Chapter Forty-Four
Katherine saw red.
She was furious—furious that Sylvia was doing this, furious that she’d been forced to take unsettled magic into her veins again—but the red wasn’t from that. The red was the color of the air, so thick with power that she couldn’t see through it.
She tried to piece together the last thirty seconds, but her brain was foggy. Distantly, she lifted a hand and brought it to the back of her head, where pain radiated through her skull. She was bleeding. Why was she bleeding?
She’d had Sylvia under her control. She’d made that horrible choice, taken this power—Lily’s power—into her veins again, so that she could end this. It was almost over. And then … and then the door opened. And she’d turned her head.
A spark of gold filtered through the red. And then another. And another.
Class 5 spells.
From Silas.
Suddenly, the red of the air split open, and he was there, runes glowing bright on both of his hands, illuminating a face contorted with fury. Fury that he aimed at Sylvia, who was shooting sparks of red magic back at him with a renewed vigor.
His palms were a mess of cuts, drips of blood showing his passage across the room, but he slashed them again, a gold rune lighting up as a cage of magic slammed down over Sylvia.
Her unsettled magic sliced through the bars like butter, and she bolted toward him, but in another flash of gold, he disappeared.
Katherine’s jaw dropped. So Noctis had figured out teleportation after all.
Silas used his new position behind Sylvia to jump at her, his hand clasping on her neck, his freeze spell holding her in place as another cut and another rune made the floorboards shift beneath her, morphing and grabbing at her legs, snaring her with chains of wood.
They crawled up her body, aiming for her hands, her face, but before they could reach, Silas’ skin started to glow red.
He pulled away from Sylvia with a curse of pain, stumbling back as her power burned the wood bindings to ash.
She whirled, hurling one of the tables at him and sending him stumbling backward. Even with Silas’ advanced spells, Sylvia’s willingness to just keep pulling more and more of her unsettled magic meant that she couldn’t be topped.
But Katherine had some of that power too.
She forced herself up, ignoring the dizziness and nausea as she rushed to Silas’ side. Her brain automatically started to flip through the litany of spells she had left in her. She could—
But no, she realized. It didn’t matter what spells she had ready, because the only limit to what unsettled magic could do was her imagination.
She didn’t know how long the unsettled magic she’d taken from Sylvia would last her—she had only pulled a bit, too thrown by the feeling of it in her veins to keep going.
But she had power left, and she would hit Sylvia with everything she had.
She formed a ball of sparks in her hand with just a thought. Threw it at Sylvia with another.
It was intoxicating and terrifying at the same time.
Silas’ head whipped toward her at the sight of the unsettled magic. “You—”
“I took it from her,” she said, stopping him before the confusion and betrayal in his eyes over her new power could cut her to the ground. “Just a few minutes ago. I swear.”
Before she could find out if he believed her or not, Sylvia was up again, lashing out with a whip of magic. It cracked in the air between them as Katherine and Silas dove out of the way, hitting a nearby support beam, the wood charring as it splintered under the heat.
“Quite the story, isn’t it, Silas?” Sylvia taunted.
Katherine pushed herself back to her feet, searching for her former mentor, but it was hard to see through the growing smoke. She wiped at her tearing eyes, waving a hand and using magic to clear a few feet of air in front of her.
“She’s a liar,” Sylvia continued. “Has she even told you about her past? About what she did?”
Katherine stayed low, focusing her eyes through the smoke until she made out a hazy figure. She cleared another hole in the air with her magic, staring down until she met Silas’ eyes. He was hiding behind a pillar, his back to the center of the room, where Sylvia stopped, her hands glowing red.
Silas’ gaze flipped between Katherine and Sylvia. As if he was deciding who to attack. Who to trust.
And then he stepped out of his hiding place and into Sylvia’s line of sight.
“She mentioned it. But more importantly, my parents told me about yours.”
The sparks in Sylvia’s hands grew angrier as Silas spoke, but he didn’t stop.
“About how you always thought you were above everyone. How you refused to let anyone get close to you because you didn’t think they deserved you. How you walked away because you couldn’t stand the idea that they had more power than you.”
“I did not walk away,” Sylvia snarled. Her face twisted in anger as she lunged at Silas.
