The brightest of lights beamed from within me, blinding those near and singeing the skin of those too close to the blast. I collected the starlight from the heavens, soaking it into my soul and displaying it in a rare, raw form of magic.
The hands that held me down went slack, melted away into piles of ash and starlight. Men went aerial as my eruption of cosmic energy was too much for their bodies to withstand. I heard their corpses crack as they hit the ground, but I still aimed my magic at them just to make sure they were truly done for. I burned every single one of those motherfuckers with the galaxies that flooded me. They completely dissipated, melting away into nothing, and I didn't stop until I destroyed every last one of them.
I expected myself to feel weak, but I didn't falter. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but my body stayed steady as I strode towards Beaumont, who looked utterly horrified. I came to ahalt in front of him, staring mercilessly for a second as I tried to comprehend what the hell I just did to those men.
Blythe was not joking about the power she granted me. Even the gods' damn stars were at my mercy.
I wasunstoppable.
Cyprian's teeth visibly chattered. I held a twinkling finger to my mouth, shushing him. Then, I told him the same sentence that I told King Hawthorne not even one day prior. “You. Don't. Control. Me,” I spat in his face, throwing a small taste of my power at him with each word, leaving small, white burns on his skin.
He shook aggressively in response.
“Scared?” I taunted.
“More likein aweof the pure power you carry within you. Power that will soon be mine, so I am far from scared, Maeve,” he snarled back.
“A shame.” I grinned and stepped back, preparing to summon more of my magic. “Because you should be.”
I would ruin him.
My hands splayed out before me, starlight dripping from my fingertips into piles of heated, luminous light on the cobblestone. I made sure to keep my eyes wide—I wanted to watch as he ceased to exist.
For some unknown reason, I hesitated. And he noticed, his frown reconfiguring into a smirk. “Having second thoughts?” he mocked, pointing his sword at me in defense. “You can still come with me willingly. I'll allow it even though you lied to me about your intentions.”
“No. Just trying to figure out the most painful way to kill you,” I lied, because that was not it. I didn't know what was holding me back—maybe the shock setting in over the new use of my gift.
I needed to hurry up and finish this so that I could get to the tunnel. My mind flashed to Sebastian and my friends…Kohen. I sent a quick prayer to the gods for him, then directedmy attention back on Beaumont, whose body had relaxed in response to my hesitation.
I tapped back into my powers, feeling the crackling of my magic coursing through my veins. With the force of the cosmos in my clutch, I was about to relinquish my power when I was stopped by a deafening noise.
My head turned towards the castle just in time to see the rest of it cracking and crumbling as it collapsed. The ground quaked as bricks and stones fell with such force that it threatened to take me down with it.
My feet failed me as the pressure of the falling fortress knocked me down. I was bombarded by piles of rubble and a fierce cloud of dust which clogged my airway with each breath I took.
The remaining seven statues fell with the wreckage that cascaded into the courtyard, making its way towards me in a rock and dust avalanche. I glanced around desperately for an exit route, but noticed instead that Beaumont was gone.
After every near death experience I’d survived, this was how I would die—by blunt force trauma. I chuckled in despair. What were the odds?
“What happened to ‘you will not be the one who dies today’?” I yelled up at the goddess who no longer existed.
I jumped away from broken rocks that landed in front of my feet, then everything else happened so fast. Before I could run from the tumbling turmoil, my surroundings faded to black and the air in my lungs was entirely replaced with dust.
My lethargic shellof a body was pulled from the rubble, twisted and mangled. My eyes wouldn't open to see, but the pain made it obvious that I was covered in bruises, scrapes, and gashes. Probably internal injuries that were even worse.
My abdomen throbbed an unbearable ache that made me want to shriek, but I couldn't cry out. My mouth was stuffed with dirt and dust, like a taxidermy pet.
I coughed out an esophagus of rubble, my throat hoarse and dry as the darkness surrounding me peeled away and bright light sank in through my eyelids.
My body dangled limply in someone's arms. Their heavy footsteps crunched the stone beneath us as they carried me off. I hoped it was Sebastian that held me, but the odds were slim. He should have been in the passageway under the castle by now with the others. I prayed that they made it in time.
It could be Beaumont who held me, but I lost sight of him before the castle finished falling. He either made it out, or the wreckage had swallowed him as well.
A muffled, gruff voice rumbled through my ears. I was unable to make out the words, and feared that the pressure from the stone that crushed me had busted my eardrums.
Coughing a few more breaths of dirt and dust, I cleared my airway. Upon another attempt at opening my eyes, I found a layer of filth affecting my vision. Blinking them slowly, my eyes watered to wash it away with each open and close, then stayed open to adjust to the obnoxious daylight.
My surroundings were unrecognizable. Vibrant and green—a large shift from what I saw last time my eyes were open. We were in the forest. How we got there so quickly, I did not understand.
