“Give him back,” Cyrene growled. “Release him.”
“He is mine,” the goddess said. “I created the Indres. He succumbed to my call. He is mine.”
“He is not yours. He is one of mine.”
Cyrene unleashed a blast of energy toward the goddess. Her power’s full force. A shield appeared, radiating the energy away from the goddess.
“You are powerless against me, child. If you had come to me, then I could have shown you the true well of your power. As you are, you are cut off at the knees. Nothing you can do will hurt me.”
Cyrene was prepared to try whatever it would take to stop her. She couldn’t honestly mean everything. Could she survive lightning? A hurricane?
But the goddess was finished with her.
She turned her attention from Cyrene, as if she mattered no longer. “It is time, Benetta.”
“Benetta?” Cyrene asked. “Who are you speaking with? There is no one with that name.”
Vera strode forward. Her gaze met Cyrene’s with a fire that Cyrene had never seen before. Something shone in her that seemed to radiate.
“Whatever you do, shield Matilde,” Vera said.
Cyrene opened her mouth in confusion, but Vera just shook her head.
“Go to Matilde. Now.” Vera looked impossibly weary. “I don’t expect you to forgive me for this.” The fire in her voice was so fierce that no objection came.
She allowed Vera to pass and kicked her horse back to where Mikel and Matilde stood.
“Protect Matilde at all costs,” Cyrene commanded them.
“What is this, Cyrene?” Matilde said. She tried to push forward, but Cyrene blocked her path. “What is my sister doing?”
“She said to protect you.” What Cyrene hadn’t said was that she suspected Vera was sacrificing herself. She knew that she couldn’t let Vera do that.
She tugged on her bond with Sarielle, who was still circling overhead. “Soon.”
I am ready.
Cyrene nodded, and with Mikel standing between Matilde and the goddess, she hurried back toward Vera. She could hear what Vera was saying as she approached.
“It is just you and me, Malysa,” Vera said. “That is what you have wanted all these years.”
Cyrene furrowed her brows in confusion. Malysa?
“Benny, you have no idea what I want. You failed to see it when you locked me away all those years ago. You fail to see it now. You think that I want to fight you. That I would give you the opportunity to control me again,” the goddess said. “Your time is over. Have you been leading your humans so well? It seems that they are the same brainless, incompetent insects that are not worthy. My reign is now.”
“That is where you are wrong,” Vera said. “Where you have always been wrong. They are kind and gentle and capable of learning. Yes, they have faults, but so do we. It is their faults and how they learn from them that make them as great as they are. I wish you could see that.”
“We are past that now, sister.”
Cyrene gaped at them. “Sister?” she whispered.
Malysa’s head moved to Cyrene. “Oh, Benny, you never told them.” Malysa swept her hand to Vera. “Allow me to introduce you to my sister, Benetta. You call her Vera. But she is actually your goddess of creation. The Creator herself.”
“That…is impossible.”
How could Vera be the Creator? How was it possible for Malysa…the Destroyer to be her sister?
Matilde was Vera’s sister. Cyrene had seen Vera wield magic. It certainly wasn’t even as strong as her own. She might be two thousand years old, tied to the lifeline of her dragon, Ameerath, but…she wasn’t a god.
“No,” Cyrene muttered.
But it was Matilde who stepped forward in shock. “Lies. Don’t anyone listen to them. She is an imposter and knows not what she is speaking of. Vera is my sister, my twin. We have no other sisters.”
“Ah,” Malysa said, drawing in power. “I see what you did, Benny. I see what you did all those years ago.”
Vera looked between Malysa and Cyrene. Then, back and back again. Her look was pleading, but she didn’t deny it. Not even when Malysa called her Benny. Her sister, Benny. She didn’t deny it because Cyrene saw then…that somehow, impossibly…it was true.
“You’re the Creator.”
Vera straightened. “That is a name I have been given before.”
“That’s how you know so much.”
“I did say you wouldn’t forgive me.”
Malysa laughed and ripped her cloak back to reveal a body made of smoke and shadows. “Tell them the truth, Benny. Atone for your sins here, at this altar.” Malysa circled her. “The Creator is nothing. A no one. And this was what she did. She tore her own sister from her body. Shred her spirit and locked it away, chained to a mountain cave for millennia. She is no savior, like in your stories. She is a traitor. She will betray you, as she did me. So, you see, in the end, I am the prized goddess. I am here to set you all free from her misery.”
“I won’t let you, Lysa.” Vera put herself between her and Cyrene. “Your battle ends with me. Not them.”
“Our battle was always with them. I will purge them of your influence until there is nothing else, and then I will give back what you gave me a thousand fold. That is my promise to you, dear sister,” Malysa spat. “Now, I tire of these games.”
One second, she was standing in front of Vera, and the next, she was shifting in and out of space toward Cyrene’s army. Cyrene heeled her horse forward, but Avoca escaped Dean’s clutches and moved into position first. She pushed a blade into Malysa’s heart.
“For Ahlvie!” she cried.
But Malysa shifted in a second. Then, suddenly, she was moving through Avoca. Phasing from one place to the next. Avoca was encompassed in shadow, shrieking at her inability to kill the person who had claimed her husband. Dean raised a blade tinged with electricity to stand in between the goddess and Matilde, but she evaded him effortlessly. Then, Malysa phased past him and was on the other side before Matilde and Mikel.
“It has been too long,” Malysa said.
Her hand reached forward, but Mikel moved to block her. His sharp Leif senses allowing him to block her hand. But it was over before it began. Malysa grabbed Mikel by the throat. She lifted him as if he weighed nothing. He choked, kicking his legs, as she hoisted him higher into the air.
