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But it was warm.
Gold lightning lit up the sky overhead, and temperatures so hot I instantly began to sweat slapped my skin. When I lapsed to the ground, I expected the crunch of snow to sound underfoot. Instead, I splashed into a puddle.
And when I looked ahead, the same place I had looked a thousand times, I expected to see the castle. The massive structure formed from ice and snow, towers stretching dozens of stories high.
But it was water.
I saw a lake.
There was a lake where the castle stood.
The entire city, it was…
I couldn’t find a building. Not one that wasn’t missing a roof, or a wall, at least. When I looked out over the capital of Matriaza, I saw a wasteland. It was as though it’d been abandoned decades prior, and nature came around to claim it back.
“Fucking stars,” Sanvi whispered beside me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her raise a hand over her heart. “How… how did he… How could he…”
“How is this real?”
That was meant to stay inside my mind, but it dropped from my lips like a genuine question.
I stared ahead, looking, and searching, blinking, praying that if I blinked hard enough, enough times, everything would be back to normal when I opened them. But no matter how many times I blinked, it all remained the same.
“I don’t understand,” Rion said, voice shaking. “The Conclave, fine. Kill them for betraying us. Butthis? All of these…”
“They’re just people,” Anise’s voice was almost inaudible. “They’re just… They’re…”
“Theywere,” Sanvi said. “Theywerejust people.”
Only then, hearing their voices tremble with grief, did it sink in. This was real. It happened. My brother killed millions.
Lux killed millions.
“I’m gonna kill him,” I said. That rolled off my tongue just as the last bit had. There was no thought to it, no intention, but I said it. “I’m gonna fucking—”
Luna elbowed me in the gut. “Sh.”
I looked her way, watching as she tilted her head to the right. Rion did the same, and so did Anise.
“You hear that?” Sanvi asked.
“A few thousand strides that way.” Luna pointed. “Someone’s alive.”
“You go, Nix,” Rion said. “Take Anise and Sanvi. We’ll catch up. They need a healer.”
I grabbed either of their shoulders, and I lapsed.
We arrived at a collapsed home, without even a door to walk through.
My ability to manipulate souls was my only hope, so I shut my eyes, and I looked. All I needed was a glow. Just a faint glow of a soul would be enough for us to dig out the rubble and—
On the far-left corner, buried by lumber, two auras. One of pale red and another of light blue.
I ran that direction. Anise and Sanvi were right behind me. “We’re here to help.” I grabbed the biggest chunk of wood from the pile. “Call for us, let us know where you are.”
“Here! We’re right here!”
My skin crawled.
