This time, it was my turn to smile, and it made her cringe. “You can’t do it, can you? Not until you kill me.”
Her beautiful smile fell from her face, and her eyes darkened.
“That’s why you tried to kill me at the show. I know it was you.”
Grace bit the bottom of her lip, closed her eyes, and rolled her shoulders. It seemed like her body was undulating with an intense pleasure. She was feeling their pain. I took a step forward, standing between her and the dancers. When the pleasure stopped, she opened her eyes and glared at me.
“Because I’m not complete,” she said. “I’m not whole while you’re alive.”
“Two halves of a coin,” I said quietly. “One magic will cancel the other out.”
“Looks like you’ve been talking to our mother. How is dear Thena? Still in the dungeon, making friends with the rats? Did she tell you she killed her antimage twin to attain her full powers?”
My mouth dropped slightly.
“I see she didn’t. And the guilt ate at her for years. She tried to lie to me, but I knew different, because I couldn't manifest to my full potential—which meant you were still alive.”
Grace was drunk on power, and I was struggling to nullify it. When I tried to block the flow of magic, it moved around me. I was a pebble in a raging river of magic.
Once again, there was very little I could do to stop her, and I knew it. I might end up dead, like all the powerless antimages before me.
“Honor!” Ardax screamed, and I looked down at his face. Was he crying blood? No, blood was dripping out of his eyes and ears.
Percy and Ardax watched me, and I could see Percy pleading for forgiveness for keeping secrets, while Ardax’s gaze was filled with hate. He gestured with his chin, and I knew the signal. Ardax was encouraging me to attack. To fight.
I tried to keep my face neutral as I faced off against my sister. Nathin had moved just over her right shoulder, still watching us, but paying more attention to the paintings.
I might only get one shot. Reaching my hand into my pocket, I fingered the dagger.
“Light and dark,” I whispered, looking at Grace. “I always thought that I was the dark one, being the antimage.”
Her brows furrowed in confusion.
“But I’m a bringer of light,” I said.
Using his finger, Ardax drew a heart shape on his chest. He was telling me to go for the heart. I faltered. I didn’t know if I was strong enough to do what needed to be done. My knees trembled, and I felt weak. I struggled to refrain from the magic around me, knowing it was tainted. That it was made from death. I narrowed my eyes, focusing on my target.
Grace laughed. “You can’t bring light when you’re trapped in the dark.” She clapped her hands, and all the torches in the ruins went out . . . just as I let the dagger fly from my hand. I heard its whisper as it cut through the air. Its impact thudded as the blade hit flesh, and a body crumpled to the floor.
I followed after, my head touching the cold stone.
“What have you done?” Grace screeched. The torches blazed to life, and she raced to Nathin’s side to find her lover dead, my knife buried in his heart.
I didn’t dare attempt to kill her. I didn’t trust myself to have that much power.
“Honor!” Ardax screamed in rage. “Command me!”
It was in that moment that I understood. The bloodcurse. Not only were they bound to my sister as the heir of Allemar. They were bound to me . . .
“I release all the southern elves from this curse. Do what you must to protect the princesses!”
The symbols on the dais went dark. The ebb and flow of magic faded away to a trickle. Everyone collapsed. Mira and Clara embraced each other with heaving breaths, and great wailing followed as Lisbelle and Willa crawled toward their prone sisters. The remaining elves didn’t give them time to mourn as they pulled them away, putting them over their shoulders, and rushing the survivors back to the boats.
Percy and Ardax raced up the stone steps and split, Ardax rushing to Grace while Percy raced to me, picking me up.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered into my hair. “I wanted to tell you so many times, but I couldn’t.”
Great sobs filled the ruins as Grace buried her face into Nathin’s robe. Ardax approached her, but she turned on him.
He grimaced as his back cracked, and he was frozen, his arms pinned to his side. “I’m not done fighting yet,” Grace said. Her brown hair had come unbound from its bun, and it flew about her shoulders.
Her lips moved, but no sound came forth, her hands forming a spell; weaving magic.
I pushed Percy behind me and ran toward her, knowing it was an attack spell.
“Honor, no!” he yelled.
Fire flared up around her palms, and I knew I should duck, run the other way—but I couldn’t. I had to end this.
Grace’s eyes narrowed. She smiled in triumph, and released a ball of fire toward me.
I flung out my arms, making myself an even bigger target as the spell hit me square in the chest.
I screamed as the fire engulfed me, but I didn’t burn or incinerate. I absorbed it. The fire ran up my arms, and I watched as it moved like water, then I closed my fists and the magic dissipated into me. My body was humming.
“That tickles,” I laughed.
I had spent my whole life afraid of magic; afraid of harming people that used magic. I had built up a mental wall around myself to protect others by pushing their magic away. Thus nullifying it. But the more I pushed it away instead of accepting it, the more I tried to possess it. The harder I fought the monster, the hungrier it became.
Whenever I walked through the elven veil, it felt different. Beautiful, warm and serene. I wasn’t scared of it. And then I realized . . . all magic was still magic. Dark magic, protective magic, offensive magic. I was a sieve. A conduit. All magic wanted to flow through me.
“No!” Grace cried out and sent another wave of attack. Shards of ice, blasts of water; all of them hit me, moved across my body, and then slowly absorbed within me until I felt full.
With each attack, I continued to advance, raising my hands.
“Stop it!” Grace backed up and tripped over a broken pillar.
I stood over her. “Give up Grace, it’s done.”
In her fall, she had bitten her lip, and now her cheek was smeared with blood.
“It’s never over.” Her eyes flicked behind me, and I turned. Ardax had a knife pressed to Percy’s throat.
“Ardax!” I opened my mouth to command him.
“Say a word, any word, and he’s dead,” she hissed.
I bowed my head in submission, pressing my lips together.
“It’s only fair,” Grace said, moving to stand next to Ardax and Percy.
There was the barest shimmer over her shoulder, hidden in the archway.
She raised her hand to Percy’s face, running a nail down his cheek. “You killed my love. I get to kill yours.”
I shook my head.
“Ardax, Ki—”
“No wait!” I said, ignoring her order. “It’s me you want. If you kill him, then I’ll do everything in my power to destroy you. But if you let him live, I’ll submit to you.”
“This is a trick,” she said, her eyes narrowing.
“It’s not. I won’t raise a hand against you.” I turned to Percy. “I’ve lost so much tonight. I can’t lose you.” Facing her again, I said, “I promise that if you release Ardax and Percy, I will swear to never kill you.”