49. Chapter Forty Nine Rhowyn
Chapter Forty Nine: Rhowyn
Titania read from the book as I searched for a way to stop her. The dagger Brannoc had thrown hadn’t pierced the shadows surrounding her. Instead, it had only fallen uselessly to the ground. Pulling on my own magic, I lashed out, the shadows parting but not harming Titania. I tilted my head at the reaction of this new magic to my own, but before I could explore more, Titania finished her chanting, absorbing the shadows and staring at me with such hatred.
“Foolish, child. Your overconfidence will be your downfall.” Her voice echoed with the same note mine did when Avalonia spoke through me. There was no doubt in my mind that the magic had allowed her to channel the Fomorians, perhaps even Balor himself.
Instead of waiting for a response from me, she pushed that foreign magic at me and my men, intent on our destruction. Instinctively, I stretched out my arms and pulled on the magic, sucking it into me. Somehow, I had accessed Lennox’s soul-sucking ability. Like an empty vessel, I pulled on the magic she was now trying to pull back on, her eyes wide with shock. I smirked. “Did you forget your own son had hidden this ability from you?”
Finally, she jerked it back into herself, anger and frustration on her face as she considered her next actions. However, what she didn’t know was that I had kept a part of the magic anchored inside me. She had slowed the flow but hadn’t cut it off completely. Now, I focused on coaxing it out of her while scrambling for a way to distract her.
“You may be able to stop me from hurting you with that magic, but you can’t stop me from hurting your consorts,” she challenged me, hoping to get a rise out of me.
“Go ahead, try. How many times today have you thought you had the upper hand only for me to prove you wrong? The moment you focus on them, I will take you down,” I threatened and taunted her, my words having the desired effect.
“You’re lying,” she hissed, her eyes narrowing at me.
“Am I?” I shrugged my shoulders and relaxed my posture. “If you’re so confident, go ahead, call my bluff.”
She glanced from me to my men. Brannoc was still watching my back as the armies swarmed around us. Like the eye of a hurricane, the fae made sure to keep the area clear around us, giving us a chance to end this. Lennox was now standing beside me as he watched his mother while Baer, Callum, and Arryn fought the only remaining consort. The Autumn Consort was putting up quite the fight, but there was no way he could succeed against the three of them.
When Titania didn’t move, I taunted her further. “Seems like you only have one consort left. How does it feel to no longer have your lackeys? I guess they weren’t as powerful as you had thought.”
She lashed out at me with more magic on instinct, her anger and hatred pushing her to act even if it was reckless. I sucked in more of her magic, widening the channel between us and absorbing everything she was pouring into me. Again, when she realized it wasn’t working against me, she tried to pull back.
Only this time, the flow between us was steadily growing as I continued to take it in. In my mind’s eye, I could tell I was about halfway full of what I could take. Her eyes widened when she realized I now had my hooks into her and was draining her of the magic she coveted. “How’s that possible?”
I shrugged as I kept pulling, watching as the vessel slowly filled and wondering what I would do when I was full. “Does it matter? All you have to know is that I will take everything from you.”
She cried out as Arryn struck the killing blow against the Autumn Consort in my peripheral vision. I didn’t dare look away from what I was doing, afraid that if I switched my focus, I wouldn’t be able to keep this up. Without her magic, she would be mortal. In order to end this, I needed to weaken her, and this was the best way to do that.
She fell to her knees in anguish at the loss of her final consort, though she didn’t mourn long. Her eyes cut to mine, and I nearly stumbled back at the vehemence I saw in them. Ice blue eyes, so much like Lennox’s, were now black as hatred consumed her. She lunged toward me, intent on tackling me.
My men tried to intervene, but a shield snapped into place and held them back. Leaning forward, I met her physical attack, shifting my hips and staying on my feet as our bodies collided. My hold on the magic slipped and slowed to a trickle.
Her fist landed on my flank, taking advantage of my split attention. Letting go of the magic, I focused instead on the physical threat that was now before me. I punched her back, drawing an oomph as the air left her lungs and my fist met her gut. When her elbows dropped instinctively, I followed with a right overhand cross, connecting with her jaw. She stumbled back from the attack, catching herself before she fell.
She yelled and charged me again, lashing out with her magic at the same time, forcing me to choose which to meet. I hadn’t had enough time to train with the use of both and was unprepared for having to manage them simultaneously. Choosing to block the magic, I let my magic swallow hers, her body colliding with mine and driving us both to the ground.
My elbows, shoulders, and head smacked into the hard-packed ground, and my control slipped when agony speared through me. The whispers of darkness swarmed my mind, pushing me to join her, join the Fomorians in taking out the fae. It wanted me to hurt them all, to take joy in the destruction as we laughed at the crumbling ruins of their society.
I gasped at the intrusion, pushing the magic back out of instinct, but my walls were starting to crumble, no longer as strong as they had once been. Titania punched my face, the strike landing on my cheek, splitting it wide. I could feel the blood trickling from the new wound, my magic already rushing to heal the spot. If I didn’t do something soon, Avalonia’s prediction would come true. The pain of that memory, of watching my men fall one by one, fueled me. I refused to allow that to come to pass.
