A Soul Like Glass (Kingdom of Betrayal #4)

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

I am cold.

The fire burns my right hand as I plunge the first pieces of dark metal into it without using tongs.

Pain strikes through me, and Malak’s medallions quickly burn red hot before I wrench them out of the fire and position them on the anvil.

My mother’s voice screams in my memory, telling me to forge until my hands bleed.

I strike Malak’s hammer down on his own medallions, and then the work begins.

Over and over, I reheat the metal before beating and folding it, adding the pieces one at a time, beating and folding them until only Malak’s hammer and my grandmother’s pin remain.

Hammering the mound of dark metal into a flat circle, I take the black hammer in my right hand and thrust it into the fire.

My hand is already red and raw from the fire, whatever pain sensors existed within it having burned away so that I feel nothing in that hand now.

When Malak’s hammer glows red hot, I place it down on the circle of metal and fold the edges up around it, kneading it like dough, using my left hand to press with my power as well as my increased physical strength until the metal is flat and smooth once more.

A hush has fallen around me, the same as when I forged my medallion, but with every move I make, the scent of copper grows stronger in the air, and lightning flickers more brightly in the sky. The dark pall around me grows so dense that the monsters that have gathered to watch are black silhouettes, practically formless.

My arms shake with exhaustion. My mouth is beyond dry. I’m not sure how I’m breathing because even though the tornados have calmed, there is more ash in the air now, drifting like snowflakes all around me.

The spokes of a crown come together within my hands, each one tall and sharp, while the crown’s base is a thick, black band.

Finally, it rests, fully formed in my hand.

All of the dark metal has been melded into a single object.

But my grandmother’s pin is now a problem I don’t have a solution for. It rests on the anvil, a bright spot in the dark.

My fear is that it will bring light into this crown—a light that will undo all my work.

Maybe I need to leave it be. Simply take the pin with me in its current form.

I’m preparing to reach for it and slip it into my pocket when a cold hand wraps around my wrist.

My head snaps up.

The shadow-woman leans across the anvil, her fingers gripping my arm.

At her touch, my mind empties of everything except…

Screams.

My parents are dying, and I can’t help them. A beast covered in blood has torn them apart, and now he is coming for me.

He will kill me, too.

My heart is suddenly pounding. Within my mind, I’m seconds away from death.

But I have the power now.

This dark crown is everything I need.

I don’t have to be afraid.

Why was I worried?

My forehead creases because I can’t remember now.

I can destroy whatever I want to destroy. I can walk out from this dark plain, dragging the ash with me wherever I go, and I can make the world what I want it to be.

Nothing is beyond my reach.

And nothing… not one fucking thing… will ever hurt me.

The shadow-woman’s lips rise into a smile. “ Now you are me.”

She unwraps her hand from my wrist and draws back, but before she goes, she slaps the silver pin from the anvil, sending it flying into the dust, where it quickly disappears beneath falling ash.

I pay it no mind.

It’s no longer important. All that matters is this crown and the power that comes with it.

I turn my left hand over, palm up, giving my golden medallion cold consideration as I decide what to do with it.

If I take it off, I can merge it with the base of the crown. That way, I can turn its light to dark and wear all of my power like a queen?—

An explosion of white light blasts across my vision, knocking me backward. The light pours through the shadow-woman, ripping her figure apart, silencing her screams, and cutting through the beasts that stood behind her.

The air shrieks as a black-feathered creature soars across the space above me, and three figures jump from its back.

Each one is swathed in light that radiates out from them, disintegrating every dark thing nearby.

When a monster tries to ram into them, it shatters into dust.

When I step closer, pain strikes through my heart, cutting so sharply that I scream in agony and jolt backward, away from the light.

“The darkness has her!”

I recognize that voice. It belongs to a girl named Cailey.

She crouches where she lands, her hands outstretched, pouring white light into our surroundings, cutting down any monster that tries to approach.

“Dusana!” she cries. “You have to reach Asha or we’re lost!”

One of the other figures runs toward me. It’s Dusana, her golden hair forming a halo around her face, the flowers she was weaving still entwined in the strands.

Her steps slow before she reaches me, and her face drains of color. “Asha?”

I clutch the crown to my chest, keeping to the darkness, ready to strike out if I have to, prepared to turn her to stone or dust or blood to protect what’s mine.

“Oh, no.” Dusana’s brown eyes widen as her gaze rushes over me. “Cailey! Mother Solas!” Her desperate scream fades as she whispers, “I think we’re too late.”

“It’s never too late,” Mother Solas says, striding through the light toward me, her form backlit in a way that makes her white hair shine silver like mine used to.

The strands of hair now billowing around my face are the color of the darkest night. More than black. They are streaming strands of darkness pouring down my sides. My arms, where I can see them, are charred and my nails are sharp.

