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I wished it was all over. In some ways, I wished it had never happened at all.
28
EROL
Ididn’t know what happened. When I opened my eyes, I lay face down on the dried grass. The wind rustled through the grass, whispering messages of doom. I lifted my head—the hovercraft was gone, and so were my men. I was alone.
I pushed myself up. My body ached, and my head throbbed painfully.
“Hello?” I called out, looking around, but there was nothing around me except the flat countryside, stretching in all directions. In the far distance, almost on the horizon, I saw the mountains where my cabin was, and just beyond that, the castle.
Dark clouds drew together above me. Thunder rumbled overhead, and the wind picked up. It tugged at my clothes.
I took a step forward, and then another. My body moved of its own accord. Power rippled around me—the darkness above, the storm that brewed, all came from within me. The magic was so thick, I couldn’t breathe.
The only thought that swirled through my mind was that Hazel had to die.
No!
This time, the voice in my head didn’t belong to Cyrene. It was my own voice. Everything else about me—my body, my motives, my magic—belonged to Cyrene. She thrust me forward, marching me back to the castle to complete her mission, and I was nothing more than a passenger in my own body, along for the ride.
Stop it! I won’t do it!
Cyrene laughed out loud, her laughter dancing around me, louder than the thunder and the wind.
“You can’t stop this, Erol,” she said. “Finally, you understand that you have no control over yourself or your life. You belong to me.”
I won’t do it!I shouted again. The voice was only in my head, I couldn’t even speak the words I wanted. Cyrene really was in control.You can’t do this to me. Let me go!
Not only did she not do what I asked, she ignored me completely.
I flashed back on Ellie and how I’d taken her to the villages to destroy them. Falx had controlled her, then. I’d thought it was pathetic at the time—how could anyone be so weak that their will didn’t override the power of someone else’s magic?
I understood it now. The frustration, the pain of being controlled.
The fear.
I marched ahead. My breathing was rhythmic, my heartbeat steady as I walked on, but inside, I was screaming. I was hyper-aware of everything around me—the storm that built above me, the darkness that drowned out the sun. The solitude.
I was truly alone.
My thoughts raced to Hazel, and I searched desperately for our bond. I had to warn her. I found the bond and started to lift the wall I’d slammed down. I had to talk to her one more time. She had to get out of the castle. She had to get away as fast as she could and take everyone with her. It wouldn’t be a fair fight. Cyrene was more powerful than ever, letting her true force out, and she used the magic I had to fuel it.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Cyrene snapped, and she slammed the wall back into place. “You’re not going to win this. I call the shots. I won’t risk her getting away. Those healers have caused enough trouble with their outreach program, trying to take my Conjurites away from me.”
They’re helping them,I countered.
“They’re ruining them. Why fix something that isn’t broken? They’re meddling with my plans, and they have to go. All of them.”
When Cyrene said they had to go, an image flashed in my mind. I saw Hazel, Vanya, and Zita—all dead. Their blood was on my hands and stained my clothes. I saw my mom and sister, not as the Luminescent Fae they were now, but as creatures of darkness.
Leave them out of this!I cried out.Let them go, you promised!
“You changed the game when you went against my wishes. We were doing so well, too. For centuries you played along just fine, and then you had to start thinking about being a hero. You’re not a hero, Erol. You’re a villain. It’s all you’ve ever been, and all you ever will be.”
My heart shattered in my chest.
Time became strange—it stretched thin, doubled on itself, folded, and stretched again, until it felt like an eternity, before the castle popped up not too far away.
