Page 76 of Crown of Wrath

Cole keeps pace and the circle of soldiers that lie dead at his feet is no smaller than the circle around Casimir. The smile on his face is one of both pride and joy, the two emotions that he has to maintain to use his powers.

It only takes a few minutes of this death dance before the soldiers organize. The first crossbow bolt fires at Cole, and a blue sapphire plate appears in the air in its trajectory. It shatters as the bolt hits it, but the bolt’s momentum doesn’t even carry it another five feet.

An inferno roars to life in a circle around the two males, rising so high into the air that no one could see through it, myself included. You’d have to step within that circle of death to see well enough to fight or aim, and a moment of hesitation runs through the army.

No one has bothered to do anything about me, and as the soldiers surround the flames in preparation to charge into them, I create a bit of a distraction. Boulders made of obsidian the size of carriages fall from dozens of feet in the air throughout the crowd, each of them crushing the people underneath them and exploding outward, sending shards of black stone into the masses. Most of it glances off the armor, but some of it finds gaps. Others hit hard enough to cut into the thin steel.

Screams erupt as everyone tries to get out of the way. More boulders fall, and for the first time since I fought the Nothing, I feel a true drain on my powers, but I keep dropping those boulders. Each one kills four to five people at a time and injures a dozen more. It only takes a few moments before the crossbows I was trying to protect Cole and Casimir from are aimed at me.

Their bolts hit gemstone plates and harmlessly fall to the ground, but then they rush me. A tower of stone grows underneath me, lifting me into the air, and I continue to drop rocks on the few groups of soldiers that are still close together. Now, instead of just paying attention to Cole and Casimir, they try to distance themselves from each other and continue to look up.

Cole and Casimir must have gotten bored because they explode out from the circle of fire. They land in the chaos and fight with swords as they had before, except now, they only land for a few moments before leaping to the next group of soldiers.

This is what happens when two truly powerful warriors work together. When Cole and I had fought together, we’d fought separately. Cole and Casimir move as if they’d trained alongside each other their entire lives, and I know that can’t be true. Cole didn’t even think Casimir could compete with him in swordplay.

Casimir has watched Cole fight for centuries. He knows his son’s abilities and fighting style better than anyone; maybe even better than Cole knows himself.

They don’t speak as they bounce across the battlefield, not needing protection from crossbows because they don’t stay long enough to be fired upon. Each time the soldiers try to organize, Cole and Casimir interrupt them, ruining whatever they were planning. For several minutes, it’s almost like the entire army is frozen in confusion as they wait their turn to die.

And then a cry rings out that I’d never expected to hear.The Nothing. It goes from one soldier to the next, each of them shouting it as loudly as they can, andthenthey move. Finally, after dozens of them have died, they have a purpose and a procedure. The entire body of the army swings as I scan the area for the mist that I know so well.

And when I see it, I realize just how much trouble we’re in. It’s surrounded us. Somehow, it knew that we’d be here to fight thisarmy. It used these five hundred soldiers as bait for us. The army moves into a circle, pushing back against Cole and Casimir, but they don’t attack as the Nothing moves with frightening speed toward us.

It's coming for him. It's coming for Cole. Deep down, it knows the ones I care for most, and it does everything it can to take them away from me. First Hazel, then Da, and now Cole. The terrible thoughts wedge their way into my mind as I confront the thing that shattered me for the first time since I woke up. I shake my head.No. It will not take Cole. It cannot hurt me anymore than it already has. These are fears based on old scars, not reality.

I reach out for the bond between Cole and me and remind myself that he’s here, and he won’t allow it to take him. I can feel him mentally preparing himself for his new enemy, and it reassures me. We are not helpless. We fought the Nothing for months, and it could never touch us. We will survive this trap.

Each one of those soldiers sprouts wings and takes to the sky. They won’t move toward Stormhaven. Not after we’ve already decimated their ranks, and the Nothing is here. They’ll retreat for now. Our job is done, and it’s time to get out of here.

We do not want to fight the Nothing. Already, because of how close we are to it, I can feel my power being siphoned off. It’s not enough to affect me yet, but even with Casimir here, we can’t beat something that can simply outlast us.

“Shadow walk or fly?” Cole asks as I move to him.

“Shadow walk,” I say, certainty in my voice. “You can’t carry both me and your father.”

He glances at Casimir and nods to me. If it were for a short distance, I’m sure that he could carry us both, but we both know that the likelihood of it being a short distance is slim. The Nothing has proven to be clever with its traps.

I put my hands out, and Cole and Casimir each grip one. I stare at the white mist as it moves toward us. Closer and closer, it moves. Like the steady ebb of time, it feels as though nothing can truly stop it. This was my greatest enemy for months.

This shattered me.

It has taken more people from me than I can count.

It is evil.

I won’t fight it right now, though. Even if the anger inside me is desperate for release, I will focus on what matters most. There are more important things happening than destroying the Nothing. “One day,” I growl at the mist. “One day, I’m going to bring an army with me, and we’re going to destroy you. We’re going to cut back the mists faster than you can regenerate. One day, I will have justice for the ones that were lost.”

There’s not an answer, but why would I have expected there to be? Shadows spread out at our feet, and then I try to turn them into revulsion shadows as I have so many times in the past.

But they won’t. They fade. Not just those, either. Every shadow in the area fades. It’s like when my Da was taken, and I couldn’t shadow walk to him. The Nothing controlled the shadows and kept me from them.

I don’t understand how. I’m the Queen of Nyth. I wear the Painted Crown. No one should be stronger than me, and nothing should be able to wrest control of shadows from me as I did to Cole when he wore the Shadowed Cloak.

“What’s happening?” Cole asks, recognizing my hesitation as a problem. He glances around and without me saying anything, a look of horror fills his face. “It can control the shadows?”

I nod to him, and for the first time since I learned to control my powers, fear wedges its way into my mind. Cole can’t fly with me and Casimir. If I can’t shadow walk out of here, then he’s going to have to carry me first and then come back to pick up Casimir. It could be hours before he gets back to pick up hisfather. Maybe he could survive that long. Fire is good against the Nothing, and from what I’ve seen, Casimir has no problem fighting.

My mind whirs as I try to figure out a plan. I could create a pillar for Casimir to stand on. The Nothing would eventually climb it, but it would take time. But then Casimir would be trapped with far less room to maneuver.

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