Nyte pushed me, somehow twisting around me before more arrows stuck him. I caught him as he fell back this time. Not as many reached him from the second fired round, but another two pierced the right side of his chest and I screamed.
I erupted.
It wasn’t just my terror and agony that tore from my throat. It expelled from me in unending waves of power.
Silver flames drowned the world.
They did not burn, not yet, but through the flickering fire glittering like starlight, fear masked the faces of everyone those flames touched.
Silver flame licked up every wall and torched every path. A sphere of energy grew overhead, trapping the world under my rain of furious starlight.
If Nyte died here, this world would feel my grief.
“Don’t burn this realm for me, Starlight,” Nyte whispered.
“I’m certain you would do worse, so you don’t get to scold me for it,” I croaked.
His smile was pained as he reached for an arrow and didn’t hesitate to pull it free.
“I’m completely villainous, but that’s one part of me you’re not allowed to become.”
“They have my blood on them,” I said in panic, wincing as I gripped one in his shoulder and ripped it free when there was no time to be gentle.
“I know. I can feel it.”
“I’m—”
“Don’t say you’re sorry. Make that bastard scream his apologies at your mercy.”
“I don’t have his name.”
Nyte panted. He blinked a few times, gathering strength.
“I’ll find it,” he promised. “We’re ending this together.”
I wanted to sob and find another way, but Dusk was storming through my fires toward us. I saw nothing but blind rage as Nyte steadied himself on his knees and I rose, gripping the key.
I gave myself over to Lightsdeath.
The unparalleled power of it. The rage and smoke and flame of it. I spun with the key as if it were a dance. Dusk turned into the wind around me, able to disappear and reappear, trying to disorient me with the goal of disarming me of the only weapon that could kill him.
And the weapon he needed tobecomeme.
I was spellbound to track only him, losing sight and sense of anything else. I whirled again, but he’d managed to grip the key this time as I swiped vertically and I stared face to face with the jarring mask of Aquilo.
“Give up,” he snarled.
“Never.”
He was strong. We struggled until both our hands wrapped the key staff and he managed to flip me with it. My back slammed to the stone. Agony shot up my spine, seizing my body tightly for dire seconds, which slackened my grip on the key. He yanked it from me and I panted hard.
Dusk handed off the key to Notus, who stepped through the silver flames to us.
My eyes widened when he lunged for me with the key staff. I rolled and it slammed to the ground where my chest had been with a vibrating surge of power.
I scrambled to my feet, facing off with the High Celestial.
“Using the key will kill you,” I warned, though he knew that.
