The lethal blast rebounded off a protective veil around the banquet tablesI’d failed to see. The next second I was airborne, struck by my own magick. Just as fast, I slammed into the back wall; the world around me started to fade.
I clung to every fiber of consciousness, which kept trying to slip away because of the impact to my head, which turned hot. People were screaming. Crying. I had to get up. I had to help them.
I had enough determination to give my bones strength, and I pushed myself up, leaning with a hand on the wall for balance. With what I saw, I wished I were unconscious. That this was a vicious nightmare. There was so much blood all in one place, spilling out of the bodies that piled on top of each other, their flesh slashed in various places. The final scream was cut off, and the ten guards with their white cloaks splattered in blood were all that stood between the banquet tables now.
He’d killed them all.
Every last performer.
I pushed off the wall, staggering toward them. My eyes met the glassy blue of Silvia’s, who’d fallen, still holding Trevor’s hand.
“What have you done?” I whispered.
“I don’t give second chances to traitors,” Vermont said, not a shred of regret or remorse.
Most of the others in attendance at his feast had stood, backing themselves to the wall and hugging each other. As if they had anything to be fearful off… as if they were the victims.
All I saw next was light. All I felt wasdeath.
My black wings shot out as the power of Lightsdeath blasted from me, shattering the veil that protected all those in robes of white and gold. Their bodies became glowing forms of light to me now, revealing the many shades of dark souls I was starving to reap.
I mourned for the innocent lives taken so senselessly.
It was my fault they were killed.
No,Lightsdeath snarled. My sight targeted the darkest soul in the room.It’s his.
My power sharpened with wrath and grief.
The dark soul tried to retreat, but it was too slow, and I slammed the door behind him shut before he could slip through it.
“You’ve lived too long, Vermont,” I said icily.
His face clarified the more I balanced Lightsdeath with my rational mind. Feeling his soul… it was far too old and tainted for the body he had.
“Thanks to you,” he said, fearful of me, but still he retained a seed of superiority.
I understood then. “Goldfell had been selling you my blood to heal you andprolong your life, long before you knew what it was. Then you discovered you could try to buy the source.”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
Disgust roiled in me. “What has sustained you has come to end you.”
I hissed at the sting clamping suddenly around my wrist. My palm slammed to the chest of the guard who’d snuck up behind me to fit the shackle, and his wail burned out in the light that set him on fire.
Glaring at the manacle laced with nebulora, I watched it turn to stardust. The more my rage was provoked, the more I slipped away, close to becoming an unfeeling entity that could melt this golden palace to the ground.
Nyte.I was too bright, and I needed him to balance me in the dark.
My soul called for his.
“You are not a villain, Astraea,” Vermont taunted. Lightsdeath clawed my mind, threatening to fully unleash and prove to him I could became a nightmare incarnate to anyone capable of spilling innocent blood.
I sensed his movement before he could lunge forward with the vial of silver liquid he braced with. Starlight Matter.
Though it wasn’t me who stopped him.
Nyte arrived as a stroke of darkness through my senses.
