Page 110 of Crown of Wrath

I try to wrench it free like I’d do when I’d stabbed a boar, but it’s stuck. His body has formedsomethingto hold on to it, and no matter how hard I pull, it won’t come out. Gethin reaches out, his hand moving faster than anything I’ve ever seen. Even faster than Cole. His fingers wrap around my throat, and he says, “Little Queen, you are a sorry excuse for a replacement for Roderic. He would have known how to defeat me. He would have more than a year of experience wielding those powers. To think of what you could have become with both shadows and earth…”

It takes every ounce of Earth strength to keep his fingers from crushing my throat. Then Echo’s shadows come down on his arm. Just as he’d done so many times already, his armdisappears as the shadows touch him, and in that instant, I can pull away. I shove the spear that’s nearly a part of him and I leap backward at the same time.

The corner of his lip curls up in a cruel smile, and I glance at Echo. Fear fills her eyes, but she’s not running even though she could. “Clever girl,” Gethin says to her. “But we can’t have that.”

He reaches intohis chestand pulls out a burning stick. Holding it in his right hand, a fire explodes toward the two of us. A crystal disk appears in front of us, stopping the wave of fire just long enough for me to speak to Echo.

“Claim the Throne.Now.”

She nods and runs to the chair made of midnight black stone. I turn to Gethin, who’s still smiling. “Why wouldn’t you want us to claim the Thrones, Gethin?” I say, drawing his attention away from Echo. “Is it just that you want all the power for yourself?”

He focuses on me, and more flames pour from the Burning Brand. I block the flames with another crystal disk. “I am the only one who can make sure that the Thrones don’t fail,” he says over the sound of roaring fire that flares around the edges of the disk. I can’t see him, but I know where he is from the sound of his voice. “Roderic was going mad, and the powers of his House were failing. Now you’d have me believe that a Wyrdling who can barely wield her powers is supposed to be the Conduit for the House of Earth? The magic of the creatures will fail with a disgrace like you sitting on it. And that one…” He says it, and I know Echo is in danger. Without waiting for an attack, I draw quartz from the floor up around her in a full circle. “That one isn’t even High Fae. You can smell that she’s wrong. Brenna’s mistaken if she thinks that child will be the one to replace her. Do you hear me, girl? I will find you, and I will kill you.”

The flames that he’d been pouring from the Brand toward me change and focus on the wall that I’ve built around Echo. I noticethem beginning to crumble under the onslaught. Stone daggers appear in my hands, and I do something that’s probably stupid.

The shadows from the crystal disk floating in front of me becoming my revulsion shadows, and I fall through the world. I appear behind Gethin, and in a single movement, I slam the daggers into his skull. They pierce his brain, and the tips come out under his chin.

Still,he doesn’t slump to the ground. He whirls around, and again, his fingers wrap around my neck. His eyes have become deep crimson as they fill with blood, and while there’s madness in them, there’s just as much intelligence. My attack did nothing except open myself to him.

My hands go to the one around my neck, trying to pry it loose as he slowly squeezes, cutting off the oxygen to my brain. Seconds pass, and he doesn’t say a word. My world becomes darker, even with the burning brand only a few feet away from me. Colors fade into a world of gray as I struggle.

He lifts my body into the air, his fingers crushing my windpipe, until he’s staring at me eye to eye. My spear still extends from his stomach, and my daggers poke out from his chin, their hilts sticking from the top of his head. Revulsion shadows attempt to cut him to pieces. Nothing matters. His body simply disappears and reappears when the magical weapons are removed.

All I can do is stare at the man with twin daggers piercing his head. He should be dead. A hundred cuts and stabs should have killed him many times over, but he just keeps smiling as he looks at me through blood-filled eyes.

One of my shadows rips through his wrist, but he’s quick to swap hands. The Burning Brand falls against him as he does so, leaning against his side. “You’ve thought you played the part of the predator for a long time, little Queen. You murdered my soldiers with impunity. You stole my Crown and have doneeverything you could to keep me from my goals. You’ve never been the predator, though. You’ve been the vermin, and I’ve enjoyed playing our game, but it’s time to be done with it.”

The hand that he’d been holding me with before becomes a stone spear tip. Nothing Gethin’s done has been done with any speed, and this is no different. He could have stabbed me in the face, but instead, he inches that razor sharp tip toward my eye with agonizing slowness.

“No,” the word comes from behind him. Echo. It has to be her. I want to tell her to run, to shadow walk away from here, but I can’t. I can’t breathe, much less talk.

“I’ll be with you in a moment,” he says. “As soon as I’m done with this one, I’ll send you to the void as well.”

“No,” she says again, and a sound I’ve never heard before screeches through the room. For the first time since we came into the Throne Room, Gethin moves quickly. A tidal wave of shadows sweeps across the room, and I hear the sound of the void in it. An emptiness that even the Nothing can’t achieve. It’s so silent that it screams at you. I’ve been there hundreds of times now, and still it sends shivers down my spine.

Gethin drops me and raises the Burning Brand against the shadows. Light explodes from it so brightly that I have to shade my eyes as I gasp for air. Before I take even a single breath, the shadows beneath me become revulsion shadows, and I fall into the void.

Chapter 54

The House of Steel was created by the only dragon to win a fight with the Hunters. Sidon was always the fiercest warrior, and when provoked, there were none that could defeat him.

~Vyran the Black, A History of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

I was going to die. It didn’t matter what I did to Gethin; he was going to survive it. Was that how Roderic felt? I’d thought Rhion was powerful. I was wrong. Echo saved my life.

“Wow, he is gross!” Echo says as soon as we’re safely in the void. “Did you really stab him in the head, and he kept fighting?”

How in the name of Lysara are we supposed to kill Gethin? If he can burn through shadows and his body can heal from anything, what can we possibly do?

“I think we’re going to need to talk to Casimir and Brenna before we fight Gethin again. I don’t know if he’s killable.”

I can’t see Echo with my eyes, but I can sense that she’s frowning. “I think you’re right. But you need to claim your Throne. He can’t get to the Throne of Earth as fast as we can.”

“You’re right.” I take a deep breath and reach out to find the Keep of Earth. I know I need to hurry, but in the back of my mind, I can’t help but worry that no matter what we do, Gethin is going to be too powerful. For the first time since receiving the Painted Crown, I feel weak again, and that is not something I enjoy.

I reach out to the shadows I know should be in the Keep of Earth based on their location. Images of halls made of deep brown and floors of gorgeous greens flood my mind as my shadows explore a world that I’ve never seen before.

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