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I was too fucking scared, heart beating too fast, lungs not working. I was going to die here, and this wascomplete and utter bullshite.
Anger did what fear could not.
Gave me clarity. Gave me focus.
These greedy, jealous…things…had taken and taken and taken for so long, they would never stop. Glutting themselves on this world, over and over, until there was nothing left, then starting all over again.
It was hideous. It was unforgiveable.
I lay my palm on the frozen ground and begged the magic to answer me, one last time.
The Oracle squatted beside me, her smile consuming and hideous in its beauty. “We need war, little one. We need strife and conflict and hate. Such things are our life’s blood. Soon enough, you will understand.” Her knowing smile sent a shiver straight through me. “Such twisted warriors we chose for you, each with their own brand of darkness and yet, you try to stop what is meant to be. You cannot fight this.” She drifted away, taking Corvus and his creeping shadows with her.
I could finally breathe, but I had nowhere to go, anyway, except that jagged drop-off. If I could move like Zorander, I might have a chance, but I was trapped.
These two evil beasts were what was wrong with the world, sowing darkness and evil through every realm, every empire, every town and village for all of time. They thrived on death. They fed on life itself, and when the well of blood ran dry, they destroyed everything and started anew.
By some miracle, magic trickled into me from the frozen rock, from the darkness around us, from the snow drifting around my frozen body. Magic tasted wilder up here, like windblown slopes and frostbitten air, but there was so very little where Corvus had existed for so long.
I closed my eyes, tears freezing my lashes together.
I’d never felt so furious and so fucking helpless before in my life.
I need magic to fight them. Before it’s too late for all of us.My bloody fingers scratched the rough rock, and the trickle of white became a steady deluge. Somewhere, deep beneath this mountain, in the cracks that ran to the center of this world, was untouched, undelved power.
Power Corvus hadn’t yet corrupted.
I hoarded every last drop like a dragon gathers gold, calling the rippling, heated magic to me, and it came, slithering through the mountain below me.Please, please. Just one more try. Enough to make my final stand if nothing else.
“The wolf first, then the mother, then we will decide. Perhaps the archer, he seems like a spare to me.” The Oracle had her back turned, nothing but bare flesh covered by a scrap of fabric.
Corvus had his shadows, but she had nothing protecting her.
The best chance I would have.
Maybe ever.
Please, I begged the world.If we want to survive, we have to make this count.
Magic spilled out of me like an exploding star.
Otherworldly power, blinding in force, etched itself on the backs of my eyelids, thundering against my chest until I could hardly breathe.
This was more terrible than anything I’d ever wielded before. Tinged with a wild, uncontrollable rage, as if the world itself howled for revenge.
Yes. I’m a vessel. Use me to finish this.
I became little more than a conduit, channeling power from the ground straight into Corvus and the Oracle, my lungs aching as I screamed and screamed, my arm shaking as a steady stream of star-kissed death flowed from my blistered palm.
Everything. I would expend every last piece of myself right now, as long as I took these two with me.
My scream became a roar, rocks raining down around me from above.
I couldn’t see, light flashing in my eyes, black and white.
Good and evil.
I laughed at that, spraying a mouthful of blood across the floor. It seeped into the outline of the tree and vaporized.
