Bend it to your control. Force it to the conduit stone.
Evelayn couldn’t move, couldn’t even blink. But she could still think—she still had a will of her own, even though the unblocked flow of Light Power was threatening to take that from her as well, to erase her beneath its unimaginable force.
No. She fought back, visualizing her conduit stone, the oval diamond she’d been born with, embedded in her breastbone. Go, she pleaded as the pain escalated yet again. Go to the stone. That was what was supposed to happen. Why wasn’t it happening?
The two priestesses gripping her hands were shaking so hard they nearly threatened to toss her to the ground. If she couldn’t succeed soon, the power would burn them all up from the inside out. And it wasn’t working.
Terror raced through Evelayn’s veins alongside the unadulterated power. The voices from the Great Hall came back, and she realized they were right. She was too young, too inexperienced. She was going to fail.
You weren’t born to fail, my daughter. You were born to do what I couldn’t: to restore peace to éadrolan—and to all of Lachalonia.
Her mother’s voice seemed to come from everywhere all at once. It was on the air, it echoed in her mind, it beat in her heart. It filled her, wrapping around Evelayn like the soft touch of morning sunshine, reaching her from beyond the separation of death, somehow, through the magic.
I know you can do this, Evie. I know it.
Only her mother had ever called her Evie. And just as she always had, Evelayn believed her. With every last ounce of strength and will she possessed, she concentrated on forcing the Light Power to the conduit stone. She managed to squeeze her eyes shut and clench her jaw against the irrepressible tide of power washing over and through her.
You are mine to command, and you will go to the stone! She spoke to the power as though it were a living thing, and suddenly, the stone in her breastbone burned white-hot against her skin as the power drained out of her body and began to flow through the conduit stone as it was supposed to.
With a cry that was half relief and half agony, Evelayn’s eyes flew open and she stumbled back a step, breaking her hold on the two priestesses’ hands. One crumpled to her knees on the ground, but the others remained standing, visibly shaken but still alive.
“You did it,” Teca spoke, her voice trembling, though her eyes had returned to their normal rose pink.
Evelayn couldn’t respond, letting her gaze drop to the white sheet on the ground instead. She still had one last task to complete to finalize the transfer of power to her stone. She had to call down the power of the sun to consume her mother’s body. Had she truly heard her voice a moment ago, or had it all been in her mind—a desperate subconscious effort not to fail?
“Quickly now, Your Majesty. The time is nearly up to complete the ceremony,” High Priestess Teca urged as she moved toward the priestess still on the ground, grabbing her elbow and assisting her back to her feet. They all backed away, leaving Evelayn plenty of space. “Remember, it will respond to your will, to your very thoughts, just as it always has. But now you have access to the entirety of the Light Power that exists in Lachalonia. You must be very careful not to draw too much or …”
Teca trailed off, but she didn’t have to finish her thought. Evelayn knew the consequences if she called upon too much power—she had just experienced the incomprehensible amount of magic she had access to and had nearly died trying to harness it into her stone. But she needed enough to make sure she finished the ceremony correctly. Oh why hadn’t they made her practice this, rather than shooting blasts of light at targets?
But then, she already knew the answer. Because only the queen of éadrolan had access to this much power.
Evelayn closed her eyes and turned her face up to the sky, to the sunshine that warmed the earth and heated the breeze that ruffled her hair. She lifted her hands high above her head and took a deep breath.
Then she called down the sun.
There was a breathless pause when nothing happened … until, with a flash of heat, the power flowed out of the stone, up her raised arms, and out into the sky. There was so much. With a sound like the crack of thunder, a thick beam of blinding, scorching light exploded toward the earth, completely filling the circle of stones, taking her mother’s shrouded body from view.
Evelayn’s arms began to tremble from the force of holding the beam there without letting any more power come through the stone. But she didn’t want to let it go—not yet. Tears filled her eyes as she stared at the glowing white stones. The heat was almost unbearable. Evelayn could feel her hair singeing, and the wetness on her cheeks dried almost instantaneously.
“Your Highness, that’s enough!” She could vaguely hear Teca’s shout through the roaring of her blood in her ears and the thundering of the beam of sunshine she controlled. Evelayn wanted to ignore her, didn’t want to face what came after this, but she knew the High Priestess was right.
“Good-bye, Mama.” Evelayn whispered, even as her entire body began to shake from the effort of simultaneously holding on to the magic and holding it at bay. And then she released the power.
The beam immediately disappeared, revealing charred grass and nothing else. It was done. The Light Power had been reclaimed and was now entirely under Evelayn’s control.
And Queen Ilaria—her mother—was gone.
ANOTHER GOBLET SHATTERED AGAINST THE STONES around the massive fireplace of the manor Bain had commandeered near the border of éadrolan, but Lorcan didn’t so much as flinch. Blood-red wine dripped down to the floor, pooling where ashes of previous fires remained.
“How did this happen?” Bain roared.
A trio of servants huddled nervously in the corner of the room. Lorcan could scent their terror like fetid meat. Abarrane and Lothar were seated beside Lorcan at the table, where only a few pieces of their cutlery and one goblet remained. The rest of the dishes, along with their meal, were scattered around the room, broken into pieces.
They’d been midluncheon when they’d felt it. The flare of heat and the diminished force of their magic—Evelayn had apparently succeeded in reclaiming her power.
“It’s not possible.” His father spun and faced them, his stone flashing crimson in his forehead.
The blast of shadowflame came so suddenly that Lorcan barely managed to throw up a shield in time to deflect it, jumping out of his chair to face his father.
“Bain!” his mother shrieked, also jumping to her feet.
“You failed me.” Bain bared his teeth, his lip curling in a sneer.