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Niamh grabbed my shoulder and squeezed tight. “I’m sorry, Kal. I know you don’t want to be the one to order the deaths of all those light fae, but we need you to do it. The world needs you to do it. Because if those light fae live, everyone else dies. It’s a few hundred versus thousands.”
A few hundred. It was still too many.
Something in the air suddenly shifted, and Niamh’s hand tightened on my shoulder. I lifted my gaze to find the army parting to make way for Oberon, who strode through the crowd with his twisted horns and burning ember eyes. They were locked right on my face, and the cruel smile that painted his lips was meant only for me.
I stood my ground, meeting his hard stare with one of my own.
He lifted his hand and curled his fingers. Oberon was calling upon his power.
Dread ripped a hole in my gut. With a grunt of terror, I took off running. “Get everyone behind me!”
“Kal, no!” Toryn cried out, but his voice was as muted as distant thunder. I charged through the army before me, shoving soldiers out of my way. When I reached the front lines, Oberon had widened his arms and tipped back his head. He was going to send his fire across us all.
My mother’s words echoed in my ears.
Vow to me, Kalen.
Her glittering eyes flashed in my mind.
You will do whatever it takes to stop them, even if that means killing them. Even if that means using your power against them.
My volatile power burned against my fingertips. I didn’t want to use it. I never did. Nothing good came out of my darkness. But if I did not loose this power myself, the vow I’d made with my mother would force me to do it. Oberon threatened every living creature in this world.
Oberon roared. His power ripped from his splayed hands, and a wave of terrifying fire raced across the plains. Gritting my teeth, I opened myself up to the darkness, letting the grim magic build inside me, pressing forward, desperate for release. I imagined the horror the gods would wreak if they returned. I thought of all those innocent lives, used and then discarded like a pile of logs burned for heat until they were nothing but ash.
But most of all, I pictured my mother’s face, and I let my grief and rage power my magic until all that existed was a pain so great that it shattered my control.
The power slipped from my fingers.
It rushed from my body with a force that knocked me off my feet, hurling me back into my army. I crashed into the front line. Several warriors fell to the ground with me. And then I set my eyes upon the most terrifying, awe-inspiring sight of my life.
Two forces rushed toward each other on the verdant plains. A wave of towering fire, burning every single blade of grass in its path, and a brutal wave of darkness and mist. It rumbled with a power so intense that the ground beneath me shook. I stumbled to my feet and turned toward my silent army.
“Everyone get back!” I shouted. “Run!”
My army descended into chaos. Throwing down their weapons, they turned and raced across the rolling hills, away from Albyria and Oberon’s army—away from my horrific power. I followed them, stumbling as the ground jolted beneath my boots, clenching my jaw with the certain knowledge I’d made a very horrible mistake.
Toryn, Alastair, and Niamh were waiting for me off to the side and watching the army struggle against the lurching ground. I ran toward them and grabbed Niamh’s arm.
“We have to go,” I said. “When those forces hit—”
“It’s too late,” she whispered, her eyes so wide they rivaled the moon.
I looked over my shoulder. The mist and fire arced toward each other. They were only seconds apart—just long enough for me to wrap my arms around my three closest friends and brace myself.
A tumultuousboomripped through the world.
The ground bucked, and the collision sprayed a rush of mist across us, soaking my face and hair. I glanced down at the earth cracking beneath my boots, grabbed hold of my friends, and started running again. I didn’t stop or look back for a very long time.
When I finally slowed and turned to gaze at what I’d done, my heart nearly stopped.
A crack had widened in the ground, so deep it was impossible to see its bottom. My mists swirled against the edge, pushing and shoving against some unseen barrier that separated here from there. I couldn’t see any sign of Oberon or his army. And when I looked around us, taking stock of my people, I realized—the mist was everywhere. The sun had vanished from the sky, replaced by the hazy light of the moon spilling through the fog. I tried to push the mist away, but for the first time in my life, it did not respond to me. It continued to swirl around us, transforming the Kingdom of Light into shadowy darkness. In the distance, monstrous beasts began to roar.
I shook my head and stumbled back. “What have I done?”
Thirty-Seven
Kalen
