Chapter 16 #2
Light roared up Valkaryn from the hilt to the tip, not a flare but a column, clean and white, threaded with a violet so bright it made me squint.
Harrow pushed back with shadows so thick that they engulfed Valkaryn completely and covered half of my arm.
The fight was soundless, and neither of us moved, staring each other down as our swords battled on a magical plane.
The shadows began to dim Val’s light as it leaked through in small shafts like sunlight after a long rain.
A wind picked up around the room, and the table to the right shot backward.
He pressed into me and I into him. Our blades felt like night and day had decided to meet.
Dark shadows swirled against the buttery light that grew wider and wider.
My muscles shook, and I knew Val was pulling every ounce of energy from me.
I also knew that she was right, and this would have killed my human body.
The cut on my thigh ran hot down my boot.
Harrow snarled, and his shadows thickened around me.
‘Anchor,’ Val said.
I thought of Sable’s hair caught in my sweater.
Mira’s laugh in the kitchen. Fiona’s new house with its gravity-fed water.
Kaelric’s lips on mine and his promise of forever with an Aerlyn ring.
I anchored my mind in the beautiful things I had in this life, and held on to them tightly as the balcony shook again.
That’s when I felt something from Valkaryn.
Revenge.
Val’s light surged, and I think Harrow felt his own demise then. He tried to yank his blade away in a panic, but he was unable to; his arm was fused to Mind Render, which was stuck to Valkaryn, which I controlled.
She’d been playing with him this entire time.
He was done.
‘Tell him this is for my family.’
I grinned, and Harrow paled.
“This is for her family.” I didn’t need to say who. He knew who he was ultimately in battle with.
Val’s light surged so brightly the shadows of Mind Render melted away. The floor buckled beneath us. The center window exploded outward in a rain of glass.
Harrow screamed in pain as blood leaked from his eyes and nose. Mind Render screamed too. Not a human noise. Its blade bent under Val’s light, then bowed, then splintered down the middle. The blade shattered into a spray of black shards that hung in the air for a second before they fell.
Harrow inhaled sharply, blood spilling from his nose in a straight red line over his lip. He stared at his empty hand, then at me, then at the ruin on the floor. He did not understand a world where his command would be disobeyed.
“And this is for Kaelric,” I said.
I stepped forward, lifted Valkaryn, and thrust her blade so deep into his heart she punctured out the back. He wailed as I held the blade deep inside of him.
His eyes widened, and for a heartbeat, I saw the boy he had once been, a boy not yet lost to the darkness.
“May the Creator have mercy on your soul,” I said, and pulled Valkaryn free.
He staggered backward two steps and pressed a palm to the red welling between his ribs, as if pressure would fix his fate. Blood ran over his knuckles and pattered on the floor. He took another step back, and his knees failed. He dropped and pitched sideways and did not rise again.
Silence followed as I took in a steadying breath.
I stepped over his body and walked back into the foyer to find two guards. Their mouths were slightly open, slack-jawed as they stared from Harrow’s dead body outside to Valkaryn in my hands, blood dripping from her blade.
They both took a knee and bowed their heads.
“Thank you for saving us from that mental prison,” the guard with the short-cropped red hair said.
Mental prison. I could think of nothing worse than being stuck in my own mind without a way out. I was glad to see Mind Render’s hold was completely broken.
I nodded. “Go to the front gates and open them,” I said. “Tell them Harrow is dead and the true king is coming.”
They frowned in confusion. “True king, my lady?”
“Kaelric Morvain,” I told them.
Their eyebrows shot up. “Kaelric? King Drake’s son? He’s alive?”
What lies had Harrow told them? “Yes. And he’s coming.”
They did not ask how I knew that. They just ran.
‘My love?’ I hailed Kaelric, and his reply was instant.
‘I’ve been so worried. I felt everything. So much power. Tell me you are okay,’ he said in a rush.
My thigh throbbed. My chest felt hollow in that way after you have cried all night. I looked out at the balcony and at the black shards scattered in a wide circle around Harrow’s body.
‘I’m okay. Harrow is dead. Mind Render is in pieces. The city is yours. Meet me at the front gate.’
The shock and joy that surged through our bond then caused me to smile.
‘I’m already here, little wolf. I’ll never be too far from you.’
Despite the horrors of the night, I laughed.
‘Are you stalking me?’
‘Yes,’ he admitted.
‘My mother told me to avoid possessive men,’ I teased.
‘More like obsessive. I’m obsessed with you, Brynn. Now come to the gate so I can kiss you.’