Chapter 26 Esme #3
My light explodes outward in a golden nova, absolutely free. The power is different to what it was before, not borrowed or granted, but intrinsically part of who I am.
I throw both hands forward and blast Goddess Ourea off her feet with everything I have.
She vanishes into the storm-torn sky with a scream of fury and disbelief, her silver robes streaming behind her as she’s flung into the howling wind like a leaf in a hurricane.
A black tear appears in the sky above us, reality itself splitting open, and I watch as it pulls her struggling form inside despite her desperate attempts to resist. The tear stitches itself closed with a sound like thunder, leaving no trace that she was ever here.
I don’t have time to wonder whether she’s dead or merely banished, because the ground shakes violently beneath my feet as a new wave of enemies pour from the snow drifts around me.
These are different, massive, hulking beasts with pale, shaggy fur and glowing eyes like coals.
Their jaws are easily as large as a bear’s, filled with teeth designed for rending flesh from bone.
“Fuck!” I shout as the first one lunges at me with supernatural speed. I dive and roll, the creature’s claws missing my head by mere inches.
Another beast swipes at me with a massive paw, its claws catching my shoulder and tearing through leather and skin alike. Pain screams through my body like liquid fire, and I stagger backward, feeling warm blood begin to soak through my torn clothing.
Exhausted and bleeding, I summon ice to my hands once more, shaping the frozen water into sharp, deadly blades that gleam like crystal in the strange light.
The wounded beast roars in fury and leaps again, its massive bulk blotting out the sky. I move as quickly as my flagging body allows, driving both ice blades up into its gut with all my remaining strength.
It collapses on top of me like a tidal wave of hot blood and rank fur, its massive weight crushing me into the snow. The smell of death and animal musk fills my nostrils as I struggle to breathe under the crushing weight.
I crawl free from beneath the corpse, now covered head to toe in blood and god knows what other fluids, but I don’t stop moving.
I can’t afford to stop. I fight through the pain and exhaustion and bone-deep terror that I won’t make it through this trial alive.
I fight because I don’t know how to do anything else anymore.
Because survival has become my only religion, and I worship at its altar with everything I have left.
Suddenly, as if someone has thrown a switch, everything stops. The remaining enemies simply vanish like smoke, leaving me panting and gasping in the sudden, eerie silence. I turn in a slow circle, every muscle tensed for the next attack, unsure of what fresh horror might be coming for me next.
That’s when the voice returns, calm and final and somehow satisfied.
“You have found yourself in the crucible of battle.
You have reflected on your past failures and present strength.
You have accepted your losses and chosen to move forward.
Now reclaim the power that was always meant to be yours.”
The clouds above us part like curtains being drawn back, and a single, brilliant sunbeam cuts through the sky and slams directly into my chest. The impact is sudden and overwhelmingly painful, lifting me completely off my feet and suspending me in the air, but I don’t cry out or beg for mercy.
Instead, I grit my teeth and let the power wash over me and through me like a river of molten gold.
The light buries itself deep into my soul, and I can feel it etching something permanent over my heart, the fourth and final rune, the mark that declares me complete.
Another rune burns itself into my arm, sealing my magic forever.
The trial is finished. I have passed through fire and blood and emerged victorious.
I float there, suspended in the golden light, feeling utterly complete and whole for the first time in my life.
Every wound heals, every ache fades, every drop of exhaustion burns away in the face of this divine restoration.
When the light finally recedes, I’m gently placed back on my feet, still tired and bloodstained and barely standing, but fundamentally changed.
For a moment, I think it’s truly over. I turn toward where I last saw the others, hoping desperately that the way back to them is now clear, when a shimmering portal splits the air directly in front of me.
Queen Lucelle steps through the magical gateway, resplendent in a flowing robe of deep crimson and bone white that seems to move with a life of its own.
A retinue of soldiers appears at her back.
Her dark eyes find mine immediately, and her perfect lips curve into a smile that promises nothing but pain.
Behind her, my father is dragged into view by invisible hands, his body bound in heavy iron shackles around his neck, wrists, and ankles.
The metal is clearly enchanted, glowing with runes that suppress his fae magic.
His tired eyes widen with shock and desperate love when he sees me standing there.
He tries to speak, his mouth opening to form words of warning or comfort, but Lucelle raises one elegant hand and silences him with casual cruelty.
Her voice drips with pure malice and venom as she looks directly at me, her smile widening to show perfect white teeth.
“Kill her.”