His face clouded with disbelief as he braced himself on the wall of the tunnel beside him. “Why would Darya bewitch me?”
“Because she doesn’t love you. She never has. Her one and only goal here has been to serve Haldron.”
“Stop this!” Darya whirled to face me. “What did you do?”
I held my breath, my gut churning.
Darya turned back toward Seth, sending another bewitching spell over him. “Tie her up, Seth. We’ll take her to Haldron and see what he does to her.”
If she hadn’t turned her back to Seth, she might not have seen it, but I did.
The flicker in Seth’s face. The lack of the yellow glow in his pupils.
Her spell hadn’t worked.
Seth rolled his shoulders, straightening, his eyes clearing. He flexed his grip around his sword. He turned to Darya, voice cold. “You’ve been using me this whole time, haven’t you?”
Seth took two steps toward us, then spun, swinging his fist against Darya’s face. A bright spurt of blood erupted from her nose as she screamed, drawing back.
“Seren, run!” Seth cried out as Darya plunged the sword into his shoulder.
She was going to kill him.
He rasped a breath and stood as Darya approached. She held Rykr’s sword in her hands, her face burning with fury, blood streaked from her nostrils to her ear where she’d wiped it back.
Seth unsheathed his own sword.
“Seth, no!” I screamed as he lunged toward Darya.
Their swords clashed with a sharp, metallic crash. Seth was a stronger fighter. A better one.
One of the best in the Vangar.
But Darya had Rykr’s sword.
That’s why Rykr had refused to fight Seth.
No matter how quickly Seth lunged, Darya seemed to move with a speed and ability that I’d never witnessed in her before. Seth feinted left, swinging with brutal force, only for Darya to pivot, impossibly fast. She wasn’t just dodging, she was moving like something more than human, her body unnaturally fluid, her strikes too perfect.
“No, Seth!” I released Esme, then ran straight toward them.
Seth’s eyes locked with mine. “Seren …” he whispered.
A sob left me, an inexplicable pain enclosing around my heart.
I had to end this.
For Rykr.
For my family.
For my terrified people. Even if they’d never accept me again.
I steeled myself to calm, this time reaching for what remained of my own power. As the iciness drifted through my fingertips, I thought of how Rykr had started that fire with his hands.
He was fire.
I am ice.
