Page 100 of Fate and Flame
“We have to stop Kai, G.”
“I can’t fight him. He’s too strong.”
“Then you have to help Fen. I’ll worry about Kai.” I pulled a knife and threw it until it landed in Kai’s calf. I had no choice. It wouldn’t kill him. He would heal. But I had to pull his attention back to me.
He drew an arrow and shot.
I dodged it, but the wound in my thigh burned from the movement. I threw another knife, intentionally missing him, but it was enough that he stopped chasing my mate.
I pulled my sword once more and Kai came at me with a vengeance. The power of his sword crashed down on me so hard it took all my strength to block him. This was the warrior Fen had known him to be. Ruthless. He pulled the sword back and swung it so quickly forward, the fog on the ground moved with him.
Again, I blocked, but that familiar feeling of nostalgia threatened to overtake me.
The ground shook and Gaea screamed.
I couldn’t look behind me or I would die. There was a sheen of sweat on Kai’s forehead. Several times it looked as if he was trying to fight against the vysa’s control, but it didn’t matter. He still pressed on. He swung. I blocked. I advanced. He blocked. I could have made so many lethal blows. I could have killed him time and time again, but I was only meant to occupy him. To continue to be worn down by his strength. I heard Fen call and I couldn’t help but look. I couldn’t block the dread and anger. The beast had him pinned to the ground below his long, lanky fingers.
It’s time.
I shoved Kai away from me and ran. He chased, but Gaea blocked him, spiriting in from the side and shoving him to the ground. I got close to the vysa and steadied myself. Closing my eyes, I moved that wall deep within me, letting the power of eradication rain down on the vysa, on the forest, on me. I knew, unquestionably, the vysa was dead.
The suffocation moved in.
Fight it.
But I couldn’t. The darkness swept me up and slammed me to the ground. The guilt of such raw power drowning me. I couldn’t see, but I could guess I had leveled all or most of that forest. That forest was the last place that held memories of my parents, and I had destroyed it.
“Murderer.” My mother’s voice caressed my mind.
Perhaps it was my magic creeping to life to remind me of the darkness within me. Tolero’s face flashed before me. I watched as his final smile became serpentine and he said, “Kill them all.”
I pushed on the magic but the pressure crushed me into the hallowed ground.
FIGHT IT, ARA.
He was there, I could feel him reaching for me, heaving the bond. But what could I be to a king, really? What could I offer him when the only thing that followed me was death? When I was the true executioner of the world? I was the one who needed to be locked behind a door. They didn’t know. None of them knew how badly the magic begged me to end them all. None of them knew they still walked in this world because of my stubborn will.
“Slaughter,” Morwena’s voice rattled my brain.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. The cost of using that archaic, undiluted magic had been a piece of our shared soul. But it was also this. And though I fought it, I succumbed to the darkness just as I heard the world-shattering wail of the final creature and realized it had been here the entire time.
A secrer. A leech. It conjured and fed off my memories. My misery had been a magnet. It was already jumbling my mind, sending me thoughts of my family even before I killed the vysa. And as my mind began to splinter, I surrendered to the pull. They were on their own.
I drifted through a vast emptiness of despair. This was comfort. This was safe and calm. This place, whatever it was, was vacant. Void of emotion. I lingered in that space. I needed to be somewhere else though. Someone needed me.
My mind was stronger than this. I couldn’t be here. Someone could die. Someone I loved could die. I pushed up and up until I heard the scream of a female I thought I knew. Her cry was familiar. And then I remembered. I began frantically digging within the tendrils of my subconscious for reality.
The tiny flame from within me flickered, lighting the darkness as I clawed my way out of it.
The weight on my chest lifted, the cloud through my mind still thick as I heard Fenlas shouting Kai’s name. I felt his instant desperation. Again, I heard Gaea scream. Only this time, it seemed to stop the world, bringing with it absolute mental clarity. I used that as an anchor to pull myself out of my own self destruction.
Before I could open my eyes, before I could even move, a shock wave ripped through me. My ears rang, my body shook uncontrollably. My heart stopped. The breath was stolen from my lungs. The bond, that single connection to Fen, was gone.
I jerked upright and opened my eyes. Kai was on a knee gasping for breath as he looked down at the fallen body of the final creature. He had killed it. Behind me, I heard Gaea sobbing. My stomach lurched. I didn’t want to look. I knew with every part of my soul what I would see. Still, I turned.
Fenlas, King of the Flame Court, my best friend, my mate, laid still upon the scorched ground. I crawled on my hands and knees to him, dragging my splintered heart with me. I wiped my soiled fingers on my clothes before I touched his beautiful face, but they wouldn’t come clean. My heart beat so loud, I knew it was trying to wake him. His eyes were closed. He did not breathe. Did not pull for me. I felt only the softest, most faint whisper of his presence within me. That single flame began to flicker, and I knew he would die. I think I heard the actual sound as my heart cracked. I tried to swallow the jagged lump in my throat. I tried to force back the tears, the ringing in my ears.
“Take him,” I begged Gaea. “You have to take him to Temir.”
