I was thrown off my feet again as another powerful wave of magic swept across the hall. The walls of the entire Academy shook, crevasses splitting the floor as Kasia’s new magic threatened to break the very ground beneath our feet. I slammed against Colson’s legs as he braced himself, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of power.
At last the shaking tapered off and when it ended a terrible silence swooped in to take its place. Colson picked his head up. His eyes widened. “Miranda…no…”
Miranda’s body was limp in Kasia’s arms, the hilt of Kasia’s shadowy dagger sticking out from the center of her chest. There was no blood. No sign of any kind that marked where the blade had entered and taken her life. A soft golden glow was rising from Miranda’s body and flowing into Kasia. Kasia’s eyes, still golden, seemed to glow even brighter as the Cursed One’s power filled her. Greubal backed up, cackling.
“Mistress has done it…Mistress has won!”
“You…”
I felt myself kicked aside as Colson took a lumbering step forward. He wasn’t just Colson anymore, but the giant part of himself he’d tried to keep tampered down the last few months. His already enormous frame swelled, his back hunching, his immense arms cracking the earth as he smashed them against it. “You killed her…I’ll kill you! I will tear you limb from limb!”
“Colson, no!” I heard Lucien yell, a moment before Colson launched himself straight at Kasia. I reached for him, but I was too late.
Kasia merely waved her hand.
I ducked the next wave of magic as it slammed into the others and threw them back. Colson was blown to the side and came down where Greubal had stood, his body fracturing the ground. Greubal danced away, still cackling. “Greubal told you, didn’t he? He told you that she would help you embrace what you really are, but you wouldn’t listen! No! You wouldn’t listen! And now you’re all going to die!”
“Colson!” I screamed.
Colson lunged for Greubal again, his meaty fists trying to crush him as Greubal scampered from his grasp. He was still laughing gleefully, taunting Colson.
“I find it strange,” Kasia said.
I whipped around to find myself alone in the center of the hall. The golden magic had stopped leaking from Miranda’s body, and Kasia knelt and lay her on the ground before facing me. For just a moment, I thought I glimpsed a terrible monster made of magic in the shadow behind her, enormous and hungry, ready to devour me. Kasia’s new, terrifying power ready to be unleashed on me. “Strange how things were between us. I first saw you as a kindred spirit of sorts. Someone I could trust to view things my way, someone whom I could train to become better than even me.
“But when it was clear that wasn’t going to happen you became nothing but a hinderance, an obstacle I needed to remove. Yet time and time again you evaded my attempts to kill you. Only to show up here and now.” Her smile grew as the walls of the Academy began shaking again, threatening to come tumbling down. “You couldn’t have made it more perfect. Now they get to watch you die.”
I could see my parents, Lucien, and Asher trapped behind whatever invisible barrier Kasia had conjured around us. Asher was frantically casting spells against it, but the attempts seemed to do nothing. I looked at my mom, and my spirits sank. There was such agony on her face that my heart hurt. She sagged before the barrier, seeming to know that nothing she could do now would save me from Kasia.
I swallowed hard, clenching my fists tight enough that my nails dug into my skin. I tried to focus only on that, only on the here and now. “Maybe this is exactly where I wanted to be.”
Kasia laughed. “Ah, I see. Forgive me for not realizing it sooner. I suppose this is all part of your grand plan.” She dropped a foot back, bringing one hand, shaped like a blade, toward me. “You survived, even when I tore that useless god out of your chest. But you will not survive me this time.”
I barely put my own hand up in time before her first spell slammed into me. The pain was immense, but I spun to the side on instinct, pulling out Valkyrie to dodge her fiery whip as she conjured it from mid-air. The whip wrapped around my blade, sending pinpricks of burning sparks across my skin. I slashed as hard as I could and managed to dislodge it. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. My breath tore at the back of my throat, making me taste blood. I kicked out, conjuring a cloud of dust to obscure her vision, but a moment later Kasia cleared the air as easily as she might brush aside an annoying fly. I gasped as her next spell pummeled me to the ground, nearly pushing me into one of the crevasses.
Kasia loomed over me, no longer smiling. “Please. This isn’t any fun. At least in Paris you had a miniscule amount of talent, enough to keep me entertained. But since you’re not of any use anymore, it’s time to end this.”
A new blade of darkness grew from her fist. I heard my mom cry out. Kasia looked up, probably to ensure my mom was watching. She smiled. She brought the blade up. “Goodbye, Skylar.”
