Chapter 23
Lana
The battle around me disappeared from my senses as my chest constricted.
My heart dropped, stealing my breath with it as I watched Corbin’s body fall to the ground at Casimir’s feet.
“No!” I screamed. A dark one jabbed a sword at me and I spun, slashing him across the throat before shoving his body out of my way to get to my friend.
“You’re okay, you’re okay,” I chanted over and over as shock took hold of me. I couldn’t accept what logic told me. I wouldn’t accept it as true.
Casimir tilted his head back, laughing gleefully. The light inside me pulled taught, forcing me to stop before reaching Corbin’s body.
He’s not moving. Fates, he’s not moving. He’s—
My knees shook.
Move. This time it wasn’t my own mind thinking the words. It was my light. Move now. Kill. Casimir is ours.
My focus pulled away from Corbin and shifted to Casimir. My magic swelled with power, halting the pain just long enough to push me forward.
Casimir stuck out his hand and crooked his fingers, beckoning me. He didn’t know my secret though.
But he would.
The light flooded my body, filling every part of me.
I screamed, the raw anguish bursting from my throat as I sprinted toward him and threw my hands onto Casimir's chest.
I let everything out, feeling the light obediently pour from my body. Every part of my magic flowed from my hands into Casimir.
As it flared from me, his eyes widened. “What? What is this?” He tried to take a step back, to push me away, but my light was stronger. It had hooked itself into him, crawling through every part of his vile body.
He screamed, unable to move. Unable to escape.
Nothing could stop me, my light growing brighter, even more intense than I’d seen it before. I vaguely heard voices calling my name, but nothing mattered in this moment other than eliminating Casimir and saving Corbin.
The torrent of magic rushing from my palms burned, and I shouted against the pain, until Casimir’s entire body was shrouded in my light.
Let go now, my light whispered in a soft, soothing voice.
I obeyed, stumbling back as the energy encasing Casimir inflated once, like a breath, before disappearing, exposing his dead body on the palace floor.
Shivering, I looked around and noticed all of the dark ones on the ground. Dead.
I knew I should feel shocked, or at the very least, some sort of guilt. Instead, all I had was a hollow ache in my chest.
I fell to my knees and crawled to Corbin’s body.
I reached him, my vision blurring with tears, and brought my hands to his chest. “Corbin,” I urged. “Open your eyes.” I shook him. “Come on, wake up.”
Panic rose in my throat, and I cried his name louder, shaking him like I could somehow bring him back.
“Lana.” Kade’s breath brushed against my ear as his shadows and arms wrapped around me from behind. A few dark strands lifted to Corbin’s neck, resting on his pulse. This is good. The shadows will give us hope.
Kade sighed in defeat. “Sweetheart,” he murmured in my ear. “He’s gone, my love.”
“No.” I shook my head as if keeping the words from my ears would make them less true.
“He’s gone, Lana.” Kade’s shadows rushed around me, ardently attempting to bring me comfort.
“No,” I said louder as my body trembled. “He can’t be.”
Kade’s hands covered mine, gently pulling them away from where I clutched Corbin’s shirt. “I’m so sorry.”
I let out an anguished cry, and though Kade held my hands in his, I leaned forward, lying my head on Corbin’s chest.
“Please,” I begged. “Please, I can’t lose anyone else.”
Kade stroked my hair, and I turned my head toward him. “I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I whispered. “I never get to say goodbye.”
The fighting around us must have ended, because I didn’t hear the sound of clanging blades anymore.
It didn’t matter though. I couldn’t look away from my friend’s face.
The friend who consistently lifted me up with respect.
The friend who’d built me the garden of my dreams simply because I mentioned wanting to experiment with flowers.
A person who believed in me unconditionally, no matter how unworthy I felt.
I brushed some of his sweat-slicked hair back with shaking hands. Leif fell to the floor in front of me, shock on his face as he tilted his head back, looking to the ceiling and crying out.
Ian slumped down next, kneeling as he reached out to touch Corbin’s neck like he needed to feel for himself that he was gone.
“Get Maria,” he shouted, turning like there was a servant around to give orders to. “She’s here, someone get the healer.”
