90. ON THE CUSP #2
I felt Niall’s presence beside me amidst the fray. Between the flashes of light, I could see his shadowfire striking back against the swarm, but Lyceius’s power pushed harder, overcoming the shadows and shredding them into thin ribbons.
Niall grabbed my waist and pulled me to him, but his arm trembled as he did so. He had used too much of his power. He was tiring.
His voice rose to overcome the chaotic hiss of the swarming mass. “Dig deep, Auren. Deeper than you ever have before.” To the bottom of my well, and hope that, when I came up, I was still conscious. “I’ll be right here with you,” he said, rallying his power once more.
I closed my eyes, letting his presence ground me.
Just as I began the descent, I heard a pained grunt.
Niall’s arms loosened.
I turned, bringing my palm and its light in front of me, just in time to see blood dribble from the corner of his mouth before he was ripped from the swarm.
“NIALL!”
I frantically clawed my way through the mass, desperate to find him, and when the darkness peeled back, I was met with a horrifying view of what stood beyond, of who stood beyond.
Niall was on his knees, blood dripping onto the dirt, and standing behind him was Skadi.
She smiled—a thing of nightmares.
Lyceius flicked his hand toward me, and the chaos dispersed, fading into nothing, leaving me, once again, shaking with rage.
“Seems you’ve all found yourself in a very unfortunate situation,” Skadi said, surveying the space. She lingered on Silas, who was groaning, and rolling onto his side.
Silas! I called out, but he didn’t answer.
Light flared at my fingertips, but the goddess held up a single finger, shaking it as she tutted, “Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Her shadows were holding Niall by his wrists, keeping him from getting to his feet or porting. Blood continued to fall from his mouth as he panted through clenched teeth, and . . . there was something lodged in his side—a blade of some sort.
The pain he was experiencing rattled down the bond.
When he lifted his head, his eyes met mine, and he mouthed one word.
Poison.
My heart plummeted to my feet.
“What a nice, new adornment you have there,” Skadi said, glancing at the talisman on my forehead. “It seems the two of you are fond of taking what doesn’t belong to you.”
Lyceius took a step closer. “Hand over the talisman, now.”
Skadi rolled her eyes. “She’ll never hand it to you, freely. But if you have something worth bargaining for . . .” She leaned around Niall and gripped his chin between her fingers.
“Don’t touch him!” I yelled.
“Oh, I don’t think you’re in a place to be making demands.”
With her other hand, she pulled the decoy amulet from a pocket in the armored corset she wore, and pressed the stone into Niall’s cheek. “It was clever, your little trick,” she said to him. “Where is the real one?”
“You’re holding it,” he gritted out.
The goddess jerked his chin upward, her nails biting into his jaw. “You played me for a fool once. You will not do it again. Tell me where my father’s amulet is, now!”
This time Niall pushed against her hold, and smirked. “Like I said, you’re holding it.”
Skadi searched his eyes, then realized what he was saying. “You lie.” She let out a harsh laugh, but the longer she stared at him, the more it seemed like she might be considering that he was telling the truth. “You’re a fae. Only a deity can transfer power from an object to a physical being.”
“I know,” Niall said.
Skadi clutched the amulet in her hand and squeezed, as if trying to destroy the stone and prove its worthlessness, but the amulet remained whole. Her eyes shot to it, narrowing with frustration. She dug her fingers into it again, and nothing. The shadow within drifted on a phantom wind, unaffected.
With a grunt, she flung the necklace into the dust and set to stalking a circle around him. “No more games,” she sneered. “Tell me where the true amulet is.”
Niall only growled, his shoulders now trembling from the effects of whatever poison the goddess had tainted the weapon with. The color of his skin was growing paler by the minute.
Skadi looked at me. “What about you? Care to divulge its whereabouts?”
I didn’t respond.
“Not even to save him?” The shadows tugged at his wrists, jostling him. One of them pressed against the blade in his side, and he arched upward with it. A bleating groan escaped his throat, and the sound was absolute torture to me.
“Stop it!” I cried out.
“How about we strike a bargain?” she offered.
“No,” Niall rasped, meeting my eyes and shaking his head.
Don’t, his voice warned me in my mind.
Skadi twirled her wrist, shadows spooling forth and surrounding Niall. “The longer the blade is left in him, the more poison seeps into his blood. I can remove the blade and let him heal. All you have to do is give up the talisman, and tell me where the real amulet is.”
Don’t tell her anything, Auren, Niall said into my mind.
He groaned again as the shadows tightened.
“What’s it going to be, half-breed?” Skadi called out.
The name snapped something in me, and my eyes blazed white-hot with light as I lifted them to her and—
A crackle sounded behind me, and a gust of cold wind permeated the space, brushing against my neck like the kiss of a winter morning.
I turned to see Torin. She had come. Her primordial mist swirled around her, the ground at her feet frosting over with what looked like crystal thorns, a testament to her rage.
Her voice was lined with disgust as she raked her eyes over her sister, and said, “I see you’re still using fear to win your battles when you can’t overcome them yourself. ”
Skadi glared back at her. “You may act like you have some sort of status here in this world, but you’re just as pathetic as you were in ours—always running from your problems when they get too close. At least I have the dignity to stand and face them.”
“I’m not running anymore.” Indeed, here she was, staring down her greatest foe, and every inch of her armor was covered in the black blood of Lyceius’s creatures.