Chapter 33 #2
Helplessness overtook her as the Reaper Lord continued to stare up at the night’s sky, as Jessalyn continued to strain against the bonds pressing her down, as the children continued weeping and screaming.
It couldn’t end like this, and yet, there was nothing Viri could do, her years of training having never prepared her to fight someone as powerful as the Reaper Lord.
Anger rose within her at the unfairness of it all—at her parents dying when she was a child and never telling her the truth about her own past, at her brother sacrificing seven years of his life just to protect her, at Reeve being forced to abandon her, at her forgotten memories that had stolen so much time from them all, and lastly, at the all-powerful Guardian who had refused to help stop the Reaper Lord, offering nothing more than trite words that—
Viri stilled suddenly as she remembered exactly what the Guardian had told her.
“You already have everything you need to succeed. Trust yourself. Trust your friends. Trust your magic.”
Viri trusted her friends, but they were stuck outside, beyond the cathedral’s impenetrable wards.
She also trusted herself, though right now, she was trapped by the Reaper Lord’s power, unable to move.
Her magic, however…that she didn’t trust. She didn’t even understand it.
But if what the Guardian had said was true—perhaps even veiled advice—then maybe it was time she stopped physically fighting and tried something different, something… magical.
Her mind scrambled to consider everything she knew about the magewish bond that tied her life to the obelisks, how their pure, potent ward magic flowed within her, heightening her sensitivity to ellixen.
She’d learned in the Summit that she could focus that sensitivity to locate warded objects, but…
what if she could do more than that? What if she could create wards, just like the obelisks did?
And more importantly…
What if she could break them?
Viri’s palms began to sweat as an idea came to her. The cathedral’s wards were all that prevented anyone from coming to their aid, so if those wards were destroyed…
It was a long shot, and something she needed to test first, unsure what might happen if she attempted such magic—or any magic—without knowing what she was doing.
She could make the wards worse, unintentionally strengthening them or even making them permanent.
She needed to experiment with something smaller, so she closed her eyes and cast her mind back to Reeve’s instructions in the storage room, imagining herself like a mage blossom unfurling petal by petal, reaching for her heightened sensitivity, her magic, ready to release it.
Nothing happened.
Anxiety rose within Viri, but she forced herself to breathe through it, knowing her desperation was only working against her. She summoned the memory of Reeve’s lulling, hypnotic voice as he’d guided her, willing her thoughts to settle, her heartbeat to slow.
And then she tried again, reaching deep inside herself once more, coaxing her magic to flow out, to break past the embankment of her mental river.
This time, it worked.
A gasp left Viri as the power inside her erupted outward and slammed against the wards of the cathedral, the sting of their ellixen so strong that she had to stifle a groan.
She hastily reeled her river back in, wrestling it under as much control as she could, using nothing but the memory of Reeve’s calming voice and her own intuition to guide it toward a different point of focus.
Her awareness homed in on her own wrists, making her realize that the bonds holding her to the pillar must be a kind of ward—or perhaps the strange magic within her didn’t discriminate between wards and general ellixen.
Either way, she concentrated hard on the tingle binding her in place, brushing her peculiar, unknown magic up against it, like a hand stroking a pet, and mentally whispered, “Let go, let go, let go.”
She had no idea what she was doing, was certain it wouldn’t work—
But then, suddenly, she was free.
Shock stole Viri’s breath, but she shoved her incredulity aside, knowing she could marvel over what she’d done later.
For now, all she wanted was to leap up and sprint for the dais, but she made herself remain in place, aware she would get barely two steps before the Reaper Lord waved his hand and flung her away, or worse, forced her back into unconsciousness until the sacrifice was over.
His hooded head had already swiveled in her direction, like he’d sensed a change in the magic binding her—or not binding her—and it took all her willpower to stay immobile under his perusal.
A chillingly long moment passed before he looked away again, his head tilting upward once more, causing a shaky exhale to leave Viri.