Gathering up my own magic, the one that had caused the shadows to retreat, I let it infuse every inch of me. I could feel myself starting to glow as if light was seeping out from every pore, pinpoint rays that pierced the shadows in my mind and reality. Titania hissed as if I was burning her, jerking back and scrambling to her feet.
I pushed up, my body aching from the impact, slower to recover than before. My magic dimmed as I let it go once I was standing again. Eyes weighed heavily on my back, telling me I was being watched. That we were being watched. Reminiscent of being inside a cage in a match, the crowd cheering and booing as two opponents squared off against each other. Only this was for much higher stakes.
As soon as my magic retreated, Titania lashed out again, the shadows pushing at me. I tugged on it; my reserve was now almost completely full. Despite absorbing so much of the dark magic, I knew she’d only used a fraction of hers. She’d top off my ability to absorb the magic with enough left to destroy us all.
My mind began to panic at what would happen when it was full. Deciding I needed to distract her more, it was my turn to charge her. Despite her attempts to thwart my takedown, I was able to snatch a single leg, my head driving into her chest and pushing her back. Falling on top of her, I scrambled up her body as she continued to push the shadows at me until I was sitting on her chest.
Striking out, my fist connected with her eye, snapping her head to the side, her brow splitting and swelling. The flow of magic decreased as I punched her again, not allowing her the chance to recover. Her hands scrambled at mine as I sat on her chest, her hips twisting and bucking as she tried to dislodge me. I let my body do what it did best, what I had trained it to do on instinct and without thought, while I let my mind try to figure out what to do next.
I couldn’t take much more of the dark magic on my own. I needed my men in here. With their help, I wondered if I could push it into them?could share the burden. It was the only option I had, really. In order to accomplish that, though, I needed her to drop the shield she had erected somehow.
Punching her face again, I pulled on my own magic and pushed it forward. She hissed from the scorching caress of my magic, her attempts to escape increasing in their fervency. If I caused her enough pain, she wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else but it. It was the only shot I had at dropping her shield.
Leaning forward, I fell onto one hand, using my momentum to drive an elbow into her face, splitting the skin on the bridge of her nose while also pinning her further. Switching to a half guard, my hips on one side with my upper body pinning her shoulders to the ground, I lifted a leg, driving my knee into her ribs. Putting all my force behind it, I felt a rib give, snapping and causing her to cry out. Again, I threw my knee into her side. When another rib cracked, her shield finally dropped, and her magic slammed into me.
I flew backward from the force of her dark magic, my head slamming into the ground again and causing smudges to line the perimeter of my vision. Pushing up onto an elbow, I let the magic flow into me. This time, it took a lot more effort to rise, my body fatigued from the magic use.
Hands grabbed an arm and pulled me up to stand. As the vessel inside me filled, I pushed it into Lennox. He gasped, jerking back from me in shock. I cried out as the magic started to become too much for me to bear. Titania laughed maniacally as she pushed even more at me, confident she was close to winning.
My knees startled to buckle under the weight that was starting to consume me, dimming the light inside me and pushing at my crumbling walls in my mind. A hand found mine, the magic slamming into whoever had found me, passing through our bond at the touch. “Fuck,” Brannoc cursed.
Another hand took my free one, Lennox claiming the other side and pulling the magic into himself now that the shock had faded. The darkness swarmed us, Titania pushing everything she had at me, at us. My other men found ways to touch us, becoming conduits as well, allowing me to continue absorbing everything.
Even still, I could tell they were reaching their max, their vessels not near as deep as my own. Lennox and Brannoc had the deepest vessels, but they were almost full now. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying to Avalonia for relief from the burn of the magic passing through me. My muscles were tense and raw, like having gone ten rounds with a charging bull. As their vessels filled, they collapsed to the ground, disconnecting from the conduit, more magic rebounding into me.
I collapsed to my own knees, but Lennox and Brannoc maintained contact, their vessels filling too quickly. A whisper in the back of my mind drew my attention, different than the darkness that taunted me. Soothing and silky, easing the tender flesh as they whispered through my brain . Lightbringer. Use what I have gifted you with.
What the fuck did that mean?! I cried out in agony as Lennox and Brannoc were forced to disconnect from the conduit. My body snapped taut at the assault on me, my back arching, head thrown back, and arms wide.
My body and mind wanted to quit, wanted to escape the agony of this moment, this magic. It was wrong, evil. All consuming, the whispers told me I should give up. That the pain would stop if I just gave up. They could make me feel nothing if I just succumbed to their desires. I wavered on the edge, in so much pain that I wanted to give in. Anything to just make it end.
This moment, this choice, would be the one that sealed everyone’s fate. If only I had been strong enough to withstand this, to fight it. I had been so confident that I would finally best Titania, but I had been wrong. So very wrong. There was no way I could win. And if I couldn’t beat her, then what was the point of fighting this? I could just give in?end us all. It would be a mercy, after all. Anything to save them from the same kind of agony.
I wasn’t strong enough after all. I needed to just give up, give the shadows what they wanted. It was what was best for everyone.