I couldn’t even resist. My mind was blank, my sword pointed uselessly at the floor.
The blade came down.
Clang.
Now the blade was spinning out of Kasia’s hand, dissipating into thin air. Kasia grunted as she went flying, disappearing amongst a cloud of ashes and smoke as she slammed into the burnt tree.
I blinked up, not daring to believe what I was seeing. The glowering face of Zephyr—of the Dark Prince—peered down. He was here. For better or worse he was here.
“Did you mean it when you said you’d try to free me once we defeated her?” the Dark Prince said. “Did you truly mean it?”
I unstuck my tongue from the roof of my mouth. “More than anything.”
The Dark Prince’s glower deepened, searching my face for any hint that I was lying. “Then get up. If I’m forced to share my power with someone, I don’t want it to be with a weakling.”
Despite the situation, I couldn’t help chuckling. “I always loved your words of encouragement.”
I took his offered hand and was pulled to my feet. My legs felt like jelly, the ache in my chest feeling terrible enough that I wondered if Kasia had in fact stabbed me.
“I assume you have a plan.” the Dark Prince said. The ashes of the tree began to swirl, as though in a strong wind. From within the folds of the smoldering husk I saw the glow of Kasia’s golden eyes lock on me.
“Somewhat. It involves us combining our magic again.”
“Obviously. And how do we do that?”
“I’m…not entirely sure.”
The tree was suddenly blown apart. A billowing wall of ash washed over us and I coughed, wiping at my eyes.
“Better figure it out fast,” the Dark Prince growled.
But I could already feel his power, that familiar siren’s song, calling to me. Whether it was because he was so close, or because we each sensed the missing parts of our souls nearby, I felt my magic reaching for his.
The Dark Prince tensed, clearly sensing it, too. He sucked in a deep breath, his eyes starting to close. “Don’t make me regret this,” he said.
Zephyr’s body collapsed. A moment later I felt the dark magic of the Prince slam into me, so forceful and sudden that I temporarily blacked out. At once, the ache in my chest wasn’t aching anymore, but was so full of life I feared it might burst. The Prince’s magic filled me to the brim and then some and I let it, no longer wanting to fight with him, no longer willing to compromise what I knew was our last chance to end Kasia.
My legs stopped shaking as new strength filled them. The muscles of my arms tightened like bands of iron. Every breath I took brought with it a new strength. The thought of taking on Kasia, which moments before had seemed an impossible task, was now the only thing I wished to do. I wanted to rip her apart. I wanted to make her pay.
I held out Valkyrie and the blade blazed to life, brighter and stronger than ever before. I felt whole and right and good.
“You’re not holding me back,” the Prince said in my mind.
“Told you I wouldn’t,” I said.
I could feel him smirk as my power grew. “Excellent.”
The remains of the tree blasted apart. Kasia stepped over the cast embers, her anger flowing off her like waves. Her eyes slitted when she saw me, moved to Zephyr’s body on the ground, then back up to me.
“Who am I facing, then?” she said. “The weak mortal, or the god who refused to share its power with me?”
“Neither,” I said, and when I spoke I heard my voice and the Prince’s speaking in unison. “You’re speaking to who’s going to kill you.”
Kasia laughed. “I doubt that. Let’s see, then: your lone, barely-controlled god against all my power.”
I blinked and she moved. Even with the Prince, even with all my magic restored and then some, I nearly failed to block her attack. Her hand sliced at my neck, sharp as a blade, covered in the golden light that’d she’d drawn from Miranda.
I avoided the attack and tried to counter, but Kasia twisted, sliding beneath my defense and driving her fist into my gut.
I gasped, tasting blood. My feet briefly left the ground as I skittered back. I stabbed Valkyrie into the ground to slow us.
“She’s fast,” I gasped.
“Too fast,” the Prince muttered, sounding pissed. “We can’t hope to defeat her with power alone.”
“Unfortunately, that’s kind of what I was counting on,” I said.
“You told me you had another way. A way to cut her off from her magic.”
“I do. But using it means beating her first.”
“Perhaps not. Perhaps it simply requires the right chance.”
Before I could interpret what the heck he meant by that, I was forced to leap aside as Kasia fired a bolt of darkness at me. I whipped my hand up and the ashes of the tree formed into the shape of a herd of centaurs that charged at her.
“Spiro!” I pointed at a pile of rubble and it rose up, twenty feet tall, forming into the shape of a golem that brought its rocky club down as Kasia tried to avoid the ashes. Kasia vanished before either attack could hit, reappearing on the other side of the downed tree. I saw her mouth something.
