Chapter 37 #2
“Did you think I wouldn’t be able to tell that his magical signature is all over you?
” He finally touched me, then, dragging his fingers over my throat—but only so he could draw shadows from my skin and crush them in a quick, violent display of his rune-forged magic.
“Did you think that I wouldn’t know he’s close by, even now? ”
I forced myself to breathe normally.
“These chaotic schemes of yours were always going to be the end of you.”
The familiarity in his tone, in his words, nearly made me sink to my knees. My voice shook when I spoke. “I’m not your enemy, Aleks.”
He glanced at the shadows rising defensively around me, the darkness settling against my skin like armor. “Your shadows say otherwise.”
The sounds of fighting grew closer. The situation was deteriorating quickly—too quickly—and I needed to strike.
I knew I needed to strike.
So why couldn’t I move?
“Let’s not waste time on denials,” Aleks said.
“I was told you wanted to negotiate. To trade something valuable for peace. I’m just here to make sure the exchange goes smoothly.
” His gaze drifted to the grave behind me.
“So,” he continued, lifting my own sword and pointing it at my chest, “where is it?”
I didn’t answer, my vision blurring as I stared down at the blade between us.
“Are you going to make me spill your blood?”
“Do it.” The words trembled through my lips. My vision blurred further, hazy from unshed tears. I stepped closer to him, until Grimnor’s tip pressed painfully into my ribcage. “Just do it,” I whispered, shaking my head. “It would be easier.”
His hand gripped my sword more tightly; he seemed to be confused.
It was a short-lived hesitation. Even through the haze, I saw the exact moment the Order’s magic surged through him to steal him back—the markings on his chest beginning to glow beneath his shirt.
The way that glow spread up his neck and into his face, turning his expression from something raw and uncertain to something terrifyingly blank.
And then came the cold awareness, which was worse.
He opened his mouth to speak—
A curved beam of light cut through the clearing like the blade of an axe, slamming into Aleks and sending him stumbling backward.
Lorien emerged from the treeline, his hood thrown back, power radiating from him in visible waves as he leveled a glare in my direction. “What the hell are you waiting for?”
My reply didn’t make it out.
Severin appeared on the path leading into the clearing, distracting us. He moved with the calm, unhurried poise I’d come to expect from him.
More Order members surged in around him, spilling into the clearing from all sides.
My shadows rose automatically to meet them all. The dark ribbons seemed sentient, almost, fighting on my behalf while I was still trying to come to terms with what was happening around me, inside of me.
I heard my brother shouting orders, felt the pounding of boots, and then a displacement of air as Thalia’s magic joined mine, dark tendrils of gathered shadows lashing out at the enemies nearest to me.
“Whatever the next part of your grand plan is,” she called, whipping her staff in front of her, drawing darkness into a protective barrier around herself, “now would be a brilliant time to execute it!”
My focus shifted back to Aleks.
He moved with inhuman speed, closing the distance between us. Grimnor flashed in his hand, arcing toward my throat.
But I knew that blade too well to be so easily cut down by it. With little effort, I sent a stream of shadows toward it, braiding them into its familiar energy and then tightening my hold, jerking Aleks’s swing off-balance.
He retaliated with a snarl, grabbing hold of one of the shadows with what looked like his bare hand at first; there was a rune glowing on his palm, I realized.
It flared violet as he seized my magic and crushed it.
I should have been used to the pull of him draining my power by now, but it seemed stronger than ever before, leaving me feeling like I’d been kicked in the stomach.
I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
Lorien was there in the next instant, light blazing around his hands. “If you aren’t going to truly fight him, then stand the fuck back,” he growled at me, and then sent a lance of pure white magic toward Aleks.
Aleks deflected it with Grimnor, scattering the light.
But the deflection still gave me time to wake up.
To shake off my shock, and then to summon more shadows and join Lorien in his next attack.
We moved together as if guided by the collective memory of all the Vaelora who had come before us.
Where my shadows struck, his light followed, a seamless barrage that should have overwhelmed any opponent.
And for a few moments, we had Aleks on the defensive, driving him back across the clearing.
But all around us, the battle continued to intensify.
My brother was locked in combat with three different Order members, his sword flashing as he fought to keep them from overwhelming him.
Thalia had drawn a circle of shadows around herself and was driving spears of darkness at anyone who came close, but I could see the strain on her face.
Phantom tore through enemy ranks in his massive shadow-hound form, his jaws closing around throats and limbs, but there were too many. And they kept coming.
We were far past outnumbered.
I was sure Bastian had already signaled for reinforcements; I doubted they would arrive in time to make a difference.
Lorien and I divided, sending streams of magic toward Aleks from both sides, forcing him to try and defend from two directions at once.
Grimnor deflected what it could. The powerful void Aleks summoned handled the rest. He stood far too easily in the eye of our storm, his magic continuing to drink ours in, distorting the air all around him.
Lorien’s gaze met mine across the chaos, and though he didn’t growl any commands at me this time, I could hear his words snapping through our bond.
End. This.
I hesitated for an instant too long, trying to decide how to orchestrate that ending.
Aleks was suddenly there. He spun, and Grimnor came down in a brutal overhead strike that I barely blocked with a shield of solidified darkness. The impact sent shockwaves through my arms, dropping me to my knees.
He raised the blade for another strike.
With desperate focus, I reached out for Grimnor’s essence, for the bond we’d forged. Come back to me, I commanded, rising to my feet. You’re mine. Not his.
The sword trembled in his hands.
Aleks’s expression flickered with doubt. He put distance between us as he gripped the hilt tighter, fighting to maintain control. But Grimnor was responding to my call, the ancient magic within it recognizing its true wielder.
