Chapter 93
Chapter Ninety-Three
Evelyn
Rain drenched Evelyn and Kade as they sprinted across the Void. They leapt over demons, averted their course to avoid gods, and weaved through blood thirsty scáths. Kade cut down whoever and whatever grew too close.
Distance, Evelyn chanted to herself. Get away from the fighting.
She needed space. A place to plant the ever seed. Somewhere far from the Sun Goddess.
But the cruel deity chased after them, flames streaking across the battlefield in her wake. Shadows swirled ahead of her, settling into a feminine silhouette. The shadows sharpened into the Mother of Darkness, and she whirled towards Evelyn.
“Now!” Badb said. “Break the curse!”
Evelyn drove her staff into the earth, piercing the ever seed.
Silver cascaded down her weapon, flaring out in a luminescent boom.
From head to toe, she tingled as she channeled her magic into the seed.
She breathed life into it. The magnificent power coursing through her veins chanted light, light, light.
It leaked and overflowed from her soul, and the earth trembled under the force.
Through the dirt, the ever seed began to glow like a star that had fallen from the midnight sky. Its skin cracked. The ground trembled again, but Evelyn kept her stance steady.
Suddenly, roots burst free and snaked outward, diving deep into the soil.
Wherever the start of the ever tree traveled, it brought Evelyn’s magic with it.
Light corroded any darkness it touched. Around her, frost-burnt grass grew verdant green, and purple flowers sprouted, overtaking the once rotting wasteland.
The curse’s hold on Drystan faltered, and loosening its claws, one by one.
Evelyn’s silver flame shot upward, a beam of blinding light reaching the gray. The clouds retreated, revealing the first hint of blue. Shock rippled across the battlefield, and the fighting slowed as Evelyn’s power gained the attention of a thousand.
“No!” the Sun Goddess screeched.
Her gold-plated armor swam on her bony, gaunt frame. Blood splattered across her face, her rose-colored hair disheveled. She bared needlelike fangs, fury blazing in her eyes. Before them, the strong, once all-mighty goddess unraveled.
Her aflame blade collided into the Mother of Darkness’s sword, wisping with shadows. Black and red tangled together, and the soul sisters glared at one another. Macha bared her teeth. Badb furrowed her brow.
“I am the One true goddess,” the Sun Goddess roared. “For a millennium, it is I who has ruled this world. Worshipped, feared, loved, revered. All of it is mine. You’ll not take that away from me!”
The Mother of Darkness struck, movements swift and deliberate compared to the Sun Goddess’s fit of rage.
Color leached from Macha’s face and hair, leaving her bleak and old, while the Mother of Darkness thrived in the fight.
Muscles strong, shoulders set back, and hair sleek and neat.
She brimmed with centuries’ worth of waiting and preparation, and Evelyn admired the goddess’s resolve.
She tightened the hold on her staff, holding true with her magic.
“You’ve already lost!” Badb said. “The world knows who and what you are, and I’ll not let them suffer under your lies any longer. Today is the end for us both.”
The Mother of Darkness roared with vengeance, and the Sun Goddess met her head-on, her own battle cry echoing across the lands like rumbling thunder.
Evelyn’s legs tremored, and she faltered a step, but she didn’t dare let go of her staff.
The likeness of the wood’s origin met Evelyn’s power of life, fueling her magic.
Alive and with a mind of their own, the roots grew wider and dove deeper into the earth.
The force of her power whipped her obsidian hair from her bun, and her arms shook with exertion.
But Evelyn held on.
Ahead, Kade fought demons answering the beck and call of the Sun Goddess. She whispered in an ancient tongue through gritted teeth, and the madras came in waves.
Power incarnate, he slaughtered the demons with a swift glide of his sword and bursts of his power. The demons’ inky fur turned bright, its misty darkness dissipating in the air as Kade’s light overtook it.
He peered over his shoulder and roared, “Keep going!”
Life zapped through Evelyn as the seed crumbled completely to make way for a sapling to emerge. It grew and grew, green and fluorescent, but like a beacon, more demons, scáths, and gods broke away from the main fight. They abandoned their foes and charged in Evelyn’s direction.
“Gah!” Evelyn cried out, peeling one hand away from her staff and flinging a ball of flame towards ravenous scáths.
The sapling wavered, its first few leaves coming to a halt as Evelyn lost focus.
“Kade!” she called out.