“Watch it!” the Prince said. “She’s going to—”
Enormous black wings unfurled from behind her, growing wider and wider as a phoenix made entirely of shadows rose up, its eyes of liquid fire zeroing in on me. Kasia pointed and the phoenix dove, its talons ready to tear into my flesh.
“Troll piss,” I gasped.
I sprinted the other direction, animating more rubble to try to slow the phoenix’s flight, but it skirted every attempt. It screamed as it swooped around my latest failed attack and dove at me. I could see its eyes up close now, see its every intent to kill me.
I skidded to a halt, drawing on our combined magic. “Defendi!” we both cried.
An enormous glowing shield encompassed us a second before the phoenix hit. White-hot pain seared my skin as the shield disintegrated in an instant. I heard the phoenix’s screech as its talons tore into my side before it, too, vanished. When my vision cleared I found myself lying on my back, aching all over. When I turned my head, I could see the ground five feet around me on every side was nothing but scorched earth, still smoldering from the remnant of the phoenix.
I sat up, wincing as more stabs of pain raced up my spine. “We can’t take another hit like that,” I panted.
“Fantastic deduction,” the Prince drawled. “How you’re only a mediocre student is truly one of the great mysteries of the universe.”
Kasia was stalking closer, drawing her blade of darkness once more. It seemed she wanted to end this the old-fashioned way, no semi-sentient bird spells required.
“Care to elaborate on your earlier plan?” I said. “As you can see, we aren’t doing too well.”
“You may not be doing well. If I had a body all my own—”
“Yeah, yeah, you’d be the greatest thing since peanut butter and jelly. We need a plan, please.”
“Look at her.”
How could I not look at Kasia? She was all I could focus on; my death, sure as anything, approaching step by step.
“You need to get close to use the spell, correct?” the Prince said. “Then get close.”
“She’ll stop me the moment I try!”
“I said, get close.”
And this time when I blinked, I could see exactly what he meant.
“I get it,” I murmured.
“Good.”
I stood, knowing the Dark Prince was right. Even with our powers combined, we couldn’t beat her. But we could still do something she’d never expect and come meet our death head on.
“Just so you know,” I said, “this is a terrible idea.”
“Just do it.”
Kasia raised her blade. Her face was triumphant, her darkness spreading like an uncurling flower around her, beckoning us into its folds of death.
“If this doesn’t work—if we both die—”
“For once in your life, shut your mouth and listen to what I say.”
I extinguished Valkyrie. Kasia’s face flickered with surprise, and I took the moment to lunge.
Right at Kasia.
“You stupid little—” was all Kasia had time to say before she drew her blade up. Fire ripped through my center as her sword sank deep into my stomach and I jerked to a halt at the hilt. For the first time I think I’d ever seen, Kasia looked truly, completely shocked.
I was close enough to her now.
I slammed my hands against either side of her head as I summoned my magic, hearing the Prince’s voice intertwine with mine as we cried out, “Sever Vinculum!”
There was a tremendous flash of light. Suddenly I wasn’t in my body anymore, but in the Realm of the gods. The terribly beautiful endless sky stretched out before me. The cloud with the buildings on it looked farther away than it ever had before.
I heard something buzzing, like someone plucking a guitar string.
I looked down. There were three spider web-like threads, pulled taut, tethering my cloud to the one far above. One of the threads was vibrating, growing more violent every second.
The buzzing grew louder. Then the vibrating string snapped. A growl of thunder echoed across the sky. The other threads had begun quivering now, reacting to the light that was leeching from the center of my hands.
The second string snapped. The ethereal light of this realm, that at one time had seemed impossible to extinguish, began to dim. I heard the faint sound of something crumbling, and realized it was the city in the clouds. The columns were coming down, the slanted rooftops collapsing inward.
I looked down as the third and final string began to quiver so violently I feared it would tear apart the entire cloud I stood on. My legs were trembling with the strain of staying upright and I fell to my knees. I began crawling toward the string. I knew it needed to give, but I also feared what would happen if it—
The final string snapped.
The ethereal light went out like a switch had been thrown, leaving only the suggestion of cloudy shapes against a darkened sky. The crumbling above grew louder and louder, until it was all I could hear. My knees were sinking into the cloud, and no matter how much I tried to free them I couldn’t escape. All I could do was sink down, down, down…
Until the cloud vanished all together and I plummeted into nothingness.