Chapter Ten
Acting purely on instinct, and ignoring the shock, I planted my feet and called to the stony earth below us.
Just before the fireball could make contact, I caused a thick slab of stone to jut out of the ground in front of Matea and me, serving as a shield for us both.
Not wanting to drain my energy too fast, especially with how much I’d used the past few days, I dropped the stone back into place a moment later when the fire dissipated. I looked toward Matea, who was glaring straight at my twin with hatred in her eyes, but was fortunately unharmed.
Before he could form another fireball, I quickly asked, “Dimitri, you’re a wielder?”
“Feeling less special now, aren’t you, twin?” he taunted. “Seems like Father had us keep a lot of secrets from each other over the years.”
“Like what truly happened to Mother?” I asked, careful to keep distance between the two of us. I drew comfort from having Matea so close.
“Exactly,” he said as another ball of fire began forming in his hand, purposefully slow. “Though I’m sure she’d say hello if she could.”
“Where is she?” Matea said viciously, throwing her hood back and stepping forward with more courage than I had ever felt at once.
Dimitri’s jaw fell ajar at the sight of Matea, realization and vague recognition washing over his features, when I felt Drayven’s shadow self quickly approaching the end of one of the many corridors.
He materialized at the mouth of it, still partially shadow, and made an unlocking motion.
The keys.
I wasn’t sure why Rayven couldn’t shadow wield his way past whatever lock he was facing, but I wasn’t about to question him in these circumstances.
Flicking my eyes to Matea, I knew she’d seen his signal, too. Now, the three of us were all on the same page.
When I looked back at my brother, he was still staring at Matea in shock. I wasn’t sure where he’d seen her before, but he obviously recognized her from somewhere.
On the other hand, Matea looked ready to gut him, if that was what it would take.
“I vouched for you, Dimitri. I really thought we could handle this peacefully,” I said, a hint of sadness in my voice. “Instead, you’ve proven me wrong and left us with no choice.”
“And what choice would that be?”
“To win this war,” I responded nonchalantly. “But right now, you have something I need.”
With that, I drew the condensation off a nearby wall and quickly shifted it into an icicle, using it as a small spear and throwing it straight toward Dimitri’s shoulder.
He dropped, dodging it, and used his fire to melt it before hopping to his feet again and coating his clenched fists in flames.
“If you wanted a fight, Viva, all you had to do was ask,” he said with a false level of innocence in his voice.
We fell into a rhythm as we circled each other, my fists now coated in water and ice I’d wielded to myself from the floor and walls.
“I didn’t want a fight, but you’ve left me no other option.” I swiftly dodged a flaming punch he threw at my face and coming up behind him, prepared to kick him to the ground.
This time, he was ready—unlike our previous veltik khan, which was supposed to be a fight to the death between two Northerners.
Father’s life had been the price.
Dimitri spun and caught my boot seconds before I could make contact.
His fire burned so hot that it began to melt the leather of my boot, the shoe starting to cave in on itself.
The heat quickly seeped into my skin, causing me to panic.
I yanked my leg back the same moment he pushed and let go, making me collapse to the floor in a heap.
Landing on my back, the breath was knocked out of me, my wings pinned between my body and the floor painfully. Gasping, I scurried to sit up just as Dimitri prowled closer, malintent in his eyes.
Though before he could strike, a length of shadow looped around his ankle and tugged, causing him to stumble.
His warrior training kicked in swiftly as he righted himself, but not before the shadow slid up his form and looped around his key ring.
By the time he noticed something was amiss, the keys were midair, caught in Matea’s shadow grasp.
The moment the keys were in her hand, I motioned to where we’d last seen Rayven and yelled out, “Go!”
As we locked eyes, I watched the internal struggle in her gaze as she debated between being loyal to her sister or being loyal to her queen.
In the end, she chose both.
Faster than I’d ever seen a shadow wielder move, she vanished and reappeared next to me, helping me to my feet and sliding one of her extra daggers into my hand. Her eyes examined me head to toe, then dispersed into shadow again, heading to where we’d last seen Rayven before I could scold her.
It wasn’t until I turned my attention fully back to Dimitri that I noticed he’d intensely watched the entire interaction.
