Our weapons clash, colliding against each other so hard that his light magic and my starlight explode around us, two immense forces bursting across the field and far into the sky.
Every fae and human who was standing near us turns and runs, escaping the deadly energy pouring around us.
I break the connection before my starlight would cut through his weapon, deftly angling my blade so he will be forced to retaliate.
We trade blows at lightning speed, every deadly attempt more brutal than the last as we fight with everything we have. My muscles scream as I take the force of Nathaniel’s blows, his strength. The light magic in his weapon streams through me every time our blades connect, a strange agony of pain and weightlessness while I fight back with my starlight, every sharp bite making his instincts fire, not giving him time to think or question.
I’m facing west, away from the sun, waiting for the moment just before the first rays strike across the air, fighting Nathaniel with every muscle in my body, every ragged breath until then.
Above us, the sky brightens.
The moon’s outline becomes pale and the stars fade.
My time is up.
“Where is your power, Nathaniel?” I scream at him, pouring my starlight across his face, filling his vision with bright, white light as our blades clash so savagely that the metal shrieks.
For a moment, he can’t see me.
My final moment.
My sword clashes against his halberd’s blade and slides upward. I was holding my weapon with both of my hands, but now I let it go, my right hand flying wide. At the same time, I grab his halberd with my left hand and add my strength to its momentum, pulling the blade toward me in a single brutal blow.
Light magic floods his weapon, giving it the power to cleave my armor.
His blade carves a space through my chest.
My power beats outward, raw magic pouring across Nathaniel and the field as the pieces of my heart are exposed. Dying shards cut in half.
My knees can’t hold me.
I slip to the ground, but Nathaniel’s hands shoot out, his muscles tense, a reflex as he catches me, his arms circling my back, tracing my body by feel alone.
Finally, his vision clears, my starlight fading from his face, his wide eyes focusing on me. On the blade. On my open chest and my silver blood flowing to the muddy earth.
“Aura!” His roar is faint in my ears, even though he’s shouting at me. “What did you do? Aura!” He grips me, trying to support my head, trying to keep me upright.
His voice is far away and fading, screaming at me as he collapses to the ground with me, rocking me in his arms. “No… Please… AURA!”
The sun’s first rays wash across the battlefield as my head tips back and my vision finally fails.
Death is mine.
Now he will live.
Chapter 27
There is no waiting.
Within a single beat, everything changes around me.
I stand in a vast, empty space.
Darkness spreads in every direction. It doesn’t have any corners or edges, no beginning or end.
It is my nothing, the place I feared my heart would take me.
I’m wearing my indigo armor. My chest is whole, not cut apart, but silver blood slides down my left arm from my shoulder, trickling across my palm. The color of my blood is what must have startled Nadina when I fought her. Slow drips of silver liquid fall from my forefinger and disappear silently into the nothing at my feet, a reminder of my death.
I am dead.
There is no sound or breeze, but forms take shape in the distance, four figures striding toward me from my left, right, front, and back, as if they each occupy the four corners of the world and are now converging on each other.
I recognize them, even though I’ve never met them before. Not really.
Crimson light surrounds the woman on my left, flowers cascading from her tiara down her long, amber hair, falling to the hem of her long dress. She draws to a stop at a safe distance, considering me with sharp eyes, her head held high.
The human woman on the other side of me tilts her head cautiously as she stops a little closer to me, golden light glinting off the armor that hugs her muscular body, while her halberd sits comfortably across her back.
Behind me, I sense the approach of the man whose crown sits around his eyes, concealing his sight. Half-turning to see him, my gaze passes from the points at the top of his black crown down his gray face to the bottom of the long, black robe that swishes across the floor. His silhouette flickers with dark light, making him appear wraith-like as he slides to a stop, standing the farthest away.
The final figure is the girl with the white hair that flies at her side as if she walks in a breeze I can’t feel. Her pearly dress ripples gently, but her bright, ivory gaze passes warily across the others before coming to rest on me. The light dances around her as she moves, making her appear as if she’s never in one spot for longer than a second.
They each stare at each other, their arms slightly extended at their sides, their power flickering around their fingers. Golden, crimson, white, and dark.
The tension rises around me, a charge in the air.
I break the silence. “Why am I here?”
My voice sounds faint. As far away as Nathaniel’s shouts of pain when he called my name as I died. It’s like I’m listening to myself through water, like my heart has sunk to the bottom of the Spinning Lake again.
I don’t like it. Somehow, my soul has brought me to this place, but I won’t accept that I have no control over what happens here.
As soon as I speak, the newcomers look startled, glancing at each other.
The human woman’s eyes are wide as she picks up her jaw. She gives a shocked hiss, speaking about me as if I’m not here. “She should not have a voice!”
On my other side, the fae woman arches an eyebrow, attempting to mask her own surprise with a haughty declaration. “Clearly, her magic has not separated from her soul yet. Perhaps we are too early.”
I spin to the girl, whose glowing silhouette flickers and vibrates as she takes a step closer to me. She peers into my eyes, the first to speak directly with me. “Do you know who we are?”
“You’re the keepers of magic,” I say.
Because of their positions around me, it’s impossible to keep all of them within my sight at the same time, but I sense the darkness growing behind me from the sightless man.
“Correct,” he whispers, his voice much closer than I would like, sending a chill down my spine. “You, on the other hand, are a problem.”
“A problem?” I turn to him while I stand my ground. “Why?”
He doesn’t answer. Instead, the fae sweeps her amber hair behind her ear as she begins to circle around me. “For starters, you still have a voice. And second… your magic has called all of us.”
“Why is that a problem?” I demand to know.
The girl in the white dress flickers closer, her form brightening and fading as she floats around me, tracing a path that avoids the fae. “When magic dies, it must be claimed,” she says. “We are charged with ensuring that all magic returns to its rightful keeper. All magic must be… controlled.” She glances at the others. “Unfortunately, it appears that we all have a claim on you.”
As she moves, the human woman—the keeper of light magic—also begins a slow prowl around me, pacing a wider arc than the other two females and walking in the opposite direction. Now all three are circling me like moons around a sun.