Page 101 of Darkness Births the Stars #1
“I don’t know if I can…” A tremble went through me as I suddenly realized I would have to let my power reign free, would need to use it to destroy and manage to control it once more afterward.
“That’s madness.” Aramaz’s gaze flitted between me and his brother, and he shook his head. “She can hardly control it under normal circumstances. How should she do so now?”
“Your doubts are not really helpful, brother,” Belekoroz responded, shouldering the king out of the way to step closer to me. He caught my gaze, calm despite the screams and battle noises all around us. “You can do this,” he said, never breaking eye contact. “I know you can.”
I swallowed hard, icy dread knotting in my stomach. “But what if I do lose control?” I whispered, only loud enough for him to hear. “What if I…”
A small moment of hesitation, Belekoroz’s eyes darting to his brother.
Then he obviously decided he did not care that the king’s gaze was upon us, because he reached out and cupped my cheek, his touch burning through me with an intensity only rivaled by the exhilarating feeling of his mind brushing against mine.
“Then I will still die with a smile on my face, my queen. For I will have witnessed you at your most glorious.”
After all those endless, lonely years, the sudden closeness between us made me gasp, part of me relishing this moment despite the danger we were in.
“I thought you were angry at me,” I answered.
Amusement trickled through our bond. Amusement and a fierce longing that made our years apart fall away. “Never stopped me from wanting you more than anything else in this miserable world. ”
Before I could answer, Chaos erupted around us, forcing us apart and to our knees.
This time the onslaught was relentless: wave after wave, a tempest of untamed power, pressing me down on the ground whenever I tried to rise.
A desperate sob escaped me as I lay there.
The sky above was nothing more than a dark void streaked by flashes of Chaos magic.
Why was I so weak? I needed to do something, I needed to…
“Baradaz.” A warm hand closed around mine, bringing me back to reality. Belekoroz’s face hovered over me, stark desperation on his pale features. Somehow, he must have crawled over to me. “You need to call in the Flame. Now.”
I wanted to. I truly did, but something was still holding me back, my fear so great I was frozen, condemning us all.
Belekoroz touched his forehead against mine. His mind, his magic, intertwined with mine with an ease that made me gasp. He had lowered all his shields. And he was not afraid.
“Together,” he whispered inside me. “We do this together.”
Everything suddenly became effortless.
The Flame ignited within me with an all-encompassing warmth, filling my entire being and washing away all pain, all doubt.
I welcomed it, arms outstretched as the power raged through me, lifting me from the ground and enveloping me in a radiant spiral of pure Light.
My hair escaped its braid, the fiery locks blowing around me in the storm of my magic.
Though I had released Belekoroz’s hand, I could still feel his dark presence in my mind, calm and reassuring, anchoring me.
When the next wave of Chaos crashed upon us, I was ready.
The Flame flared up against it, disintegrating the sizzling energy into nothingness.
The giant spider screeched in frustration, its legs gouging deep furrows in the ground as its many eyes focused on me with menacing intensity.
I met the monster’s challenge without hesitation.
Power thrummed in my veins, eager to be unleashed. And so, I let it flow forth.
Chaos and Light collided. For a moment, they were evenly matched, swirling together in a dance of magic and colors, both mesmerizing and terrifying.
Then the Flame blazed impossibly bright, a powerful rush, my skin and hair glowing as if set alight.
With a thrust of my hand, the magic tore into the monstrous creature before me.
The ensuing shockwave, as the Kritak erupted in a towering column of fire, sent everyone to their knees once more.
I barely noticed. I was reveling in the feeling of the magic pounding in my very blood, a triumphant laugh falling from my lips.
There was nothing I could not do with this power, nothing I could not achieve.
Another blast of the Flame blazed through the remaining Kritak, reducing dozens of them to ash.
Why had I ever thought I was a failure? Why had I denied myself this power? It was glorious. I was glorious, and—
“Baradaz!” Aramaz’s voice shattered my thoughts. “The tear in the Veil!”
My gaze snapped to the spot where the Kritak had entered this world. Disbelief coursed through me as I saw Chaos pulsing in the air with renewed agitation, small ash particles spinning around in a quicker and quicker rhythm.
