Page 140 of Stormvein

The beam strikes Sacha directly in the chest. But he doesn’t stop. It doesn’t even slow his advance. Whatever pain he’s experiencing, he pushes through it with singular focus.

When he reaches Sereven, Sacha’s hand closes around his wrist, forcing the crystal away from his body. Instead of fightingfor control of the weapon, his shadows explode outward in a coordinated strike.

Sereven barely manages to twist away from the first attack. The crystal’s light flares wildly as he stumbles backward, but Sacha doesn’t give him space to recover. Shadows fly around them both, cutting off escape routes, herding Sereven into an ever-tightening circle.

The crystal’s light lashes out again. Sacha’s shadows flow around it like water, reforming on the other side. Where the blue light tears through one shadow, two more take its place.

A blade of darkness takes shape in Sacha’s grip. Sereven raises the crystal as the newly formed shadowblade slices through the air, opening a shallow cut across his forearm. Another strike follows it, this time across his shoulder, shredding the crimson fabric of his robes. Then another along his ribs. None of them are killing blows, they’re aimed to cause pain, not death.

Sereven stumbles, crystal light flickering as his concentration wavers. His remaining guards try to close in, but shadow-forms intercept them, cutting them down. In seconds, the High Commander stands unprotected, bleeding and alone.

Sacha steps forward, the blade leveled at Sereven’s throat.

And then movement comes from the side.

Lisandra.

“No!” I cry out, but it’s too late.

Sacha twists at the sound of my voice just as Lisandra’s dagger punches through his back.

He staggers, shadows fracturing around him. He spins to face her, fury twisting his features.

Her lips move. I’m too far away to hear what she says, but her hand is steady on the hilt as she pulls the knife free.

The shadowblade dissolves. The crystal’s light surges back to full intensity.

My power explodes out of me without thought, light erupting in response to seeing Sacha betrayedagain. Lightning strikes the ground at Lisandra’s feet, forcing her to leap backward.

I tear myself free of Varam and race down the ridge toward the hollow, abandoning all pretense at staying hidden. I don’t know if anyone is following me, and I don’t care. My focus is locked onto Sacha as he turns to face Sereven once more, just as the other man raises the crystal.

A beam of blue light breaks free, striking Sacha in the chest again. He staggers, shadows tearing away, leaving him vulnerable. Sereven presses his advantage, and the crystal’s light cuts through Sacha’s defenses, each beam ripping away more shadows. Yet he doesn’t retreat from the pain it must be causing.

My power surges again, responding to Sacha’s danger in waves of silver light that pulse outward from my body. Every instinct I’ve developed since arriving in this world screams at me to reach him, to help him, to stop whatever is happening before it’s too late. I can’t lose him again. Not after everything we’ve survived together. The mist stalker roars inside my head, but I dare not let it free, in case it weakens my focus.

I reach them as Sacha falls to one knee, his shadows in tatters around him. I press one hand against the wound in his back, and my other hand finds his. Where my fingers touch skin, threads of silver flow into him, seeking out the damage.

The moment I touch him, power erupts between us. My power surges into Sacha, targeting the places where his shadows have been torn away. Where silver meets shadow, new patterns form, intricate spirals and whorls.

The sensation is electric, intimate in ways that transcend physical touch, as if our essences are merging, exchanging, and strengthening each other. I can feel him everywhere—his determination, his pain, his protectiveness.

Can he feel me too?

The boundaries between us blur as my power fills up the broken places in his. His shadows curl around my silver in response, not in defense but in acknowledgement, dancing with it in perfect harmony.

Sereven’s eyes widen as the combined energy pushes back against the crystal’s power. The blue light falters, its beam no longer cutting through Sacha’s defenses but meeting resistance it has never encountered before.

"Impossible," Sereven breathes, staring at our joined hands.

The crystal pulses erratically, its light flickering as if struggling against unexpected interference. For a moment, it seems we might overcome it completely, might wrest it from Sereven’s grasp.

Then Sereven staggers backward, the crystal clutched protectively against his chest. The remaining Authority guards scramble to close around him, forming a defensive barrier between us.

His eyes snap to me, and the color drains from his face.

"Elowen." His eyes are fixed on me with horrified recognition. "It can’t be?—"

The name coming from his mouth sends a cold shock through my entire body.