His hand trembled above Corbin’s neck.
“Ian,” I choked out.
Our eyes met for only a second before Ian shook his head like he didn’t believe me. “Someone get a healer!” he screamed, his voice cracking on the word “healer.”
Leif brought a hand to Ian’s shoulder. “He’s gone, Ian.”
Ian looked at me again, devastation draining his face of color. I pulled my hands from Kade, throwing myself on Corbin.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” I said under my breath.
Ian moved his hand onto Corbin’s head and closed his eyes, letting his own tears fall.
The silence only lasted a few moments.
“Ian.” Storm’s voice was rough, strained. “I’m sorry, but we’ve got to keep fighting. Andras—”
Ian trembled, inhaling sharply. His pained eyes met mine briefly again before he turned away. He brushed his face on his shoulder and nodded, rising to his feet. “Storm’s right.” Ian cleared his throat. “We have to find Andras before he tries to escape. This ends now.”
I stared at the two of them, hating that they were right and that we would have to wait to grieve Corbin’s death.
Kade helped me to my feet before addressing everyone. “We finish this. Corbin will not have died in vain.”
“We can’t leave him here,” I said.
"I’ll move his body to a safe location,” Leif choked out through his own pain, settling on the floor beside Corbin and taking his hand. “Go. Go quickly and finish this.”
I nodded, looking over Corbin’s too still form, and silently appealed to my light to take away some of the pain threatening to pull me under. But it remained in a state of recovery. The blast of light killing Casimir had drained the majority of my magical abilities.
I had no idea how long it would take them to come back.
Kade cupped my face in his hands. “I’m with you.”
I inhaled a deep breath, the need for revenge taking over as my body quaked with fury. “We find him. We capture him. His death will not be quick,” I instructed those around me. Their faces said everything.
We were all in agreement.
Andras’s hands may not have taken our friend, but his actions did. For that and every other atrocity he’d brought upon us, his time ended now.
We ran back toward the throne room, where we thought Andras would be hiding.
Kade’s shadows whipped around us, flying forward, searching for the coward. We ran harder, faster, not passing any guards or dark ones, until we turned down the corridor where my parents’ room had been.
A group of twenty guards stood outside their doors.
Andras had fled to their rooms. He’d been living here in this palace, where my parents should be.
My light ignited once more, raging inside of me, and gained some semblance of energy, driving my desire for vengeance.
“He’s mine,” I hissed out.
Ian called my name, but I ignored him. The others followed closely behind. Kade’s shadows understood exactly what I needed as they parted the guards for me, forcing them to the side in a wave of shadowy mist.
I bolted between them as the sound of fighting started behind me. I slammed into the locked door, banging on it for a second before holding my hands out. Guided by pure instinct, I poured my magic into the handle, forcing it to unlock. The doors swung open, and I barged into the room.
Andras was dressing himself in his magical gem-covered robe. The one I recognized from the clearing. He turned, grinning at me. “I knew you’d come. You never could stay out of trouble.”
I drew Apollo from where it rested at my thigh. There would be no mercy, no trying to get the darkness out of him. There would only be death.
After every person I loved got a chance to inflict their own punishment on his evil soul.
“I suggest you not underestimate me.”
He tilted his head back, cackling, before releasing a gust of wind that drove his own dagger swiftly and forcefully toward my chest. I jerked to the side, but the blade skimmed over the shadow armor protecting my shoulders.
“Still as weak as ever.”
I forced my magic to stay hidden, wanting to use it to my advantage to surprise him and drink in the shock on his face right before I captured him.
“Is that all you’ve got?” I taunted. “Lame insults and a blade not even able to penetrate armor?”
He hovered a hand over one of the crystals and disappeared. I turned, whipping my head around, finally realizing he’d materialized behind me. I ducked away from his outstretched hands reaching toward my neck.
A flicker of annoyance contoured his features. He pulled out another blade, spinning it in his fingers so fast it blurred.
I might be forced to call my magic earlier than I wanted.
His gaze settled on me as he jabbed forward. I blocked the first two hits, only to have him catch me in the side with his fist, just above where the armor stopped.
