Chapter Fifty

It was like someone had turned on the sun.

A hungry swell of magic birthed forth in stuttering pulses. So bright that Anjeline turned her eyes from Rebel’s lifeless form, lest the light rising off her razed to the ground everything that it touched. She became aware of her own essence rising to meet it, flowing from every pore. Her magic intertwined with Rebel’s, merging together, smoldering with an intensity that could only be matched by a comet capable of trembling the earth. Illuminating the night.

A protective rushing of brightness surrounded them.

The gravel on the roof rose and fell with little rattles as the magic light streamed across. Shimmering ripples defined its hungry path, first gently, and then with a greater force—searching out the enemy, devouring the darkness in its wake. Streams of it spiraled and snaked around lycanthropes and mermaids who were trying to break through Anjeline’s smoky barrier. Their energies waned as the bloom of brightness landed upon the wriggling bodies, turning them sightless.

Nero tried to shield his eyes while others discovered their bodies were unable to move. Unable to break away from the magic, their limbs appearing to turn unpleasantly dense. The brightness seeped through the cavity of every beast, Siren, and magician. Penetrating skin, convulsing through their veins, and bleeding into every porous fiber of bone and tail. Others emitted assorted cries of devastation, shocked to find the weight of their extremities increased by the light. Their bodies seemed to become petrified.

The magic turning them all to stone.

As the beam of light reached Wulfram, his muscular tone visibly changed, hardening by the instant. His arm splintered as he tried to move, to flee. His eyes swirled to white, his skin turned hoary and spread down the length of him, trapping him in stone.

The Night Guard rounded in retreat—turning into statues in mid-motion—piled upon each other in an effort to escape the light. Some tried to snap their jaws, only to have them break off and shatter once they hit the ground of the roof. The tendrils of magic rushed upward and froze the Siren’s face in mid-cry. Petrified mermaids and vultures plummeted from the sky.

And at last, the light caught Nero’s horrified face.

Anjeline watched as it rose up to meet him, licking against the night. An expression of sudden terror appeared on Nero as the magic luster swelled around him. His power ebbed, and the pull of his sorcery receded. His body went rigid and the staff snapped in his grip. It couldn’t have been pleasant to see Anjeline and his own daughter finally outshine him. Burning him at the falter of his dark magic. But his face showed none of it other than pure fury. Right until the last remaining pieces of his heart became rock hard, and the light imprisoned him within stone.

Still, the brightness expanded.

As Rebel’s magic united with Anjeline’s, it swept across the building until the ripples of luster reached down into the avenue, where it sped through the streets, flooding the city. Within homes and dens, people stopped as a glowing wave washed over them, a mystical breeze tossing their hair and ruffling their clothing. No corner of the city was untouched as the gleaming crashed through the Black Market, lifting roofs and tearing doors off their hinges, chasing away the darkness and bringing radiance to the night.

Then, with an equal suddenness, the light ceased.

There was absolute silence in the city, the world seeming peaceful and untroubled. Flakes of frost tumbled down, and within minutes, the rooftop glittered, covered in a thick blanket of white. The sky had altered its hue, bleeding to sapphire as though the heavens had been awakened.

A rushing of wings drew near.

Falcons hovered above the roof and danced in the air. In silence, the shadowy figure, the mother of her thief, crossed to where Anjeline held her unmoving body. And she shuddered, sensing a different pull on her essence now. She was no longer bound, and her realm was calling her back home. Her physical form began streaking to smoke into the ether, but she tightened her arms around Rebel’s unmoving body, fighting it. She didn’t want to leave.

Not now.

“You got your wish, Rebel,” Anjeline whispered to her, touching her cheek with ghostly fingers, turning into a smoky haze. “We are free.” She felt a thump hike upward in that lifeless chest before their worlds parted ways.

A beat filled Rebel’s heart once more.