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When we got into the hovercraft again, I felt triumphant.
What are you so happy about?
“You don’t control me,” I said.
My entourage pretended that they didn’t hear me having a one-sided conversation with myself. I’d stopped trying to act normal in front of them, They’d seen much worse, and they were too afraid of the repercussions to say something.
You don’t have what it takes to stop me.
“And yet, I did.”
Cyrene laughed menacingly.Is that what you think you did? Oh, Erol, your childlike confidence and trust would be adorable if they weren’t so pathetic.Her tone was mocking as she sneered at me.Don’t think you’ve broken my hold over you. I’m still here, and you’re not off the hook. You’re mine, remember? I have you all to myself.
“You were wrong about me.” I turned my head toward the window, looking out at Palgia below me. “I’m not nothing without you. My power isn’t only because of you. I was a powerful Fae before you came for me. It’s the reason you wanted me in the first place.”
It had taken me a while to realize the truth. I’d believed Cyrene when she’d told me that without her power, I would be nothing. I’d been a fool to let her convince me when the facts had stared me in the face all along, but today had proved that I wasn’t her puppet, and it might be a fight, but I could choose if I wanted to do her bidding.
Getting her out of my head was a different kind of obstacle I had to figure out, but one step at a time.
Knowing who I was and what I was capable of—separate from who she had turned me into—was the first step.
You’re playing with fire, Erol. You know what happens when someone plays with fire.
I wanted to answer her, to give her a response worthy of my strength. I’d stopped being so terrified of her, and it allowed my arrogance to come to the surface.
You’re going to get burned!She screamed the words in my head, and my power was suddenly so strong, the hovercraft wobbled and jerked beneath us. The pilot barely had control, and the craft spiraled downward toward the ground.
“Stop it!” the pilot shouted. “Erol, you’re going to kill us!”
He was right. It just wasn’t me—I wasn’t in control anymore.
Terror gripped me around the throat, and for a moment I was sure this was it—I would be the reason all these men died.
The hovercraft dove downward, nose first, and everything in the cabin that wasn’t strapped down tumbled around. A box hit one guard in the face. Something sharp cut a warrior strapped in next to me, and his blood dripped on the wall in front of us.
They tried to fight my power, raising their own Conjurite magic to stop me. The more I fought Cyrene, the more she dug her claws into me. I felt her oily nails dig into my flesh as I had when I’d tried to turn toward the light, and I cried out, gritting my teeth, grabbing the armrests so hard they cracked.
“No!” I yelled. “You won’t take control!”
With everything I had, I forced Cyrene back and grabbed a hold of the hovercraft controls. The pilot regained control, straightening the hovercraft. The loose objects fell to the ground. A guard threw up and groaned.
The pilot put the craft down on the ground in the middle of nowhere, and when the doors opened, we all stumbled out. My men stayed close to the craft while they tended to each other, but I stumbled away as fast as I could.
“You’re not going to win this!” I screamed at Cyrene. “You can fight me every day, but you’re not going to force me into doing something I don’t want! I’m stronger than you are, I know how to stop you now!”
Cyrene appeared in front of me. The men behind me screamed—a sound of pure terror. So, she’d taken a physical form they could see, too.
She was terrifying to look at. Her skin was so pale, the map of veins beneath her skin made her look like the living dead. Her black hair melted into her black dress, and the smokey fog that curled around her spread around my feet, around the men behind me.
They all cowered away. I looked over my shoulder at them and saw the pure terror in their eyes, the fear that made them stop thinking rationally and paralyzed them.
“I don’t only control you, Erol,” Cyrene said in a voice that sounded like four of her were talking at the same time. “Iownyou. If you win a powerplay between us, it’s only because I let you. I am Darkness Eternal, and you won’t ever get away from me. Do you understand?”
“I have power,” I protested, lifting my face to look her in the eye. Her orbs were pure black, and it was hard to keep looking at her when I wanted to bow my head in submission. “I’m strong enough to fight you, and I will.”
Cyrene laughed and shook her head.
“I underestimated your stubbornness. Or maybe it’s downright stupid. I don’t know, but you’re nothing without my power, and you can’t fight who I am and what I’ll do to you.”
