Chapter Fifty-Five #2
The dagger – it’s doing something to him.
He keens and wails like he’s being burn t from the inside out, dark greenish-black vein -like webs spreading from the wound beneath his skin.
That’s when I feel it. The well inside of me bursts, unable to contain the magic it stole.
It pushes against the confines of my skin, making me scream – it feels like it’s stretching me thin.
Until it’s bursting out of me in a torrent of wind that surges forward, barrelling toward Achātēs.
His own power attacks him, crashes into his chest and sends him flying backward, down the stairs with the dagger still lodged in his neck.
My eyes widen. My hands tremble. I have no idea what is happening or what I just did …
or how. But I use this moment to dig deep, deep inside myself for the last vestiges of energy I have left, ignoring the hollow pit where his magic just vacated as more copper fills the back of my throat.
I turn around and frantically climb up the steps, pressing my lips together as my body roars in agony with each sluggish movement.
But I keep going and going, until a shard of light from the door at the top of the stairs fills my vision.
That light is all I focus on as I quicken my ascent. When my hand closes around the handle I shove the door open, expecting to see dozens of Agate students on the other side but …
It’s empty. The space is empty. I keep going, confused but knowing I need to get out of this tower. Suddenly, there’s a thunderous bellow in the air.
He’s still coming.
I practically fall through the gate into the Grand Hall, but just before I collapse to my knees, strong arms catch me.
‘Ria!’ Sebastian’s voice cracks as he lifts me to my feet. ‘Where have you – you’re bleeding! What the fuck happened?’ He holds me at arm’s length, eyes blazing down my body, searching for the source of the blood. His beautiful face pinches with pain and fury on seeing me battered and bruised.
‘Sebastian!’ I cry out, holding onto him desperately as tears cascade down my cheeks. I’m unable to hold my emotions at bay. Not with him. ‘You have to leave!’ I plead and start to tug on his arms. ‘Hurry. He’s coming.’
Now that I know what Bartollo is, who he is, the thought of Sebastian facing that kind of power terrifies me down to my bones. Sebastian might be powerful and a strong fighter, but I’m not willing to risk his life in order to see if the magic he possesses can match that of a Star. Wounded or not.
‘Who is coming?’ he asks, his eyes searching behind me. Toward the gate.
My fingers tremble against his forearms as I barely whisper the name. ‘Achātēs.’
As if saying his true name can beckon him, I feel that familiar charge of power behind me skating up my spine. My head snaps around. ‘No,’ I breathe. ‘We’re too late.’
‘Get behind me!’ Sebastian orders, putting himself in between the gate and me. The second the gate darkens, green flames burst to life in Sebastian’s palms. ‘Run, Ria,’ he bellows at me over his shoulder. ‘Get out of here.’
‘No!’ My head shakes from side to side. ‘I won’t leave you,’ I cry out with a shaky voice. ‘He’s—’
Achātēs suddenly appears on our side of the gate. A nasty scowl is etched across his face that’s covered in the vein -like webs crawling from the wound at his neck. Dark blood coats his skin and I notice the dagger is gone.
‘Get back!’ Sebastian stretches an arm out to push me behind him. I stumble, pain ricocheting through every muscle.
Achātēs’ brows lift just slightly upon hearing Sebastian’s voice. His cloudy eyes cut to where we stand. A slow, cruel smile curls his lips. ‘Ah, my grandson,’ Achātēs drawls with mockery. ‘Move aside and hand over the girl.’
‘Over my dead body,’ Sebastian snaps, and the flames in his hands surge up to his forearms. I step back to avoid being burnt by them, but don’t stray far. ‘I know who you are and I won’t let you hurt anyone I care about again.’
The laugh Achātēs lets out is bone -chilling.
Cold and devoid of emotion. ‘Oh, you foolish boy. You have no idea what you’ve done.
’ He moves far quicker than I expect. His arms lift toward us.
I feel it. The charge in the air, seconds before a torrent of Achates’ magic surges toward us.
We’re too close, I realise. We can’t outrun it, can’t hide.
We’re standing in plain sight. All we can do is brace for the impact.
Sebastian spins and wraps his arms around my body, one of his hands curling around the back of my head, protecting me right as a force strong enough to steal the air from my lungs slams into us both and sends us flying backward.
We crash into the side of the dais and crumple onto the ground.