I wheezed but held my ground, keeping his blade from my chest.
My arms shook, and another stone on his magical robe flared. He shoved me harder, his strength impossibly formidable. My light coiled inside of me, recharged enough and desperate to be set free. Andras was using someone else's Fae strength, stolen and siphoned by Casimir, no doubt.
He slid forward and knocked me to the floor as my shaking arms desperately tried to keep him at bay.
“Your mother wasn’t even this pathetic when she died,” he gritted out. “She fought her hardest, but she was no match for me. Queen of Brookmere, ha! More like queen of nothing.”
“Liar,” I screamed, my light thrashing inside of me. I contained my magic, letting it continue to grow for the right moment.
“Bested by a mere advisor.”
I screamed against the pain. I couldn’t hold him back much longer.
“Scream all you like. The melody of it has soothed me to sleep for years.” He licked his lips, and in a rush of pure rage for everything he’d done to me, I let my light out.
The magic blasted from me, sending Andras flying backward as it surrounded his body with its power.
His eyes widened in shock as I jumped to my feet, wielding my dagger again.
“How does it feel knowing you spent years trying to get this magic out of me and never succeeded? You’re the pathetic one. The weak one.” I held up my palm as a ball of light swirled in my hand like one of Storm’s fireballs.
“It’s not possible,” he snarled.
Instead of responding, I rushed toward him, flinging the ball of light in his direction. He flinched as Apollo glowed and I struck my mark, slicing his leg. A thin wisp of darkness slithered out, but nothing of substance. It reminded me too much of how Kade’s darkness wouldn’t come out.
Andras countered my attack slower, lacking the strength he’d displayed a few moments before.
“Guess your stolen magic doesn’t last too long, does it?” I slashed out again, trying to cut him with my blade, only for him to dodge my attack.
“You will regret your undeserved confidence.”
Shadows raced into the room and rushed around Andras.
“No, he’s mine,” I shouted.
Kade strode into the room, letting his shadows fall away as he circled us.
“Someone is in trouble.” Andras shook his finger at Kade. “If you think he hasn’t figured out you’ve gone rogue, you’re just as dumb as she is.”
“Someone certainly feels powerful being Thames’s lapdog,” Kade huffed, leaning against the dresser.
A sadness gripped me as I looked at Kade here in my parents’ room, knowing we’d never all be together, that they wouldn’t see what the two of us had accomplished. It quickly morphed into fury as I glared at Andras. His grin exposing his complete lack of remorse.
His actions, bending my parents’ will with his mind magic, torturing me, torturing Ian, poisoning my father, killing my mother.
All of his actions hurt those I loved. He was the reason for all their deaths.
For taking them from me, never allowing them to see me with my mate or to watch me grow into the queen they’d raised me to be. It was all because of him.
My breaths came heavy, heaving through me as I channeled my rage, my heartbreak, my grief into this moment.
“I’m not going to kill you yet,” I gulped down a breath, steadying my voice. “You will face worse than death.”
“Bold words for a woman who is losing.” Andras charged me, and though Kade stiffened, he didn’t interfere. My lips tugged into a smirk as all of my focus homed in on Andras’s movements.
He gave himself away more than he realized, his eyes traveling in the direction he planned to move.
Using that to my advantage, I blocked two of his attacks before kneeing him in the groin.
He grunted, and his hesitation allowed me to stab him in the side.
Right where he’d stabbed me all those years ago.
Another small burst of darkness hissed out of him.
“Who is losing now?” I asked, shoving the blade deeper.
I leashed my anger the moment I felt his slick blood on my hand. I didn’t want him dead yet. No, I had a much better idea. One where we would all get out the hate for him that we needed to release.
I glanced at Kade. “Could you make sure he doesn’t move?”
Kade walked lazily over to me, his eyes raking over me as desire thickened the air between us. He always did love when I wielded my blades so furiously. “What would you have me do with him, Little Rebel?” Pride made his voice swell.
I smiled at him before staring into Andras’s pained face. His glare remained, but the arrogant facade cracked, and a slight trace of fear widened his gaze.
“Take him to his favorite place,” I instructed. “The dungeons.”