Page 136 of Destined Dawn

Fortunately, it’s the only damage I can find and, hopefully, an injury I can heal myself. With my uninjured hand beneath me, I roll over, more hurt screaming through my body, and open my eyes.

Open my eyes and find Christopher Kennedy towering above me.

His face swims in and out of focus. I’m way more woozy than I realized. From the pain. From the fall. From everything.

But I’m stronger now. Stronger than him. With my fated mates by my side, I’m stronger than anyone. This is my chance. My chance to take him out. But the pain and the throb in my head are too much. I can’t find the concentration I need to use my magic.

“Ahhh, I thought fate was meant to be on your side, Pig Girl. And yet it looks like she’s landed you right in my lap. It seems that silly little prophecy everyone’s gotten so worked up about is wrong. Or maybe it just never applied to you in the first place. Because it seems I am destined to rule, not you,” he says, an unpleasant smile on his lips, his dark eyes glittering with amusement. He senses I’m weakened. Weakened and far from anyone who could or would help me. Hiseyes flicker over my form. “Do you surrender? Have you hadenough?”

Enough?

That final word triggers something in my mind. Of a night long ago. A star-lit night in the meadow back home. A star-lit night when magic had buzzed in the air like fireflies and the man in black, his eyes dark with wonder, his cape bristling in the breeze, had towered over me too. A night when this story – my story – had begun.

I hadn’t surrendered then. Hadn’t given up. Even though I was winded and hungry, my magic much weaker than his. Even though I was an unregistered girl with no formal training, no real understanding of the world I was hiding from.

I hadn’t given in.

I haven’t come this far, endured all I have, to give in now.

No fucking way.

“Enough? No freaking way. I’ve only just gotten started,” I hiss and then, just like I did all those months ago, just like I did in that meadow, just like I did with the man in black, I kick out Christopher Kennedy’s legs from underneath him and watch as he sways on his feet and then crashes to the ground. I’m up on mine, despite the pain shooting from my useless arm, and then it’s me towering over him, my good arm stretched out in front of me.

Magic sizzles on my fingertips, light and dark. Light and dark together.

“You killed my mom,” I say calmly.

“I’ve killed many people, Pig Girl,” he says calmly, like he doesn’t believe I’ll actually harm him. “Care to jog my memory?”

“Bronwyn.”

“Ahhh, the seer. Yes, of course. The gift of fortune tellingcan be both a benefit and a nuisance. Beneficial while we could see how things between us and the West would go. A nuisance when she saw my rise to the top. I couldn’t let her live then. Couldn’t let her tell others of the plans, and the deals, the corruption, and all the general unpleasantness it would take to ensure I earned my place ruling this country.”

“The chancellor said a dark magical killed her.”

“It’s what I told him,” he smiles. “And it was only half a lie. Just like you, Pig Girl, I have both dark and light magic inside me. Surely, you’ve understood as much,” he says, his eyes drifting up to that gray cloud that lingers over our heads. “Of course, I have been much better at hiding it than you have. Although, I have no need to hide it any longer.”

I scoff. “We are not the same. You know nothing about me.”

“Oh, I know more than you think. All those little insights my son divulged when he was pumped full of drugs. It was most illuminating.”

“You tortured him,” I say, stepping towards him. “I’ve felt the wounds inside him.”

“I was teaching him,” he snaps. “Making him the man he should be.”

“I’m going to make sure you never hurt anyone ever again!” I say, my magic soaring through my body. This is it. My moment.

“What are you going to do? Kill me?” he sneers and then he fires his magic my way, right at me. It’s what I expected. What I knew he’d do. And I am ready.

My magic soars through my body, more strong and more powerful than it’s ever been. The dark and the light mixing together. It hits Christopher Kennedy’s magic head on and then with all my might and my power, though it chills me to the bone, though it sickens me to the stomach, I pull hismagic towards me, all of it, all he’s firing at me and all he’s holding back.

I drain his magic. I drain all his magic from his body, taking it inside me.

Immediately that darkness lifts. Sunshine breaks through the gray clouds, illuminating us both.

I fall to my knees. His magic is like a poison in my body; I retch, spitting bile onto the grass.

“What have you done?” I hear him screech. “What have you done you stupid girl? My magic! My magic! It’s gone! Gone!”