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CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

E verest’s power was increasing, the Void able to block the magic of fifteen Fae at once now. But I was certain it could do more than this. The Elysium Prophecy wouldn’t have named it if it wasn’t an unimaginable force.

“Enough,” Everest growled as I held her firmly in front of me, aiming her towards another line of Stonebreakers. “Let go of me!”

The wind stirred at my back and I lurched forward, swinging around and keeping Everest behind me a breath before the swing of a sword took my head from my shoulders.

The Sky Witch grinned as I met her grey gaze, feral in her nature as she lowered her sword and air magic exploded from her instead.

I was thrown onto my back and held down by the immensity of her power and a heavy growl built in my throat as I strained to get up.

“Vesper,” Everest gasped, naming the creature who I had never heard named before. “You came.”

“I’m not a hero, I just don’t like being called a liar,” the Sky Witch growled.

She prowled toward me to finish the kill and my gaze flitted to Everest who was glancing between her and the man she had come with, looking like she might turn and flee.

Recognition rippled through me as my gaze tracked over the tall Fae.

He was the fighter from the amphitheatre, so why was he accompanying the Sky Witch?

Vesper’s gaze met mine as she prowled forward to drive her sword into my chest, but I looked to Everest, snaring her with my possession, focusing to try and wield the Void without needing to touch her.

I felt the connection my Order had to my Fearsire, our souls woven deep.

With a wrench of effort, I forced the Void to answer my intentions and the power ripped from Everest, slamming into the Sky Witch and evaporating her magic.

The pressure of air on my chest released and the Sky Witch looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers only to find no magic there.

“What the fuck is this?” she murmured.

“Vesper, watch out!” Everest cried as I rose to my feet, swinging my sword for the witch’s throat, but she leapt back at the last second and raised her own weapon to counter the blow. I swung at her again, and her sword clashed with mine as we fought to strike the other.

“Need a hand there, spectre?” the man called to the Sky Witch.

“Fuck no,” she called back, her sword smashing into mine again.

I turned my possession onto the Sky Witch, meeting with the force of her mental shields and trying to break through them.

But there was no affecting her, her Order not allowing my power in as mine didn’t allow hers to affect me in kind.

She smiled at me like she knew what I’d been attempting and found humour in it.

But I wasn’t sure I would ever understand such emotions.

A blaze of fire built between my fingers and I blasted them at her face. She whirled aside to avoid the flames and my sword sailed out to slice across her arm though even that blow didn’t land as heavily as I’d intended.

“Barely a scratch,” she laughed as she leapt back again and I swung for her once more, using the sword I had taken from Everest all those months ago.

It was a fine thing, cutting shapes into the air like it had a life of its own, but Vesper’s sword work was immaculate and I couldn’t get the upper hand.

“Take her, Bastian, get her away from this poisonous beast who has his claws in her mind,” Vesper called to her male companion and the man strode toward Everest.

It appeared he held no loyalty to Pyros. Traitor or spy, he would die this day too.

I forced my Fearsire to run, escaping the man as he shot vines toward her, and wielding her Void to gutter out his magic too.

So he was from Avanis, an intriguing detail.

Was he allied with the Sky Witch? I could not see the purpose of such an alliance and as my mind ticked over possibilities, I returned my focus to the fight at hand where my attention was currently best placed.

Killing them both would solve all complications.

Despite the loss of his magic, he didn’t slow, trying to get hold of her while I forced her to run. The Sky Witch swung her sword low and it scraped against my thigh, cutting through my trousers and drawing blood but I barely felt the pain, never one to react much to injuries.

I parried her next strike, but she was a menace on a warpath, like she could scent my blood in the air and it drove her on for more of it. She raised her blade, aiming for my head this time and a clang rang out as I brought my sword up to meet hers.

“You should never have let me spill your blood, Fury,” she snarled through a grin, my blood rising from the wound to coil in the air between us.

Blood magic.

She tugged upon that dark power and it drove pain into my body, tearing through my limbs and trying to force me to submit. The agony might have been paralysing to any normal Fae, but my mind was a fractured thing and I had long ago learned to relish in the sensation instead of bow to it.

The Sky Witch’s eyes narrowed as she tugged on more of my blood, ready to wield it against me, perhaps drain me dry of every drop. But I slammed my hand to my thigh, fire blazing against my palm to cauterise the wound and cut off the flow.

The pain continued to hammer through my bones as I cast a ring of flames around her, but she leapt free of them before I could cage her completely. Her clothes were slightly singed, the scent of burning hanging in the air and she cursed as she realised the very tips of her hair had been seared.

“You’ll pay for that,” she spat, coming for me again, ducking and weaving as my sword carved through the air mere inches from her skin. She managed to get beneath my guard and threw a punch into my jaw, blood coating my tongue from the impact and my head wheeling aside.

I kicked out at her, forcing her back and swung my sword in a wide arc to slit her throat, but she threw herself to the ground to avoid it, leaping back to her feet and coming at me again faster than before but I threw a fistful of flames between us to halt her.

The bastard chasing Everest caught hold of her, yanking her against his chest and I threw my attention his way and snared his mind. I wielded his earth power to break apart the cuffs on Everest’s wrists, unleashing her elemental magic and making her blast him with water.

He was thrown away from her and she cried out in anger as I cast two ice blades in her hands, ready to kill the man for good.

But as I tried to wield his mind again, his mental shields flew up, iron clad and unyielding.

I must have caught him unawares before, but now, there was no breaking into his head.

The Sky Witch came at me again, our swords clashing, blow for blow.

Fire bloomed from my palm, racing down the blade, along hers and scorching her fingers.

She dropped her sword with a curse then called upon her blood magic again, drawing blood to her from across the battlefield, so much of it here to feed that power.

The dying bodies around us lurched upright at her call, hurling themselves into my path.

I swung my sword for her head, ready to cleave it in two, her guard open while she worked to wrangle her blood magic, the weight of it building in the air I breathed, an acrid taste sliding down my throat.

I cut through the dead that barred my way to her, sword raised.

Her death was mine or my death was hers. This moment would decide it.

A roaring explosion tore the air apart, molten lava spewing and the ground bucking violently. Rock and stone burst up beneath us, throwing me away from the Sky Witch, from the Avanis spy, and from Everest too.

I hit the ground, directing the lava away from me and my head smacked against the rocks, making me lose my hold on Everest as my possession stuttered out. I lifted my head, feeling a line of blood trickling down my neck, but one touch to the wound on the back of my skull told me it wasn’t fatal.

I reached for Everest with my possession, trying to summon my Fearsire to me, but I couldn’t sense her close by.

My ears rang, the roar of battle falling upon me and the smoke hanging in the air veiling my view of where we’d been stood just moments before.

More explosions sounded across the plain of lava, the Flamebringers working to destroy our enemies with the violent attacks intended to destroy them all and cries of death echoed across the land.

I rose to my feet within the blackish smog, seeking the girl who may have been Pyros’s only hope at victory now.

And as ever, in the midst of war and on the brink of losing everything, I felt nothing at all.