AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Razak, be rational,” Noemi said, still hoping for the impossible. “We can help you. Let the boy go, surrender yourself, and Justice will consider your surrender when it comes to sentencing.”
“‘Sentencing’?” He laughed. “You have no right to judge me.”
If Lark were conscious, he’d have a plan, a trick up his sleeve, a knife to throw, but he lay in Draven’s arms, out cold, consumed by an unleashed, ancient power. Dying.
“You love him,” I blurted. “You love Zayan.”
Razak stilled and studied me, studied my face, looking for the trick. There was none.
“He’s dying, Razak. Whatever he took from you, it’s eating him up from the inside. He’d rather let it consume him than turn into you. He’ll save everyone, save us all, just not himself. You love him. You don’t want him to die any more than I do.” I raised my hands, Love’s crown hanging from my fingers. “Let us end this. Help us save Zayan’s life.”
“You can’t have him, Arin, you and your perfect ways. Your court is the worst of them all—weak, worthless,nothing.”
I hadn’t realized how personal this had been for Razak, but now I knew his mother was of Love’s court, and he was half Love, his mad reasoning made strange sense, at least to him. He’d said it wasn’t personal, and it wasn’t, not between us. But between him and my court it was. All his life, he’d thought he’d been abandoned, thought himself lesser, been desperate to prove he was strong, better, while keeping Lark—the true heir to Pain—trapped in his shadow, unable to shine.
“He’s dying, Razak. Let Draven’s boy go. Let’s end this.”Do one good thing in your wretched, selfish life.
Razak’s one-eyed glare snapped from me to Draven to Noemi, seeking the trap, but we didn’t have anything left to fight with. This wasn’t about us; it was about saving Lark.
“You promised him. Nobody can kill Zayan. Just you.”
Razak’s weeping eye widened. “But I didn’t mean to do it. Zayan took it back. He took the gift back. I didn’t mean to do this. I don’t… I don’t want to be alone.”
I stepped forward. “Help us destroy the crowns.”
He looked at Draven and Lark, then down at the boy clutched against his legs.
He had a heart, somewhere beneath all that pain. To be able to love like he did, he had to have a heart. Lark was his weakness. Lark had been right, he really was the only one that could stop Razak, but not in the way he’d thought. Lark’s death would be Razak’s undoing.
Razak shoved Draven’s boy toward us.
Draven sobbed and knelt, laying Lark down. He rocked back on a heel, his face crumbling in tears, and held his arms out. The boy hesitated a step, then threw himself into Draven’s embrace.
“The crowns,” Noemi said. “Now, Arin.”
Razak stayed in the empty pool and stared at the hateful crown of Pain in its place alongside the others. Just so long as he stayed there and didn’t move or attack, we could do this.
Noemi climbed the steps up and over, taking her place behind Justice’s crown.
“Draven,” I urged.
He let his boy go and stumbled into the pool to stand beside his crown.
And now all that was left was me.
The crowns already thrummed, and when together, they’d scream again. And with the courts alongside them, they’d shatter. Saving Lark, saving the shatterlands, saving us all, even Razak.
I approached, and the crowns resonated, whining aloud like dying creatures. Lark writhed but I walked on; I couldn’t stop for him. This had to happen.
Razak looked up, past me, at Lark.
When Lark’s howling began, it took everything I had not to break, turn around, and rush to him. Thiswouldsave him. Razak glowered at me, at all of us, but he remained, and then grasped Draven’s hand beside him, and Noemi’s to his right.
I stepped down, pushing through the cacophony as though pushing through thick oil. Lark screamed, the crowns wailed, and by the gods, the noise tore through my head, my mind, my soul, and my heart. I knelt, placed Love’s crown beside its kin, and straightening, I grasped Draven’s and Noemi’s hands.
The connection between us all, and between the crowns, sparked a cascade of light. Power breathed in, flooded the room, surged and rolled, pouring as though the ocean had been funneled down the tower, into its basement, and into us. I couldn’t let go if I’d wanted to. Bitter pain, violent war, sharp justice, and obsessive love—all four slammed down, landing like hammer blows, and the crowns shattered, throwing us back.
I struck the side of the pool and dropped to my knees, landing hard and gasping.
