Chapter 23
INEVITABLE
Seryn
There was nowhere to retreat, and Gavrel’s vise-like grip on my hand told me he wouldn’t let go. He tried to nudge me behind him, but I planted my heels, refusing to move.
Like I always would.
If he sacrificed himself, so would I.
Tendrils of night crept toward our feet. My heartbeat thundered, nerves and ember vibrating under my skin.
Therrok and Thesa landed beside my mother, fists clenched around bloodied weapons. Melina tilted her head, excitement gleaming in her eyes despite her wilted form.
I braced against my uncle’s darkness, but it veered around our boots and poured over the slab’s edge.
The black, copper-lined liquid fizzed and splattered as if it wanted to flee Phobetor’s ember. Gavrel and I edged back, but the inky veins tore free of the metallic substance and leaped, latching onto the toe of his boot.
He froze, muscles locking as it slithered up his legs.
“I can’t move,” he growled.
I tugged on his hands.
“Don’t bother.” Phobetor stalked closer. “The Nyxvein has taken hold. Did you not listen when I told you of Morpheus’ entrapment?”
The darkness climbed Gavrel’s hips as Phobetor went on, voice almost amused. “Our mother gave Morpheus and me mirrored doorways into other realms. But her essence poisoned them—made them quite useful. That’s how I delivered my Dormancy pods to the mortal realm. How I trapped my brother.”
At last, Melina rose, her voice trembling with sycophantic devotion. “It was an honor, my liege. My Akridais and I are forever in your serv—”
Phobetor’s hand snapped out, and a cloud of shadow slashed over her face. In its wake, black twine sewed Melina’s lips shut.
A muffled shriek slipped between her fingers as they clawed at her mouth. Smoky energy burst from her like an extinguished fire, cracking the glass conveyor under her.
Breena hissed, and her aura flickered. Even Mama stepped back, wary of the toxic outburst.
Phobetor sneered, “I tire of you.” With a flick of his wrist, Melina collapsed. She writhed against his domination, pewter eyes fixed on me, burning with venom. She smiled, lips tugging at the twine as if she knew her hatred would outlive this battle.
Her tendrils brushed my ankle before my uncle’s power jerked her back.
“Contain yourself,” he hissed, shadows coiling around like chains. “Your spite fouls even my air.”
“If you want something done, best do it yourself.” His attention swung to me. “Now, niece. Nyxvein and amber”—he twirled his hand in the air toward Gavrel—“bit more poetic, isn’t it? Motivating.”
“We had a deal,” I spat.
“I said I would release him. I never said when.”
Rage surged along with my aura, fists trembling with the effort to contain it.
My uncle clucked his tongue. “Careful. You’ll only hurt yourself. And everyone else.” He gestured toward the others.
Gavrel strained against the darkness climbing his arms. Amber had already encased his lower half. His emerald eyes pleaded with me to run, though we knew there was nowhere beyond Phobetor’s reach—not in this realm.
Panic hollowed my chest. I caught Mama’s eyes, then Breena’s. Both their auras blazed.
Phobetor turned to my mother with an unsettling smile.
“At last, we meet. Maya, the vessel for my brother’s seed.
Clever enough to turn an Ancient’s head while imprisoned …
You must be his khorda. No mortal could reach him otherwise in such a state.
” He scoffed, aura darkening. “And yet, it hardly ended well for you.”
Mama’s voice cut sharply. “Nor for you. What a pitiful existence—jealous of your brother, trapped in a realm of scraps. You cursed Midst Fall, and still he bested you.”
His jaw clenched. “Shame his end will come at the hands of his daughter. And he will never reunite with his fated.”
The mist climbed Gavrel’s neck. “Move!” he bellowed as Phobetor’s hands snapped forward.
Breena braced herself, a radiant shield flaring out before them. Mama’s ember lashed at Phobetor’s, but his shadows tore free and slammed into the red barrier.
