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Lorien stepped through just before they closed us off completely from the outside world.

I rose alongside Aleks, the blood pounding in my ears. Both our swords shimmered with energy as the Aetherstone itself flared to life behind us, flooding the room in a storm of light and shadow.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Nova

“Once again,you’ve been a tremendous help,” Lorien said.

I backed farther into the room, my muscles tensing as his gaze fell upon the orb I’d uncovered.

“Because I couldn’t have reached that without you.”

I stepped in front of it.

“And in order to finish stealing away the last of your pathetic world’s energy and directing it into the worldIintend to rule over,” he said, “I needed to be able to accessthat last remaining reservoir.”

“You aren’t accessing any of it,” I snarled. “You’re finished. I’m here to bring the balance back, and there is no room foryouin the worldI’mgoing to be ruling over.”

He cocked his head, his lips pulling into a smirk. “A noble goal. But one that will be difficult to achieve without your sword, won’t it?”

A vicious jolt of pain accompanied his words—like he’d taken hold of my wrist and tried to snap it in half—and Grimnor was ripped from my grasp before I had time to register what was happening. As it soared precisely into his hold, I realized withhorror that he’d managed to possessbothmy arm and my sword at the same time.

I’d had no chance to hold on to my weapon.

I was lucky he hadn’t controlled me into doing something far worse.

I stood up straighter, pushing past my fear, shoving aside all my horrible questions about just how deep his well of power went.

“I’ve gotten very good at this trick,” he said, while twisting and balancing the sword, “thanks to the possessive magic I stole from your predecessor, which was, of course, reinforced with what I stole fromyou. So again, allow me to extend my sincerest gratitude. Now, if we—”

He was cut off, forced to spin and meet the powerful swing of Aleks and Luminor.

The swords collided with a sound like cannon fire, sending waves of wild energy radiating through the room.

Lorien’s counter was equally wild, slicing toward Aleks with so much force I nearly cried out, anticipating an inevitable strike and a spray of blood.

Aleks brought Luminor into a guard position at the last moment, but the blow was enough to knock him back several feet. More magic erupted at the contact, and this room that had once felt massive suddenly seemed to be collapsing in on itself, sinking from the weight of too much power in too small of a space.

I darted out of the path of the most turbulent twists of energy, dodging reckless swings and trying to get into a clear space to catch my breath, to think through my own next move.

The Aetherstone continued to hum with more and more energy, coming fully to life now that both Lorien and I—along with the swords—were present. In the rapidly building mayhemaround us, it seemed like a beacon, a lighthouse I kept spotting no matter how high and wild the waves of other magic roared.

Aleks moved like a man possessed, meeting Lorien step for step in an increasingly furious dance of flashing blades and crackling arcs of power. I didn’t know how long he could keep that up, but I was confident he could buy me some time, at least.

I made up my mind and ran for the center of the dais. I needed to take what I could from the Aetherstone while it was awake and practically calling for me; there was no telling how unstable it might become as our battle with Lorien raged on—or what he might do to prevent us from manipulating its energy.

I didn’t have Grimnor, but I could still guide some of that energy into my world, surely—enough to keep it going, if only until we could come up with a more permanent solution.

Pausing only a moment to steady my hand, I reached for the Stone.

Shadows bled from my palm without any real effort from me, falling onto the Stone, which crackled in response. The shadows merged with the current of steady, pale blue energy enshrouding the Stone, turning it to a deep shade of purple. Then my magic was flowing back into me as easily as it had fallen out, except it was clearly…changed.

It snaked around my arm, light and cool as a breeze but buzzing with a power that hadn’t been there before. With as much poise as I could muster among the battles raging around me, I guided that torrent of energy to the orb at the platform’s edge, watching as it settled and ignited a soft glow in its center.

Again and again, I did this, watching the glow become more and more visible. A flickering candle transforming into a glowing ember—steady with promise, even if its light was still faint.

It wasn’t as efficient as I imagined the sword would have been, but it still seemed to beworking, however slowly, so I pressed on.