Chapter 29 #2
The words hang in the air between us. For one heartbeat …
just one terrible heartbeat … I imagine it.
A world where I don't have to watch Sacha struggle with the weight of his duty.
Where I don't have to see him make the same mistakes that destroyed his family.
Where the choice is simple. Unlimited power, or the man who summoned me to use me.
The temptation is so strong it makes me sick. The yes forms in my throat.
Then I see Sacha broken and dying in that cage, his body destroyed by Sereven's torture. Our first kiss, electric and desperate and completely unplanned. The shock on every face when he knelt before me. The way he says my name like it's sacred.
He loves me. Not because I'm useful. Because I'm me.
Whatever manipulation brought us together, what we built from it was real.
White-hot rage explodes through me, burning away the temptation.
Every word, every false promise. He wants me to choose power over love, ambition over loyalty.
But that's what makes me better than him.
Sacha and I didn't build our connection through schemes or manipulation.
It happened by accident when I touched his familiar.
Neither of us planned for it. We simply chose what to do with it.
And I will burn this world to ash before I let Sereven take that away from me.
"You're wrong. About all of it."
“Am I? Then prove it. Strike me down. End the threat I represent to your new allies. Or come with me. Leave this place before your prince arrives to claim the throne you’ve won for him.”
The crystal fragments in his face pulse, and his entire body convulses. When the spasm passes, he’s paler, blood running more freely from his nose and the corners of his eyes. But something else has changed. The air around him hums with deadly energy.
“Last chance, Elowen. Stand with me, or watch everything you care about burn.”
His threat shatters the last of my confusion and doubt. Lightning erupts from my fingers, silver bolts searing through the air toward him.
He doesn’t move.
Shadows launch from his body. They swallow my lighting completely and the crystal shards in his face flare brighter.
“Shadows,” I breathe. “But you can’t use Shadowvein abilities.”
“Can’t I?” He raises one hand, and flames dance around his palm. “The crystal contains it all, Elowen. Every gift, every strength, every drop of potential. They live on through me.”
Horror crashes over me.
“No!” I launch another bolt, this one aimed directly at his chest.
Stone rises from the ground, and the lightning hits it, splitting it down the middle with a crack that echoes around the plaza.
“Impressive, but if you’re not going to submit to me, then there is only one other option for you.” Wind whips around him as he advances. “My turn.”
Flamevein fire roars toward me. I dive behind the fountain as blue flames wash over the stone, hot enough to crack it. Before I can recover, Earthvein power sends stone spikes erupting where I'm crouched. I roll aside, feeling one graze my shoulder.
This isn't possible. The crystal absorbs power. It doesn’t wield it.
“You can’t hide forever,” he calls, and I can hear the strain in his voice. Whatever the crystal has done to him, it comes with a price.
I leap up, sending lightning at his feet. The bolt strikes stone, and the crystal flares brighter, growing in intensity.
“No,” I whisper. It’s not only deflecting my power, it’s feeding on it.
Sereven laughs, blood spattering from his lips. “Yes. Every bolt you throw makes me stronger. The crystal takes your lightning and gives it to me.”
Tidevein power pulls moisture from the air, forming ice spears that hurtle toward me. I throw myself flat as they whistle overhead, then roll as Flamevein fire follows. The heat sears across my back.
“Do you see now?” He advances, and the ground beneath us churns and grinds under his will. “This is what true power looks like, Elowen. Not the crude lightning you stumble through, but mastery of everything.”
“They don’t belong to you!”
“They do now.” Wind slams into me, driving me back to my knees. “Every Veinblood who died screaming lives on through me. I am their legacy.”
“You’re their murderer!”
Lightning explodes from me in pure rage, but it’s not focused, and flies outward in every direction. Some of it strikes him, some hits the fountain, some cracks the plaza stones.
All of it feeds the crystal.
The blue shards flare like tiny suns, and Sereven staggers as power floods through him. For a moment I think it might overwhelm him. Blood pours from every opening in his face, drips down his chin, smears his lips.
Then he steadies. Smiles. And the crystal settles into a steady, hungry glow.
“Thank you. I haven't felt this strong in years.”
The full horror hits me. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting the accumulated abilities of every Veinblood the Authority ever killed.
And there's no way to win.
