Chapter 55
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
ASTER
I ’d been watching.
Erynna had told me before King Lucif locked everything down. About Morgana’s betrayal—about the way she threatened my sister.
I thought about ordering her banishment. About ending the torment where it deserved, to give her the freedom she so coveted back at the price of being an outcast, but something didn’t taste right. It was a bitter feeling that burned in my chest, so I used my magic to keep an eye on her. All night, I watched her scream. To claim I was in danger—to beg for a fair judgment.
I’d made it halfway to the throne room when a group of guards stopped me.
“His Majesty has commanded every guest stay within their chambers,” one said.
I narrowed my eyes into slits. “That is my subject,” I said quietly. “She is to have judgment served by me. Not by King Lucif.”
“The king’s orders, Your Grace.”
My eyes flicked across the three of them who stood in my way. They would not back down—they feared me, but they feared King Lucif more. I valued that type of respect. But respect caused by fear was easily lost.
Notably replaced by someone who was far more fearsome.
My fist rocked into the nose of the one in the middle, the shadows bleeding from the hem of my gloves and whipping into the air at the other two. They were warning slashes—like the kiss of a blade against an enemy who did not deserve to die.
But they stumbled back, unsheathed their weapons, and charged me.
I breathed out, and with a flicking motion of my hand, my magic materialized as inked daggers. They slashed through the air, piercing them with unheard preciseness.
Again, they fell back.
This time to their demise, and I stepped over their bodies as I raced after Morgana. Through the halls, I became one with the shadows to evade the guards who ran after—well, after something. I doubted any of them had stumbled across the prizes I’d left them.
They rushed from the throne room where I’d witnessed them drag Morgana before my reach was severed. They knew I’d be watching, and someone was powerful enough to make sure I didn’t see what they were prepared to do. The doors were blown off their hinges as I forced a wave of energy forward, the guards on the other side soaring through the air, their weapons clattering onto the ground ahead of them.
The king, already standing, pointed a finger at me. “Kill him. Now!”
My stare found Morgana in an instant. She was motionless on the ground, both wrists bleeding. There was a guard on the ground next to her, guiding my eyes to white powder beneath her still hand. I froze—had she absorbed the toxic powder?
There was a second guard standing over her with the tip of his blade pressed against the center of her chest. In the distance, the Blood Sisters cowered, but the second they saw my face, they joined hands and then melted into a puddle of ichor. It fizzled into the air, and then the blood vanished too.
I hissed out in anger and jolted forward, picking up one of the loose swords and striking it, steel to steel, against one of the assailants. Again, again, again, I blocked their attacks. As our weapons formed the bind, I pushed so hard that the guard stumbled backward. I ripped off one of my gloves and dragged my palm against the flat edge of my weapon. Darkness enveloped it, and then I swung my arm across the length of the room. The sword soared toward the guard over Morgana, first piercing through his back before the shadows erupted off him and covered the room in pitch black.
I thought about using this cover to end the reign of Avendatis. To perhaps weaken such an unstable society to the point that they failed to exist another day.
But their subjects were innocent.
Their king was not, but without a king?—
Without a king, they were hopeless.
So I vanished into the dark veil, emerging next to Morgana to take hold. Once my hand was firmly wrapped around her limp arm, we both joined the cover of my magic. The palace was a warren of gloom I could navigate. The chaos of the guards, the blubbering king rushing from the throne room—it mattered not. I held Morgana in my arms, searching the length of the castle for Erynna. My body moved at speeds unheard of. My feet glided across the ground, and what should have taken hours took seconds.
Erynna was gone.
My magic was waning.
If I did not get us out, if I did not use what little control I had left over the darkness within me, we would be trapped. We would be slain ? —
So I vanished. I whirled through the network of never-ending, inky pathways my cursed magic could touch, bringing us as far as a small town in the outskirts of Verdantis.
My knees gave way as we materialized near a lake. I sucked in a breath, using the last of my consciousness to set down Morgana before the internal chaos seized me.
I fell into my own personal layer of hell, into the darkness where my monsters ran free.
The very place I feared would be my end.