“It’s remaking itself.” Belekoroz’s voice held more fascination than apprehension as he stepped closer, his eyes fixed on the reawakening Chaos magic. His mind whispered against mine. “Because Chaos always finds a way. It wants to be in this world. It needs to be.”
As if his words had opened a gate, I could suddenly sense it: an enticing caress on my skin, a pull on my power that called to me. I could make you even more powerful, it murmured. I could make you capable of things beyond your wildest imagination. I could set you free.
The Flame wavered inside me and my grip on it faltered.
“No,” I gasped, shaking my head to silence the seductive voices in my mind, pushing the magic away.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to control the Flame if I let Chaos tempt me.
The tendrils of wild magic retreated, recoiling like a living thing.
Then the tear in the Veil pulsed like an open wound in the sky and Chaos struck with renewed power.
Before it could reach me, Belekoroz moved in front of me. His shadows came alive to shield us once more. But this time, when they tangled with Chaos, they were overwhelmed one by one. More and more tendrils of raw magic poured through the rip, searching, insatiable.
I screamed in fear as they broke through Belekoroz’s power, weakened from the previous fight. They thrust into his body, penetrating armor and flesh. He was not hurt, though. Wild elation quickly replaced the initial shock on his face as the Chaos magic streamed into him.
His eyes met mine. I watched in rising horror as amethyst and emerald flames ignited in the darkness, as a fire blazed up beneath his skin, every vein glowing with an otherworldly light.
His corporeal form could not contain the terrible power within him any longer and began to dissolve, leaving behind only fathomless darkness that expanded in every direction, consuming everything in its path.
The monstrous Kritak attacking us had been gigantic, so large its presence had obscured the light of the sun. It was nothing compared to the endless Darkness that now engulfed the entire sky, a churning void of unimaginable power. A god’s power, unleashed.
“Belekoroz!” I screamed, both in my mind and into the air. In vain. Only icy silence answered me. The same all-encompassing dark that shrouded the world also drowned our connection .
“Baradaz!” Aramaz cried out, waving at me. He wanted me to flee, to save myself. Because he feared Belekoroz would not be able to control this power—that it could not be controlled.
I gazed down upon Lyrheim, taking in the devastation Chaos had already wrought upon our world.
The immense presence behind me swelled, siphoning away every flicker of Light.
Tendrils of Darkness and Chaos tingled over my skin, probing at first, then biting as if they sought to pry open and expose the very essence of my being.
I took a deep breath. Then I turned around and stepped toward the swirling shadows.
Something shifted. A sudden awareness in the pulsing maelstrom of utter darkness, focusing entirely on me. Not a flicker of warmth in its gaze, only a sharp, relentless hunger. For the Light; for the power lurking within me. And I was offering myself like a willing sacrifice.
I did not stop, did not even slow down, each step even and measured.
The Darkness swallowed me whole.
My body was floating in nothingness, the immense presence of the being that had once been Belekoroz both familiar and terrifyingly other.
Despite the wild urge to move, to call forth my own powers, I remained utterly still as that dreadful power tore into my flesh.
Not like prey did when danger was near. No, like a deadly predator would, a mighty beast that had roamed the world alone for far too long and suddenly came upon one of its own kind.
Teetering between shivering apprehension and enraptured delight.
Behind the unbridled Chaos that had overwhelmed him was the same Darkness I had touched so many times—the Darkness I craved, the Darkness I knew also harbored Light.
I did not speak, knowing words would be meaningless now.
Instead, I opened my mind as he had done for me, letting him see every single moment between us that I treasured, every memory I had kept enclosed deep in my heart.
Our wild spirit races in the Other. His teasing remarks. Every time he had made me laugh. All the times he had challenged me. Every touch, every kiss, every caress.
For an instant, the ice around me felt less searing, its grip on me relenting.
Then a taunting whisper tickled my ear.
“Little fool. So eager to see something good in me, to deceive yourself into thinking my Darkness will not devour you. We both know these are nothing more than pretty lies—that the moment you glimpsed my true self, you turned away from me.”