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I faltered to the side, not expecting to catch air instead of a body, and my momentum stumbled to a stop as I caught myself just before falling over my feet. Behind me, a satisfied laugh burned my shame deeper. I followed the sound and saw a different version of Queen Eivor, the same version that had enchanted my younger self, the same version that made my blood boil despite its beauty.
“Didn’t think it’d be so easy, did you?” She thrust out a hand and sent a rush of air in my direction, throwing me off my feet and slamming me into the jagged steps at my back. I winced as the stone cracked against my spine, the shocking sound of my skull whiplashing against the crudely carved steps. “To think I wanted your skin. You could have been a part of this, a part of me!”
I struggled to my feet, ignoring the pulsing pain in the back of my head and the bruising blow, but the soulreaper was already upon me. With one hand, she lifted me by my leather chest piece, her long nails clawing my skin as she tightened her grip before tossing me aside. Her preternatural strength sent me skidding across the granite. The sword in my hand clanged as I fell, slipping out of my grasp and sliding out of range.
“This is the gods’ mighty huntress? I have to say, I’m disappointed,” she hissed, taunting me. “You don’t even know how to use the power inside you. I could have helped you, could have shown you how to harbor it and unleash it on our enemies.” I crawled toward the sound of bone against stone, not wasting time to stand as I used my elbows and knees to push me closer to my weapon. I flung out my arm desperately, but as my fingertips skimmed the handle, it was kicked just out of my reach by the sudden appearance of Adzehate, now kissing my fingers with her flowing gown.
“I begged the gods for their blessing, served them for centuries to receive their trust, but they instead wasted it on insignificant mortal women like you.” She raised an arm over her head, and a black dagger appeared instantly in her grip. I rolled just in time, dodging her lethal blow before it was too late and finding the handle of my sword beneath me as I recoiled. I flipped to my back and trailed the blade in front of me, where Adzehate was preparing for another strike. She flung her arms back towards my figure on the ground, realizing too late I had found my weapon instead.
She fell on the sword, her flesh giving in easily, and the length of the blade sheathed itself above her stomach. I gaped up at her as inky blood oozed from the where she was skewered, but Adzehate only smiled. She gripped the knife-edge with both her hands and thrust her weight off my sword, no longer impaled. I had only injured her. Evander had coached me briefly before we left, giving me strict instructions to pierce the heart, and to not pull out the blade until Adzehate was reduced to ash.
She clutched the wound as blood slipped through her milky fingers and stained her gown. I rolled to the side and from my knees to my feet in one stealthy move, but she was gone by the time I lifted the blade.
“Over here, Huntress,” a bored voice sounded behind me. I whirled in the direction and found her standing with her hands at her side. She lifted one palm gradually. Black smoke curled next to her wrist, and she flipped her palm over as it formed into a solid arrow. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way. We both would have been stronger together.” She thrust her hand out, and the arrow shot forward, faster than any bow or turret had ever aimed for me.
I tilted the blade in reaction, shielding my body from the lethal blow as she formed another with her opposite hand. I stepped forward after knocking the first arrow, closing the distance she made between us, taking another step each time I intercepted an arrow she shot relentlessly from an imaginary quiver.
“You want my soul, Adzehate?” I gritted. “You’ll have to rip it from my dying breath.”
“I plan on it,” she said with a pleasant smile, throwing another arrow my direction. We were painfully close now, so close, if I even blinked, I would miss an arrow. “Once I have the soul of a huntress and inherit your blessing, no one will be able to defeat me. You have done me a great service facing me today, little one.”
I was closing in on her now, only a few paces away when I finally missed an arrow that sunk into the hollow part of my stomach. A gasp tore through my chest, but she never hesitated—so neither did I.
I pushed through the pain, letting the constant stab in my side fuel the fight inside me. She snarled as I swung the bone-blade skillfully, never breaking eye contact, watching the arrows in the corners of my vision. Her anger grew as I approached, making her sloppy, a fact obvious by the way her arrows missed their mark completely.
Having had enough of being target practice, I swung the blade like a bat, swatting the projectile back in her direction, where it skimmed her flawless face and drew more blood. Her mouth gaped open in horror as her hand flew to her cheek, tracing the thin trail of blood with milky fingertips.
I used her shock to pounce and knocked her delicate body to the hard stone floor. Before she could wield another smoky weapon, I paralyzed her movement with the threat of my blade and thrust the handle of Dawnbringer just over my head, its tip aimed for the devastating source of her evil. I watched her gaze travel the length of my posed body, ready to strike and end her reign of darkness once and for all. But suddenly, her figure shifted underneath me, and in the blink of an eye, I was no longer settled over the weakened body of Adzehate.
I was hovering over Loren.
“Arya, what are you doing? It’s me,” he trembled. “It’s your brother…”
The jade green returned to his eyes and regarded me in pure horror, his blonde hair messy like he’d just run his fingers through it. He appeared every bit like the boy I used to train with, like the boy I bunked with every night for the past eight years, the same kid who held me every time I needed to be stitched back together—both physically and emotionally.
“I’m sorry, Loren. I’m sorry it’s come to this,” I whispered to the demon below, hoping somewhere, deep inside where she held the souls she consumed, he heard me. For a second, it was like I had him back, and we hadn’t been split on either side of this invisible war for our realm. But the blade in my hands grounded me in reality, to the solid truth that this wasn’t him.
This wasn’t Loren underneath me; it was a manipulative monster who was playing with my emotions and trying to make me falter. But if she taught me anything under this mountain, it was that hesitating gave your enemy a chance, gave them a foothold to climb into your vulnerable place and defeat you from the inside out.
I closed my eyes, because the mountain whispered its legacy to my heart. I finally understood how the eyes could be deceived, why they blindfolded us in the first place. Sometimes monsters appeared scarier than they actually were, sometimes beauty could distract us from the ugly inside, and sometimes we simply saw what we wanted to see. I wanted this body underneath me to be Loren, I wanted it to be the boy it looked like, but when I closed my eyes, I knew better. I saw past the deception.
“Please, Arya, don’t do this,” he whispered.
I gripped Dawnbringer in my hands and let it fall into the heart of my friend, my brother, and the ghost of his memory—whispering a painful goodbye as he turned to dust beneath my trembling legs.
21
Adzehate was gone.
The wicked spirit who’d stalked humanity with her lies was nothing more than dust in the breeze, like the kind whipping through my loose hair in the quiet hours of the early morning.
I sat on the landing pad of Estelles, my feet dangling over the edge of the tower facing the east. It was still dark, the stars sparkling above me as the double moons drifted far to the west. I’d never seen the sky react in such a way, how it moved the stars and moons slowly and gradually across its dark canvas, and probably would never get used to the sight.
“Good morning, darling.”
I turned my head slightly over my shoulder to see Azriel crossing the stretch of the pad, his footsteps heavy from the grueling climb up the steep stairwell. I gave him a sleepy smile as he sat behind me, leaning back slightly so I could rest against his chest. My head fell into the crook of his neck as he kissed my temple, letting his body heat engulf me in a warm embrace.
“Will you ever sleep in again?” he asked with a yawn.
