“That was what the prophecy was about. It never said we had to fight.” He slashed his blade at her in retaliation. His breathing more labored as the fight progressed. “It said we had to meet. You chose what that meant.”
“I don’t think,” she began, dodging a blow and then rolling out of the way of another, “that the Heir of Light and the Heir of Darkness meeting meant we were going to sit down for tea.”
“No, it meant we were going to rule!”
He dropped his arm before pushing past her sword and into her space. She put a shield up around herself just in the nick of time. And he bounced off of it as he jabbed his elbow at her face.
In turn, she inverted the shield’s energy force and then propelled him backward out of her space with it. Her breathing was ragged as he fell back a dozen feet. While they both continued to get blows in against the other, neither could seem to grab the advantage.
They were as even as they had ever been. One so full of light that she couldn’t even feel her blood magic. And the other so full of darkness that it was all he could feel.
“I could never rule with you,” she told him. “Not while you work for Malysa. She is the goddess of destruction. I don’t think that she and I have the same priorities in any way.”
“My priorities do not always align with hers either,” he said as he leveled Shadowbreaker.
“Puppet king,” she taunted.
“You think that I want her in my country? That I knew what I was signing up for?” he asked. “I have the kingdom. That’s all I want.”
“Except that time that you killed the king of Aurum and declared yourself an emperor.”
“That was her,” he spat. “She was in my dreams. She told me what to do and how to do it.”
“Fine then, you killed your brother to take the throne!” she cried. “Keep trying to justify your actions to me, Kael. I see through you.”
He moved in close. They parried back and forth. Back and forth. He was so much stronger physically. It was his advantage. Hers was hanging at her throat. She needed to find a way to access it. To use the diamond in a way that could finally end this.
Serafina had been too in love with Viktor to kill him. Even when he’d destroyed her home and her people. When he had ruined her as the Domina, used her, and sacrificed their love for his ambition, she still hadn’t been able to do it.
But she had asked Cyrene to do what she could not.
To end this two-thousand-year-old curse once and for all.
And she had agreed.
Still, staring up into Kael’s blue-gray eyes, she knew that it would never be that easy. Because, in a way, she did love Kael. Not who he was now. What he had become. But the boy he could have been. The kinship they could have had. If they hadn’t been on this cursed path that led them straight to this moment.
But what she did know was that, if she didn’t win, nothing but more death lay before her. She had seen her greatest fear win out when she finished the dragon tournament back in Kinkadia. She had stood with Kael as she used her blood magic and killed all of her friends. As she had to sacrifice even Dean to rule these lands. And how she had fallen on her own sword before allowing that to happen.
And even as she tired, she knew that not all the magic in the world could save her here. It wasn’t her physical strength or the four elements or her spiritual magic that would win today. It was things that she had learned at a young age and nurtured despite it all. It was the strength of her heart. And her fierce will and determination. It was her fearlessness. The utter need to prove herself. Her sense of adventure. Every little thing that had made her who she was.
It was her soul.
Cyrene reached down deep and embraced that place within herself. Then she pushed that toward Kael. A full barrage of emotion and love and friendship and devotion. It was enough to make him pause. To make him stumble.
Then she brought the hilt of the Hohl blade down on his wrist. His hand opened reflexively, dropping Shadowbreaker into her other awaiting hand. The sword sang to her in triumph the second it touched her skin. Then she thrust it upward and into Kael’s chest.
Prophecy complete.
59
The Cleanse
Cyrene tugged on the bond to her dragon. “Sarielle, now!”
She hastily dropped Kael down onto his back in the center of the Ring of Gardens. Blood was pouring out of the wound, staining his black shirt and puddling onto the white marble surface. There was so much. So much, so fast.
“Sarielle, come on!”
Then Cyrene heard the beat of wings, and a couple of seconds later, Sarielle landed within the garden.
I am ready. Are you sure about this?
Was she sure? No. She was not sure. But she had to try. She had to.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’m sure we have to do it.”
No one would blame you.
“I would blame me,” she said, looking down at the Kael.
His skin paled further. Whiter and whiter.
“It’s now or never.”
Be safe, soul sister.
Then Cyrene closed her eyes, pressed her hands to the wound, coating them in Kael’s blood, and delved deep into her spirit magic. She felt the texture of the spiritual plane like a liquid curtain. She pushed through it, finding herself in darkness. Utter stillness.
She thought of the Ring of Gardens where she had left Kael, and her body was transported there. But it was different. It was twilight, as it had been that first night that she saw it. Golden and glowing with candles flickering all around it. A perfect setup for illegal magic use.
Loyalty, duty, and acceptance.
She could get through this.
Cyrene circled the Ring of Gardens and called out, “Serafina!”
This wasn’t where she normally called her from. But it felt fitting tonight—to ask for her where she and Viktor had gone for solace.
She impatiently tapped her foot. Every second she was here, Kael was bleeding out in reality. And still, Serafina didn’t come.
“Sera, I need you, please. I need your help.”
Cyrene circled the garden once more. But Sera didn’t come.
She bit her lip and transported herself to the cottage on the coast. Little baby Anne was sleeping peacefully in her crib. The sea breeze coming in off the beach. This should definitely help.
“Serafina, please, you must help me.”
The silence was deafening.
She had always answered. And though Cyrene knew that Serafina had said that it was harder for her to cross the divide, that it was likely that she would not be able to do it again, except in great need, Cyrene had thought this was that moment. That she would be here for this.
She had banked on it.
Assumed that Sera would help as she had before.
Even knowing that her help with the awakening had been because it benefited the whole. While this arguably…benefited no one.
Still, she’d had to try.
She shook her head in disappointment and released her hold on the spiritual plane. Kael still bled out on the floor of the marble slab.
What happened? Sarielle asked.
“She did not come.”
You tried.
Cyrene chewed on her lip. No. No, there had to be more that could be done. There had to be. Serafina was not here. She was not coming. But she had no power anymore. She had given it all to Cyrene. And Cyrene would be the one to use it here how she saw fit.