Page 218 of Blood of the Stars

“How do we defeat her?” Aeliana asked.

Her mother sat up, eyes sad. Her lips moved, but the words couldn’t reach Aeliana over Mayvus’ wind.

Aeliana fought her way forward, the shield forced to press against the wind while everything behind her remained calm and still. “Get rid of the dead,” she called out.

Gaeren and Lukai were quick to obey after their experience with Arvid. The others followed, sending all the bodies behind her shield over the balcony’s edge. As she passed more, they removed them as well.

Soon Aeliana would reach Mayvus’ side, and then what? The nearer she got, the more her shield flickered. Mayvus’ white bolts of light were back, penetrating the shield and weakening it.

“How do we defeat her?” she asked again.

“You have to?—”

This time Aeliana caught half of her mother’s words, the tail end getting sucked away by Mayvus’ wind. Aeliana pressed forward more, her mother nearly in reach.

Mayvus’ face contorted, the volley of sparks hitting the shield multiplying, and the flickers growing longer, the occasional wind and bolt getting through.

Aeliana winced, pushing as much of her power into the shield as she could, ensuring that once she stepped past her mother, they’d both be safe on the other side.

Her mother’s breath caught with the change of environment, her hair settling around her face as the wind died to stillness. “You have to kill me.”

Aeliana’s shield faltered, and Iris let out a yelp as one of Mayvus’ sparks got through to her thigh. Aeliana infused her shield with more power, but while stronger in the center, its canopy grew smaller, the edges thinner.

“What do you mean?” Aeliana asked, certain she’d misheard.

“If she dies, I die.” Her mother pulled Aeliana’s dagger from her sheath, holding it out so the daisy on the pommel was level with Aeliana’s hand. “But if I die, so does she.”

Aeliana’s shield flickered as she backed up. “No. I can’t. There has to be another way.”

Her mother smiled, then shifted her grip. “It’s all right.”

Too late, Aeliana realized what her mother meant to do. She dropped her shield, then reached out to pull the dagger back, to keep her mother from taking her own life, but Mayvus’ white bolt hit her mother’s leg first.

The dagger fell from her mother’s hand as she dropped to her knees. Mayvus dropped as well, seeming weaker after her efforts to break down Aeliana’s shield.

Aeliana grabbed her dagger to keep it out of her mother’s reach but then hesitated. Was it true? If she went after Mayvus, would she be endangering her mother?

They had to find a way to weaken Mayvus, to bind her magic until they could get answers. She sheathed her dagger and put up the shield once more, driving it toward Mayvus, imagining it wrapping around the woman like a cocoon.

The black depths of Mayvus’ eyes faltered, and for a moment, Aeliana detected fear, either from the dark spirit or Mayvus. It gave her confidence that this could work, that by placing the shield around Mayvus, she would protect everyone else outside of it.

The blackness leached from her aunt’s eyes, the dark spirit pulling away to its own sense of safety. Mayvus backed up on the balcony, eyes wide with terror, but her gaze rested beyond Aeliana.

Before Aeliana could see what frightened her, blue and purple scales streaked past her, the wind knocking Aeliana over and making her lose grip on her shield.

But it didn’t matter. Durriken’s sharp teeth clamped around Mayvus’ pale form, and blood dripped in a trail across the balcony as he took his prize.

I want no debt with your kind. Now we are equal.

CHAPTER 87

Her mother’s screams made Aeliana turn back, but Lukai was already bent over Emeris, calming her out of her distraught state while assessing her wounds. Blood seeped across her white dress, new spots forming as fast as Lukai could address them.

“How is she still hurting you?” Lukai asked.

“It’s not her.” The mumbled words coming from her mother’s lips made Aeliana seek out Durriken’s form as he disappeared around the west side of the cliffs. Where would he take Mayvus? And what would he do to her?

She bit her lip. Was her mother right? Was she dying because Mayvus was dying? Because Durriken was killing her?

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