“That is where you are wrong.”
Then Vera threw back her shoulders, releasing the damper that she had held on her magic. Suddenly, she was standing there, glowing as bright as the sun.
She was full-blooded Doma once more.
71
The Doma
“That’s…not possible,” Malysa gasped.
Vera smiled. “It’s very possible.”
“You…you were burned out!”
“No,” Vera said. “My connection to my magic was severed. But I was still bound to Ameerath. It was actually Cyrene who realized the difference. If I had no magic, then I couldn’t be bound. It’s not possible. Which meant that I must still have magic that I could no longer access.”
“Magic doesn’t just heal itself,” Malysa said, frantically looking back and forth between Vera and Cyrene.
“No, it doesn’t. And Cyrene tried to fix it when she awakened the bloodline, but my magic had already been awakened. There was no hope. I figured out how to do it on my own. And now, I will use it to end this.”
Malysa swore and cleared the distance between her and Cyrene. Cyrene held her hands up, ready to deflect her, but Malysa was too fast. Like her dark magic, it was nearly impossible to escape her.
Cyrene tried to pull up Shadowbreaker to stop her, but it was too late.
Malysa’s fingers closed around the Domina diamond.
“No!” Cyrene shrieked.
Then, Malysa jerked it off of her neck.
She held the diamond in her palm, looking triumphant.
“Now, you’re finished, Benetta. You can’t possibly defeat me when I have this,” Malysa cried.
“Malysa, no!” Vera cried.
“I’ll never stop.”
“Please, I know. I’ve always known. But it doesn’t have to come to this.”
“You’ll have to kill me, Benny,” Malysa said. “And you and I both know that you can’t do that. You never could.”
“You’re right.”
“But I can,” Malysa cried.
She lurched the diamond toward her sister, holding it out before her. Then she reared back and sent a blast of darkness toward her sister. A wave of energy that should collide with Vera and end her forever.
But Vera batted the wave away like it was a fly in her way.
And Malysa stood frozen like a statue.
The diamond still hung, suspended in her hand. Her body held out in midair. Not even her eyes were moving.
“What…” Kael gasped.
But he was the only one who hadn’t known what was coming.
Cyrene smiled and straightened.
“You played your part well,” Vera said.
Then she twisted her wrist and pulled the real Domina diamond out of the in-between. She passed it to Cyrene.
“I believe this belongs to you.”
Cyrene reverently took it from her. “You managed to do it.”
“Yes. I’m sorry that it took so long.”
“What just happened?” Kael demanded. “Why is she frozen?”
Cyrene turned to him. “It’s a fake. I gave the real diamond to Vera so that she could enter the Doma chamber and restore her magic. While I wore a diamond that looked similar enough. It’s Kaliana’s actually. She’s going to want it back.”
“You…tricked an evil goddess?” Kael asked with a laugh.
“She’s a crafty one,” Dean said.
“I taunted her with the diamond. I knew that she wanted it. Even when she acted like she didn’t. I was trying to get her to take it. I knew, the minute she used it, that she’d be subjected to the curse that I put on it.” Cyrene frowned. “I just thought she’d go for it sooner.”
“What do we do with her now?” Dean asked, skeptically eyeing Malysa. “I can’t think that this holds her forever.”
“It doesn’t,” Vera acknowledged. “And I know what needs to be done.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Cyrene said softly. “I can be the one.”
Vera shook her head. “No, it has to be me in the end. It started with us. It has to end with us, too.”
Cyrene nodded and let her pass. She knew how hard this moment was for Vera. Maelia’s betrayal had wrecked Cyrene, and that had been so much smaller. This had to be devastating.
Vera stepped up to Malysa. She still hadn’t moved an inch, but Vera stood face-to-face with her. Not twins, as she had claimed with Matilde. But older and younger sisters. So alike and yet so different.
“I wish there could have been another way,” she whispered to Malysa. “I gave you one more chance. Another choice. But you’ll never change, Lysa. You’ll destroy the world for your pain, and I can’t let you.”
In that moment, she wasn’t Vera. She was Benetta. Little Benny. The dreamer. The lover. The light. The Creator. A legend, a goddess, and just a younger sister who wanted to be there for her older sister. Even when she couldn’t be. Even when she had to do the unthinkable.
“Everyone, step back,” Vera told them.
Cyrene helped Dean lift Avoca and carry her farther from the edge of the balcony. She dashed back for her blades. Even though they were blackened, they still belonged to Avoca. Kael limped toward them. His left arm still bleeding profusely.
“I love you, Lysa,” Cyrene could barely hear Vera whisper.
Then she raised her hands. Iridescent shimmer came from her fingertips to mirror the writing in the book of the Doma. It was mesmerizing and beautiful. Light to combat the darkness. Something more than elemental or spiritual magic in her hands. Something primal. Something otherworldly.
Tears came to Cyrene’s eyes as she stared at it.
It was like seeing the face of a god.
And she wept at the honor.
Then Malysa’s body began to glow to match the iridescence. Until the darkness was obliterated, and only light remained. Suddenly, she broke apart into a million tiny pieces of shimmering light. Those pieces were carried off into the breeze. As Malysa’s body disappeared and was blown off the balcony. Gone as dramatically as she had come.
When the last speck was completely out of sight, Vera fell to her knees on the terrace floor. “It is done.”
Cyrene rushed to her side, skidding to her knees before her. “Are you hurt?”
Vera looked up at her, not a tear in her eyes. Just a deep anguish. For she had not just lost an enemy, but also a friend and sister. Something irreplaceable. And she had been the one to do it. It would haunt her for eternity. And she might have to live that long through it.
“I will live,” Vera said as a matter of fact. “Only time will heal. I tried to instill that in you.”
“You did,” Cyrene whispered. “You were the best teacher.”
Vera laughed humorlessly. “I wasn’t. But you were an excellent student.”
“Cyrene!” Dean cried.
Her head whipped up. But, before she could ask what, she saw Avoca.
Avoca was moving.
Dean gently placed her back on the ground, and Cyrene sprang up and raced for her sister. How was this possible? She’d felt the bond break. She’d known that Avoca was gone.
“Avoca? Avoca, can you hear me?” Cyrene asked.