“Sylvie, it isn’t good,” says Taran.
From the ground, I hear Seth coughing. “She’s going to kill our brother, Adria. Is this what you wanted? She doesn’t even care. She cares about nothing but her revenge.” Ronan comes up behind me, helping me take care of a pair of shadow-born closing in on Taran and Seth. Then I point Ronan away from us. One of us has to reveal themselves again with light magic to save Seth, and it’s not going to be him.
He nods and heads back in the direction of some of the only people remaining. One of them must be our mother.
I reach out with the healing light and pull the dagger from Seth’s back, closing the wound. “He’s lost a lot of blood, Adria.”
There’s a moment of silence and then a thud as Ronan dispatches one of the shadow-born closing in on us from a distance.
And then comes Adria’s voice. Quiet, stuttering. “Is he going to be alright?”
“I don’t know. He needs an elixir. Do you think Mother is going to let me get him one? Or do you think she’s going to kill him? What do you think she’s going to do to you once you outlive your usefulness?”
“He betrayed me. You betrayed me. Mother is the only one who has been on my side.”
Taran grips my arm. “Hurry, Sylvie. He’s weak.”
I see movement again to the left, but I relax when I see it’s Octavia creeping in a shadow of her own. “I’ll go get an elixir. I can stay hidden.”
I nod to her. “Thank you.”
Seth groans on the ground. “Just finish it. She’s never going to listen. I know you think you can save her, but she’s made her choice.”
“I’m not trying to save her.”
“That’s a lie,” Seth whispers.
Godsdammit. He really always can tell.
“Sylvara.” My mother’s voice echoes through the courtyard. “I have had enough of this. Come out and face me, and I’ll spare him.”
My magic races through my body and out into the courtyard, reaching out for Ronan.
She’s got him. She’s standing next to him near the fountain, her knife at his throat.
He still has his magic, yet he’s standing there at her mercy, which means he has let her do this to him. He’s giving her a chance because he knows that I don’t want her dead. He can feel it.
But I don’t know what will happen to him if she cuts his throat. If he dies before I can use the power to save him, will it abandon me?
I don’t want to kill her. I never thought I’d see her again, and I want to believe there’s a way to save her, just like I still believe deep down there’s a way to save Adria, but it’s too much of a risk.
Ronan is not a price I’m willing to pay. Not for my mother.
Not for anyone.
I step out of the cloister, facing her. I draw the light tendrils around me. They swirl and sparkle, starlight circling me as I walk towards her.
This is for you, Larus.
“My name is Sylvie.”
I throw out the light tendrils as my mother slices Ronan’s throat, her blade cutting so deep I feel it through our bond. The wound sprays violently, but I’m already there, feeling the warmth of his blood through the light tendrils as I wrap them around him. My own neck twitches and tingles as I heal him, an echo of the magic he performed twenty-three years ago when he saved my life before I was born.
When he’s whole again, magic pulses through the air between us, stretching and spreading through the space like the stars coming into alignment, the final piece of the puzzle snapping into place. The ground trembles, and lightning streaks across the sky, filling the courtyard with a bluish light.
Mother lunges for me, attacking with no subtlety or art, her body pouncing like a wild animal, her shadows lifting as she puts everything she has into her attack. I tear the knife from her hands with my shadows, but now that she isn’t hurting Ronan, my will drains, my stomach dropping as I sickly realize my mother, the woman who brought me into this world, is truly trying to kill me.
Ronan runs after her, raising his dagger as her hands reach my throat.
