Chapter 45

Adeena all but flew through the streets of Krahzara, not caring who saw her in her white attire without her hood up, not caring when the gasps and screams echoed at their realization of just who she was.

Both Lady in White and Lady Addie Merlo of Krahzara.

There were others yelling at her, their boots pounding the cobblestone streets a few dozen feet behind her. Malik and Kav. They were going to stop her, even though they couldn't stand the fact that their mother was the one who ordered Cleo killed or that she'd been controlling Adeena for practically all her life.

But she didn't care.

Didn't care that the stone Sophea wore around her neck would stop her before she plunged her dagger into her heart.

Didn't care that she would be attacked by the palace guard as soon as they realized where she was heading.

If anyone got in her way...well, they didn't have magic protecting their minds and bodies against hers.

The palace gates couldn't hold her back, even though they were being rushed closed as the guardsmen saw her approach. One twitch of her fingers and they all dropped to their knees, screaming in pain as fire laced through their minds. The gates were still trying to close with magic, but Adeena was able to slip through them just as they locked in place.

Malik was the first to slam against the bars, reaching his hand through to try and grab her. "Adeena, stop! You can't..."

She whirled around to face him just as Kav appeared beside him. "I can. I don't care what happens to me, Malik. She will pay for what she's done to me and Cleo. I don't care."

More guardsmen poured around from around the palace.

They were on their knees as soon as Adeena made eye contact with them.

"Get these gates open now," Malik demanded as soon as she was up the front steps, passing through the flung open doors. The guardsmen couldn't obey, though, not when they were still suffering from the echoes of her magic.

Every guardsmen throughout the palace tried to stop her. They couldn't. She didn't touch the staff, who coward against the walls as she stalked past, eyes brightening with realization of who and what she was.

She didn't stop until she reached the doors of Sophea's office, which were closed and locked.

One burst of Adeena's magic and they were open, the four guardsmen behind it knocked out instantly.

There Sophea stood, the fire blazing in the hearth behind her, making her glow.

Adeena lunged, her dagger instantly in her hand.

And came to a halt as soon as the blade was inches away from Sophea's heart, the stone necklace around her neck pulsing darkly.

Sophea's smile was one of nightmares, her hazel eyes growing even darker with another source of magic than the one she held in her palm. "You really thought you could kill me, my darling Adeena?"

Adeena bared her teeth. "I can and I will."

The empress laughed. "I would love to see you try. Oh, wait, you can't."

She might not have been able to move, to pierce Sophea's heart with her dagger just as she wanted, but Adeena's magic lashed out.

Only to slam into a wall that seemingly surrounded not only Sophea's body, but her mind as well. A wall made of darkness and shadows, one she so obviously hadn't put up on her own. She knew Sophea's magic and this...this wasn't made from it.

"Don't touch it," Sophea hissed as Adeena's magic felt around even more.

Except the voice that came from her mouth...it wasn't hers.

No.

No.

Dagger slipping through her fingers, Adeena straightened and didn't step closer.

Her magic, though...the darkest parts of it...lashed out like a whip to strike against the magic that encompassed the empress.

A magic that wasn't Sophea's own, one that focused on the stone tying Adeena's magic to her.

Sophea hissed again, realizing what Adeena was attempting to do, and lunged forward, hands reaching up to grab onto her neck.

"Don't you dare touch me with your magic, Adeena Lucerra Brandt," she growled out, eyes going pitch black and glittering with rage. "You remember what happened the one and only time you've ever made that attempt."

She did. Even her healing magic hadn't been able to work fast enough. Her recovery took weeks, weeks that Malik helped her through.

Adeena couldn't stop, though.

Her magic continued its assault, even as Sophea's hands tightened around her throat, making her drop to her knees.

All Adeena could do was think of Cleo. Think of everything her sister had to go through without her by her side and vice versa. Adeena had spent too long without being able to be there and she wouldn't let it go on, not after learning of Sophea's plans to finally succeed on taking Cleo from the world in such a permanent way.

She found her strength in that knowledge. In knowing that succeeding in this, breaking away from Sophea's hold on her would bring her home.

