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My magic pulsed beneath my fingertips, thunder clapping loudly overhead as the sky darkened rapidly. I was pulling on too much magic, too quickly. But I didn’t care.

Lightning lashed out so close the others jumped back, but I kept my focus on Nikolai. Concentrated on the sensation of my power burning beneath my fingertips where they were buried against his skin. Lightning struck again, and Zion jumped back as a bush next to him sparked with fire, cinders lodging themselves in his clothing. He patted the cinders against him until they doused, reaching his hand out to douse the brush fire with his own magic.

“Diana, rein your magic in.” His voice was a command, but I barely heard him.

I lifted my gaze and his silhouette moved into my line of sight ahead of me.

“Diana—” His hand was held out towards me, as if he was going to physically stop me himself.

I bared my teeth at him, my eyes snapping to meet his wary gaze. He took a step back, his hand reaching for his chest as a soft gasp escaped his lips when he saw my eyes.

“How dare you command your queen.”

The words didn’t sound as if they were my own. They were glacial. Chilling.

“Your eyes—” He moved quickly, but to where I didn’t see. All I knew was I couldn’t see him anymore, thus I focused my magic back on Nikolai. A fresh surge of power jolted through him so sharply, his back arched off the forest floor to meet my fingers.

His eyes remained black. Open. Unmoving.

Swallowed in darkness.

“Diana, it’s happening again… your eyes.” It was Tess’s voice in my ear now, a soft plea. “Please, Diana. If you don’t stop, we will lose you, too. The magic has taken you. Your eyes… they swirl with amethyst and onyx. Please Diana, I beg of you.”

I pressed my eyes closed firmly, squeezing them tight.

This had happened when my magic had taken over me, turning me into a bloodthirsty and unfeeling savage. The last time my eyes swirled with magic, I had killed my own people. The very people who had pledged their lives to me as their rightful queen.

The magic held me tightly and all consuming, it didn’t want to let me go. I shoved hard against it with all my strength, but it reared against me. The only thing I could think to do was to sever myself from it temporarily. It wouldn’t release me otherwise. I imagined a blade sliding between me and my power. When the power finally disconnected, I flew onto my back from the release of energy, my breaths coming in fast, labored pants.

My head sank into the forest floor as the dawn sky rose above me, Kenna circling with her raven wings overhead. A tear slipped free and trailed down the side of my face as I stared up, unblinking.

I sucked in a heavy inhale as Tess leaned over me, her face flooding my vision. Relief was plain on her face.

“Thank the Mother,” she muttered, pulling me up and against her. “Diana, don’t do that to me again.”

She held me as tightly as the magic had only moments ago, and a sob escaped me as I buried my face in her shoulder.

He was gone.

Nikolai was truly gone.

Everything that had happened over the last few months tore out of me on a guttural scream. The last time my emotions had overtaken me, my magic had detonated. But I had severed that connection this time—there was no magic left in me.

All I felt now was a cavern where my heart should be.

I screamed until my throat was raw, my cries piercing the quiet forest air. I sobbed until there was nothing left, the tearsdry and caked against my cheeks as I fell against Tess, utterly spent.

Tess held me as I cried for Nikolai. For my unbound magic. For my father Donika had murdered. For the innocents she had tortured and maimed. For the Stormshades who would never be free in Istmere because I hadfailed.

My auburn curls were stuck to my forehead, the back of my neck. I was covered in blood, dirt, and tears, limp in Tess’s grasp.

I had losteverything.

When I had cried all that I could, when my emotional well was empty and had nothing left to give, I quieted. Tess gently stroked my hair as I fell silent. A morose stillness fell across the forest as Zion lifted me from the ground and out of Tess’s arms.

He held me in his own, his apologies repeating into my ear as he stroked my back softly. I was limp in his hold, my body utterly and completely exhausted. He would need to carry me back to Prins. I wasn’t sure if I could make it back on my own. Or if I would even live now that Nikolai was dead. Has his turning Noctani altered the bond somehow?

This was how it always was. First, I shattered. Then, I was numb.