Page 147 of Black Sea

“No, no, no,” I stammered angrily, pulling at them.

My gaze flicked to Mornon, who dropped the hand he used to command the darkness to stop me and shot me a sharp, reproachful glance over his shoulder.

A heartbeat later, he seized the queen by the throat.

She clawed at his wrist with one hand, trying to tear it off, but he was so steady he resembled a statue. Then, she called upon her own magic using her other hand—surrounded by a light aura with thin lightning bolts—and aimed to press it against his chest.

Mornon grabbed her forearm to block her and pushed it down with such force that, despite the chaos, I could hear her humerus snap.

The queen let out an inhuman cry, her eyes seeming like they were about to pop out of their sockets. He began to tighten his grip on her neck. She tried again to summon lightning in her other hand, but her magic was now so weak that the enemy did not seem to feel it in the slightest, as she buffeted his arm with punches.

Mornon was untouchable, unrivaled.

And he was about to kill her.

I had to help her. I had to break free. I had to . . .

All of a sudden, I remembered the words he had whispered in my ear as he took me.

Now his darkness belonged to me as well.

Did that mean I could control it? I wasn’t sure, but I had to try before it was too late.

So, I focused on the smoky darkness around my wrists and inside me, striving to draw it to me.

To command it.

I felt it hiss, as if it were almost confused by my interference, but nothing happened. And so, I tried again, with more conviction, with more despair.

But suddenly sensing Mornon’s sharp gaze on me distracted me, and I unintentionally shifted my attention back to him.

“You can play with my darkness all you want when we are together,” he taunted me. “But I am its master.”

And I was nothing.

I could do nothing.

“You are killing . . . your own . . . people,” the Queen of the Witches gasped, struggling for air. “The two peoples . . . you belong to.”

Mornon peered down at her with such a cold, murderous stare that I shuddered, while shadows gathered behind the woman’s feet and slowly rose to her mid-back.

“I belong to nothing and no one,” he declared.

The darkness took the shape of a spike that pierced the sovereign’s heart, blood splattering onto Mornon’s robe.

“No!” I screamed, gritting my teeth as I pulled with all my strength to break free.

Unsatisfied, Mornon made claws appear at the ends of his fingers, still gripping the witch by the neck, and pierced her flesh, tearing her throat open and also ripping out her windpipe and tongue along with her skin without any mercy.

I let out a sickening sound and, frozen, watched the woman’s body collapse onto the ground. Mornon flung the bloody mush in his hand at her as if it were trash, but I avoided his gaze when I felt his eyes on me once more.

I couldn’t stop staring at the hole in Aloiv’s throat, from which blood erupted in bursts so powerful that, for a moment, it reminded me of the freshwater mouth on the island beach where Amlach and I had stayed. I slowly shifted my gaze to the torn corpse lying near me, lingering on one of its wide, already glassy eyes.

Eyes that would no longer light up like the sun as my cousin displayed one of his big smiles that made the root of his nose curl.

Shocked, I watched the expanse of quartered bodies that nearly covered the entire clearing. Elves and witches slaughtered because of me.

That carnage had to end.