A surge of magic hit Vhalla square in the chest. She flew backwards, the bloodied crystal falling from her fingers. Her unprotected back was torn open by the stones. Vhalla wheezed with laughter, letting herself be reduced to a puddle of blood.
“The Bond says I can’t kill you, Victor, but apparently it says nothing about letting myself die!” Vhalla laughed grimly. Unlike when Victor had been freezing her to death, Vhalla’s senses felt heightened. Blood flowed freely from the gaping hole in her abdomen, coating her fingers that instinctually pressed against it. But she saw Victor clearly. She saw her husband. She would witness the end.
“I will encase you in crystal, you impossible cur, and you shall be mine forever!” Victor let out an animalistic sound of anguish, what was left of his face twisting into rage. He raised a hand and crystals encroached upon her. Vhalla struggled to keep them at bay, her magic finally faltering.
An explosion of fire distracted Victor from trapping Vhalla in place. She dismissed the remaining crystals with small explosions of black glass, which shredded her skin in the process. Vhalla saw Aldrik engaging Victor with all the fight he had left in him. Victor was pinned against the wall, Aldrik’s hand clasped over his mouth.
“You do not speak that way to your Empress,” Aldrik growled.
Fire licked around Aldrik’s palm, and he unleashed his magical wrath upon the man who had killed his family and stolen his throne. What crystals remained on Victor’s body began to shine, but his magic was weak and fading, just as Vhalla’s was. She put her last remaining strength into rendering his magic useless, into exploding every crystal that marred his body.
Aldrik’s flames burned hotter and hotter. Vhalla willed her magic into him. She willed the crystal’s magic. She willed fate and love and everything that she held dear in the world into her Emperor’s fire. It burned from Victor’s nose, licked from his ears, boiled his eyes in their sockets before bursting through his skin with flames as brilliant as the crystal’s magic.
She felt the moment it was over. Vhalla wheezed, struggling for air.
Victor’s body went limp, pinned against the wall by Aldrik’s hand. Aldrik slowly released, letting the charred remnants fall to the floor. When he turned, he looked at her with eyes brimming with tears, with fear.
It wasn’t Victor’s death that hit her, it was the fracturing of the crystal magic. All the crystals in the room darkened and splintered. Like a rug pulled out from underneath her, Vhalla felt her magical essence struggling to find something to grab to now that Victor’s magic and the crystals were gone. Her body was the splintering fractures across their surfaces.
Vhalla gasped into the air, focusing on breathing, focusing on seeing the dawn she had fought so hard for.
CHAPTER 35
Her body was wracked with shudders and shakes. Vhalla clenched her teeth together out of fear that a violent convulsion would result in her accidently biting off her tongue. She rolled onto her side, trying to find her feet, trying to stand.
Whatever the nature of the Bond between her and the—now dead—Victor, there was more to it than she gave credit for. Moonlight streamed through the glass above her, shining through the refractions of dying crystals. Perhaps that was it, more than the Bond. Perhaps it was that she too had come to share in the heart of the crystals, and, as they died, she would, too. Or perhaps it was just the gaping wound in her stomach.
“Vhalla, Vhalla,” he repeated her name, over and over again, as though all other words had vanished from his lexicon. Aldrik’s arms enveloped her, hoisting her up, holding her to him.
“I’m sorry, Al-Al—”
“Hang on,” a soft whine of agony weakened his words. “This isn’t the end.”
Vhalla reached up a hand and clutched the bloody and soot-covered plate that kept his chest from her. She lamented the metal’s existence. She would give anything to rest her head one more time on him and hear his heartbeat and breaths. Her fingers clawed at the armor, as though she could scrape away the barrier.
“I had to.” She finally found a grip on his armor and her mental capacity. “Please, don’t resent me, my love, I had to.”
“I know, I know.” Aldrik was sprinting down the hall. The sounds of glass shattering filled her ears. “We must get you to Elecia.”
She sighed softly with a shake of her head. A cool numbness was tickling the edges of her fingers. It was lulling her into a gentle stasis. “I’m sorry that you will endure this—”
“I am enduring nothing!” he shouted, less at her than the world. Aldrik swallowed hard, and Vhalla watched the lump in his throat bob like the invisible knot he was trying to dislodge. “Don’t you dare leave me, Vhalla Yarl Solaris. Not now.”