Page 46 of Oath-Maker

Without warning, the Guardian sent a torrent of magic over my shoulder, red and burning with radiance. Lucius grunted in pain. I wanted to turn around and check on him, but the Guardian encroached on my space and reached for my neck. I brought my elbow down between us and managed to nick his armor with the blade of my sword.

“This new world was meant forus,” the Guardian said, and for a moment, I recognized the pleading in his voice. It was Merek’s voice, his intonation. But I knew better. “Take my side. Kill your demon king and return to me.”

I spun on my heel, dropping my sword for just long enough to be convincing in the hopes he’d think I was considering it. I met gazes with Lucius, but his kept moving toward all the celestials pouring in from Soltar. Gods, howhadwe survived the first wave of this war? How had their battles, their magic, Soltar’s entire presence itself not burned the entire Earth?

It had, I reminded myself. The continents were barely recognizable now compared to the old maps people sometimes found.

I flexed my magic, catching Lucius’s attention. Our eyes met once more and he swallowed hard. He’d put up a good fight, but already, the radiant cracks on his skin were spreading faster than they had before. But we now knew there was a cure and so, despite needing to endthisfight soon, I was confident that particular battle would be won if we had a chance.

We just had to keep fighting.

Lucius nodded slowly, so I turned back to the Guardian. “You really think that after bleeding me so you can dothis,” I said as I gestured to the greater battle at large, at the humongous tear in the Veil, “and killing so many people is going to sway me back to your side.”

The Guardian swiped his sword through the air. “I don’t care about everyone else, I care aboutyou. That’s why I did all of this.”

It was the first true thing he’d said since his return. And I might’ve believed him then. Now I knew just how much of a puppet he’d become, and how therefore, he’d only be reaching out to me now if he knew he’d lost.

I pulled on my magic and Lucius’s, on the strength of our mate bond, and forced it all into a single pinpoint—the edge of my blade. It grew longer and pointier with the power of night and shadows and the radiant stars twinkling inside it.

A paladin of light and dark.

End the demons’ rule.

The Fallen were the only demons. They were the only evil. Someone, somewhere, along the way had given the wrong meaning to the word “demon.” And while I was sure there were nuances I was missing, if I was the center of this prophecy to bring about a great time of peace by ridding Serenia of evil, then so fucking be it. I’d find the nuances after.

The real enemy was clear.

“You wanted me because you needed a prophecy fulfilled,” I spat at the Guardian. “I’m not sure how much of our relationship was a lie, but I’m so fucking glad it led me to my mate.”

I charged. Our swords met. It was hard fighting the Guardian because he had been right—hehadtrained me. Every block I’d made, he’d been there with a follow-up strike. Every swing he knew how to block. It wasn’t until I’d summoned daggers from potentiality that I had been able to cut and distract him.

“Take care of the tear!” I shouted between swings at Lucius.

He stood, nodding, and faced the Veil. Everything he’d done until now had been to keep thisexactscenario from happening. It was why he hadn’t ordered my execution when I’d broken the rules to save Jessa. It was why he’d tried so hard—harder than he should have—to get me to see reason. To see that our mate bond was not only special, butvitalto saving this world.

Now, Lucius fought against light sickness to close the tear in the Veil as much as he could alone. I’d join him soon enough.

The Guardian and I fell into a familiar dance, but it wasn’t long before his focus slipped again, turning to Lucius as my mate’s magic reached out for the tear. When the Guardian shifted to move toward Lucius, I mirrored him, interposing myself between them as much as I could.

Then it was my turn to slip up. The Guardian brought his sword down hard, slicing down my arm that had already been injured by Commander Lumen’s snake fangs. I grunted in pain and fell a few feet in the sky. As it was, my paladin wings would run out soon, the cost of their power so high.

The Guardian used that moment to dive after me. “Enough!” He screamed as he grabbed hold of my shoulders and drove us both into the ground. My back and ribs screamed as white-hot pain snapped through them and the Guardian pinned me with his hips into the ground.

My sword slipped out of my fingers in the impact. The Guardian reached for it now, claiming it for his own as his hand wrapped around the hilt. Immediately, the shadowed flames went out.

“Now what are you going to do?” he taunted me. “All alone and weaponless when, if you’d justbehaved, you could’ve hadeverything.” He gestured widely—wildly—above me. I shifted, trying to knock him off of me, but his body weight kept my ribs screaming and I just wanted the pain to stop. It was hard to breathe—harder to think.

Lucius. The tear in the Veil. Our magic.

I couldn’t think straight enough to use it, and that was before the Guardian had put the blade of my own sword against my neck.

“I don’t want everything,” I spat out. “I have Lucius. I have Alastia. I have my paladins. Even if you tookallof that away from me, I’d still survive without you.”

I already had.

“Lies!” he screamed, his furious spittle landing on my face. The Guardian sure looked like Merek. He even sounded like Merek. But Merek would never have doneanyof this. I wasn’t sure when the swap had happened, and I was pretty sure that the question would haunt me for the rest of my life, but gods, I just wanted Merek back in this moment.

“Not lies,” I countered. “I kept my vow. You broke it. You were never fit to lead, and you still aren’t. Look around you.”

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