Page 78 of Siege of Shadows

Painfully, slowly, my lips pried apart. “Rhys...” But that was all I could manage.

“Fuck, forget it!” Jessie raised her gun.

And that was the trigger. I released the mental defenses I’d desperately been holding on to, and just like that, a new power filled me. Natalya. Two energies connecting within one form. The power overwhelmed everything else in me, shorting out the command, the white noise that had been dulling my mind. With the force of two Effigies, I stomped on Jessie’s hand, pinning it to the dirt. She gasped in pain, but she was strong too; she managed to slip her hand out from under the pressure. While she dragged herself away, my fingers curled around the steel band on my neck, and with a grunt, I tore it off.

“Shit,” I heard Jessie swear. One could never underestimate the power of adrenaline. Despite the pain from her gunshot wound, Jessie dragged herself to her feet and began running as fast as she could to the river alone. And I was about to go after her. That was the plan. But...

It was as if a tidal wave had drowned me. Two energies suddenly torn out of balance.

I should have known.

This was never going to be a partnership.

“No, stop!” I doubled over, grabbing my head with both hands. “Stop...stop!”

I was...

I... I...

...... I......

Air filled my lungs. Sweet and dense. I was alive again. Back into this body.

I was alive.

“Maia? Maia, what’s going on?”

That voice.

Quietly, I turned my head.

And saw him.

Feeble. Burned.

Kneeling in front of me.

The hilt of my sword formed first from the elegant dance of flames, that cool, familiar grip. The tip was last, buried in the grass. The cold sensation that tingled through the skin. That horrid wildness I’d been taught to suppress my whole life now quivered through my bones.

“Aidan,” I whispered.

Aidan heard the girl’s voice but knew immediately that it wasn’t Maia who’d spoken. For one passing moment, his arms were limp at his sides. He sat still, helpless—that is, until the panic finally settled in. His skin paled. His body shook. The fear of death gripped him.

“Oh god,” he breathed. “Oh god.”

What must it have felt like for him to see the large, beautiful eyes he loved wet with bloodlust? I could hear her screaming, fighting inside her own mind. It wouldn’t take long for her to return.

But this wouldn’t take long either.

Aidan was already leaning back, his wide, terrified eyes locked on my sword as I raised it high above my head. Zhar-Ptitsa. He knew its name.

“It’s okay.” Tears streamed down his cheeks—and strangely, tears streamed down mine as I aimed to murder the man I’d once called a friend. “It’s okay. Do it. Do it, Natalya.”

My hands shook above me.

“But... I didn’t want to.” The words trembled out of him as the tears wetted his lips. “I didn’t—you have to know that. I’m so sorry. I’m sosorry.”

I hesitated. Why was I hesitating?Why?

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