27. Lyra
Chapter 27
Lyra
I can’t feel the tether! Colton’s hand falls from my face as life drains from his features. He’s so pale, and now I can’t feel him, can’t sense the tether connecting us. Panic threatens to seize me, my chest constricting so tightly it feels as though my heart is being ripped out.
Desperately, I press my hands to the wound on his chest, pleading for my power to surge into him, for my shadows to heal him. I grab his shoulders, shaking him violently, but he doesn’t respond, and I’m starting to lose it. The safety net my magic has woven around us falters with my heightened emotions, and I let my shadows fall.
“Colton, wake up!” I scream through a sob.
“He’s dead, girl, can’t you see? Dark magic brings only death and destruction,” Athalda taunts from behind me.
Tears blind me as I feel Nyx’s hands, steadying me from behind, but I shove them away, desperate to escape the suffocating grip of sympathy. No, this can’t be happening. The pain is a tidal wave, overwhelming, crushing every breath I attempt to take. I double over, the contents of my stomach spilling out in violent heaves, each one a brutal reminder of the life draining out of Colton. Nyx’s touch lingers on my back, a futile attempt to comfort me.
I force myself upright, my legs trembling. The room spins chaotically—my shadows pin Athalda against the wall, her eyes wide with fear. In the corner, Samael watches, adorned with the cursed mask of my father, a relic from my past.
My gaze falls back to Colton—his once vibrant eyes now dull and lifeless, Chepi nestled against him, whining softly. A visceral scream tears from my throat, raw and shattering, as a surge of grief wracks my body. My heart doesn’t just break; it detonates, scattering shards of pain through my very soul.
Hyperventilating, I clutch at the air, trying to grasp the remnants of my sanity. I can’t endure this agony. With a desperate gasp, I surrender to the dark magic swirling within me, letting it encase my heart in ice. As the darkness consumes me, I bury my emotions so deep that nothing but a chilling calm remains.
When I reopen my eyes, they’re empty of tears but full of lethal resolve. I’m no longer a heartbroken princess—I am the fury of the night, and I will devastate everything in my godsdamn path.
I tilt my head toward Samael, where Nyx stands, sword drawn. “Don’t worry, dear brother, you’ll get your turn,” I murmur, my voice cold as I stride toward Athalda. Nyx remains silent, and I can almost feel Samael’s jealousy, his awe at the darkness that bends to my will. I withdraw my shadows from Athalda’s throat, allowing her to touch the ground once more.
“Still not strong enough to kill me,” she rasps, laughing. “Oh, I know a place that’s been waiting far too long for you.”
I let a wicked smile spread across my face, and I think I see true fear in her features for the first time.
“You want death and destruction,” I hiss through clenched teeth, unleashing a surge of my dark magic directly into her. Athalda’s screams fill the room as her skin begins to bubble and sizzle, her flesh melting away in a grotesque spectacle.
“I trusted you! I showed you mercy, and you—you killed him!” I grab her by the throat, her skin sloughing off under my grasp, pooling at our feet. “You did this to me!”
My eyes, dark voids of writhing shadows, bore into hers as they dissolve beneath my gaze. As she withers before me, I thrust my hand into her chest, seizing her heart.
With a brutal tug, I rip it from her body. She collapses, a pitiful heap on the floor, and I crush her heart until it disintegrates into dust in my clenched fist. Then, with a whisper of dark power, I incinerate her remains, reveling in the rush of destruction. The shadows within me purr with satisfaction.
A choked sound from behind snaps my attention back. I turn slowly, my full wrath now directed at Samael.
“My pretty bird, how I’ve missed you,” Samael coos in that sickeningly sweet voice of his. I shoot a glance at Nyx, wondering why he hasn’t made a move yet. Catching my look, he lifts his hands in surrender. “I don’t have my magic right now,” he admits.
“Leave us,” I command Nyx, and there’s something in my tone, or perhaps the look in my eyes, that makes him comply without protest. He moves toward the door, and though I can sense he doesn’t stray far, lingering by the threshold, it grants me the space I need.
“I can see now one of us may have underestimated the other,” Samael comments, his voice sickeningly high-pitched but laced with a slight tremor of uncertainty. I merely tilt my head, eyeing him like the predator I am. The mask covers his entire face.
“Think of all we could accomplish together, my sweet. Ruling with dark magic, all of Eguina could be ours,” he proposes, sounding deranged.
I ready myself for the inevitable. Sure, I could turn him inside out where he stands, but where’s the fun in that? I want to draw this out. With a casual flick of my hand, I send a surge of my power crashing into his chest. Had he not been braced against the wall, he would’ve stumbled.
Samael laughs, shaking his head as if in disbelief. He steps toward me, whispering an incantation and sending a shockwave that barrels into me. It throws me back, and the pain searing across my shoulder is almost a relief compared to the anguish gnawing at my heart. I crave more.
A smile curls my lips, unsettling him further. He retaliates, his power slamming me against the wall. My head thuds against the stone, and as I reach up to wipe away the trickle of blood from my nose, I laugh. Death, if it were possible, would be a sweet release right now.
