Page 141 of The Songs of Fate (War of Fate)

Hundreds of Raiders spilled from the black void, creating a wall of impenetrable night, sweeping toward us.

No.

I paused as panic built inside me. I had to stop them from coming… I needed to destroy their dark aether portal.

I knew it normally took many Valkyries, and legions of Einherjar to have the energy to close it.

I pulsed through the connection. “I need to get to the void. If I can destroy it, they can’t keep coming through it.”

I felt Ales’ hesitation. “No. It could draw you in and take you directly to the Keres. It takes centuries to know how to do it correctly.”

Logan’s warmth tangled into me. “You believe you can do it?”

“Yes.”

Logan sliced past five Raiders. “Good enough for me.”

Ales pushed forward with Logan. “Take our strength if it’s too much. Don’t hesitate. Do it. From all of us.”

If I could take energy, from Ales, from others, then couldn’t the darkness take as well as kill? I wasn’t sure what the obscurity was made from, but it felt like fear. Like pain and suffering amplified into a visible, tangible, void. Valkyries usually spread the weight of absorbing dark aether amongst them to lessen the blow, but that wasn’t an option. I would take it all myself, and hope it didn’t consume me, or worse, draw me into the aether before I could destroy it.

Ales and Logan responded by bounding forward, slicing through the Raiders. As they surged, I moved to cut a path directly for it. I forced myself toward it—hacking, clawing, and slashing my way closer.

The Raiders seemed to close in on me, leaving the other Einherjar behind.

They know what I’m trying to do.

With each kill, I came one breath closer to the emptiness that consumed the coastline. The void was sucking me, pulling me, into its darkness. It pulsed with death, and it wanted me. It wanted to consumeme.

It needed to be destroyed.

I looked into the night that covered the shore. It was the truest darkness I had ever seen. No light penetrated its shadows.

As I neared the edge of the void, I let it fill me with its emptiness. It tasted like asphalt and hate, so bitter I gagged, stumbling backward. It was the only way to destroy it. I had to take the void, the darkness into me. I opened myself up to it and let it fill me.

I began to slip beneath the pain and the shadows…

No!

The power inside me pulsed to the surface. This thing would not consume me. It was complete darkness, but I was light. I was the lightning in the sky, the waves in the ocean, the rain falling from the heavens…

… and I was unrelenting.

I took the darkness, the void, and changed it with my aether, the colors, churning inside me. I changed it with the visions of the lightning I made when Ales touched me. I changed it with the warmth from Logan’s kiss. I changed it with the love I had for the Einherjar who fought beside me–theunbound. I changed it with the passion I craved for the life I had yet to live. I changed it with the colors and flavors of the aether that was in every part of me, and I didn’t stop.

My power was unyielding. I found every crevice, every corner of darkness, and overflowed it with all that I was. I needed to take every last bit from the void.

The Raiders clustered closer. Logan and Ales wouldn’t be able to hold them much longer. I felt their struggle. They were exhausted, but holding them off the best they could.

Teeth sank deep into the muscle high on my arm, sending venom into my body.

I faltered. The poison ate at my light. It hurt to breathe as I took more of the black aether of the void into my mind while it stemmed into my blood.

“Elskan min, please, drop the shields. You need that aether.” Ales threw the Raider off me, then put his back to my right shoulder.

“Do whatever you need to finish this. I don’t care about the rules… we don’t need to be bound to you. Also, I’m going to throttle you for lying to me when this is over, Charlie.” Logan positioned his body closer to my left side.

I wanted to laugh, but it hurt too much. Logan was trying to distract me from the pain. Both were using their bodies to keep the Raiders’ claws and teeth from penetrating my skin.

---