But then his shoulders straightened as something caught his attention, and she followed his gaze up through the shattered ceiling, ice flooding her as she saw a bright purple streak traveling ever so slowly among the stars high overhead.
Aurora had arrived.
Panic rippled through Viri, with it only growing when the Reaper Lord withdrew a white bone dagger from his cloak and held it between his open palms, then began to chant in a foreign language, likely that of the ancient mages.
It was now or never, Viri realized, staring at the dagger in horror and knowing exactly what would happen as soon as the Reaper Lord’s chanting ended.
Her inexperience made her technique raw and clumsy, her intuition still all she had to guide her, but Viri speared the river of her magic outward again, this time letting it slam against the cathedral wards—and stay there.
They were so much stronger than the small amount of ellixen that had bound her wrists, like a mountain compared to a pebble, and she strained against them, raising her whisper to a mental shout: “SHATTER! SHATTER! SHATTER!”
Her head began to throb as she pushed with everything she had, ramming her magic against the wards over and over again, each time screaming louder, “SHATTER!”
And then, finally, they did, causing a harsh ripping sound to tear through her mind and make her partially black out, her magic no longer contained by any wards and instead streaming beyond the cathedral and into the necropolis.
In her half-lucid state, she was somehow able to sense what it sensed, aware of the scores of people waiting outside in the moonlight, Nox and hunters alike, none of whom realized the wards had come down.
She had to find a way to tell them they could now enter the cathedral, but how—
Her magic suddenly jerked in another direction, flowing toward someone hiding with a smaller group in the shadows of a tomb—someone her magic was being pulled toward, like a moth to a flame.
“Mine, mine, mine,” it whispered, but unlike when Viri had been attacked by the obelisk during her Impartation attempt, this voice wasn’t dark and menacing—it was soft, affectionate, loving.
And it was talking about Reeve.
His magic—there must be something in it that called to her own, like power attracting power.
She didn’t understand enough about ellixen to guess beyond that, just continued trusting her instincts and brushed her magic against his like she’d done with the wrist bonds, saying, “Reeve, if you can hear me, the wards are down. Please hur—”
Her magic was wrenched backward as full lucidity returned to her, leaving her nauseatingly dizzy as her power was contained once more. Her ears rang, not from being hurtled back into her own consciousness, but from Jessalyn’s screams—
Because the Reaper Lord had raised his dagger high above her, his chanting beginning to slow, the blade pointed directly at her heart.
Viri didn’t know if Reeve had heard her, didn’t care that she was light-headed and weak after destroying the wards, because she wasn’t waiting another second to save Jessalyn.
Even knowing the Reaper Lord could swat her away, she scrambled to her feet and sprinted forward, hurdling over crumbled statues and broken pews, swerving around white coffins and fallen pillars, leaping past twisted vines and flickering candles.
The Reaper Lord didn’t seem to notice her mad dash, not even with the racket of glass crunching under her boots, as if he were stuck in a trance while chanting in the moonlight.
His reaper underlings saw her coming, though, and a group of them lunged forward to intercept her.
At any other time, Viri might have been flattered that they thought ten of them were needed to bring her down, but right now, she had no defense against even one of them.
She had no fillium or weapons to counter their heightened strength and speed, her only option being the scarlet powder that could nullify their inhuman abilities.
She wished she could wait to hit more of them at once—including the Reaper Lord—but she didn’t have a choice if she wanted to survive beyond the next few seconds.
Thumbing the vial from her cloak as she ran, she waited until the reapers were mere steps away before screeching to a halt and hurling it at their feet, the glass smashing and the powder rising like a red cloud.
Viri was careful to stay out of its explosive radius, not wanting to risk nullifying the newly discovered magic within her, and she watched in awe as the reapers stumbled clumsily upon losing access to their stolen ellixen.
Unsure how long the effects would last, Viri leapt forward again, grateful for all the hours Meera had spent training her in unarmed combat as she aimed her fist at the nearest reaper, who crumpled to the ground with a satisfying thud.