“You’re going to have to try harder than that,” I giggle, mocking him. The challenge shatters his composure.
He charges, a scream tearing from his throat as he hurls another spell, the force crumbling the beam overhead. I casually disintegrate the falling debris with a mere glance, protecting myself effortlessly.
“Get them out of here,” I command Nyx, trusting his compliance. I feel his gaze locked on me, unwavering. Samael doesn’t obstruct him as he moves Colton and Chepi to safety.
Giving Samael a minor display of my power, I unleash my shadows, which playfully form a hand and slap him across the face—a mere tease of my capabilities. I withhold from seizing the mask, wanting him to keep his increased power, relishing the challenge it presents. It’s the only thing allowing him to evoke any sensation from me.
With a furious roar, Samael charges, his hands casting spells that shove me back before he can reach me, knocking me to the ground. In an instant, he’s atop me, his hands clamping around my wrists, pinning me down.
“We belong together. When are you going to give in?” he hisses, leaning in so close I can feel his breath. Panic flares within me, but I react swiftly, tearing the mask from his face. He strikes, trying to retrieve it, but I simply laugh, crushing the mask into dust in my palm.
His scream of defeat is delicious to my ears. He strikes me again, desperation coloring his blows, but I only laugh harder. My power is too immense, my shadows healing me faster than he can inflict any real harm. His repeated hits become futile, his frustration boiling over into a frenzied yelling.
“Lyra, enough!” Nyx intervenes, his voice cutting through as he reenters the room.
“It’s never going to be enough,” I snarl, forcefully kicking Samael away and bracing for his inevitable counterattack. My desire for the darkness to envelop me, for my dark magic to take absolute control, wars against the acute pain of loss for Colton. My insides are a tumult of agony and rage that I barely contain. Suppressing the urge to collapse in tears, I release a piercing scream instead.
The chamber reacts violently. The roof tears off and the wall crumbles. I barely register Citlali’s body tumbling with the debris—I hadn’t even realized she was still there. Exhausted and overwhelmed, I tilt my head back, gazing at the moon as hundreds of Sarrols swarm overhead, descending upon the castle and the surrounding camps.
“Fuck,” Nyx mutters beside me, his voice barely audible over the chaos.
Samael gasps, his eyes widening at the apocalyptic scene unfolding above us. I step toward him, the wind whipping fiercely around us, embodying the storm within me .
“Do you see it now? You can never defeat me,” I proclaim, as powerful and relentless as the gale that surrounds us.
Samael’s last desperate attempt to gain control unfolds chaotically. He screams, his feet stamping in a tantrum as he releases a horde of dark creatures. Black snakes and bats, formed from smoke, fill the room, but his spell backfires.
The creatures, recognizing the darkness within me, turn on him instead of attacking me. They swarm the room, bats diving into his body and disintegrating into clouds of smoke, snakes wrapping around his legs as he tries to shake them off in a fit of rage.
He slams his fists into the ground, and fire erupts, spreading flames across the floor and up the walls. I stand amidst the inferno, the heat searing but strangely welcome. Nyx’s voice breaks through, though it’s almost lost in the tumult.
“Lyra, it’s not all lost,” he says, though I can barely hear him over the cacophony. Suddenly, Nyx is before me, his hand on my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Come back to me. Come back for him. Let’s end this together,” he says, and I nod, our eyes locking with a shared resolve.
“This reminds me of old times, the three of us in here together,” Samael croaks, a twisted smirk on his face. Both Nyx and I turn toward him, disgust mounting inside me.
Nyx unsheathes his sword with a swift, fluid motion, metal gleaming under the flickering light from the flames licking the walls around us. Samael follows suit, his blade drawn with a sinister hiss. They circle each other warily, eyes locked in a deadly duel of wills.
With a sudden lunge, Nyx strikes, his sword slicing through the air toward Samael. Their blades clash with a resounding clang, sparks flying as steel grates against steel. They move rhythmically, almost gracefully, each parry and thrust a duel of fates. Samael counters with a vicious swipe aimed at Nyx’s head, but Nyx ducks under the blade, rolling to the side and coming up ready to strike.
The room echoes with the sound of their battle, each strike more desperate and forceful than the last. They are a whirlwind of motion, each fighter anticipating the other’s moves.
It’s time to end this, to cast all the pain he’s inflicted into the annals of history, permanently. I summon an obsidian spear, its dark sheen glinting with lethal intent. Nyx steps aside, granting me a clear path. I lunge, the air whispering past the spearhead before it finds its mark.
Silence descends, the chaotic winds cease, and the flames waver as my weapon pierces Samael’s chest. His eyes, dark pools of malice, lock onto mine. A twisted smile plays on his lips, even as the life fades from them. With a nod from me, Nyx acts—his blade arcs through the air, severing Samael’s head with clinical precision. It lands with a thud at my feet.
I stoop to pick it up by the hair, examining the sneer frozen on his face. Nyx, his magic restored, nonchalantly kicks the body before launching a fireball straight at it. I toss the head into the flames, and together we watch as Samael’s body disintegrates into ash, ensuring his reign of terror is extinguished once and for all.