I focus all my attention on Ezryn. On my mate, who seems so far away from me, even though he’s only across the room. Ezryn. Come back to me.
He turns. Stares. Ducks under the swing of the hammer.
Come back to me! Now!
A confused expression crosses his face, but he disengages from his brother. Then he runs toward us.
I draw my bow. Wait one second. Two. Ezryn reaches the midpoint of the Hall of Vernalion, with Kel and me at the front, and Kairyn and his knights still at the back. Then I look at the huge fissure Kairyn created with his hammer. And release.
Light bursts through the throne room, near blinding. Stone erupts in a massive shower. Chunks smash against my shoulders, my chest. Dust fills the air.
But when it clears, a gaping hole leading to the cavern below lies between us and them.
I cough, searching the dusty air for my mates. Kel staggers forward, grabbing my arm. He points to Ez, face down in the rubble. We hurry over and each grab an arm.
Ez shakes his head, looking disoriented.
“Hurry,” Kel says. “Let’s retrieve your father and go.”
Something clears in Ez’s eyes. Or comes alive. He tears free from our grip and looks back across the fissure where his brother paces like an angry lion.
“So, you’re going to run,” Kairyn calls. “Run, run away. I feel it in my chest. Spring’s Blessing is relieved to finally have a worthy vessel.”
“Don’t do it. Don’t let him tempt you,” Kel says lowly.
I can sense the emotions as if they were my own: Ezryn’s rage, his shame. Kairyn symbolizes the catalyst of so many profound losses—his honor, his realm, his magic. And there’s only one way to reclaim it.
Kill his brother.
There’s nothing we can say.
Ezryn leaps across the fissure.
104
Ezryn
I don’t even bother to look how far the fissure stretches before I leap. I will make it, or I will die.
I will kill my brother, or I will die.
My bones rattle as I land on the other side. Kairyn steps back, shocked I would attempt the jump. Then he raises his hammer. “Let us end this, then.”
He swings, but not at me. The war hammer collides with one of the stone pillars. Cracks shoot up the side. He yells, swinging his hammer again. The pillar groans, falling forward, crashing across the fissure. A bridge. He waves a hand toward Kel and Rose. “Kill them!”
His knights do not hesitate. They vault on to the fallen pillar and carefully traverse to the other end.
Rage like I’ve never known surges through my body. Kairyn has taken everything from me. I have been humiliated, disgraced, disregarded by my own people. My name has been marred in history.
Because I trusted him.
Trusted my family.
And worse than all of that, his actions nearly killed Rosalina. I won’t let him hurt anyone ever again.
I will cover myself with blood so he cannot shed another drop.
He blocks my first swing with his hammer. I swirl around him, going for his back. I’m too quick for him to block this, but his armor is made of finest metal. My sword pings against it. My own body feels too buoyant in nothing but fabric rags. But I must use it to my advantage.
Kairyn yells, swinging the hammer in a great arc. I throw myself forward, rolling across rubble, then leap up. I drive the point of my mother’s sword into the gap between his shoulder and breastplate. He roars and staggers back. It is not a killing blow, but that hammer cannot be light to wield.
Kairyn runs a gloved hand along the wound, pulls his fingers back bloody. “There it is. Took long enough to come out. Must have been hard to hide all this time.”
“Is this what you wanted?” I roar. “To corrupt me?”
“You did that yourself.”
No, no. He did this to me. He made me this way…
Kairyn paces, dragging the hammer behind him. “It’s always been inside you. The rage. The jealousy. The hatred. You were the one who removed your helmet. You were the one who desecrated the grove. You killed our mother.”
“No!” I lunge, barreling the sword down. He blocks it with a gauntlet, grunting.
“No? Look at you. You don’t care what it takes, what you have to sacrifice, as long as you can kill me.” The owl helm twitches. “You’d even sacrifice your mate.”
Across the fissure, Rose and Kel are back-to-back, pinned against the side of the throne by the two members of the Penta Conclave. Kel’s holding them off with ice shields, but each one he creates is weaker than the last. Rose has her bow drawn, but she can’t use it so close. Fear is etched across her face.
I stumble away from Kairyn. I left them alone … Those I love most in this world.
“We’re not so different, brother,” Kairyn says. “Maybe we both never reached our true potential. There’s a world outside of this one. A place where men like us do not need to hide our natures. Where we do not need to be ashamed.” He holds out his hand. “Come with me. Be my steward. You and I possess the power to rule more than Spring. We can take down my new masters. Then the entire Vale will be at our control.”
Slowly, I turn to look at him. “I’m nothing like you.”
His breathing grows ragged. “You’ll see it soon enough. We are both forsaken.”
Using all the power left within me, I dodge around Kairyn and leap to the pillar. My steps are steady as I race across the narrow beam, landing on solid ground before the throne.
With a yell, I raise my sword, about to charge the knights—
When my feet whip out from under me.
“How dare you turn against me when you are faced with death?” The roar sounds from all around. I’m flung up in the air, a mossy green vine holding my leg. Kairyn moves beneath me, swampy tendrils of earth encircling his body and floating him over the fissure.
Magic crackles. Spring’s Blessing.
“You have always hated me. Admit it! Tell the truth!” he booms. The vines snap, and I’m slammed down to the stone. The wind rushes from my chest.
I try to hack at the vine holding my leg, but I’m whipped up before I can make a move. Another snap, and I’m blasted against a different pillar. Something cracks in my ribs. I’m not sure I’ll get my breath back this time.
“What did I ever do but admire you? Were you so desperate for Mother and Father’s love you could not bear if they gave any to me? Did you stop them from loving me?”
Crash. I’m hurtled against the ground. My sword flies out of my grip and clatters away.
Images and light swirl before my eyes. The throne room fades, replaced by green. Then Kairyn’s standing above me.
Mossy plants coil one over another, growing underneath my back, then arching up, forming a dome around the two of us. He’s barricaded us in our own chamber of mulch and moss.
Warm wetness drips down my face. I start to pull myself up—
Kairyn stands over me, then drops the hammer on to my chest. What breath I had left flies out in a gasp. Pain staggers through my ribcage, my spine. The crushing pressure is like no agony I’ve ever known.
“And now we have come to this.” The owl helm quirks to the side. “The end.”