AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Swift as thought itself, I untied a knot I had kept in place.
A sinuous tapestry of air and shadow began to weave forth from my fingertips.
Coils of darkness spiraled through the chamber, sliding towards the blond man on the floor.
With amusement, I watched him try to scuttle backwards, his broken useless hand dragging behind him. Looking at me with his jaw clenched in agony, he raised his unharmed hand in a last attempt to thwart me and thrust it towards his chest.
In an instant, a tendril of my darkness wrapped around his wrist, yanking it upwards.
I looked down at the man where he lay on the stones, my gaze steely. The strange breastplate he wore clung to him precariously. Its straps had been reduced to fragile threads that threatened to yield at any moment.
Morgan's doing.
She had cut him. She had made him bleed. But when faced with all his stolen treasures, the powers he had murdered fae like her to possess, it had not been enough.
Excalibur had not been enough.
Yet the sword, I reminded myself, had gotten me here.
With a swift motion, I wrenched the accursed breastplate off the man's body and cast it aside. It hurtled through the chamber and landed with a thud.
In the opposite direction from where I had thrown it.
Turning slowly, I looked towards where the piece of armor had come down.
Atop the ancient blade coated in the thin veneer of Morgan’s blood.
An ethereal glow began to rise, spreading outwards from the sword, encompassing the breastplate, then Morgan herself.
I heard the man at my feet make a frightened gurgling sound and turned to see his blue eyes wide with terror.
I followed his gaze. Around the edges of the room, within the glass cylinders, the lifeless eyes of the murdered fae were sparkling with a newfound luminosity.
“How did you kill them?” I asked the maggot, not really expecting him to answer.
His eyes slid to the breastplate across the room. To one of the stones in its center that gleamed blue.
I understood. He had killed someone like me, then used their power to kill the others. Siphoning their energy like a ladle from a pail of water.
But he had not fully comprehended how limited the work of his hands was. Nor fully perceived the extent of the lifeforce of those he stole from.
I moved my hands through the air. Shadowy coils shot out, encircling the maggot and lifting him from the cold, stone floor. His attempts to escape were rendered useless as ropes of darkness tightened their grip.
I flattened him against one of the walls and bound him there. He could wait.
I stepped towards Morgan.
She lay in the golden pool of light, her silver hair streaming around her like a thousand stars.
Her eyes were closed. Blood trickled from her mouth.
I looked past her and saw an iron throne.
The rest of the story.
Our fates were entwined in bonds of blood and destiny. I had saved her with my own blood once.
There were no limits to what I would do for her now.