Sebastian takes the brunt of it, and I hear his deep grunt of pain against the side of my head.
‘Y-you knew about him?’ I croak against his chest, my throat tightening.
He pulls back, hovering over me. His eyes find mine.
In them is a multitude of emotions. Fear, guilt, pain.
I feel them all like fresh wounds being dug into my skin.
But the anger of him not telling me is swallowed by my worry for him as a thick rivulet of blood trickles from his temple and down his face.
‘Your head is—’
‘I’m fine,’ he interrupts. Wiping it away with the back of his hand. ‘Ria, I need you to run,’ he says, almost pleading.
I shake my head. Groaning as I start to move, attempting to get up. My body screams in agony. I can feel blood seeping down my back. ‘Won’t … leave you,’ I promise.
Before Sebastian can reprimand me, he leaps to his feet and sends a torrent of fire that explodes from his fingers in Achātēs’ direction.
It surges with incredible force, and Achātēs throws up a murky wall of air.
The magic is strong, rippling across the room, making me gasp.
But something is different, the potency of it is …
less. As if whatever I did to him on the stairs has weakened him.
Not by much, but enough for that place in my chest to notice.
Sebastian doesn’t relent. Heat blazes around him, and embers spark from his hands as he hurls flame after flame then slides a dagger from his belt and throws it.
The dagger flies swiftly between them, with deathly precision.
It cuts through Achātēs’ wall that’s sucking the life from Sebastian’s flames and penetrates his left shoulder.
Achātēs lets out a furious growl as his left arm drops. Half of the wall he created collapses. I feel it snuff out, like a weight being lifted off my chest. The drop of power makes me breathe easier. Which is how I finally push through the pain in my body and stagger to Sebastian’s side.
I snatch a second dagger from his belt and stand at his side.
‘What are you doing?’ he growls. Sweat and blood dampen his forehead and hair.
With a lift of my chin I say, ‘Helping kill the monster who took away my brother.’
His head snaps in my direction. His bright green eyes connect with mine. I see the conflict in them as my words sink in, watch as his jaw tenses.
‘If you fight, I fight,’ I vow. Showing him with my words, with my eyes, that I can handle this. With him. ‘Together?’
‘Together,’ he nods.
As one we spring into action. Achātēs tosses the dagger Sebastian threw at him my way. It’s carried on a gust of air. I block the dagger with my own, cutting it downward and knocking it away. It clatters to the ground.
Sebastian roars in anger, his magic surges, but this time, it starts to grow outward. Away from his body, like two giant snakes lashing out, whipping through the air angrily. My jaw drops, because for the first time, I feel it. Sebastian’s power. Strong and unyielding. It’s magnetic. Beautiful.
Achātēs’ eyes widen. Sebastian strikes. One of his fiery tendrils lashes out and whips at Achātēs’ side. The Star’s cry is loud. But he doesn’t fall. Instead, he returns the attack with an icy whip of his own magic.
The hilt of the dagger warms in my palm as I start to inch forward, just a little.
My heart beats like a drum as they fight against one another.
Each one of them is powerful, but one of them is obviously well trained for combat, while the other is a strategist. Achātēs knows how the mind works, and every so often he arcs a stream of magic my way, distracting Sebastian.
I dodge the attacks, barely. Moving out of the way as I desperately search for an opening. I have one dagger. One shot.
For a moment I swear I feel the ground tremble as their magic crashes together.
Fear skirts up my spine as Sebastian’s flames start to dissolve, getting swallowed up by Achātēs’ air – snuffing the flames out little by little, until I see the conflict in Sebastian’s eyes.
They meet mine as he looks between me and the monster in front of him.
Now, his eyes seem to say. Throw it now.
I do.
I let the blade fly, biting down on my cheeks, drawing blood as I stifle a cry when my shoulder screams in pain.
It cuts an arc of silver across the smoke-filled air, right through a pocket of space that is void of magic, and thuds right into Achātēs’ chest. Not his head like I was hoping, but right in the middle of his chest – hopefully in his heart.
Achātēs stumbles back. His hand drops to his sides in shock.
He looks down at the dagger in bewilderment.
I watch in horror as he lifts a hand and wraps it around the hilt.
Slowly, he starts to pull it from his flesh.
Bright crimson blood gushes from the wound as the dagger unceremoniously drop s to the ground in a loud clatter.