He swings in a vicious attack and takes one of the Usher’s arms in the arc.
The Usher wasn’t expecting the assault, and lets out an anguished squeal, but in the same moment, turns his magic on Kalan, blasting him directly in the chest with whatever he had intended to hit Ever with.
Kalan drops to the ground, just as I skid to a halt in the cloud of darkness. Ever is in there, and I have to get to her.
Blackness, thick and cloying, surrounds us as I reach forward. Sweeping my arm out against the heavy air, I can already feel the threat that encompasses us, and it sends panic and adrenaline through me.
“Ever!” I call again.
I feel my way with my hands until I can cradle her head, gentle but urgent with my movements. Her arms are at her sides, no longer touching the stone.
Touch.
She needs it. She needs to know I’m here.
But I’m hit with a violence and anger that knocks me back on my heels and sends the shields I’d built around my mind to rubble.
Pain. Anguish. So much. So vast. Thick and deep and with no hope.
It’s a paralysing feeling, like all the light in the world has just been stuffed out and everything around us might turn to dust.
But Ever is in here in this despair. She is bearing this. Alone.
She needs to know that she will never be alone. And that this, whatever we’re feeling now, isn’t our future.
So, I grip her tighter. Harder. Moving around her and resting my forehead against hers.
I scream her name and hold onto every single memory we’ve shared. Our first touch, our first kiss. Defending her. Loving her.
“Don’t let it win, Ever. Whatever this is, don’t let it win.”
forty-four
. . .
Ever
Chaos. Pain. Anger.
An anger so scalding, all I want to do is run and hide.
I don’t know where I am, but it’s not Kirrasia. Or anywhere else.
It’s as if I am lost—to time and space and everything in between.
But there is a war being fought within me. A rush of heat, the golden strands of power I recognise as Novandia, thick and growing, but in the next breath their light dims, easily washed away by a torrent of water, cool and calm, a white glow as if touched by moon and starlight.
She extinguishes his control. But in the wake, the pain builds.
So much.
I want to let it out. Let it free. And I’m taken right back to the forest in Nehandun, calling for help as I take and take and build the power inside of me until there is nowhere for it to go.
“You are the balance, Ever. You are a Fifth for this purpose.”
“Help me,” I plead. “I don’t understand.”
“You are both sides. You will take all my gifts. You can wield his. But it is you, your own heart, and your own will that can turn the tide within you.”