And he was livid.
But behind the anger, I could see the hurt.
“You’ve replaced me already, sister?” he asked, his voice nearly shaking with unrestrained anger.
“I could never, Dimitri,” I reassured him. Despite everything that had happened, I was still holding onto a sliver of hope that I could save him. That he could change for the better.
Because if I was wrong, what was it all for?
Both of our heads snapped toward the corridor that Matea and Rayven had disappeared down, having heard a scuttle.
“You can have him,” Dimitri said after a beat of silence. “What’s left of him, anyway.”
Ever so slowly, I turned my face to look back at my twin.
“What did you do?” I said slowly, almost scared to hear the answer.
Dimitri smiled, and when he did, Father’s face flashed in my mind.
They shared more than the Heartshire throne. They shared their wicked smiles, too.
Then, Dimitri pulled out of his pocket the dismembered tip of a finger, cut off at the top joint.
A fingertip that I could only assume was Ezra’s.
“Dimitri…” I clasped a hand over my mouth as I asked again, this time with horror in my voice, “What did you do?”
“What needed to be done.” He shrugged, as though this was a casual interaction. “Unfortunately for me, he’s a tough nut to crack.”
It was in that moment that I finally accepted the truth standing before me.
This wasn’t the twin I’d come to know and love throughout our lives together.
Something had fundamentally broken inside of him back in Wittuck Woods. And if what Aurora had said was true, it likely started before then.
Father had broken him even before the Battle of Shadows.
But then I couldn’t help but think, If Dimitri is capable of this, what else did he do to Ezra?
Innocent, kind, caring Ezra…
The more I considered how much pain and suffering my friend must have endured, the more my anger bubbled up inside of me.
From far away, I could feel Byn’s calm trying to lend itself to me, but the distance between us wouldn’t allow it. It wasn’t powerful enough.
And that was exactly what I wanted.
“There she is,” Dimitri said, reading the pure fury in my expression. I watched as his hand ignited into flames again, burning the fingertip to ash before my very eyes within a matter of seconds.
I’d felt the crystal bundle in the earth beneath me earlier, but I had hoped I wouldn’t need it.
Now, with little thought about what I was doing, I called to it. The connection solidified almost instantly, reacting to my heightened emotions and the control I’d learned to have with Quinn through the stones adorning my gloves.
Stones Dimitri had failed to notice thus far, thankfully. I couldn’t imagine how he’d react if he noticed all ten of them.
With the connection solidified, and fueled only by my anger for what Ezra had likely gone through, I let loose.
And I exploded.
The crystal bundle shot from the earth to my hands, shattering outward.
Shards flew in every direction except mine, and I watched as Dimitri reacted purely based on instinct.
He pulled a chunk of stone from below us and used it to cover his head and torso just before the crystals made contact, the gems shattering into splinters on impact.
When he dropped the earth a fraction to reveal his face, he was grinning wildly.
And that only further fueled my rage.
Did he think this was funny? Or a game?
Letting my connection with my various zirilium guide me, I dropped to the ground and placed my hand on the stone. Within heartbeats, thick vines wrapped around my twin’s ankles, holding him in place. Then, focusing on the water the plants held, I froze the vines, further solidifying their hold.
Dimitri, who was still smiling like a madman, looked down, unphased. He called to his fire and melted the frozen vines with more control than I thought he’d had.
But that little trick had just been a distraction.
When he looked back to where I had been standing, he found I was no longer there.
I reappeared to his right and slightly behind him, using the water still on the ground from before and quickly shifting it into ice, coating his right wing in it.
The sudden weight imbalance caused him to stumble, and I took the opportunity to throw a strong, focused air current at the backs of his knees, making his legs collapse in on themselves.
He ended up kneeling before me, all in a matter of wingbeats, and I quickly drew the dagger Matea had given me, holding it to his throat as I stood closely behind him.
The anger dying out of me with the energy I’d expelled using my abilities, I said quickly, “I’m sorry about Father. I live with that weight on my soul every day, Dimitri. But I truly believed you’d be a fair and just ruler that would help me put an end to this war.”
With tears threatening to well in my eyes, I spoke quieter this time. “I just want my brother back.”
