Chapter 33 #2
Bastian hung his head—whether from relief that his life had been spared, or disappointment in my decision, I didn’t know. Thalia looked furious. Maybe at me. Maybe at everyone. But I didn’t care what they thought. What they wanted. I couldn’t sacrifice them.
I couldn’t watch anyone else I loved die.
Not if there was any chance I could save them.
I looked back to Aleks one last time, and I found him watching me and my shadows as he had so many times before—with a slightly awed expression in his eyes and a hint of a smile curving his lips.
But there was something else in that expression, something as wrong as the bruise-colored magic twisting beneath his skin.
A…hunger, almost.
I couldn’t speak over the lump that had formed in my throat. I could only think the same words over and over, hoping that he might somehow hear them through our battered bond.
You won’t betray me. I know you won’t.
The doors shook before slowly swinging open.
Several Order members immediately moved to enter the chamber, but Severin held up his hand, bringing them all to a halt. He canted his head toward Aleks.
“Take them,” he commanded.
I held my breath.
Aleks didn’t move at first.
Please don’t move, I thought, desperately.
He met my gaze. And he saw me. I know he did. His eyes held the same clear, golden warmth I’d fallen in love with; it wasn’t like before, when Lorien had possessed him and turned his gaze into something darker, something blood-tinged and violent.
Several tense heartbeats later, his eyes still hadn’t changed, and I began to hope that nothing had changed—the Order had gotten this wrong. Whatever they’d done to him, he’d managed to heal from it. To shake off their corrupted hold. I was certain of it.
Until he rose to his feet and strode forward, calmly moving into the chamber without giving me a second glance. Our enemies all made room, drawing back and watching him pass without a word.
I stepped after him in a daze.
Phantom slinked into the chamber as well, his ears flat against his head as he glanced between Aleks and me, whining and waiting for me to give him a command.
I had no commands to give.
I still couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. What to do. My gaze fixed on the pedestal in the center of the room, on the shards resting on its grooved top.
Aleks was walking straight toward them.
Grimnor lifted as power surged toward its tip, yanking me forward as if it wanted to intervene with or without my consent. I had to run to keep from falling, and after I’d started, I didn’t stop, moving to position myself between the pedestal and Aleks.
He slowed without comment, looking to the sword in his own hand as if sizing it up, considering the best way to attack.
A cold sweat washed over me.
“Going back on our deal so quickly?” Severin called from the doorway.
My gaze darted to my brother and Thalia, still bound by the other Order members. “Let them go,” I snarled, pointing Grimnor at Aleks. “Fulfill your part of the deal first.”
“Or else what?” Severin asked. “Are you really going to stop him from following my command, no matter what it takes?”
Cool, clammy sweat continued to build, drenching my palms and the back of my neck. The room spun.
But I didn’t lower my weapon.
“You’re willing to put your blade through the man you allegedly love?”
This elicited several cruel chuckles from the crowd around him. My shadows grew more furious at the sound, arching up around me before twisting into several sharp points that all took aim at Aleks.
I looked again to my brother and Thalia. “No one touches the shards until you release them.”
“We’ll see.” Severin made a gesture with his hand. Something lit within his palm, a symbol glowing against his skin. He clenched his fingers over it just as quickly, hiding it before I could make out any distinct shape.
Aleks rolled the tension from his shoulders. His voice was achingly normal, familiar—his and no one else’s—as he growled out a single command: “Move.”
“Aleks, I know this isn’t what you want to do.” Somehow, my stance remained steady, as did my voice. “You don’t have to do this.”
Again, he looked right at me, his golden eyes bright and aware. He didn’t seem any different than he had in my room such a short time ago, when he’d told me he would give anything to keep me safe.
Then he swung at me so violently I barely managed to dodge it.
I heard more cold laughter from outside, followed by sounds of a struggle—my brother and Thalia trying once more to fight their way free, I assumed.
I ignored it, scrambling to set my feet, moving Grimnor into a guard position just in time to block another violent swing. Aleks didn’t back away as his blade hit mine; he leaned into the collision, shoving until I lost my balance.
