“Do,” she said, her voice a mere husk of its usual self, “what’s necessary.”
No, no, no, I wanted to scream. I can’t. I won’t.
But my gaze remained locked on hers, and I nodded, a movement so small I doubted my brother would have even seen it. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and the pride and love in her eyes grew.
I wanted to cry.
Wanted to raise Elysian and end my brother’s life, right here and now.
But that oily slick and the presence of the dark elves very much suggested that the minute I even attempted such a move, Mo wouldn’t be the only one to die.
If that was going to be my fate today, I was damn well going to ensure Max got there before me.
The electrical charge reversed, and Mo’s awareness slipped away. I sucked in an uneven breath and returned my gaze to my brother. I wasn’t sure what he saw in my eyes, but he actually retreated a step before he stopped himself.
“Now,” he said, the anger more visible this time. “Drop that sword.”
I didn’t. Instead, I drove her into the flagstones. “If you want her, you can come and get her.”
His narrowed gaze swept me. “Drop your knives.”
I tugged Nex free and flung her down. Her point hit the flagstones close to Elysian’s blade, but rather than bouncing away, she too slid hilt-deep into the stone. The pulse of her energy echoed through the earth and back into my feet.
The oily energy restricted neither weapon. Not when they were in contact with the earth, at any rate.
I schooled the relief from my features and returned my gaze to my brother. “Anything else?”
“Where’s the other knife? There’re usually two.”
“One was destroyed in London.”
He studied me, eyes narrowed. It was obvious he didn’t really believe me, but then, he was my twin. We might not share a telepathic link, but we often didn’t need to.
“Turn around.”
Damn—there went any hope of using the gun as a backup weapon. I once again obeyed, and he chuckled softly. “Do you even know how to use a gun?”
“No, but I figured that if the worse came to the worst, I could beat you over the head with it.”
“As if you would ever get that close. Place it on the ground, kick it away, and then step back.”
After I’d sent it sliding off to the Darksiders haunting the shadows to the left, I took one step back. No more. No less.
“Gwen, you’re being tiresome—”
“If you want the fucking sword, come over here and get it,” I ground out. “I have no damn weapons, and dark elf magic scrolls the room. What the hell do you think I’m going to do?”
“Nothing, but recent history has proven it’s ill-advised to take appearances at face value.”
I snorted. “That suggests you’re afraid of me, brother. Or is it more a fear of confirming you are not and never will be the true witch king?”
His anger surged, telling me that’s exactly what he feared. But, after a moment, he moved forward. The tension in the air ramped up, and the viscosity of the oily slick increased, burning across my skin with greater fervor, making my muscles dance and twitch. Vita’s warmth wasn’t countering it, but I made no move to deepen our connection. I just watched and waited.
Max stopped within arm’s reach of Elysian but didn’t immediately reach for her. The light burning down her blade was fierce, white, and angry, and Max’s sword retaliated in kind. The purple-black light I’d noticed on the bridge was stronger than before. Was the stain of the hand that had drawn it forever altering its energy? Sadly, the only person who could actually answer that question had decided abandoning us was the best option for his future comfort. If Mo didn’t give that bastard a piece of her mind, I certainly would. If we both survived, that was.
I continued to watch my brother, my expression passive, even if every muscle vibrated with the angry need to retaliate. After several more seconds, he slowly reached out with the hand that wasn’t leashed to Mo. As his fingers curled around Elysian’s hilt, she burned brighter, and my heart stuttered in horror. Had the damn warning on the King’s Stone been false after all? Or had the fact we were twins voided it?
The pulsing light flickered toward his fingers, but neither rejected nor accepted his grip. Relief flickered across his features as he dropped his gaze to Elysian and tried to pull her from the floor.
I lunged forward, wrapped my hands over the top of his, and pushed us both into the gray. We crossed dimensions so fast, it left me breathless and aching. But at least in this place the oily slick no longer existed and the dark elves weren’t a threat. There was just Max and me in an echo of reality filled with ethereal, otherworldly power.
Only that echo now resembled King Island. We were standing within the monolith circle atop of the island’s grass-covered ridge, and the stones glowed with the same fierce light that now beat in the heart of the sword, the crown, and the ring.
A fourth power burned to life at my spine and filled me with strength. Vita was here with me.
I raised my gaze to Max’s and saw no fear, just confusion.
“How the fuck did we get back to the island?”
“We’re not,” I said. “You wanted to raise the king’s sword, brother. You wanted to know and understand her power. Well, look around. This is what you hungered for. What you betrayed all that you valued and loved for. An empty echo of all that earth is.”
His gaze swept across the gray. “But it’s not empty. It’s far from empty.”
It was then I realized he didn’t understand that the cosmic forces that flowed so easily around us could only be used safely with Elysian’s aid.
“It’s … amazing.” He reached out and touched the nearest power-ridden ribbon. Elysian pulsed under our joint grip, and the ribbon’s energy washed through us, sharp, energizing, and utterly, terrifyingly unworldly. Flesh was never meant to contain that sort of power.
Max’s gaze widened. He wasn’t seeing the danger. He was only seeing the power. The possibilities.
I released one hand from Elysian’s hilt, reached back, and called Vita to me.
“Dear god, Gwen,” Max whispered. “This is beyond anything I could have ever—”
I’ll never know whether he sensed Vita’s presence or the subtle change in my stance. It didn’t matter either way, because without warning his grip on the ribbon tightened and he flung it at me. It hit with the force of a hammer, cindering my senses and leaving me gasping. Another ribbon hit, pushing me back, all but tearing my grip from Elysian. I somehow caught the end of the cross-guard and clung on, desperately attempting to regain balance.
He growled—a low, almost inhuman sound that echoed across the silence—and whipped around, the side of his boot smashing into my face, tearing my grip from the sword and sending me tumbling backward. Something cracked in my cheek and blood spurted. I swore, but the words caught in my throat, as did my breath. For one brief moment, the force of this place swept through me, tearing at me, pulling me apart, pulling me to pieces.
Then light pulsed from my finger and my waist—the crown and the ring, reestablishing the connection to Elysian, protecting me from the forces that would have otherwise killed me.