And then Katherine jumped on her back, slamming her hand over Sylvia’s heart and throwing all of the magic she could right into Sylvia’s chest.
“No,” Silas said, as Sylvia fell to the ground. “You didn’t.”
Sylvia’s body crumpled, going lax at Katherine’s feet. Katherine dropped her grip and backed away, her chest heaving. “By the power vested in me as the Executrix of Aestas Coven,” she said, even though Sylvia didn’t seem conscious to hear it, “I am taking you into custody.”
Katherine stopped as Silas slashed into his palm again.
“What are you doing?”
Silas’ eyes were cold as he turned toward Katherine. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m ending this. For good.”
“No, you’re not.”
Silas’ jaw clenched. “What do you want me to do here, Katherine? Let her live so she can cause even more chaos? Has she not ruined enough lives already?”
“You’re supposed to follow that handbook you love so much! Arrest her. Take her to trial. Not fucking murder her.”
Silas laughed, the sound hollow. “You think she deserves a trial after all she did?”
Katherine’s jaw clenched. “I think that’s what the law says.”
“Because you always follow the rules, right? That’s what Sylvia taught you?”
“Can we not try to be better than what we were taught?”
“Is that not what I’m doing?” Silas gripped his caster tighter, blood dripping on the floor.
“Everyone’s always telling me to get off my ass and do something.
To make a difference. To make things better.
” Silas looked up at Katherine, his expression raw.
“Tell me things wouldn’t be better if she were dead. ”
Katherine stared at him, her heart breaking.
She could see every cut that had been made to him, body and soul.
Could see the spots where the man she’d come to care for had been irrevocably changed.
Could see how he’d become the burning flame standing before her, sure that the only solution to his unending anger was a life for a life.
“You can’t turn yourself into a killer.”
Silas stared at Sylvia’s body, blood squeezing out of his clenched fist. “I already am one.”
Panic surged as the gold rune solidified on Silas’ hand and crested as the air turned bitter, the sign of a strong cast.
Of a killing blow.
He was going to ruin his life. He was going to ruin everything that made him him. He would never be able to come back from this.
Katherine felt the magic swirling, saw his aim solidifying, and she couldn’t let it happen.
She lunged toward him as the gold rune glowed bright. Then the world exploded.
Katherine hurtled back to consciousness, awakening to a world that had changed in seconds.
She’d snapped.
She opened her eyes and took in the scene around her. Sunspot’s once-familiar dining room was now unrecognizable, a mess of fallen beams, broken glass, and smoke.
She did this. She made this happen.
She heard someone calling her name—Silas.
Katherine forced herself to her feet, wiping sweat off her forehead as she whipped her head back and forth, searching. She tried to clear her throat enough to call out for him, but she felt like she’d swallowed glass. She had to keep searching. She had to find Silas so they could—
She tripped over a body.
She slammed to the ground, the breath getting knocked out of her. She heard a soft whine and turned her head to see Sylvia, lying still beside her, a beam lying heavy over her chest.
Miraculously, Katherine’s former mentor was still alive, her eyes fluttering open and shut as she struggled to remain conscious. Sylvia let out a small laugh. “I fucked up, huh?”
Katherine blinked. “Yup.”
Sylvia nodded, and then her eyes shut. Katherine stared at her. At the face of her salvation, and her damnation.
Until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Silas. His mouth was forming words, but she couldn’t focus on them. Her head was going fuzzy again, her vision stuck on Sylvia’s face.
Finally, she heard him: “Katherine, we need to get out of here. We need to go. Please.”
The air had gotten so hot that the few support beams left standing were literally burning, collapsing as they were charred away.
Pieces of the roof and ceiling collapsed with them, bricks and wood and glass slamming to the ground.
The building was lit aflame by magic, coming apart at the very seams.
Silas was right. They needed to go.
And Sylvia needed to stay.
Katherine looked at her one last time. Took it in, committed the face to her memory. And then she stood.
She saw it coming before Silas did.
The beam was thick, heavy—one of the rafters that had supported the slanted roof, swinging at them like a horrific pendulum of death. Katherine pushed Silas aside just in time for it to slam into her chest, her already broken ribs getting smashed to bits as she was thrown to the ground.
She lay there, staring at the sky through the holes in the ceiling. It was sunny.
The world faded to black.