I stumbled, overpowered and too stunned to think about properly countering his attack.
Aleks drew back, preparing to strike again.
Phantom reached him first, his fangs sinking into Aleks’s arm and dragging him to the ground. They tumbled across the stone floor, blade and claws flashing in a violent tangle.
Magic flew from Aleks’s free hand, silver-violet and dangerously precise.
It wrapped around Phantom and immediately began constricting, strangling away the shadows surrounding his form.
Once those shadows were gone, the ropes of magic didn’t stop; they only wrapped around the solidness underneath, squeezing into Phantom’s body until he was forced to shift into something smaller in a desperate, clumsy attempt to squirm out of reach.
The sight of him struggling brought me quickly to my feet. I swung at Aleks without any thought of holding back, causing his magic to scatter as his focus shifted to parrying.
Phantom lay still, whimpering, even as the magic around him dissipated. Each pained cry sent another shot of heat through my blood, driving me into increasingly ruthless attacks.
Again and again, Aleks met my furious blows, until the sound of clashing steel entirely filled the small space, and a particularly sharp clang brought me back to my senses.
I kept attacking, but not at full force; I was merely trying to distract him for as long as I could—long enough to figure out what the hell I was going to do next.
But it soon became impossible to merely defend; he was swinging harder and harder, forcing me to do the same if I wanted to avoid ending up on the ground beside Phantom.
“Aleks, stop!”
He didn’t stop.
More magic burst from his palm, curling around my shadows, choking them into submission.
I stumbled, once again knocked off balance by the unsettling sensation of my magic being absorbed by his. As I struggled to regain my footing, he struck toward my grip on Grimnor, trying to disarm me. I sidestepped, but not fast enough; his blade sliced across my fingers.
The sword slipped from my grasp. He followed his attack with an elbow to my face, forcing me to abandon my weapon and stagger backward.
The pain was blinding.
Aleks considered the blood dripping from my hand with a cold, detached expression. Then he turned and walked away, reaching for the pieces he’d been instructed to collect.
I clutched my bleeding hand to my chest.
My heart pounded in my throat.
Something ancient and primal rose within me. An instinct I couldn’t suppress, reminding me of who I was. What I was. I was Death. Darkness. One half of a cycle that could not be broken, no matter what it took to preserve it. No matter what it cost.
The man before me was a threat to that cycle.
And I had to make him stop.
He picked up the first shard.
The magic that exploded from my body in the next instant was unlike anything I’d ever summoned before. Shadows completely filled the chamber, and I was aware and in control of every last tendril of them.
I hadn’t simply summoned the darkness, I was the darkness. A primordial beast with enough awareness to send a single, precise shadow snaking toward the one threatening my purpose, my power. That snaking shadow wrapped around the shard Aleks held and ripped it from his hold.
The other shard was swooped up just as easily, and both were dropped into my physical hands a moment later. My fingers closed around them with poise and purpose beyond my understanding—another instinct leading me to squeeze tighter and tighter.
They shattered.
White light streaked into the darkness I’d created, blinding bolts cutting jagged lines across the shadows. At first, they seemed at odds with one another. But soon they were twisting into a unified whole, light and dark becoming inseparable.
The maelstrom of magic billowed around me, dark clouds flashing with occasional bursts of brightness.
I stood perfectly still in the center of it all, feeling oddly serene as the storm whipped at my hair and clothing, lashing against my skin with a violence that felt like it was permanently branding me. Reshaping me.
When it finally settled, it was like emerging into an entirely new world. One the gods had only just birthed from the chaos. Power thrummed through every fiber of my being. All of my senses were heightened.
I caught sight of Aleks backing away from me, no sign of his magic—corrupted or otherwise—visible across his skin.
But I couldn’t focus on him for long.
Because Lorien Blackvale had just appeared beside him, his body as solid as mine.
Not a ghost.
Not a memory.
An actual, living being who picked up my sword and handed it back to me.