face were tense and smeared with dried blood, making his scar stand out more. “You’re a fledgling Primal and have used way too much eather.”

“I’m fine. I drank from Embris,” I said, wincing.

“And you just Ascended Penellaphe. Whatever you gained will deplete quickly.” Attes folded an arm around me, swearing under his breath. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

I didn’t protest, not even when he tugged me against his side. I was…I was done. And I was tired—

Awareness of another Primal throbbed in my chest as the mist began to lift from the floor. My head shot up. I recognized that sensation—the imprint. A hazy image of—

“Motherfucker,” Attes roared, sensing his brother.

My heart lurched, pumping adrenaline through me. I wrenched myself free of Attes, spinning to where Holland held Penellaphe. My eyes locked with Holland’s. His were wide, and the bright silver pupils had dilated until no color was visible.

“I didn’t see this,” he rasped. “This was not a thread.”

The breath I took froze in my chest. Gods. Holland…a Fate, an Ancient, sounded afraid.

Why would he be afraid of Kyn?

Holland rose swiftly, holding Penellaphe tighter to him. “Do not fight,” he said through gritted teeth. “You will not win, Seraphena.”

He vanished with the new Primal.

The glass walls of the palace exploded, sending shards through the atrium. Attes flung out a hand and grabbed my arm. A wall of silvery eather went up, shattering more glass.

“Fuck,” he snarled, pulling me back to him. Mist whipped around us.

A burst of energy reverberated through the large chamber, piercing the mist. Without warning, we were moving in opposite directions. I slid across the floor, boots slipping. I fell to my knees just as the horned tail of a draken whipped through the atrium, right above my head, before slamming into Attes. The Primal flew across the chamber, hitting a marble pillar with a fleshy smack. I jumped to my feet, and he fell to his knees, catching himself.

“Fuck you, Thrax,” Attes grunted. “That was unnecessary.”

I started for him—

Bad life choice.

Who I assumed was Thrax swept his tail back, and I was in its path. I hit the floor, holding my breath as the tail skimmed over me. One of the spikes grazed my shoulder, ripping my shirt, and only by the grace of the Fates, missed catching any skin in the process.

The ceiling tore back, claws ripping through glass and stone. A draken with fiery red-and-black scales descended into the ruined chamber, its wings beating at the dust in the air as its claws slammed down behind me.

Oh, shit.

I rolled to the right with only seconds to spare.

Massive forelegs landed where I’d been with a force that would’ve crushed me. Mouth dry, I popped to my feet. The draken snarled, its lips vibrating as they pulled back over sharp teeth. Thrax wasn’t nearly as big as Nektas, but he was fast with that fucking tail. He caught me in the back, sending me flying. I hit the floor with a groan. It knocked the air out of me, but I rolled, coming to a stop on my belly. Air—too much air—surrounded me. I turned my head, gasping and seeing nothing but the darkness of a steep drop-off on the side of Mount Lotho.

Why did Embris have to build his palace on a fucking cliff?

I shoved to my feet. Wind roared through the trembling palace, blowing my hair back. My chest suddenly warmed with the echo of death. The flare came again and again as Thrax snapped at Attes. I didn’t see Kyn, but I knew he was close. He was in the palace somewhere—likely the source of the death I felt.

I summoned the eather, feeling it pulse wildly—too wildly. A bolt erupted from my palm, nowhere near as strong as earlier. The silvery-gold stream arced across the chamber, striking the draken in the side.

Thrax yelped and lurched toward me. His jaws opened as he roared, the force sending me back about half a foot, the stench of sulfur and blood choking me.

I pulled the essence to the surface when I saw Attes’s armor appear. The Primal rose into the air, eather crackling and spitting from his splayed hands. Thrax huffed, drew his neck back, and started to turn back to Attes.

“Hey, you fucker,” I shouted. “Your breath smells like your mouth has been up Kyn’s ass!”

Thrax halted and then turned his attention back to me, eyes narrowing.

A stream of bright eather slammed into Thrax. The draken reared back, spraying shimmery blood. I darted out of its path, but Attes was close, continuing to slam the draken with eather. The armor protected his chest, but the sleeves of his tunic burned off, and his flesh smoked.

Thrax went for Attes, releasing a stream of silvery fire. Attes lurched to the side, throwing a bolt of eather that hit the draken in the face. Thrax shot back—

Icy fingers trailed down my spine. I sucked in a shrill breath, catching the scent of stale lilacs—death. The hairs along the back of my neck rose. Everything inside me stopped except for my heart. It beat steadily. Calmly, even. I turned around and saw Attes and the draken spill over the edge where the glass walls had stood, falling over the cliff. There was a shout of pain, but all I saw was the figure in the center of a whirling mass of crimson-streaked shadows in the sky.

“Kolis,” I hissed, feeling a violent rush of energy surge through me. Fury sank its claws into me, climbing my spine and filling my limbs. It filled my heart and wrapped itself around my fingers. So, I seized it. I stalked forward, the marble tile cracking under my steps. Throwing out my hand, golden-silver light rippled down my arm.

Seeing my family’s faces and the horror forever etched into their features, feral rage fueled me, and eather exploded from my palm, racing through the sky. A savage smile lit up my face when the essence struck Kolis, scattering the shadows around him. His head kicked back, and the eather raced across his bare chest, singeing his crimson pants. I lifted my left arm, wanting to cause him pain, wanting to destroy him—

A dark, cold laugh slithered through the air and over my flesh. Kolis’s chin lowered. Crimson-streaked tendrils rose once more in the ink-black sky, writhing and swirling, his eyes gleaming like ruby jewels. All along the cliffs, great elms and pines bent back as if to escape the weight of his power and presence.