Page 145 of The Princesses of Ruin
He grits his teeth, baring them in a snarl that hides his tears. “I love you eternal.”
I swallow my anguish and lean over the Wall, plummeting toward the monster. I need not swords or shields any longer. My body is a living weapon.
My fist hits its face with a thunderous crack. The beast splits in two, spilling bodies and blood across the houses and stones. I hover above it all, watching as Ashai cobbles herself back together.
I stretch out my hands and feel the power running through the villainous ichor. It comes to me easily, lighting up the runes she carved into me. Her magic glitters through my veins and I breathe her in.
I am Vessel.
And she is mine.
“You can’t consume me,” Ashai roars all around me and in my head. “Imadeyou!”
“And I amunmakingyou.”
I bear down on her with my will. Each stream of dark magic flowing into my fingertips is a deep sickness that wars with the other magics in my body. So I release them. I wrap gold around her consciousness and squeeze until she can’t think. I wrap her body ingreen until she can’t move. Blue rips across her skin and turns her to ash.
She shrieks, writhing like a worm in the rain.
“There is no escape. You made me for this,” I say, pulling on her deeply and filling myself with darkness. "To kill gods."
Her arm slices through the air and a shockwave of power follows. I dodge, releasing my control on her for just a fraction. Her attack cuts my leg, and though I’m as deified as the others, I’m still killable—just like she is.
I hold my wounded thigh and rush toward her, my other hand outstretched. I slam into her, hand clutching her throat. She struggles, tearing at the skin on my arm with her nails. Her eyes bulge as she looks up into my face and sees her future.
Her death.
I sense the magic left inside her and pull harder. She is a goddess after all, and there is much to consume.
Ashai releases my hands and bends reality, folding us high into the air above the city. We plummet, my stomach inverting. She thinks I’ll blink. I wrap my legs around her hips and put both hands on her throat. My thumbs skate over her pulse point—she does have a beating heart.
I sit astride her as we fall through freezing air, pulling harder until she’s surrendering to me. The black blood pumping through her gives way to even more strength. I siphon everything that she has, turning her body into a quiet, desiccated husk.
I land, the ground exploding away from me.
Bliss thrums through my body. I roll my head around my neck as I stand, feeling the body as it grows to fit all of me. My hands flex and joints pop. Smoky air fills my nostrils and saturates my being with the scent of battle.
So much strife.
So much perseverance.
All because Zephrom told us to. All because the goddess who hates us wanted to see us suffer and fail. She wanted to come here in the darkest hour to be the savior, to curry our favor, to gain our prayers. She wanted our souls…
I was never the vessel of the gods. I was the vessel of our will. Of our rage. Of our hope.
Now, I will be the vessel of vengeance.
Chapter fifty-one
Reina
Dust from their impact fills the air. We all hold our breaths. Who will emerge victorious? How had they ascended so quickly? Answers mortals can’t know.
Then I feel her—or rather I feel myself. My magic moves inside her.
I close my eyes, forsaking my vision as I just let myself feel. Her body is a battlefield of its own, full of magic all going to war. She’s converting and consuming the darkness at a terrifying rate, but it’s not all cleansed. It’s not becoming part of her.
It’s overtaking her.
