Then a taunting whisper tickled my ear.
“Little fool. So eager to see something good in me, to deceive yourself into thinking my Darkness will not devour you. We both know these are nothing more than pretty lies—that the moment you glimpsed my true self, you turned away from me.”
The adamantine shields keeping me out wavered, allowing me to sense some of the hurt and disappointment raging within him. Because he thought I had given up on him when he had begun to use the power of Chaos, that I was repulsed by his true nature. That I had judged him like the rest of our brethren.
“I am not afraid of your Darkness,” I whispered, his crushing anger making it difficult to draw breath.
“Liar!”
The power around me swelled in fury, the shadows coiling around me tightening, forcing my head back. Images rushed into my mind—every moment I had turned away from him, every doubt he had sensed in me.
“No.”I struggled to speak aloud against the onslaught, using my mind-voice instead.“I was never afraid of you. Only afraidforyou.”
“But you should be afraid.” The shadows gentled their touch, teasing over my skin. I knew the danger was not over yet, though; theDarkness was still oppressive, allowing in not the faintest flicker of light. “Part of me is so tempted, little queen. To take all that you offer so recklessly, to break you open and devour your power until nothing is left of you. Until all of it ismine.”
His hunger roared through me, and I gasped.
“Imagine what I could do with the Flame,” he continued. “Imagine what I could be. The most powerful of all the Aurea. More powerful even than the Allfather.”
His mind slid against mine, his shadows, his entire presence surrounding me until I could feel nothing else. A terrible, dark force burning with insatiable desire, endless ambition, and furious rage.
“Do you understand now? Do you see what a monster I have become, what a monster I have always been?” he asked. And there, hidden deep within both Chaos and Darkness, I finally sensed a shimmer of true Light. Evil would not yearn for acceptance; it would not crave love.
To some he might be a horror, a monster capable of the most devastating destruction. But so was I. And I only saw him. Iknewhim.
“No judgment between us,” I offered, allowing a single spark of my Light to escape, illuminating the shadows but not penetrating them, an eternal dance that never ceased. My hand reached out, parting the Darkness. “Come back to me, Belekoroz.”
For a long, indecisive moment, the Darkness held its breath. Then it collapsed. Retracted into a swirling spiral of shadows that slowly solidified into a familiar form.
His eyes were the first thing I could make out, still burning with that untethered power. His body followed, all pale, naked skin, gleaming with an inner fire, its powerful lines tense. Belekoroz stared down at me, the two of us still floating in the shadows twisting around us, his expression hovering between aching hopefulness and disbelievingamusement. Slowly the flames in his eyes quieted, as if he was bringing the power under control bit by bit.
“You will never cease to surprise me, will you, Baradaz?” he murmured, his lips tilting up in a hint of a smile that pierced through me with unrelenting force. I had not lost him. I had not lost him yet. “No judgment between us,” he said, his hand reaching for mine.
The moment we touched, we fell. His body crashed into mine as the Darkness dissolved, and only a swift surge of my power prevented our impact with the ground.
Belekoroz collapsed immediately, his weight so heavy he nearly pulled me down with him. I kept a firm grasp on his arms and helped him lie down on the grass beneath us. His fingers found my cheek, leaving an icy trail on my skin. The smile he gave me was a little lopsided, his lashes fluttering. “Oh,saeraery,” he breathed out. “Brightest among all the stars in the sky.”
Saeraery, blood of my heart, my love. My mind barely had time to register the Aurean endearment before his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell unconscious.
“Baradaz, what happened?” Quick footsteps behind me, and then the king knelt beside me. Aramaz’s blue eyes met mine, his brow knitted in deep worry. “Is he alright?” His gaze flicked over me. “Are you alright?”
“I guess I am,” I answered slowly, looking around us. The same devastation we had left behind greeted me: the once green hills above Lyrheim now a ragged landscape of mud, rocks, and broken trees; the remains of the Kritak an ominous reminder of what had happened. At least the battle had ceased, and no more of the creatures lurked around.
Stark relief coursed through me as I recognized Ashur and Namtaz in the distance, the Healer leaning against her fellow Aurea of Water.They must have been able to escape the mudslide and were now approaching Enlial, who was still guarding Khiraz, surely to heal her.
I frowned as I stared into the sky, deceptively blue and cloudless once more. “The tear in the Veil…”
“Closed the moment you stepped into the Darkness,” Aramaz answered.
My eyes snapped to him at the words, at what they meant. Belekoroz was the only one who could have closed that gate.
The king motioned at his brother. “Do you know what ails him?”
I touched my fingers to Belekoroz’s neck, catching the steady thrum of his pulse, the faint hum of magic coursing through him. “Just exhaustion. We should take him somewhere quiet where he can rest.”
Aramaz nodded. “We should bring him to our hall. The buildings in the center of the city have sustained the least damage.”
It was Sha’am who helped the king carry his brother into the hall, amid a lot of grumbling and complaints, of course. I ignored his comments, barely sparing Tanez a swift embrace when she rushed to me as we passed the edges of the battlefield. She and M’tar were gathering the uninjured Anima to help with the wounded and coordinate the cleanup.
