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Owen, just as much as the rest of us, was confident by the cold, sureness in Abdiel’s features that the Astralite was going to rip the Shadow Queen limb from limb. All of us watched, quiet, as we waited for the warrior to decide his own fate.
“Diel,” Gabriel said again like it was the only word he had ever known. His bloodied hand reached up to the warrior’s sharp jaw, his fingers flitting around his cheekbone and temple, searching for purchase in the dark. “Take me home.”
Abdiel shook, his arms vibrated, and his legs trembled, he ground his teeth together. From her place in the center of the room, Melany lifted her chin at him, dared him to do whatever savage thing he was envisioning that very moment.
“Take me home,” Gabe cried in a hoarse, agonized whisper.“Please.”
That was all it took. That one syllable, lamented in such a piteous way that even the anger drowning out the warrior’s senses quieted. Abdiel’s eyes widened as they pried themselves from Melany’s smug face and looked down at the god pleading in his embrace.
Without another word, Abdiel stood and walked to the far side of the room. Melany straightened when he passed her, and balled her fists as if ready for him to attack, even with her brother still limp in his arms. But the warrior continued walking, keeping his chin high and holding on tight to his lover as they made their way over to Owen.
A sharp chill blasted through the room, a portal to the Astral Plane ripping out around the three defenders of Time. Owen clasped a hand onto his brother’s back, stepping into the void, and closing the door behind them.
“Well,” Melany said. “Now that’s off without a hitch...” she motioned for Ione with one long red painted nail. “Sister. Come claim your retribution.”
What?
Ione and I both turned sharply towards Melany, the High Mer’s face turning a sickly grey-green. I could almost feel the room refill with the tension that was intermitted by Gabriel’s punishment. It was as if I’d forgotten all about why we were here as if it became the least important thing that would happen today. But Melany did not forget.
“Well, go on,” she said, strutting to her sister, cuffing a hand around Ione’s wrist and sending her stumbling in my direction. When we met face to face, I gasped at the line of red that tore from the High Mer’s eyebrow to her lip. I should have felt guilty seeing it, but I didn’t. For everything she’d put her faction through, just to betray me, that scar was deserved.
Sensing that I was now under threat from the High Mer, Ireached for my bone dagger, rippingit unceremoniously from the band around my thigh. Ione froze, like she was afraid, though I was sure the entire power of seven Seas was far worse than whatever minuscule amount of Silverwood was infused into my stolen dagger.
Ione clenched her fists, then unclenched them, and worked her jaw around nervously, never meeting my eyes. Her breath quickened, I could hear it jumping beneath her ribcage.
You’re not a Guardian, you’re so much worse.
“Pathetic,” Melany said under her breath, frustrated with her sister’s lack of menace. She shoved Ione from her place in front of me. The Shadow Sage was less than a step from my grasp, and I could finally make out her wide lips just under her veil. She wore a freckled pout as she said, “I guess I will have to do it myself. Though I should warn you, dear Gwyn, lest any one of my sisters forget. I like to take my time with revenge.”
My breath stalled in my throat; my hands froze to my sides. The dagger in my fist felt lighter than air, its cool touch tingling in my hand.
Ione despises her sister. Something about her face.
I lifted my gaze from Melany’s mouth and found us the same height. Nearly the same build and though she had the pallor of someone cloaked constantly in shadow, I could tell we shared the same golden skin. I closed my eyes, thinking I might vomit, and listened. A buzzing. A buzzing of power beneath her skin. I’d never heard it in Ione, Gabriel or even Kalen. The song of knowledge, the symphony of a Sage. How could I hear it in the Shadows?
Identical twins. Born from the same vein of their Mother’s power.
My eyes shot open, I looked into that dark veil and felt my head start to swim before I laughed. Melany’s pout turned saccharine as she said, “Hello, my Light.”
My mouth flinched to make the sounds, but they barely passed on the wind of her pounce. Melany’s fist flew up to my face, landing right on my chin as I hopped back a step, trying to gather my thoughts, trying to remember any of the training I’d done with Kalen.She swung for me again, but this time I blocked her, slicing my bone dagger through the front of her bodice.
Melany’s lips pulled back into a snarl, though I’d missed, before she drew back from me, Shadow whipping from her hand and materializing a sword.
“Play fair,” she said like she was reminding me.
I lunged for her, ducking under the blade and grabbing her around her waist. When we hit the ground, both of our weapons flew from our grasp. The fall stunned me and slowed me down more than I had anticipated. Melany knew this, and my vision grew dark. She lifted the Shadow seconds before she grabbed my face, banging my head into solid flooring beneath us.Lifting me with a strength I’d not met in this lifetime, she struck the back of my skull once, twice, three times against the floor. I heard Ione yelp at each crack that sounded. My vision blacked as Melany drew back a fist full of spiked rings and whelped them across my cheekbone.
While I waited for the world to return to me, I couldn’t help being surprised at how quickly the Shadow Sage had disarmed me. I thought I would last at least five minutes.
Cold hands braced my face and the darkness lifted from my eyes. Light, too much light. I could all at once see; the midday sky through the glass dome above, my blood leaking beneath my leathers, and Melany, drooling over my limp body like a hound in heat.
“I’m so glad your back, sister” she taunted. “It would have been bittersweet to kill you while you remained in such a state.”
There were no words I could say, nothing to voice the realization of what I was and who this person, face to my ravagedface, was to me. I replied with a swift knee to her groin. Melany let out a strangled gasp and I shot my arm up to her throat simultaneously hooking my right leg around her thigh. She clawed at my hand as I whisked myself over her, dropping my elbow in a crushing blow to her stomach.
Melany squirmed, drawing up a hand to summon the darkness. Wisps of smoke spewed out into the air, shrouding us, and giving privacy to this moment. Seventy-two years of hatred and pursuit of retribution. This moment was hers to take, or mine to take, or maybe she cast a veil around us just so she could tell the story she wanted when this was all said and done. Because her hand reached up to my throat, just as mine was around hers. And she was so strong, I was certain I was going to die.
But as the darkness centered around us, there it was.