My ability thrashed, and my arms flung out, our auras colliding. My fractured rainbows clung to his darkness when it tried to slip away. But then he grinned and tossed aside my energy.
“Seryn!” Mama called, pushing her ember toward me.
I latched onto it. Breena followed, scarlet waves weaving with Mama’s midnight ropes. My iridescence drank them in, hues bleeding into mine, melting together in a rush of color.
The teardrop-shaped amulet throbbed faintly against my collarbone. Melina’s stolen ember hummed in time with my own. Its presence was unmistakable, a tether to the Elder that I couldn’t wait to be rid of, but at least it was caged. For now.
Heat seared through me, through every joint and sinew. It sizzled along the glowing boughs of my forearms. My head craned back, irises illuminating.
Too much. It would tear me—and this realm—apart.
I am you, and you are me, I screamed in my mind.
We are one, my ember whispered back.
I thrust a hand toward Gavrel. The Nyxvein shrieked, recoiling. The amber splintered, then shattered into golden shards.
He rushed to me, one arm locking around my waist. His tattoo glowed white, and calm washed over me.
He was my anchor in a sea of chaotic, cosmic bedlam.
I squinted at my uncle and cupped my hands around the orb forming between them. Lustrous fragments of light coalesced into something otherworldly—a bottomless, star-flecked void.
This time, I didn’t fear it.
And it hungered. Yearned to become one with the celestial force before me.
So, I let it feast.
Phobetor’s shadows reared back at my assault, his shocked gaze snapping to mine.
He couldn’t free his darkness in time.
Destroy, my ember chanted within me.
“Finish it, Asteria,” Gavrel murmured into my hair.
With a cry, I unleashed my power. The orb inverted, and pulsing, star-struck blackness devoured the surrounding nimbus.
Phobetor paled; worry flitted across his sharp features.
I lifted my chin. “Perhaps you were right.” I curled my fingers around my dark creation. “Like father, like daughter.”
Searing energy zipped up my spine. Phobetor’s body arched, shadows peeling from him, sucked into the black hole I’d created.
It grew. Seeped over my arms, staining the branch patterns with star-lined ebony.
I was invincible.
Indestructible.
Inevitable.
Phobetor’s mouth gaped on a silent roar. Loathing burned in his eyes as he hurled one last wave of darkness, swiping his thumb over the tourmaline ring on his middle finger.
Gavrel and I staggered under the icy weight, aura fizzling. My knees buckled as my body took the brunt of my spent energy. Gavrel caught me before I crashed into the stone.
My vision blurred, but I forced my eyelids to stay open. Faintly heard Mama and Breena calling my name.
A vortex of haze twirled around the slab, splashing thick, Nyxvein-streaked copper on the edges. My mother’s ember lashed toward Phobetor before he vanished into the portal he’d opened, his enraged roar chasing him.
Once released from the Ancient’s hold, Melina’s metallic eyes met mine, flickering with odium and malice—a promise that she wasn’t finished with me.
With a sharp nail, she sliced the twine binding her mouth, a wicked grin twisting her lips before she dragged herself into the whirlpool, letting it swallow her.
No!
They couldn’t get away. I wouldn’t let them.
“Let’s go!” I screamed before the portal could close, brushing over my own celestial key. Hoping the threshold wouldn’t tear us apart since there wasn’t currently a full moon. Hoping it ripped Melina to shreds.
Heat vibrated against my finger, and I tried to picture Phobetor so we’d be sure to follow him, but consciousness was slipping away from me.
Therrok and Thesa scooped up Breena and Mama, flying over the crumbling conveyor and landing on the floating slab.
I grabbed Breena’s wrist, forcing my ember into her. Her eyes widened. “Use it to shield us,” I ordered.
She nodded, her aura blazing brighter than ever. A sparking, scarlet shield slammed around us. Gavrel held me close as I crushed my eyes shut, but I felt everyone’s touch on my shoulders and arms, surrounding me. My last thought before we toppled into the molten depths was not of my uncle.
But of bright skies and those I loved.