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A little bit further, and he’d have nowhere else to go but down.
But the sigils were far behind me now, the pulsing power no longer flowing through my feet, my body. One glance down told me I stood on nothing but rough stone, holding only a residue of magic, as if this ground was too barren to support such things.
As if Corvus had wholly corrupted this place.
“You should have taken my offer.” He sent out a lash of the darkest shadow. I barely—only barely—knocked it away. If I’d failed, I would have lost my head. I panted, reached again for my power, and dragged up the last spluttering dredges.
I never got a chance to cast them.
Something hit me between the shoulder blades so hard I slammed into the floor, breath knocked out of me, fingers clawing at the floor.
For a moment, time was suspended, starlight trickling from my fingers, cold seeping into my stunned body. I was defenseless, vulnerable, and that was the last of my magic, draining out on the floor, along with my blood.
“There. I gave you a chance to fix this, brother.You failed, though I did warn you, she is a defiant, stubborn little wench.” I managed to turn my head enough to see the Oracle, hands on her hips, staring at Corvus, a look of utter disappointment on her face.
“You swore the magic would return to us this time.” His voice narrowed down to a sniveling whine. “You were wrong.”
“I miscalculated. You know how unpredictable fate is. We’ve always found a way around this before, we will again.” Shadows filled the cavern again, devouring the last of my stars, until the faintly pulsing sigils were the only light in the darkness.
Of course they were working together. I clenched my hands into fists, tears freezing on my cheeks.I knew better than to trust these evil creatures.Thank the gods I didn’t take him up on his offer.
“Unfortunate we can’t kill them all and start over. I cannot wait another hundred years.”
Please, I begged the cold, dead stone.Please help me.
“Yes, for now, she stays alive.” Her eyes glittered as she nudged me with her toe. “But the others…some are disposable. Useful as leverage to force this one to cooperate, if nothing else. The wolf is sick, he should be put down. We’ll find another to replace him.”
I managed to lift my head an inch off the ground. “You lay a fucking finger on him, and I will turn you both to ash.” She put her foot in the center of my spine and flattened me to the floor with so much force my spine groaned.
“You will do no such thing.”
“Why can’t we rip the magic from her? She is so small and weak.” He slithered forward until his venomous shadows drifted mere inches from my face. My lungs ached from the stench; I closed my eyes so the fumes didn’t blind me.
“We’ve tried before,” the Oracle explained impatiently. “We had to start over, remember?”
“She could be different.” The shadows brushed my face, and my skin began bubbling. “We could try.”
“No. I won’t start over. We will make this work. Once the transformation is complete, even this one will bend. They always do.” She nudged me with her foot. “Isn’t that right, Anaria? You will do anything to save your males?”
I didn’t know how much more we could transform, but looking at Corvus made me want to vomit.
The Oracle followed my line of sight and laughed.
“What you see before you took thousands upon thousands of years. My brother is impervious to rebirth; he will never return to his original form. You will never live long enough to become…that.”
She ran her hands down herself. “On the other hand…it’s good to have this body back.”
I closed my eyes as Corvus’s shadows slithered over me, my skin shrieking as blisters erupted all down my throat and arm. “What do we do?” he demanded.
“We finish this,” the Oracle spat. “The Shadow King has to die, his people with him. Then the Fae in Varitus. Once we unite the magic of all three realms, this world will be ours again.”
They weren’t done. They’d never be done.
“I will not kill for you again.”
“You will kill until we tell you to stop.” Her laugh skittered down the walls. “If you defy us again, I will infect every Solarian citizen with a Reaper and force your hand.” She shrugged. “In fact, I might enjoy that. I know my brother would.”
I had to use my magic. I had to at leasttry.