But her fated wrestled a béar demon. It latched onto his shoulder with a large teeth, and it’s jagged, blood-soaked claws swiped across his back. Fresh blood slicked his armor.
“No!”
Evelyn flared her silver flames wider, creating a barrier of power to protect her from the demons and scáths nearing too close. They bit, nipped, and swiped at her flames, stalling their hunt.
Yet, one madras leveled its fathomless gaze on her, the black emptiness full of malice. It stepped through her flames, not caring as the silver burnt its paws.
Evelyn’s instinct reared to life too late. The demon pounced and landed on her with a harsh thud. Her staff slipped from her one-handed grip and clattered to the ground. Her flame around the wood extinguished, the beam of light descended from the sky, and the ever tree stopped glowing.
Gray prowled back into place, and the Blood Curse hissed across the lands in a humid, prickling wind.
Evelyn scrambled to reach for her staff, but the madras clamped its jaw onto her ankle. She screamed as canines sank past muscle and pierced bone. Blinding pain rippled through her, and Evelyn writhed under the demon’s treacherous hold.
“Evelyn!” Kade growled.
Her own power ate its darkness, but the wolflike demon shook its head wildly, growling through her attempts.
Evelyn clutched the beast’s neck, sending another shock of light through it, yet the demon sank its hold deeper.
Any more and it’d tear through her ankle completely. Panic zapped down Evelyn’s spine.
Life, her power sang.
Evelyn’s heart thumped. Once, twice, a third time. The realization dawned on her as alignment bloomed in her soul.
She inhaled, exhaled.
But this wasn’t the same as the night she’d ripped her magic out of her soul, brought Aster back to life, or risked Mirella’s life. This was intentional. It wasn’t desperation driving her forward but hope.
Evelyn blinked past the blinding pain and harrowing chaos. She was light and life, not destruction. She moved her hand into the madras’s sleek, oily fur and laid a hand under where the tremoring demon’s heart should reside and sent her power there.
To heal it, not kill it.
Silver shot from her fingertips, and the madras released her with a whimper.
It backed away, shaking its head as if trying to flick some assailant out of its mind.
It bowed, shivering as ripples of light shot through it.
The demon’s fur shifted from an oily black to a thick coat.
Its snout receded to a smaller one, its blood-drenched canines shrank, and its eyes grew smaller and more alight, transforming into a slate color filled with bewilderment, not emptiness.
For a madras no longer stood ahead of Evelyn, but a newly made, black-furred wolf healed from darkness.
Evelyn heaved, chest rising and falling rapidly, the sensation she sat on the edge of something gripped her legs as she stood. She held her hands out, stunned at what she’d accomplished. Her silver flames snaked around her feet, and her injury healed itself, the pain dulling to a days-old bruise.
The wolf huffed and bared its teeth. More madras stalked behind Evelyn. She darted to her staff and grasped hold of it again. She whirled, falling into a defensive stance, readying to fight again, but the newly made wolf charged.
And fucking flames, it defended her.
Evelyn’s mind reeled, and as she repositioned her staff over the ever seed, she sent her flames out differently this time.
The beam of silver shot back into the sky.
The Void quaked from her power. Wind and debris blew in the air, but it was not just life and light she sent to the seed but outward, too.
Like an army made of silver flame, it marched across the cursed land and washed over the demons and scáths. It lapsed back and forth, revealing beasts no longer touched by darkness, but animals restored to their true forms.
The béar shook its head, blinking into its new, russet-colored form. The scáths ahead of Kade dropped to the ground and writhed. Their talons retracted, the spidery veins around their eyes faded, and the hunger-crazed stare faded to shock.
Kade backed up a step. His stare snapped to Evelyn and back to the vampyrs again.
One opened and closed his hands. The other patted her limbs.
“The curse . . .” she whispered. “It’s gone.”
“I don’t hear it,” the male sobbed. “I don’t hear the curse telling me to feed.”
The Sun Goddess screamed and thrust the Mother of Darkness yards away. She strode towards Evelyn.
“How dare you?“ Spittle dripped down her chin, and she dragged her sword through the dirt, flame following in its wake.
Once, Evelyn had thought the power beautiful and magnificent, but it wasn’t the magic itself that possessed that characteristic but the wielder. For her flame was horrifying and brutal, destroying with each step as Macha marched towards her.
“You think yourself a goddess?” she whispered. “You think yourself worthy of creating life? You are nothing—“