“Get up!” I shout, kicking his foot.
Still, he doesn’t move.
I touch the tip of the sword to his chin, forcing him to look up at me. I want my face to be the very last thing he sees before he dies.
“You will never darken our realm or any other again,” I tell him. “I will end—”
“That’s enough, Starla,” a soft voice calls from the shadows. A woman.
“Take a step back,” another woman calls. Both of them sound familiar. Comforting.
I hesitate, blinking into the darkness. The flame inside me sputters.
“That’s it,” the first woman says, stepping into the light. “Back away. Put down the blade. You don’t need to do this.”
“Lala?” I gasp. Tears fill my eyes, her presence overwhelming me with love and light. At her warm smile, the dark flame inside me finally dims.
I take a step back and lower my sword.
Anna Trello comes to stand beside Lala. Her face is drawn tight, but her eyes hold only warmth and compassion. “Let it go, Starla. You have much work to do back on our realm. Don’t dim your light with this act.”
I close my eyes, trying to reconcile what they’re asking me to do with the burning need inside me. “How can I walk away from him after everything he’s done?”
Lala comes to stand beside me, placing a warm hand on my cheek. “Because you, my dear, know that true power—true magick—comes not from darkness, but from the bonds of trust and friendship. From love.”
“He will face Justice,” Trello says, nodding toward the Magician. “But it is not your job to serve it. It’s mine.”
She holds out her own sword, touching it to the Magician’s shoulder. The act seems to shake him from his grief and stupor, and he looks up suddenly, his eyes alight with new fire.
New hatred.
Trello and Lala exchange a glance, the air crackling with magick and meaning.
He climbs to his feet and backs up against the wall. Trello is still holding the sword, but he’s not concerned with her.
Right now, he only has eyes for our High Priestess.
“Eulala,” he says. His voice is ice cold, but his eyes flicker with warmth and familiarity. With longing, even.
It’s only now that I remember their long-lost connection. Lala once described him as her beloved.In a former iteration... Well, he was actually a she then. And she was my beloved, Starla. Not in this body or time, but in another, many centuries ago.
“It is time to end this, beloved,” she says now, her tone sad and soft. Goddess, I can’t even imagine how much pain she’s in.
“You call me beloved as if if you still honor our bond,” he scoffs. “As if you didn’t turn your back on me the moment I reincarnated into a form you didn’t like.”
Lala shakes her head, her patience unwavering. In her eyes I see a thousand years of heartbreak. “I will love and honor you for eternity, no matter whose form you inhabit, no matter what color your eyes are as you gaze upon me, no matter the shade of your skin or the shape of your body. But I willnotstand by and let you destroy magick. Destroy life.”
The Magician lowers his head, shame coloring his tear-stained cheeks.
For a minute, I almost feel sorry for him. I almost wish I could help him.
Almost.
“It’s over,” Trello says softly, taking a step closer to him. “You have broken our laws, and you must be held accountable for your—”
“She’s mine!” he bellows, and in a blur, he leaps away from the wall, both hands raised, his eyes fixed on me, full of hatred and death. The flash of a curved, palm-sized blade is the last thing I see.
Before I can even raise my Sword to defend myself, Anna jumps in front of me, shielding me from the blow.
