Chapter 63
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
LYVIA
Unlike threads, the Weave cannot be broken, not by any mortal-made object, nor by death.
Lyvia – Living Library, Lotrennia
Charred bodies disappeared under a ripple of shadows as I landed in the clearing before the burning library and Sintarrak. I scanned the wreckage and felt for the bonds of my friends. Their life forces sent gentle pulses of acknowledgment back to me. I could still hear Nerissa screaming.
Go, I tried to urge them. Go far from here.
I blinked once, adjusting my eyesight to keep the library’s flames from blinding me before I turned to where Sintarrak stood. My lips twisted into a smile as I straightened, the ribbons of darkness writhing around my body and wings like living death.
Bayne’s face slackened in shock. Sintarrak’s silver eyes were wide in horror as they landed on me. He took a step backward, and a roar of power thrashed inside me.
“Hello, Brother,” I leered, the Transcindiel tweaking my vocal cords to match the sound of Tynan’s slippery voice.
Bayne’s face drained of color before his silver eyes ignited in rage. His head shook in denial.
“How did you escape?” he asked.
Something in my chest tightened at the sound of Bayne’s voice. His silvery eyes slipped over my wings.
“You’ve been watching my chosen one for some time,” I replied, drawing out the syllables in a hiss. “Did you think she wouldn’t come to me for help? She will be the empress,” I repeated Tynan’s words from the Abyss, still reeling at their meaning.
Sintarrak’s eyes darted around the clearing, looking for me, for Lyvia, I realized in a panic. A shield formed around Bayne’s body as he turned his silvery gaze back on me.
“You’ve been busy,” I continued, taking a slow step toward him through the shadows. “Taking what isn’t yours.”
My eyes slid over Bayne’s body. Sintarrak opened Bayne’s lips to respond, and I lunged. The Obscura surged forward in its purest form, savage shadows reaching snaking tendrils toward him.
Bayne’s lips opened in a snarl as he disappeared and reappeared in the distance. I surged forward, letting my shadows and wings propel me through the air. The darkness bucked at the Embodied’s shield as I chased him, and he threw blast after blast of unfathomable power at me.
The Obscura slashed at the lights, their heat and their pain dissolving in the raw power that I had become. A distant part of me marveled at it. Had fusing with Tiberius done this? Had becoming one done more than simply change our forms? Had it elevated our powers to that of an Embodied?
Shadows and light clashed through the clearing, and a pattern emerged. I slowed my chase, narrowing my eyes at Sintarrak’s movements as he used the Advetis power to zap from place to place. My shadows lunged, and as Bayne disappeared, I turned in the opposite direction and slammed into his body.
My long fingers gripped the side of his face, and for a moment, the deep ache in my chest left there by the man held captive by Sintarrak pressed against my heart.
Bayne’s vision from the Waters of the Ascendiel had been this, and I ached at his misunderstanding.
At the decisions he’d made since, his sacrifices for something he didn’t understand.
I stilled for a mere moment. Was he still in there?
The silver in Sintarrak’s eyes, in Bayne’s eyes, flashed once, his face clearing in recognition.
My heart stopped as realization hit him, whatever he saw in my face enough for my cover to be blown. His hand reached through my shadows and gripped my forearm, pulling it forward.
Silver eyes examined the rings on my long fingers, and his lips twisted into a sinister smile. My stomach bottomed out, and I wrenched my arm from his grip as my shadows reacted.
The Obscura lunged forward, surrounding us in a cloud of darkness, and I used the momentary distraction to fling myself out of his grasp. I hurtled through the air, over wreckage, as a spine-tingling cackle ripped from Bayne’s lips.
Away.
I had to get away.
Run.
Fly.
My pulse pounded against my neck as I fled, leaping over rocks and bodies, through another blazing branch of the Living Library until I finally reached a clear enough path to run and begin flapping my wings.
Smoke clogged my lungs as I lifted into the air, and I dared a look over my shoulders to where Sintarrak had been.
My heart stopped as my eyes landed on the empty clearing. A growing hysteria forced the air from my lungs. My wings pumped wildly into the sky, and just as I turned back, a crack echoed in my ears.
Hard hands gripped my shoulders midair. My eyes reeled against the flashing silver of Bayne’s irises, and fear like nothing I’d ever experienced paralyzed me. My wings stilled, and even my shadows seemed to freeze.
“Tynan told you he would make you Empress of the Embodied,” Sintarrak hissed into my ear. “Only I can do that.”