“I took care of you. I loved you,” Malachi spits.
“You don’t love anyone but yourself. And you used me just like she did,” Selia seethes.
All this time, I thought my sister was under Malachi’s manipulation, but she was waiting. Plotting for this moment to get her revenge.
Selia glances over her shoulder at me. “I never left you. I couldn’t.”
My heart is pounding too fast, but I don’t care. I take a step to reach for her, but Malachi grabs her first.
The orb is blinding as he pulls the dagger from his chest. Blood dribbles down his gold tunic, but he’s grinning.
“I warned you you’re not strong enough.” He looks me in the eyes as he plunges the blade into my sister’s heart.
The scream that rips out of me isn’t Fae. It isn’t of this world at all. It’s a chasm bursting open inside me.
I rip every bit of aether from the wind, the trees, the stone. I wrap it around myself, and I unleash Sarrow. Guards scream. They drop. They fall. And yet, no amount of magic I throw at Malachi works. He stands in a bubble, protected. Drinking my magic.
The ground starts to shake as another palace wall crumbles. Malachi tosses Selia at me, and I barely have time to catch her. The blade sticks from her heart, and her smile is weak, but it’s there.
“Don’t go. Don’t go,” I beg. “Please don’t go.”
She lifts a blood-soaked finger to my cheek, but it falls before it reaches me. Her eyes empty, and I unleash magic like that of the god who blessed me with his.
Destruction.
Chapter 56
Elorie
Embers of aetherrain like fire falling from the sky. I buckle over at the wave of sorrow that slices through me. Pain ricochets against my ribs and burrows in my heart until I’m certain it’s going to explode.
“Elorie, what hit you?” Callum’s hands find my shoulders, catching me before my knees strike the ground.
I bow forward and try to catch my breath. “I don’t know.”
My words come out in gasps as I choke down more air.
A wave of power ripples through the courtyard. It’s dulled by the crack at the center, but still strong enough to breach the gorge. The haze of clouds and magic parts just enough for me to catch sight of Wilder, too far away. That’s when I realize I haven’t been hit with anything at all.
Selia is draped across his lap with a blade jutting from her heart. His hands wrap the handle as he pulls it free. Blood spills out. It leaks between his fingers when he tries to press his hand to the wound.
“Oh no,” I gasp, and Callum turns to see what I’m looking at.
His hands try to hold me steady, but if I can’t walk, then I’ll crawl.
I need to get to Wilder. I need to save Selia.
My hands dig into the stone, chipping a nail. No pain is greater than what sears through me as Wilder’s magic bursts in violent, painful waves. The pulses of his grief shred the Guard to nothing. Even his court burrows down into their magic to protect themselves from the blasts.
Hazel slips through a shadow and stops beside her brother. She whispers in his ear, and he calls down a beam of light that reflects against the night. One second, they’re there, and then they’re gone.
How did she breach the split from the Well in the courtyard?
My magic reaches out along the ground. I search for the ends of the split, but they stretch too far, getting farther by the moment.
“I need to get to him.” I struggle against Callum.
“You can’t. There’s no time.”