Shadows writhe around his feet, tendrils reaching for me. I scramble backward. Fire follows the shadows, forcing me to keep moving. Then wind tries to pin me in place while ice spears form overhead.
He's using all of them at once, and I can barely keep ahead of the attacks.
“Surrender,” he calls, blood streaming down his face. “You're only delaying the inevitable.”
I can't attack, and I can’t defend myself properly. The only thing I can do is run, and dodge, and hope he burns himself out before he kills me.
But the crystal keeps pulsing. It keeps feeding him. And I'm getting tired.
A shadow tendril wraps around my ankle. I go down hard, tasting blood as my chin hits stone. Fire roars toward me.
And then the mist stalker moves, slamming into Sereven's chest and breaking his concentration. The fire dies, the shadows release me, and I scramble to my feet.
“Good boy,” I gasp, then freeze as images flood my mind through my connection to it.
River Crossing when Sacha’s raven crashed into me. The caves when my powers healed him. Our bodies pressed together in his quarters. Our powers meeting, flowing together, merging.
Each image carries the same message. You are not alone.
Desperation drives me to reach out through the bond connecting me to Sacha.
If it can carry feelings, surely it can carry more.
Help me. I need your power.
I don’t know if he can feel it. If he can even understand what I’m asking. For a heartbeat, nothing happens. And then the bond explodes as Sacha drops every barrier between us.
Shadows pour across the distance. Dark tendrils that smell of midnight and promises. They’re nothing like the corrupted shadows Sereven has used. These shadows are alive, choosing to serve rather than forced into slavery.
Silver-touched darkness wreathes around me like armor, and suddenly I understand.
Where shadow leads, storm will follow.
But the storm isn’t following any more. We move as one force, unified and unstoppable.
“Let’s see how your crystal handles this,” I snarl.
Power erupts from my hands, and slams into Sereven before he can react, and for the first time, he screams.
“That’s not possible!”
“Maybe not for you.” My voice carries new harmonics where Sacha’s presence echoes with mine. “But we were never bound by your limitations.”
I flick one finger, and shadow-touched lightning flows around his stolen abilities, finding gaps in his defenses. Where his powers are rigid and stolen, mine adapts and flows. Where his crystal tries to feed, my shadows redirect the energy away from its hungry reach.
Sereven fights back desperately, calling on every ability at once. Fire and ice and shadow and stone, all directed at me in a chaotic storm of power. But he's losing control. Blood pours from his face as the crystal demands more than his body can give.
I am storm given form. Lightning made flesh. But I am also shadow’s chosen ally. Darkness that shelters rather than threatens.
Sereven’s attacks grow more desperate, more chaotic.
Blood streams steadily from his eyes and nose as the crystal flares with each use of the power contained within them.
Whatever the embedded shards are doing to him, they’re clearly taking a toll.
His movements become less coordinated, his voice strained with pain.
“You're dying. The crystal is killing you.”
“Better to die as a god than live as nothing!” He raises both hands for one final assault.
The air around him turns. I meet his attack head-on. My power slams into his with the fury of a hurricane. Sereven collapses to his knees as something vital gives way. The crystal's glow wavers, and his stolen powers sputter and die.
“This isn’t over.” Blood bubbles from his lips. “The Authority still rules Meridian. You’ve won a single city, but you won’t take the realm.”
“Maybe not. But you won’t be the one who leads them.”
I raise my hand, building for a final strike. But arrows whistle through the air toward me before I can act. Authority soldiers pour into the plaza from three different directions, crossbows trained on me.
“Kill her.” Sereven lurches upright, two soldiers moving to support him while the rest continue firing.
I throw myself to the ground, sending lightning into the nearest group. They scatter, giving me time to scramble back behind the fountain. When I rise again, Sereven has vanished.
My fist slams against the fountain’s edge.
He’s getting away. Again!
Across our connection, Sacha’s presence dims as the effort of sharing his power takes its toll. He’s fading, leaving me alone, and the impact is devastating.
My legs buckle. The shadow-lightning that protected me only moments ago flickers and dies, leaving only my normal silver sparks dancing weakly over my fingertips. But I won’t let that stop me.
Sheer stubbornness and willpower drives me back to my feet, and I run toward the alley where Sereven disappeared.
I can’t let him escape. I can’t let him connect with his men where he will be able to plan new attacks on the people we’ve just saved.