With a surge of determination, I yanked it toward me with only a thought.
The sword flew from Aleks’s hands and sailed across the clearing, landing perfectly in my grip. Power raced through me as our connection reestablished, shadows pouring out from both me and the blade like a burning house belching smoke.
For a heartbeat, I thought we’d gained the advantage.
Then I saw Aleks smiling through the darkness between us, and I was reminded of the cruel truth: that he didn’t need a weapon to destroy me.
His hands began to glow with that cold light, and before I could react, he was upon me again.
One hand locked around my wrist, the other pressed flat against my chest, and I felt it immediately—the pull.
The drain. Grimnor fell from my hand. Shadows still rushed from it, desperate to protect me, but they weren’t enough.
Aleks simply devoured them, pulling them into his body like they were nothing more than air, like they promised life rather than death.
Lorien raced to my side, summoning a sphere of brilliant white light that he thrust toward Aleks’s chest. Aleks countered by summoning his own sphere of void magic, violet and cold. The powers collided, remaining immovable for several heartbeats, neither giving an inch.
Grimnor continued to expel waves of shadows.
Once I caught my breath, I joined its efforts, weaving magic into the assault Lorien was maintaining.
Our Vaeloran powers began to combine in earnest, twisting into something unprecedented—Light and Shadow corded together like an unbreakable chain that wound itself around the void in front of Aleks, squeezing it.
It all felt different, now.
Maybe because I’d truly made up my mind to end this.
End this. End this. End this—
Tears filled my eyes with each surge of magic I released, but the words continued to pound through my brain, and little by little, the balance of power began to shift.
Our different magics battled on and on, twisting, breaking, rebuilding with increasingly bright and violent surges.
It was like watching a world fighting to be born from the chaos of a dying star.
Light and dark both vying for dominance, then settling into equal forces while the void Aleks commanded began closing, the gaping mouth of cold getting smaller and smaller.
Overwhelming him.
We were already overwhelming him.
Maybe we wouldn’t even need to restore Lorien’s heart.
Maybe things weren’t as desperate as I’d thought.
I could see the runes on Aleks’s chest beginning to fade as his magic did, I thought; was it possible that we could purify those markings, somehow?
That we could remake him, just as the Vaeloran could remake entire realms?
Ragged, desperate hope spurred me on.
I poured everything I had into one more surge of magic.
End this. End this. End this—
The power built and built, its pressure mounting until the air itself seemed in danger of cracking, its howling lifting into a crescendo that made my ears feel like they were bleeding.
Then I caught something out of the corner of my eye—a flash of movement from Severin’s direction. A spell that must have been tethered to the ones carved into Aleks, because a moment later, the runes on his body blazed back to full, terrible brightness.
The void yawned wider once more, swallowing up the Vaeloran magic, distilling it down to a single point that wavered for a moment before bursting.
The force of it sent Lorien flying backward.
I managed to dig in my heels, anchoring myself with a few last wisps of shadow that I guided into a less abrupt finish. Aleks and I remained locked together for one more terrible moment.
Then we both collapsed, falling toward each other in a tangle of limbs and spent magic. I rolled out of his reach, grabbing Calista’s gravestone and trying to pull myself back upright.
Aleks clawed toward me, throwing his weight onto mine, holding me down.
My body ached so badly I almost gave in right then and there.
In the fog of pain and exhaustion, it seemed like it could have been just another battle we were fighting side-by-side, him crawling toward me to make sure I was okay.
How many times had his body wrapped around mine like this, protecting me in the middle of the wreckage?
Why couldn’t this be one of those times?
I dug my grip tighter into the stone, starting to twist myself around and upright—until I realized there was a knife pressed to my side.
I sank against the stone, turning my back to it and settling with slow, careful movements.
Aleks moved with equal deliberation, bringing the knife up to my chest. His breathing was ragged. His eyes were struggling to focus. His body shook with the effort of holding the blade steady, but the knife didn’t waver.
We’d ended up where we’d started this battle, with him digging sharpness into my skin.
Circling, always circling back to the edge of ruin.
The battle had come to a halt around us, almost everyone knocked to the ground by the force of the magic we’d been throwing off. Several didn’t appear to be moving. I heard my brother say my name—enough to know he was alive, thankfully, though I didn’t dare look at him.
Lorien was kneeling a few feet away, breathing hard. But he was still conscious. His magic was still flickering around him. Power still burned in the gaze he fixed on me. Ancient and undeniable.
Despite the pain of this last failed attempt, I was certain, now, that the two of us at full strength would be enough.
That there was no other way to end this.
I wrapped my hand around Aleks’s grip on the knife.
“Your only hope now bound to shadow’s forfeit…
” I recited those words from the curse that had shattered Lorien so long ago, my voice steady despite the emotion welling up in my throat.
“Mind carved into one realm, heart into the next…” Shadows rose from my arms, snaking around the knife, binding our hands together.
Into the next Shadow Vaelora.
That was what she’d meant.
That was the real reason why Lorien hadn’t been able to kill me as a child—because destroying me would have meant destroying a piece of himself. And it was why I’d been able to revive him when I shattered the other two shards.
Because I had the third one.
I’d always had it.
My brother called my name again, and this time I met his horrified gaze. Saw him silently begging me to escape, to run, to do anything except pull that knife closer.
But I’d already made up my mind.
“It’s in me,” I said, holding his stare for a moment, trying to make him understand even though I knew he was too far away to hear the words.
I looked back to Aleks. He was so close, but I didn’t know if he could hear me, either. If he ever would again. My lips still moved, one last whisper among the wreckage.
“I love you,” I told him. “No matter how the light and shadows shift.”
And then I jerked his hand toward me, plunging his knife into my chest.