But, now…
Now, there was nothing.
It was as if that blood debt that Avoca had sworn to her so long ago had been repaid. Cyrene had saved Avoca in the forest outside of Eldora and laid down her life for it. A life for a life. Instead, they had been bound. And now, that debt had been paid.
“Avoca,” Cyrene gasped, clutching her side and scrambling toward her. “No, Avoca, please.”
Tears streaked down Cyrene’s face, and she looked over her soul sister through blurry eyes.
And that was when she saw it.
The black that had reached her. The black that had darkened one of her hands, creeping up to her wrist, shriveling the skin as it touched it. An infestation. Something that had…ended her.
She stared down at her friend in horror. Cyrene had been prepared to die. To sacrifice herself if it helped their cause. But she had never been okay with losing her friends. With losing Avoca. It couldn’t be possible.
Yet there was no bond.
Proof enough.
Proof she couldn’t believe.
Cyrene felt the bond from Sarielle. The soothing from her soul sister as she realized what had happened.
I will come to you after I finish off the last of the Voldere. My sincerest apologies. She was kind and true. The best of us.
Avoca was the best of them. And Malysa had ruined it.
Dean came to her side. “Cyrene, we need to move. We have to get out of here.”
She shrugged him off. “I can’t leave her.”
“We need to regroup.”
Cyrene saw nothing but Malysa. “How could you do this?”
Malysa smiled. “Now, you know half the hurt that I felt when my own sister abandoned me.”
“So, that’s it?” Cyrene asked through her tears. “You hold a two-thousand-year-old grudge and take it out on everyone else? You can’t move on from what happened with Benetta?”
“Oh, I think I like this much better,” Malysa said. “I’ll just make you watch as I kill all of your little friends.”
Malysa drew herself up, preparing to fight again. Cyrene couldn’t let her. Enough was enough. She had never thought it would come to this. But, if it did, then this was what she would have to do.
Cyrene rose to her feet, leaving Dean to care for Avoca. She swiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand and drew Shadowbreaker to her. The ruby glowed from within as she pulled magic from it. She began a slow pace toward Malysa, and the clouds began to darken.
“You may be a god, but I am the Domina.”
Malysa laughed. “The Domina is made up. A silly title my sister gave her daughter to feel important.”
“That is what you were led to believe. But the Domina is so much more than that. It is the line of all the previous Dominas. It is the energy of a hundred. The knowledge of thousands. It was enough to beat you before. It will be enough again.”
Clouds zoomed in on the clear summer day. It covered the sun. Heavy rain clouds full of water. Suddenly, lightning shot down, lighting up the sky.
“And my ancestor gave me this power,” Cyrene said as she held her arms out. “I am sunshine. I am lightning. I am a hurricane.”
Then, she clapped her hands together, and the bolt of lightning shot out of the sky and straight into Malysa. She shuddered as the energy rippled through her. Her hair sparking and hands held out. The power coursed through her. It should have burned her out. Destroyed every last inch of that darkness.
But it didn’t. Malysa pushed it aside. Her hair falling back down, losing the static. Her eyes glowing with the extra energy.
“Is that all?” Malysa asked. “You control the weather? I control the darkness.”
Cyrene drew her hands back as if she were swimming through the water. A technique that Mikel had taught her when fighting off a sea dragon. The clouds shifted, revealing the sun’s hottest rays through a break in the clouds.
“And I control the light,” Cyrene snarled back.
“You are an Heir of the Light,” Malysa said mockingly. “It can work through you, but you control nothing. I am the darkness.”
Then the day slowly started to become night.
Malysa didn’t move clouds to obscure the sun. She just blotted out the sun and turned day into night.
Cyrene fought against it. It was the summer solstice. The longest day of the year. This shouldn’t even be possible. But, with Malysa, Cyrene was learning that anything was possible. Even the impossible.
Then a voice cut through the terrace. “That’s enough, Malysa.”
Malysa’s concentration broke as she stared at the woman standing at the opening to the corridor beyond. “Benny?”
“Hello, sister.”
“You finally showed,” Malysa said with a laugh. “And here I thought, you would hide away forever. You know that I was waiting for you, of course.”
“Of course,” Vera said. She took another slow step forward. “But you don’t have to do this. It’s been so long. Aren’t you tired of fighting?”
“No,” Malysa said. “I was tired of that prison you locked me in, but now, it’s my fortress. The fighting…that I enjoy.”
Vera took another step toward her. “I want us to be sisters again.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Isn’t it?”
“You said you would never forgive me,” Malysa reminded her.
But there was a hesitancy that hadn’t been there before. More of a question than a response. She did want what her sister was offering. Another chance to be together. There were so many hurts between them over the years that it hardly seemed possible.
“I can forgive but not forget. We can move on but never get rid of our past,” Vera said. “It’s something you never understood.”
“You don’t mean it,” Malysa said.
“Yes, I do.” She held her hand out. “Come with me. Let’s take the diamond and go.”
“Go where? Where in this world could I go?” Malysa demanded.
“Not this world. Home.”
Malysa flinched. “Never. They would never let us come home.”
“We haven’t tried in so long. Father would welcome us home with open arms. We could be princesses again. We could demand what we were too young to do it at the time. It would be our next adventure.”
“And you would go with me?” Malysa asked uncertainly. The darkness was receding all around her. As if even the possibility of her sister’s love returning was enough to bring back some light in her life.
“Yes. There is nothing left for me in this world either. Our reign is done.”
Malysa took a step forward and then stopped. “No. No, sister. We can rule this land. Together.”
“No, Lysa. These people belong to themselves.”
Malysa sneered, “You always were soft for them. Found the poor humans more important than me.”
Vera sighed. “You never saw the good they were capable of.”
“I am this close,” Malysa said. “Then I will reign here. And you can stay, or you can go, sister. But this is where I belong. Where I shall rule from on high, just as I always deserved to.”
Vera pursed her lips. Her eyes hardened. “I was afraid that you would say that.”
“What, are you going to try to stop me?” Malysa laughed and pointed her finger at Cyrene. “Use your little vessels to influence me? It doesn’t work. She isn’t strong enough, and I watched your magic snap in the spiritual plane. You have nothing left.”