Chapter 55 #2
Their faces were softened with youth, though I knew it was Katia and Rhedros the moment I laid eyes on them.
Tyrak had said that, right? That Saints came to the Human Realm in a body no older than sixteen years?
My breath stopped in my lungs as I took them in.
Even as a young man, Rhedros was tall, his deep brown hair shorn close to his scalp.
He had my nose — rather, I had his nose, and the set of his chin.
He had an intimidating exterior, but he didn’t feel that way to me, because I was his. I was his daughter .
And Katia… Emotion pummeled me as I stared. I was her exact duplicate, as if there were simply two of me. Aside from the nose and chin, we looked nearly identical. Pride and warmth surged through me at the sight of her brown eyes and caramel hair that were so much like my own.
I wanted to stare at them for hours, take in everything about them and pick apart the traits I inherited from each. My parents. The Keepers of the Saints. And they were human, now. Fragile, breakable, mortal humans.
But why?
They hovered above a column of smoke, Malosym in between them, as if the smoke itself was keeping them in the air. Their wrists and ankles were chained with what looked like solid shadow, and they pulled against their restraints, their eyes locked on me.
Gone were the Occulti. Gone were Malosym’s drivas.
Gone were the beasts of the Onyx Pass. The soulhags stood quiet, their stony faces just as still as the herd of kelpies waiting among the waves.
Katia’s remaining drivas stood in the sand, their wings tucked and eyes slitted.
The cannons sat silent and dark. The crossbows were still.
Swords and shields hung at soldiers’ sides.
The fighting had stopped, and instead everyone stood watching.
Some people wept. Some people anxiously shifted their weight, unsure of what to do.
Other people were completely motionless in their shock.
And as I beheld Malosym in his true form, all shadows and darkness, he smiled the kind of smile reserved only for the darkest of my nightmares.
“She has the crowns,” Rhedros breathed to Katia, his eyes on me. “She has them.”
“And they’ll do her no good here,” Malosym called, eyeing me. “This could all be over, Petra. Think of how much pain and suffering you could prevent if you just joined me. This entire battle, done.”
“ No ,” Katia bellowed, her voice hoarse .
In a heartbeat, Malosym’s hand collided with Katia’s cheek. Rhedros surged forward, his chains pulling taut as he yanked against them. “Don’t fucking touch her!” he roared.
My heart ached, tears streaming from my eyes and turning to steam before they could fall.
“Release them, Malosym, and you can have me,” I shouted, my voice trembling.
Katia and Rhedros both began to protest, but both quieted at whatever they saw on my face.
A quiet murmur moved through the crowd around me.
A single brow rose on Malosym’s shadowy features, but he remained silent as I spoke again.
“You couldn’t kill them when they were Saints. Why try to kill them now?”
I needed to get him away from them. I needed to lure him to me so I could finish this.
“And how do you know I couldn’t kill them?” he called back.
“If you could’ve, you would’ve done so a long time ago.” My fingers flexed where they gripped the crowns in each of my hands, the metal heating as my flames came to life for the final time. I took a cautious step closer, the crowd parting as I continued on. “You have no real power.”
Finally, I saw his mouth twitch the slightest bit. It was working. In a flash of blue light, Malosym was gone, but it was less than a second before he reappeared directly in front of me. People scrambled back, giving us a wide berth. I just hoped it would be wide enough.
“I have power,” he growled, his eyes boring into mine.
“You have pain,” I spat. A low rumble of thunder sounded from above as I burrowed into myself.
“I grow stronger when other people weaken. Is that not power?”
“Relying on others to be weak so you can be strong? That doesn’t make you powerful. It makes you nothing . And that’s all you are, Malosym. Nothing. You want real power? Release Katia and Rhedros, and you can have me. I am real power.”
“Maybe I couldn’t have killed them when they were Saints.
” His nostrils flared as he sucked his teeth, staring down at me.
The first drops of rain began to fall, spattering on my cheeks as I stared right back at him.
Malosym leaned in, whispering in my ear, “I guess you’ll never know.
” Movement caught my eye behind him, and I realized it wasn’t rain that had begun to fall.
My heart seized in my chest, my knees weakening as I stared, open-mouthed at my mother and father, their throats slit ear to ear.
Katia and Rhedros were dead.
And all at once the Occulti were back, the drivas flying overhead and the monsters of the Onyx Pass surging forth as swords swung and teeth snapped around me.
But I hardly noticed, because I launched myself forward, fire erupting from my hands as Malosym’s blue flames flared to life, surging toward me.
I met his blow, pushing back with everything I fucking had.
Lightning crackled overhead as my flames battered his.
Malosym was going to die, and he was going to die screaming .
For Katia. For Rhedros. For Da and Larka and Wrena and Marita and Miles and Tyrak and Adorex. For Cal, wherever he was. For every fucking life he ruined with his touch, for every ounce of pain he caused to people who deserved nothing but good.
For the final time, I burrowed as deep as I could within myself.
I scraped at the very base of my soul for the final dregs of my power, for everything I had left.
With a war cry that rang over the beach, I cast it toward Malosym.
I didn’t know what was waiting for me on the other side, if there was anything at all, but I was ready.
“ Fuck you ,” I breathed into my flames as I exploded.
And as if they’d never existed at all, the blue flames disappeared. I tumbled to the ground as his power gave way, scrambling to my feet in confusion just in time to see Cal plunge the imbued blade through Malosym’s skull.