Page 202 of What Blooms from Death

It wouldn’t be enough.

Iwasn’t enough.

My attempts to change the fate of my world felt pathetic in the face of his power, in the wake of all the destruction surrounding me.

I tasted blood on my lips. I smelled it in the air, along with the tang of magic. So much chaotic, ruinous magic. Mine, or his—it didn’t seem to matter. We were intertwined, and so our fates seemed to be equally tangled, a knot that only grew tighter when I tried to pull it loose.

And if anyone could have stopped him, it should have been me.

When I laid my head against the cold stone and closed my eyes, trying to make the throbbing in it go away, he was there. A splinter beneath my skin that I couldn’t ignore. I sensed him moving back across the room. Getting closer to the Noctaris orb, I suspected. No—Iknew, somehow. As if that orb was his current, all-consuming thought, and I had no choice but to be aware of it through our connection.

He was going to destroy it if I didn’t make myselfmove. If I didn’t somehow take back the sword he’d ripped from my hands and the very breath he’d ripped from my lungs.

Tears squeezed from my eyes as I shifted onto my side and tried to lift my head, searching for something, anything that I could use. Every tiny twitch of my muscles was agony, but I kept searching. And searching, and searching for…

Nothing.

There was nothing here to save me.

Nothing except my knife, which had fallen from my hand when I’d struck the door. It lay on a piece of the broken door, shining in the faint bit of light trickling in from outside.

I took a deep breath. Gritting my teeth, I crawled to the knife, taking it in my trembling fingers. Then I held up my wrist, sliding the blade between my skin and the beaded turquoise bracelet.

It no longer felt like enough to merely take that bracelet off.

With a swift jerk, I severed the cord holding it together. I gave my wrist a shake, sending the beads scattering. Every one that bounced across the floor seemed to coincide with another thundering beat of my heart, and then…

Withshadows.

Another shadow exploding for every beat and breath, until I was surrounded by them—that protective shield I’d been trying and failing to summon earlier. I kneeled within it for a moment, gathering my strength.

A cool breeze brushed the hair from my bloodied, sweat-streaked face.

Lifting my head, I caught a glimpse of Calista standing above me. She was there only for a moment, just long enough to offer her hand and pull me to my feet. Then she was gone.

I stood alone in front of the broken door, my shadows blocking out the day.

No—not alone.

Aleksander was on his feet as well, standing on the opposite side of the room. Light surrounded him, steady and pulsing, revealing his figure even through the chaos. His light was different than Lorien’s. Warmer, more golden.

The light of a sun rising, reminding me that we were not finished.

He still held Luminor. Somehow, he was still holding on. His eyes were still seeking mine, and as they found me, I thought of his voice, a whisper between the nightmares, within the cold, dark waves—I’ve got you.

I ripped the rest of the bracelets from my wrist, letting them fall to the ground behind me. With every one that dropped away, I felt another surge of my power rising. Each one slightly different than the last. More dangerous than the one before it. And every one hovering just barely within my control.

But I only had one target left.

And I was in control enough to strike it.

Whatever it took, I was going to going to strike it.

I took those shadows shielding me and used them to hit the doors behind me first, tearing a wider opening. As the sectionof stone and wood crumbled away, the hovering haze of violent energies in the room was sucked toward the open air, leaving a clearer battlefield before me.

And I spotted Lorien precisely where I’d expected him to be: Preparing to strike the Noctaris orb. He paused as the light and magical remnants around him shifted, looking toward the opening I’d made.

His eyes narrowed as he lowered them to me.

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