She stood in the center of a swirling mass of spells, moving so fast between them she looked like nothing more than a smear of darkness. The three figures opposing her attempted to close in as one, like a tide taking the shore, but each time it seemed like they’d get close enough to finish her off, Kasia would elude them again.
Lucien cast a glittering spell that shot straight toward her exposed back; but at the last second a shadow reared up and caught it in its mouth, exploding into nothingness. Kasia waved her hand and the resulting spell sent Lucien leaping back, just out of range as the air where he’d stood snarled with whips of electricity.
My heart lurched as I recognized the two other figures facing off against her: my parents must have broken their way in as the last of the Academy defenses fell. My mother was a constantly moving blur of silver hair, never staying in place for more than a second before leaping to the next. In her hand she gripped her Dakri knife—the cursed knife that made anyone it cut bleed uncontrollably. I could tell she was hoping to get close enough to inflict a single attack on Kasia, but the effort was proving impossible.
My dad, too, though he didn’t know as much offensive magic, was using every bit of his druid earth spells to keep Kasia busy. As she dodged, he would slam his hand against the ground, sending shockwaves of magic toward her. A crevasse opened beneath Kasia’s feet as she leapt, and for a moment I thought that this was it, that there was no way she’d be able to avoid them this time.
But Kasia merely smirked and hovered, impossibly, in mid-air, before moving faster than I could make out and landing safely on solid ground. She raised both arms, sending attacks flying toward us.
I pushed Asher aside as one of them nearly took our heads off. We stayed crouching, as far from the fight as I could stand. Once I was sure it was safe, I poked my head up and scanned for a way to break into the chaos, trying to find any weakness in her attacks that my parents and Lucien hadn’t discovered.
“She’s…it’s not possible…” Colson said, sounding more afraid than I’d ever heard him. “I knew she’d grown more powerful, but nothing like this. Not enough to take on the three of them.”
I’d known it. I’d known it, and still, standing before it, I couldn’t help but tremble. The center of Kasia’s power—her maelstrom that even some of the most powerful magic users I knew couldn’t seem to break through—that was what I needed to get into.
My marked arm was trembling, and I twisted the palm of my hand into the ground until I could still it. This wasn’t the time for fear. I had faced death a dozen times before. This would just be one more time. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“I need a way to get close,” I said.
Asher looked at me, and in his eyes I saw the pain that’d been there earlier. He, like me, hadn’t anticipated this level of savagery. No matter what he’d promised before, no matter how much he supported my attempt to destroy her, this was worse than even he’d thought it would be.
“I don’t see how. We get much closer and there’ll be nothing left of us.”
“She has to have a weakness of some kind,” I insisted. “We find that, we find a way to get inside her defenses—”
I nearly cried out as one of Kasia’s spells barely missed my mom. My mom immediately summoned golden cords of light that wrapped around one of Kasia’s ankles. For a moment I thought she had her.
Then the cords turned black and broke to pieces and Kasia lunged for my mom.
I screamed as the two of them collided, Kasia plunging a blade of pure darkness toward my mom’s heart. I felt Asher’s fingers reach for me as I leapt up and ran toward them. “Mom—”
My dad whipped around, throwing his hand up, “Stay back!”
My feet left the ground as his barrier spell knocked me down. But just as quick as it was there it was gone again. I got to my feet, searching frantically for my mom, pleading with all my might that she was all right.
When the smoke from her last attack had cleared, Kasia stood where her blade had come down. But instead of my mother beneath her, there was a large stone, broken and shattered at her feet.
Kasia looked over as my mom reappeared on the other side of the hall. She clutched her side and winced.
Kasia smiled. “A very clever trick. I imagine, when you can’t match true power, you must resort to tricks to survive.”
“I said stay back, Skylar!” my dad said as I started forward again.
“I need to get close!” I begged. I flinched as Lucien sent emerald jets of light hurling at Kasia, like a meteor shower come to earth.