“No!” Matilde shrieked.
She rushed forward, using her magic to try to take Malysa down. But nothing budged her.
And then Malysa threw Mikel down, dead at her feet.
Matilde cried out in horror at her husband’s dead form. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Fury burned in her eyes.
“Mikel, please,” Matilde said over his body, trying to rouse him.
But nothing could be done. He was gone.
“You have defiled my body for the last time with this mongrel,” Malysa spoke to Matilde. “I will have you back now.”
Vera was already running toward them, and Cyrene kicked into gear at the sight of another dead body, another dead friend. They worked in unison, knowing that they had to stop Malysa any way that they could. They couldn’t let her get to Matilde. That was what Vera had said. It seemed more imperative now than ever.
Cyrene was nearly upon them, angling Shadowbreaker toward Malysa’s body, calling Sarielle into the battle. She heard the shriek of her dragon. It was a split-second distraction, which was all Cyrene needed. She thrust Shadowbreaker toward Malysa.
Then, Malysa had her hand around Matilde’s throat.
Death danced in her irises.
The world tilted.
Cyrene missed her thrust. The earthquake throwing her off of her horse. She skidded across the ground, using air magic to try to brace against the impact. But she was still battered and bruised. She limped to her feet, attempting to figure out what the hell had happened.
The only person that stood was Matilde.
Where two people had been was now one.
Her hands were wide, a smile broad on her face.
Magic coursing through her, shining bright.
She’d won! Matilde had beaten Malysa at her own game.
Then, her gaze cast across the battlefield, and all the blood drained out of Cyrene.
Matilde was Malysa.
Malysa was Matilde.
Spirit and body reunited.
Together as one…they were the goddess of destruction.
Malysa surveyed her subjects on the ground. “Your time is over. You never should have existed. Now that I am whole once more, I will right this wrong.”
She drew power into her. Vera shrieked at her, begging her. But Malysa was deaf to Vera…Benny. She was deaf to it all. And Cyrene could only watch as she cast her energy across the entire plane of the many assembled armies.
Cyrene shielded herself and everyone she could reach as fast as she could. But it was for nothing.
Nothing happened.
Malysa looked around, confusion clearly flitting across her features.
“You aren’t strong enough,” Vera told her with a laugh. “You can’t wipe out the entire population. You have to be like the rest of us, Lysa. Please, just talk to me. We can work this out.”
Cyrene was stalking forward. If Malysa couldn’t kill them, then it was her time to try to stop her. She ran toward the goddess, what she had believed was her friend Matilde. It pained her to no end, but it was her or the rest of the population. The woman was insane. Trapped as she had been.
Malysa turned in time to see Cyrene coming at her. Cyrene slashed down and cut open Malysa’s shoulder. She screamed in pain as Shadowbreaker did its job. Malysa lifted her hand and threw Cyrene backward thirty feet into the air. Cyrene screamed, flailing and attempting to stop how fast she was speeding back toward the ground. Then, Sarielle’s hard body was beneath hers, and she landed on her dragon.
We must kill her.
“Yes. Let’s.”
They swooped down low and hard toward Malysa. Sarielle readied her fire, but Cyrene shook her head.
“You’ll kill too many other people. I’ve got her. Just get me in.”
Malysa was gesturing again, but she didn’t seem to care a bit for Cyrene or Sarielle, which was perfect for her.
All she heard was Malysa say, “Next time then, Benny.”
Cyrene jumped from Sarielle’s back, ready to plunge Shadowbreaker through Malysa’s spine.
One second, she was there, gesturing viciously at Vera. The next, she snapped her fingers and was gone.
Cyrene slid through the air where she had once stood. She rolled forward and came up to her feet in confusion. “What? Where did she go?”
Vera shook her head as fear masked her features. “She’s gone.”
“Gone? How could she just be gone?”
“She…she can travel short distances by self-portaling. I’d hoped that power had vanished with her ability to wipe out large groups of people.”
Self-portaling. She had never even considered it.
Cyrene’s head whipped around to the battlefield. “Where’s Ahlvie?”
Avoca sobbed on the ground. “She took him. All of her generals—Ahlvie, Kael, all of them. They’re all gone. She…she took my husband.”
“Then, let’s go after her.”
All eyes turned to Cyrene. Defeat evident on their faces.
“We lost,” Orden said bleakly, hovering over Mikel’s body. “We just lost.”
Dean took a step toward Cyrene, sorrow in his eyes.
She turned to Vera. “Vera?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“You’re the Creator,” Cyrene said, as if an accusation. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I’m not what you think I am, Cyrene.”
Cyrene brushed past her, her mind reeling. She had to get herself back together. Yes, they’d suffered a defeat. A crushing blow she hadn’t even seen coming. But this wasn’t the end. She had to…she had to stay strong for this. Be the leader they needed and deserved right now.
“Today, we believed we were fighting one enemy,” Cyrene said to her troops. “We walked into this, expecting a fair fight. We didn’t receive one. But today was the first battle. It is not the end of the war. And we will persevere. Return to camp. We’ll begin again at dawn.”
The troops still trembled at the thought of fighting a goddess, but finally, they dispersed and she saw with relief that the Byern and Aurum armies had signaled a retreat as well. Around her remained only her friends. The few who were left—Avoca, Orden, and Dean.
Cyrene turned to face Vera. Or Benetta or Benny, as Malysa had called her.
The Creator.
A goddess, a figurehead, the first of the Doma, her friend.
And also, a liar, deceiver, and betrayer.
She had much to answer for.
“We need to talk,” Cyrene said.
“So we do,” Benetta said.