“How do you know about the tunnels?” I whisper.
He takes a step forward, head tilting, chin ducking slightly, voice lowering to a whisper. “I’ve always known much more about you than you’ve ever given me credit for.” Kaelis leans away a fraction, locking eyes with mine. “Trust me to give you a chance to escape.”
“You’re…letting us leave?” I breathe. He doesn’t know I hold the true golden Death card. But we both know he needs Arina if he has any hope of summoning the World.
“You said you wouldn’t see your sister suffer under an Oricalis prince again. Take her to where you think she’s safe.” A tiny, confident smile. “I know you’ll come back to me.”
You’ll never be done with meis the softest echo under his words.
“We need to go!” Ren calls.
It jolts me back into my body. I take a half step backward.
“You know where to find me when you’re ready.” Kaelis moves for the other boat. Gregor steps aside and allows him to leave.
I join my sister and crew, watching as Kaelis uses the Ace of Cups to glide effortlessly out of the watery entry of Halazar. We are quickly behind.
The stream of prisoners is beginning to slow. There’s nothing to loot within the building, so I can only assume that the people who took their chances have already made their way out.
As we emerge onto the river, we weave among men and women fighting against the waves, too fast for any to grab onto our boat and risk capsizing us.
The docks of Eclipse City, opposite Halazar’s island, are swarming with people. Enforcers are commandeering boats to reach the island and try to reclaim some semblance of order. But it’s too late. The prisoners have had their chance.
My focus returns to Halazar itself. There’s only me…and that nightmare of a building.
The prison’s alarm bells finally still, the last toll echoing off the sheer cliffs that surround the Farlum River. The sun is just breaking in the distance.
Two cards rise with me as I slowly stand, working to keep my balance as the boat continues to move.
“Clara?” Twino asks with a note of confusion.
“This ends. It all has to end.”
With a final, steadying breath, I gather my power and my pain. The cards begin to shimmer, and a faint aura of gold and cerulean clouds me.
I throw my hand skyward, casting the cards to the heavens. The King of Coins explodes in a symphony of a million golden coins scattering across an unseen floor. Simultaneously, the King of Cups unleashes a shimmering aura of blue and purple that races across the water’s surface, building into a ripple that reaches from city’s edge tocliffside. Gold from the King of Coins streaks through the aura like lightning underneath the waves.
Destroy. Destroy.Destroy!
A scream rips from my throat as the raw power of casting two of the most potent cards in their suits at the same time threatens to cleave me asunder. Bones rattling, fists clenched, I force myself to stay standing and bear witness.
The earth groans and rumbles, echoing my rage as bedrock splits deep beneath Halazar’s foundations. The water rises, forming a towering wall higher than Eclipse City’s tallest spire. It dwarfs Halazar, making the building seem insignificant for the first and only time in its existence.
Don’t hold back,a voice all my own commands. It drowns out any of my mother’s warnings that would usually come forward. The time for hiding has ended. Let them know who I am and what I’m truly capable of.
Halazar’s swan song is a haunting melody of groans and rumbles, of twisting metal and crumbling stone that is ultimately swallowed as the earth beneath it yawns wide. A chasm forms, sucking in the building, its island, and a swath of the river. The large wave surges behind the last of the swimming prisoners who scramble in the water, before crashing over the briefly exposed expanse of riverbed and all remnants of Halazar. That place and all its horrors is over…consigned forever to a watery grave.
My knees give out, and I collapse, utterly spent.
Chapter 9
Jura catches me with waiting arms. She’s as steady as a rock, even in the swaying boat, having grown up on the river. “By the fucking Twenty…” she mutters under her breath. “Clara, how…what…what did you just do?”
A really good question. It was probably not the smartest decision. And yet…I close my eyes and sigh in relief. For the first time in nearly two years, the endless shadow of Halazar and the screams of torture that lived within me are gone.
The reprieve is only momentary. I struggle to straighten so I can check on Arina. But my body refuses to move. Every muscle objects.
“Give yourself a second, Clara. Rest. I’ll take over steering, too.” Jura braces me against her with a firm arm around my waist. An Ace of Cups rises from her deck, shimmering blue in the dusky light before disappearing. The boat shifts slightly as she assumes command.
