"Quite the show you put on," he taunted, an ugly smirk twisting his lips. "Did you really think you could changeanything? You're nothing but a broken toy in a game too grand for your understanding."
"Broken, maybe," I rasped, summoning a defiant grin despite the agony lancing through me. "But I'd rather be a discarded plaything than a puppet on strings like you, Tannin."
“No one controls me but me.” His eyes narrowed, and for a moment, I saw the coward hiding behind the cruelty. He took a step closer, seeming to revel in the sight of my struggle.
"Your spirit is amusing, but ultimately futile," he said, taking more steps toward me. "In the end, you’ll be just another casualty in a war that’s bigger than your little romance."
"Better a passionate heart than a hollow one." I coughed, the taste of iron flooding my mouth.
Tannin laughed and shook his head, almost pityingly. “It would be so much easier for you if you just joined me, you know. I could be good for you if you’re good for me.”
By now, gaping holes had formed in the ceiling. How it was still standing, I didn’t know.
Legacy had almost made it to the tunnel behind Tannin’s back, her bright eyes on me. Like a fool, Tannin had come closer to me.
“So you can use me for my magic? I would wear you down in less than a day with how annoying I can be.” With a gritted grin, I pushed to my feet, ignoring the scream of protest from my body.
Magic coursed through my veins, a torrent desperate to escape once again. I imagined it as a beast, clawing at the gates of its cage, ravenous and wild. A beast I was about to free.
Confusion rippled through Tannin's features as the air around me shimmered in rainbow colors with impending destruction. Just as Legacy made it into the tunnel, I poured everything into this moment—the comradery, the kisses, thetouching, and our unlikely relationship. All the emotions that I'd bottled up exploded outward in a blinding surge of brilliance.
"Collie!" Legacy cried.
The blast detonated with the fury of a thousand storms, a radiant tempest that swept across the hall and snuffed out all the torches.
"Collie!"
Legacy's voice was the last thing I heard before the ceiling buckled.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Iwoke to muffled sounds, none of which I cared to decipher. My body ached badly, the marks of battle woven deep into my flesh.
“Legacy…” I mouthed. Where was she? Was she safe?
What about me? Where was I? Was I safe? How was I still alive?
With a pained sigh, I cracked open my eyes. No bars that I could see. Just a pitcher of water next to my bed and a locked door.
“Hello?” I rasped, then a little louder, “Anyone there?”
A shuffle of feet on damp earth announced the arrival of someone before a shadow darkened the gap between the entrance and the floor. The door creaked open, and in walked someone I’d never seen before. A young man, no older than eighteen, with blond hair and Caputo armor.
Did that mean I was in a Caputo camp? Signs pointed to yes, but was it the same one that had imploded?
He held out a roll of parchment, the wax already unsealed. “General Ehuna said to give this to you as soon as you woke up.”
I grunted and took the parchment. It trembled in my grasp, the inked letters blurring as I tried to focus on them.
Legacy is dead by her own hand. In her final breaths, she asked to be buried next to Collie (last name unknown) of the Caputo kingdom. Arrangements are being made to deliver the body in the coming months.
The words hung in my mind, heavy and suffocating. A cruel joke, surely.
A small object tumbled from inside the rolled parchment—a silver bracelet, one that had graced Legacy's wrist against her pulse. The one I’d stolen and the one she’d stolen back.
"It was delivered by a Montrose a few weeks ago," the messenger said, his voice a distant echo against the walls closing in around me.
