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“I… but…”
“Do it.”
I sucked in a breath, and the energy from the primal stones rushed into me, as if they’d merely been waiting for an invitation. This was not the burst of energy I’d received from my father’s primal stone, but a supernova exploding inside me, ready and willing to annihilate anything and everything in its path. I struggled to contain it as the Shadow came to a stop before us, dark magic crackling in the air around Lady Mossi’s body.
“Well, well,” the Shadow purred. “You are already on your knees. Should I take this as your official surrender?”
I said nothing, allowing it to grab me by the hair and haul me upright. “Well?” it snarled. “Where is your fearsome power now, girl?”
“It’s right here,” I said, and slammed my palm into the center of its chest.
Even though I knew it was the Shadow I was fighting, I still felt a sense of vicious satisfaction as several of Lady Mossi’s ribs cracked. Grabbing her by the neck, I held her against me as I flooded her body with magic. Lady Mossi thrashed and screamed as I drained every ounce of power from Axlya’s primal stones, converting it into icefire and flooding her body with it. Black mist billowed off her in thick waves, nearly choking me, but I held fast, crushing her against me as I burned every last trace of evil inside her.
The moment she sagged against me, I dropped her to the ground, my arms reduced to leaden weights. I would have collapsed as well if Einar hadn’t appeared out of thin air, catching me before my head could hit the ground.
“There,” he murmured, cradling me against his chest. The steady thrum of his heartbeat soothed me along with his smoky scent, wrapping around me like a blanket. “It’s all right. I’ve got you.”
“B-but what about…”
“She’s fine. But you’ve drained yourself beyond all limits, and you need to sleep now. Relax now, princess, and let us take care of the rest.”
He kissed my forehead, and I surrendered to the abyss of sleep.
44
Lord Oren
Lord Oren watched from atop the hill on his side of the battlefield as Einar cradled Adara’s unconscious body in his arms. He shook his head in amazement as the earth fae soldiers stumbled about, befuddled looks on their faces as the shadow magic cleared from their brains. The girl had actually done what she’d set out to—used her strange hybrid magic to defeat the Shadows. The prophecy was, at long last, fulfilled.
Oren wondered what the late King Aolis would have thought if he knew fulfilling the prophecy would involve bringing the dragons back. He watched as the beasts retreated from the battlefield to form a ring of protection around Adara and Einar, as well as the fallen Axlya, Mossi, and Gelsyne. An uneasy feeling spread through him as Lord Prentis marched up to the dragons and demand entry to retrieve his aunt. What were they going to do now that the dragons had returned? Had Adara vanquished one enemy, only to bring back another?
“Uncle.” Leap pulled up alongside him on the back of his cloud familiar, his pale face smeared with blood and dirt. Oren narrowed his eyes at the streaks of green dye still marring his nephew’s spiky white hair. “Gale has ordered our soldiers to clear our dead and wounded from the battlefield. Do you have any directives for us, or are we free to retreat?”
Oren opened his mouth to answer, but a movement in the air caught his attention. He turned just in time to see two dragons in their half forms lifting a fae from the battlefield. A spike of adrenaline rushed through his veins as he recognized their captive—it was General Slaugh, the earth fae soldier’s red hair flopping about as he thrashed in his captors’ grip and tried to escape.
Oren thought the dragons would bring Slaugh back to Einar and Adara, but to his surprise, they headed toward him. He said nothing as the two dragons—a male with red dreadlocks and a female with bright purple hair—landed before him. They shoved Slaugh to his knees in the bloody grass, keeping their clawed hands wrapped around his upper arms.
“You filthy, brain-rotted lizards!” Slaugh hissed through his teeth. “Let me go!”
“Lord Oren.” The female spoke over Slaugh as though she hadn’t heard him. “We bring you the enemy you came here to vanquish, compliments of General Einar and Princess Adara, to do with as you wish.”
Lord Oren raised his eyebrows. “You’re giving Slaugh to me?”
The male nodded. “We know what he took from you, what he did to your daughter. We know what it’s like to want justice for your loved ones, to want to mete it out with your own hands.” He released Slaugh and shoved his foot into the middle of the general’s back, pitching him forward into the dirt. “Do with him what you will.”
The two dragons stepped back, and Oren took a step forward. He expected Slaugh to fight back, to make some show of resistance. But the general did nothing as Oren fisted his bright red hair and pulled his head back to face him.
“Well?” he hissed, his raptor-yellow gaze boring into the general’s. “What do you have to say for yourself? What justifications do you have for what you have done to my daughter? To the havoc you've wreaked across these lands, all for the sake of your own gain?”
Slaugh clenched his blocky jaw. To Oren’s surprise, tears sprang to his good eye, tracking down the ruined flesh of his face... and as he followed them, he realized the black veins that usually covered the general’s skin had vanished.
The shadow magic Nox must have given him was gone.
“Nothing,” he said hoarsely. “I have no justifications for what I’ve done. I submit to whatever punishment you wish to mete out.”
Despite himself, pity stirred within Oren. He’d seen firsthand what shadow magic corruption could do to a person—had witnessed it in Tempest when Leap and Ryker had brought her back. A tiny part of him wondered if killing Slaugh was the right thing to do. Was spilling his blood enough to atone, or if he should be forced to live with his sins and spend the rest of his life atoning for them.
But then his gaze flicked to his nephew, who stood just feet away, watching. Leap said nothing as he waited, but the rigid set of his jaw and the hatred burning in his silver eyes told Oren all he needed to know.
