Page 302 of The Edge of Darkness

Something seized inside my chest. My breathing halted.

It was Evander, my ancestor. The only other host of shadowfire that had ever walked this realm. He looked as real as any being or creature in this fight, but I knew he was only an illusion. Still, my eyes stung, tears threatening to fall the longer I stared at him.

I’m sorry, I wanted to say. I can’t stop it.

His gaze was pained, like he would take the burden of this power from me if he could.

Was he worried I would detonate and kill myself in the process? As he had?

Perhaps I should have been more worried about that from the start.

The pain and the rage rippled through me, breaking my focus and nearly bringing me to my knees. My mind descended into a cacophony of darkness and chaos. I pushed back against the agony in my head, blinking beneath my helm, and feeling the tears stream down my cheeks as I gave one last look at Evander’s apparition.

I tried to focus on willing my power to seek out only Lyceius’s and Skadi’s creatures—our enemies—but my thoughts faded to smoke as the black flames licked their way through my body.

I was a shell. A vessel.

All at once, my power absorbed back into me, overwhelming my senses and my very essence with so much dark energy that I felt like I was seconds away from being ripped apart. Then, it blasted out like a shockwave in every direction.

Shadowfire flooded the world, casting it into darkness. The force rendered all other sounds into silence. All I could think of, all I could hear was its raging pulse . . .

And it was absolutely rapturous.

— ROIRDAN —

Niall’s power erupted like I’d never seen before.

I gripped onto Nivelle, waiting . . . for what, I wasn’t sure. Hopefully not our deaths. We’d pushed out our shields to encompass everyone we could, in case their power had been too exhausted to summon a shield of their own. We were far enough behind him—at least it should have been far enough, but as the shadowfire barreled toward us like the flames of pure darkness, I winced.

Then . . . movement to my left . . .

Vanir broke through the front line and threw his arms out before him. His muscles strained, and every vein in his arms bulged as he let out a roar and sent a massive shield into the atmosphere, as tall as it was wide, separating everyone from Niall and the creatures and the shadowfire.

Vanir’s entire body shook with the effort, but the shield held. The moment the shadowfire slammed into it, he was thrown back with the impact. The force sent everyone to the ground as it shook the atmosphere.

I stared up at where the air had been split into two. The section above us was clear. The section beyond Vanir’s shield was swirling with plumes of ash as shadowfire incinerated everything it touched.

Somewhere behind me, I heard gasps of shock, and then someone’s voice trembled with their realization as they whispered, “The Asher!”

— NIALL —

Whatever was happening, it caused a war within me.

Half of me was euphoric. The other half was thrashing within the cage it had found itself in.

Amidst the overwhelm, Auren’s words echoed in my mind. You command your power.

I latched onto the sound of her voice and suddenly it was an anchor, pulling me back to reality. If I didn’t put a leash on my power, it might very well keep dishing out death until I ran my well down to the dregs.

Focus. Focus! Control it.

I closed my eyes and descended deep within myself, ignoring the striking pain that radiated through my head. It took nearly everything I had to tell my essence to calm. The smattering of black in the center of my mind seemed content in its dance of death, wrapped in some invisible forcefield, cutting me off from my very self. When I managed to wrap my willpower around it, it pushed back, until it finally recognized me. I tugged with all my might, as if I was pulling on the reins of a horse that was out of control, and after several terrifyingly long seconds, the gates of my shadowfire slammed shut.

When I opened my eyes, I was on my knees. My hands shook where they rested against my thighs. Something dribbled from my nose, puddling in the dirt between my legs. Blood.

I lifted my hand and wiped the back of my wrist against my upper lip.

The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air, and I coughed as it coated my lungs.