Chapter Seven #4
“Please don’t make me hurt you, Supernova,” he whispered below me, bucking his hips and flipping us. But I was through with giving up. Each of them deserved to die. Talon leaned down, his eyes on my lips and his thumb caressing my cheek. He deserved to die.
“There’s our catalyst. Finally coming out to play?”
With the haunting echo of voices ringing in my mind, I shoved my head into his, hearing the snap of his nose as he screamed in agony.
Suddenly, his weight was off of me, and there was Altair, his dark and thick brows knitted together and his full lips in a sneer as he threw Talon to the side like a rag doll.
“Behind you!” I screamed, catching sight of a smaller elite swinging a shadow sword towards his head.
Just as quickly as his sneer had come, it vanished, a sort of wicked smirk taking its place.
One dimple made itself known before Altair ducked again, reaching out and grabbing the elite’s ankle.
He ripped their foot out from under them, sending the elite toppling backwards.
Talon was up and growling like a true bear, his head low as he shoved his shoulder into Altair’s back.
The two of them slammed into the cobblestone just as I rose to my feet.
I tried to remember all I had learned the last year—to access even a semblance of sanity—but I felt like a rabid dog.
Like a creature succumbing to bloodlust.
I ran at the smallest elite, swinging my leg out.
They quickly shoved their elbow down into my shin, their fist barreling into my face.
Pressure exploded across my right cheek, but I didn’t slow as I willed magic into my palm and slammed it into the elite’s shoulder.
Blood slipped into my mouth just as the elite hit the ground.
I felt the way my skin began to burn, the feel of the stars’ essence flooding me.
Reaching my hands out to my sides, keeping them down at hip level, I summoned everything I had. I pictured light and dark coagulating in my blood, willed both to blend and merge. In my mind, I pictured blasts of it burning through each of the elite’s chests.
Kill them all.
Altair caught my eye, his nose bleeding and crooked as he took on two of the larger elites and Talon, the three of them beginning to overtake him.
The elite I had knocked down ripped off their mask just as the swell of magic peaked, and I was forced to watch Priya Otarn’s face contort in horror just before I spared one last glance at Altair.
Talon came up behind Altair, his stony face unfeeling as he took a small blade and shoved it into Altair’s back.
At the last moment—my gaze locked on the snake’s as he fell to his knees—I attempted to reign in the power, magic practically bleeding off of me.
A ground-shaking boom emanated from below my feet, and then a wave of pure magic escaped my body.
My head flew back, nausea rolling up my stomach and into my throat.
Screams came from all around me, pain momentarily uniting the group of us.
Control was a far away thought, an impossibility in the midst of the might the stars held.
I was a lifeless toy, an obedient hound, an agent of chaos in their arsenal.
They laughed in my mind, my body seizing as they willed endless amounts of scalding magic out of me.
“Tell us, Nova Tershetta, is there anything worth fighting for? Anything left we might consider before we grant you the death you so desperately crave?”
As if they wanted a particular answer, they willed images of Altair to the front of my mind. I was invaded with the smell of him, bombarded with the deep rasp of his voice, held hostage by the tug of my hair as his fingers wrapped around it.
You aren’t making any sense!
“Save Azazel Altair and we will help you fulfill your wish.”
Abruptly, the magic ceased flowing out of me, the release of pressure forcing me to my knees.
I hit the cobblestone painfully hard, my wrists stinging as I caught my upper half.
Breaths heavy and eyes burning from the rain, I looked up just in time to see Talon rolling over, Altair unmoving a few feet from him.
Groaning, I willed my shadows to envelop me, to take me where I wanted to go.
No, where the stars wanted me to go.
I was beside Altair in a moment, my hand gripping his freckled cheek and my gaze meeting Talon’s. He was shoving himself up, his eyes a blazing fire. “Don’t you dare leave me again, Nova!”
“Go die, you worthless fuck!” I screamed, flashing him my middle finger with my free hand and demanding my magic take us back to Altair’s cottage.
Talon tried to lift himself up in time, but the shadows were already swimming around us.
At Talon’s feet, one of the larger elite’s removed their mask, revealing Caleb Dofrel’s stunned face staring at Altair’s unconscious and unrecognizable form.
The last thing I saw was Dofrel mouthing the name Az before the gloomy and bloody scene of the shops center became the snow-painted cliff edge Altair now called home.