AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sent a blast of snowy air at Preston’s face, praying I could distract him even if I couldn’t kill him. In the next moment, I had another blade of ice in my hand poised to throw at his other eye.
Preston laughed. “Yes, wear yourself out. Your strength is already flagging. You’re not used to wielding this much magic for long.”
He was right—my muscles were trembling, my mind growing foggy with the effort to concentrate on calling on my power.
Somewhere, dimly, I was aware of lightning crackling, of more magic roiling within the room. Roots were cracking through stone, pushing through dirt and stone to tangle the limbs of demons. Someone was calling my name.
I tossed my ice dagger, but Preston dodged it smoothly. Before I could try to stall him with something else, he made a cutting motion with his wrist. There was an awful crack as the bone in my forearm snapped, white-hot pain searing up the entire length of the limb. My cry of pain sounded animalistic in my ears, half-drowned by the shrieks of underworld creatures and the shouts from fae suffering and dying around us.
“Ren!” Charles cried. His arms were still bound behind him, and he struggled to get his feet beneath him so he could rise.
There was nothing he could do for me now. Tears sprang into my eyes. There wasn’t anything I could do for him, either. Once I was dead, Preston and Nerissa would slay him in a blink, or leave him to be eaten alive by the terrifying monsters still pouring forth from the underworld. They’d used me, knowing my heart would never allow me to do anything else than protect someone more helpless than myself, and yet I’d failed Charles anyway.
Perhaps it would have been more merciful to let them snap their fingers and kill him earlier than force him to endure all of this.
My retaliating magic was half-hearted, a sheet of glistening ice that formed between Preston and me instead of encasing his arm as I’d intended. There was too much agony scattering my thoughts, and I was already weary.
He sneered, lifting his hand again, and I braced myself for the inevitable. Either he would consume me with more pain, taking his time tormenting me until I died, or he would end it all right there, breaking my every bone or sloughing off my flesh.
But instead of searing pain, there was nothing. Preston cried out, his concentration broken, and fell backward, skidding across the ice.
Charles was sprawled on the ground. In desperation, he must have given up trying to stand, and instead, he’d managed to throw enough strength into a kick with his bound legs to knock Preston off his feet.
I knew we only had seconds. With my magic feeling distant, as if forget-me-nots clung to me instead of exhaustion, I pulled on it one last time, begging for enough power. The ice answered, flowing upward from the ground like a living thing and encasing Preston’s limbs, locking him in place.
He roared in fury, his face contorting with his rage. I staggered backward, reaching for Charles to help him up, as storm clouds tumbled into view, permeating the room in shadows punctuated by flaring purple lightning. The hairs on my arms rose in response, but I wasn’t afraid. I was elated.
Help had come. They must have broken past the skeletal army.
“Starlight.” The familiar voice was close to my ear as Garrick grasped my arm, gently pressing the hilt of a hunting knife into my hand.
“Garrick,” I murmured, “you have to—”
But he was already moving, brushing a swift kiss to my forehead and then darting away under cover of the thick clouds, vanishing back into the recesses of the catacombs before Preston or Nerissa could see and take control of him.
They can bind me to their orders, such as the one that will never allow me to let you escape, even when they’re nowhere nearby,Garrick had explained to me, along with the Ashwoods, last night.But they can’t use my body as a weapon unless I’m within sight.
Then you must stay out of their sight,Elle had proclaimed matter-of-factly.
Despite knowing that Garrick would have to stay back, fending off demons as they slipped past our friends and me to ravage through the castle, it was still a comfort to know he was fighting on our side, never too far away. Gratifying to think that he was defying Preston and Nerissa after all the ways they’d used and abused him.
Now, as my eyes adjusted to the blanketing darkness, I turned to Charles, hurriedly slicing through the ropes binding his arms and legs. “What—is—happening?” he panted, breathless either from fear or his exertion after his imprisonment.
Don’t open the door.It was the most selfless request he’d ever asked of me.
And yet I had, perhaps damning us all to grisly deaths.
“Don’t worry,” I said, seizing his arm and dragging him behind me, away from the hulking form of a demon that was approaching us. “The ones who wield this storm magic are our friends.”
At that moment, Princess Elle dashed into view, clouds and lightning swirling around her in an intimidating, awe-inducing display. There was no fear on her face as she leapt between us and an oncoming demon, brandishing a blade sparking with electricity. But Prince Fitz was beside her in an instant, his usually cold expression etched into something bloodthirsty as he watched the creature charging for his wife.
I took this reprieve to whirl on Charles, seizing his shoulder with my good hand. My other hung limply at my side, the constant pain filling my mind with haze. “You have to run,” I urged. “Find a horse and ride hard to Altidvale. Warn the citizens. Nowhere is safe, not until I can find a way to banish all these demons and stop Nerissa and Preston’s plans, but the farther away you get, the more time you’ll have until I can find a way to win.”
Despite the exhaustion painted on his face, there was a fire in Charles’s eyes. “I’m not abandoning you again, Ren.”
“There’s nothing you can do.” Tears pricked my eyes. “You’re sick and tired. I don’t know what awful things they did to you—but I can imagine. And neither they nor the underworld creatures can be killed.” My throat tightened, but I forced my words past the building sob. “I can’t watch them harm you, little brother. I love you. Go and find safety. I pray the gods show mercy on us—on the world—and that I can protect us. That I’ll see you again, someday.”
“Ren...”