I have become the darkness.

Just before she would reach me, Mother Solas bends to the ground, scooping something up.

She stops and holds it out to me.

Her hand is wrinkled with age, but it doesn’t shake.

Within her fingers is the silver pin, shaped like a crescent moon. Its glistening, silver surface is as bright as Cailey’s power.

“We’re here with you,” she says, her voice quiet even though the wind is picking up around us. “You don’t have to do this alone.”

Her voice reminds me of a small moment in time, when Erik stood beside me, his hand brushing mine. Mother Solas had given me this very same pin, but it wasn’t the gift that mattered.

It was the fact that Erik had made sure it had been kept safe for me.

Erik.

My thoughts are suddenly splitting apart.

I have power.

I am powerless.

I will kill them all.

I have to save them.

My heart is pounding so hard it’s about to tear in half. One part yearning for the light, the other for the dark.

Take control. Take control. Take control…

I stumble back a step, clutching my head in my hands, and then I sink to the ash, the black crown gripped in my left hand, its cold surface pressed against my temple.

“We’re here,” Mother Solas says, lowering herself to the ash in front of me, her intelligent, compassionate eyes refusing to look away. “Asha Silverspun, you know this in your heart: We are the magics you need. It will take all four of us. You will not die alone this day.”

I take a deep, shuddering breath, tasting the awful, blood-filled ash on my tongue, my voice broken and sounding far away in my own ears. “I don’t want to go.”

Tears fill Mother Solas’s eyes. “I know.”

I gasp against the pain in my heart. “I have the power to stay.”

“You do,” she whispers. “The choice is yours.”

In the distance, Cailey lowers her arms, backing up in our direction, drawing in toward Dusana and Mother Solas, all of them reaching for me, their arms slipping around me.

Cailey’s light continues to glow around us, but her face is drawn and pale.

I sense that her energy is almost gone.

The darkness will swallow us all soon.

“We’re here,” Dusana murmurs, the scent of wildflowers filling my chest as she bends her head to mine.

“We’re here,” Cailey whispers, resting her head on my other shoulder.

“We’re ready,” Mother Solas says. “Light magic, elemental magic, original magic, and dark magic.”

“The four of us,” Dusana says. “Together.”

I bow my head, finally letting go of my fears.

In my mind, I hear Gallium’s long-ago voice telling me he will fight beside me. I hear Galeia asking me to make her a wolf. I hear my sister telling me she loves me and Thaden taking his first breath as a human.

And I hear Erik when he growled at me, telling me… he just wanted to do one good thing before he died.

I close my eyes and inhale the scent of starlight and wildflowers.

Then I rest the black crown on my lap so I can raise my left hand to Dusana’s shoulder.

Softly, I say, “You will be the keeper of elemental magic. You will wear flowers in your hair and a tiara on your head, and you will live in a bright realm, tethering elemental magic for eternity.”

She gives me a smile. Possibly the first she’s ever bestowed on me. The twinkle in her eyes tells me she’s pleased. “As you like.”

Then she fades from view, her form disappearing. But not into nothing. I sense the power I created, a force that will only grow stronger as I create more keepers.

Mother Solas reaches for me again and I take the hand she offers. Within it, she’s holding the silver pin. I close her fingers around it and then I place my left hand over the top.

“You will be the keeper of light magic,” I say. “Your years will fall away, and you will be the warrior that I suspect you were in your youth.”

This brings a smile to her face, and she nods.

“You will have golden armor, and this pin will become your weapon,” I continue. “You will live in a peaceful realm, tethering light magic for eternity.”

She speaks as she fades from view. “As you like.”

I turn to Cailey, conscious that her light is fading fast. The darkness is pressing around us, and the monsters are swarming inward.

Until all four of us have taken our place as keepers, nothing is safe.

“Cailey.”

When my voice chokes, she wraps her hand around mine, her head remaining on my shoulder.

“Don’t be sad for me, Asha Silverspun,” she says. “I may look young, but I am as old as time. In my lifetime, I have witnessed the births of gods and battles against titans. I am ready for my next adventure.”

“You will be the keeper of original magic,” I say. “You will live in a starlit realm with a never-ending night sky and all the silver roses you could ever desire. You will tether original magic for eternity.”

She lifts her head to give me a soft smile. “As you like.”

Her form slowly fades.

Tears slide down my cheeks, but I’m ready now, too.

Lifting the dark crown to my head, I exhale and speak my final command. “I will be the keeper of dark magic. I will live in a dark realm strong enough to hold the very worst of all magic and never let it loose.”

I take a final breath while the scent of starlight and wildflowers lingers in the air, and the dust storms rage toward me.

There is only silence as death comes for me.

Lowering the crown to my head, I accept all of the darkness that will change me forever, as I say, “I will tether dark magic for eternity.”