I watched as his hands curled into fists at his sides—the only indication of his rising anger.
“You’re right, twin. I will be a fair and just ruler.
But I will rule all of Inphis, not just the North.
Even if you are rightfully the heir, this was Father’s dying wish, and although that obviously means nothing to you, it means everything to me.
” He lifted his chin. “And I will succeed, or die trying.”
With those final words, Dimitri dissipated into shadows for just long enough to escape my grasp. He reappeared facing me, and with no hesitation, I watched as he pulled a small throwing knife from his sleeve and tossed it with such force at me, I barely have time to react.
I dropped as quickly as I could, but not fast enough.
A scream was ripped from my throat as the blade embedded itself in my left wing.
Gasping, I stumbled a step as deep red blood dripped onto my shoulder and down my arm. Dimitri pulled another one of those knives out, and it was at that point I realized just how exhausted I’d become.
Yet, a wingbeat before he could throw it towards my other wing, Matea’s shadow speared out of the darkness of the nearest corridor, wrapping around the blade and throwing it down, straight into Dimitri’s foot, pinning him there.
“Matea, wait!” I yelled out before she could cause further damage.
I watched as her shadow form paused, and while she was hesitating, I grasped a small vial I had hidden in my pocket.
I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to use it, but it appeared that was not an option anymore.
I observed Dimitri reach down and yank the blade out of his foot, grunting in pain. But when he straightened, I was there, and so were the contents of the vial.
I blew the powder the vial had been holding directly into my twin’s face, and though he sputtered and backed away, the effects were nearly instantaneous.
He backed away so much that his wings hit the wall, and he slowly slid to the ground, his eyes glossing over.
As it turned out, Chess knew more than how to heal people. He knew how to incapacitate them, too. And that trokav bag he’d packed was filled to the brim with not just things to fix fae, but things to break them, too.
“What—” Dimitri said, trying to form a sentence and failing.
I came to stand beside him, knowing he was no longer a threat, and watched sorrowfully as his form slumped fully to the ground.
The last thing he did before unconsciousness took him was meet my gaze.
And the pure hatred in his eyes nearly knocked the breath from my lungs all over again.
It conveyed everything he was unable to say.
Then, his eyes closed, and the darkness took him.
Matea came to stand beside me as we both looked down at my twin.
“Why didn’t you use that earlier?” Matea asked, shifting her gaze to look at the fresh blood running down my wing and arm.
“I thought…” I trailed off, unable to express myself fully.
The emotions in my chest were so jumbled, I couldn’t think straight as I kneeled next to my brother and gently swept his hair out of his face.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I whispered to him as tears flooded my eyes.
Was this what it was like to grieve somebody that was still breathing?
He looked so peaceful now—nothing like the angry, hurt male that had stood before me just moments earlier.
Before the tears could escape, Matea placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.
“We found Ezra, but we need to go,” she said. “He has to stay in a shadow state with Rayven until we get out of here, though. He’s… really been through it.”
My heart sunk as I thought about leaving Dimitri like this, and about the state Ezra must be in to need to stay a shadow.
Leaning over my brother, I studied his face. The beauty marks that he’d always hated, the straight nose that matched mine, his long lashes, and especially the look of tranquility on his face.
That was how I wanted to remember him.
“Viva…” Matea urged softly.
“Alright, alright,” I said. Hesitantly, I brushed my lips to my twin’s cheek in a feather-light kiss. “Until next time,” I whispered to him.
Then I slipped my royal mask back into place. I pushed the complex emotions weighing me down deep into myself, somewhere I wouldn’t have to deal with them for a while.
Steeling myself, I stood, avoiding Matea’s gaze.
I felt Rayven, and who I assumed was Ezra—whose energy felt weak—shoot into the large room, Rayven’s grip on the male tight.
“Let’s go,” I said to Matea. I could see the concern written on her face from the corner of my eye, but I let the shadows conquer me before she could address any of her concerns aloud.
A handful of moments later, the four of us slipped through the cracked walls of Gatlyn castle, doing our best to blend in with the darkness of the night.
As we raced for Tammy’s Tavern again, our rendezvous point, I couldn’t help but think that if we weren’t at war with Dimitri before, we sure were now.