Page 41 of Court of Bone and Amethyst

The ancient nightmare, the one who hunted us.

It must have sensed its comrades and followed them here. The ground begins to shake as it moves toward us. I catch glimpses of it through the mass of monsters surrounding me. It moves on all fours and is a dozen feet in length at least, bony and spindly and scaled. It has a slender head with cruel and cunning eyes of ink and midnight. Its mouth is a gaping hole of shadow, black flames spewing out. A long tail covered in deadly barbs whips around behind it. But mostly it is thefeelof the thing. The magic that emanates from it speaks of death and suffering and eternity. Of a time before time, when only darkness reigned.

Those black eyes lock onto Sarielle and the beast howls.

I will not let it have her.

I fold my wings around me and dive for the thing, releasing every bit of power I have left. A torrent of shadows launches out of me. It hits the ancient creature and the thing stumbles midstride and lands hard in the snow, creating a trench as its body slides through the icy terrain. I fall, too, the last of my energy gone. I hit the ground hard a few feet away from it. My claws have retracted and my wings dissipated. There’s not an ounce of magic left inside of me, I feel empty, an echoing void where my power once was.

The thing goes still for several long moments, but then it opens its black eyes. The gaze it levels on me promises pain beyond anything I can imagine. Slowly, the thing lurches to its feet. I climb to my knees also, but my muscles feel like water, my body barely obeying me. I put everything into that final assault, and it will be the last thing I do in this life. A shudder moves over the thing as it moves toward me, one of its legs dragging limply behind it. I’ve at least injured it. A small sense of satisfaction fills me. At least I have that: I have drawn blood on one of the deadliest creatures in existence.

I pull my sword, the metal hissing as it comes free of its sheath. I will die with blade in hand, that blade buried in the flesh of my enemy.

With a roar, the nightmare lurches toward me.

I raise my sword and plunge it into the thing’s heart, but it does not slow. It plows me over onto the icy ground, and it stands over me, its fiery breath nearly melting my skin. I scream at it and twist the blade, but it has no effect. The thing rears back its head and raises one deadly claw to swipe my head from my body. The claw arcs down…

Shadows blast into the nightmare, flinging it backward away from me. Sarielle hovers in the air behind me, terrifying and deadly, her eyes blacker than the deepest universe. Her hair flies out behind her, and the air crackles and rumbles like thunder. The ancient monster tries to climb to its feet, but Sarielle lets out a scream and her body pulses. A wave of midnight rocks across the land. What before had seemed black is nothing compared to the depth of the darkness that flows from her. The nightmare gives one last shriek before bursting into ash. The other, lesser nightmares behind us all scream as they’re burned up by the tsunami of magic she unleashes.

And then there are none left but the queen of them all, the Queen of Nightmares.

Sarielle still hovers in the air above me, her shadows spinning, snow and wind howling around her. Her shadows stretch so far I can’t see the sky beyond, I see only darkness. She doesn’t seem diminished by her incredible display of power. On the contrary, her shadows move faster, and the veins beneath her skin turn slowly black, as if dark vines are growing within her.

“Sarielle!” I yell above the raging magic. “It’s over!”

She turns slowly, and those black eyes hook onto mine. If I thought the gaze of the ancient nightmare was terrifying to behold, what I see now in her eyes makes my heart shrivel in my chest.

I’ve lost her. She’s no longer my ward. I’m not even sure she’s still my queen, if there is any semblance of her behind those black eyes.

“Sarielle,” another voice calls.

Through the spinning wind, I turn and see Merla walking slowly toward her, fighting the power pulsing across the icy terrain. Her cheek is a bloody mess, and one arm hangs limp and mangled at her side. Half of her blonde hair is crimson with her own blood. But she puts one foot in front of the other, a soft yellow glow emanating from her body, cutting through the shadows.

Sarielle turns to face her, her lips peeling back from her teeth in a snarl, raising her arms as if to strike her down.

“Sarielle, it’s me,” Merla calls, her voice barely carrying over the wind.

The shadow phoenix bursts out of Sarielle’s chest and flies for Merla faster than the fastest arrow.

With a yell, I dive for the girl, hurling my body between her and Sarielle.

The phoenix plunges through my chest. The world slips away.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sarielle

Through the blackrage that I have become, I see someone dive in front of my shadows.

No, not someone. That someone has a name. And that someone holds my heart.

Zyren.

As he falls in the snow, the darkness rushes out of me, my vision clearing and my magic vanishing. I hit the ground next to him, a cry ripping from my throat. I’ve killed him. I’ve killed the man I love.

On my hands and knees, I crawl the last couple of feet to him. Merla and Owyn run toward me. “Stay back!” I shriek, feeling a surge of that shadow-rage within me again, and my words halt them in their tracks.

My hands flutter over Zyren’s body, which has gone completely still, his eyes rolled back in his head. In the center of his abdomen, shadows swirl and writhe. His clothing is blasted away, and I can see his bare chest, the skin gray and cut through with black lines. “Oh, goddess,” I moan, “No…”

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