“There is no way I’m letting you get any closer!” my dad said. “You shouldn’t be here at all! Get to safety before—”
“No! I have a way to stop her—”
I didn’t see what Kasia did to deflect Lucien’s spells, but I saw the result as no less than a dozen shimmering bolts of magic came hurling right toward me. My mind went blank, my jaw slack.
And then I felt Colson’s arms as they wrapped around me and he hurled us both to the side. The spells that had been about to kill me exploded where I’d stood, scalding the side of my face with blasts of heat. A few more collided with the crooked oak tree in the middle of the hall and the entire thing burst into flames. An enormous shudder went through the hall, as though the Academy itself had been stabbed straight in the heart.
Kasia merely laughed, high and cruel, as the flames built, consuming every bit of the tree from the center of its trunk to the ends of its branches. “How does it feel?” she yelled as my mom and the others tried to surround her again. “How does it feel to see your home burning? To see the place you’ve come to love reduced to nothing but ashes and rubble?”
She was staring straight at my mom when she said this last part. My mom grimaced again as she stood, still clutching her side. But then the pained expression was replaced with a calm one, and deep in my gut I felt a new, horrible sense of fear. Danger was nothing new to my mom or dad. But nothing like this. Never like this. If they died now…
I choked down a sob, squeezing my hand into a fist as I pushed myself out of Colson’s arms and to my feet again. If they died now I wouldn’t get another chance to tell them I loved them. I wouldn’t be able to say to them how much both of them meant to me. I would have held on to past resentments and anger and let them take away from the time I had left with them.
“Enough, Kasia,” my mom said, taking a step closer. “You’ve made your point. Our Academy is no more, and the Coalition will take years to rebuild. Haven’t you done enough?”
“Enough?” Kasia hissed. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes again they were no longer human, but glowing gold with the power of the gods. “Enough will be when there isn’t so much as the memory of this place, or of you, or of anyone you knew. That will be enough—”
Lucien whipped his hands up, siphoning the worst of the flames off the tree and surrounding Kasia in a ring of fire. I was already running, trying to find a way through the worst of the destruction to get as close as I could to her. My mom and dad leapt toward where Kasia had stood, but I heard Kasia scream, and a moment later we were all knocked back as the fire expanded, blazing just over the top of me.
“You can try all you want, but the result will always be the same! Your power is no match for mine!” Kasia said. I peeked over the rubble in time to see her look to my right. A cruel grin spread across her face. “And I will ensure it stays that way.”
I looked to where she did and my heart stopped.
“Greubal found her, mistress! She was here, just like you said she’d be! She could not escape Greubal!”
Greubal had scurried into the hall, clutching a squirming figure between his clawed hands. A child, her blonde curls bouncing as she tried to break free from his grasp.
Miranda.
For a moment, the entire battle stopped as all of us tried to comprehend what was happening.
And then at once it all made horrible sense to me. Kasia, with all her power, could have destroyed the tree at any time. She could have killed my parents and Lucien whenever she’d wanted. But that wouldn’t have been enough for her. This was her plan all along. She’d wanted the power of the Cursed One. She’d wanted the power of her sacrifice, and once she had it, she would relish our fear as her unstoppable power tore us apart.
Miranda struggled again, then let out a pained squeal as Greubal squeezed her tighter.
I didn’t remember when I started sprinting at Greubal, Colson beside me. I barely recalled Lucien yelling at Kasia to stop. I didn’t even see the wave of darkness Kasia cast at us.
But I felt it when it hit. I felt the pain as it tore into me, knocking me aside and sending us all tumbling. My head barked against jagged stone and I saw stars. But despite the pain I started moving almost immediately, knowing that if I took even a second to stop it’d be too late, far too late.
“Miranda—please—don’t—” Colson was pushing himself to his feet, his face smeared with blood. “Put her down. I’m warning you…”
Greubal cackled and dragged her closer to Kasia. “Is the mistress pleased with Greubal?”
Kasia looked at us, raising a knife made of shadows directly over Miranda. “Very pleased.”
“Kasia, no!” I screamed.
And then Kasia brought the knife down, straight into Miranda’s heart.