Struggling against the magic that assaulted her and Sophea's crushing hold, Adeena was finally able to stand with just that one thought of being able to be with Cleo again.

Her magic, both light and dark, pooled between her palms before she screamed, letting it burst around her in a shockwave that rattled the entire palace around them.

Sophea raged as she was knocked back against the front of her desk, then launched herself at Adeena with both nails flashing and magic roaring. The stone around her neck flared and Adeena felt it struggling to hold not only her, but Sophea also. A dark magic she'd never encountered before burst from the stone, wrapping Adeena in a tight cocoon that smothered her and her magic, making her drop to her knees again.

Adeena clawed at her neck as Sophea slowly stalked toward her, a malicious smile curling up the edges of her mouth.

"Adeena, my darling, don't even try it. The magic that binds both my own and yours is a darker, ancient, and otherworldly. Not only can you not kill me...I can't kill you either. He needs you...but that doesn't mean I can't make you suffer as I have so many times before."

She knelt down to pick up Adeena's fallen dagger, dragging her fingertip along the blade. It sliced into her skin...and black blood dripped onto the steel.

Adeena's eyes widened even more as she started to crawl backward, still choking.

"All those years ago, when you and Cleo were just four years old...I made a deal with the death god who'd come to claim you two for his own," Sophea started, staring at the blood on her fingertip.

She knelt down in front of her, blade glistening in the firelight.

Something rammed against the office doors as shouts rang out through the hallway.

"Cleo had survived the assassination attempt, but you...you'd brought yourself back. You and Evander. He didn't like that I'd failed, but he gave me control over you nonetheless while he waited for another with your and your sister's...abilities...to come into the world. Another world, of course, but with the same kind of magic you two have. Your cousin's daughter, to be precise. The very one who will be in our world within just a week or two."

Adeena had read about her cousin Lyv's daughter, Dessa, but didn't understand how she could be like her and Cleo.

Sophea answered her unspoken question for her. "She was conceived when her mother possessed dark magic within her, just like you and Cleo were when Corliss fell pregnant with you. And he wants you. All three of you."

"Who?" Adeena was able to gasp.

"The death god, of course," she answered with a shrill laugh. "Who else?"

Adeena trembled.

Sophea's eyes flashed. "He will have you in pieces after I'm finished with you," she sneered. "You and Cleo and Princess Dessa of Dalcaine."

She lunged forward, slicing the dagger in a wide arch across Adeena's body. Even with the magical hold on her, she was still able to shift to divert the blow, though the blade sliced clean across her upper arm. It cut through the leather of her jacket as blood oozed from it. Not black, but bright red against stark white.

She tried her best to crawl away from her, but it only put her closer to the fire that seemingly grew in intensity. Another cut, this time across her back. Then a kick to her stomach, knocking the air from her lungs. And right when Sophea went in for the final blow...

The only thing that stopped her was Malik and Kav, who burst into the office the very next moment.

As soon as Sophea looked up and saw her sons...Adeena noticed the change in her eyes. A tiny pinprick of light that managed to appear in the darkness.

Adeena took advantage of those few seconds of hesitation, slamming every bit of her magic against Sophea, encompassing her in a darkness she reserved for only the vilest of people, finding her way past the wall of magic that surrounded her.

Screw the death god who had hold of them both.

Sophea screamed, hands going to her head as her nails dug into her scalp. Adeena's magic was suffocating, trying to find any cracks as it continued to batter against the dark magic not belonging to Sophea.

And instead of focusing on the stone that bound Adeena's magic to her, she went for her mind instead.

The empress's screams rattled the windows of the office as she stumbled, her fingers still pulling at her hair. Adeena struggled to stand, only managing to when Malik lunged for her.

"Don't stop me, Malik," Adeena hissed, throwing out a hand in his direction and knocking him back into Kav.

The two princes thought she was going to kill their mother. She had every intention to...before she knew the darkness that surrounded her wasn't her own and she saw a different light in her eyes.

As she unleashed every bit of her magic against Sophea, the whole world around them seemed to shudder. The fire winked out, thunderclouds rolled outside the windows, every lamp flickered and died.

Until Adeena finally found what she was searching for – a crack in the dark, shadowy cloud that covered Sophea like a shell.

Finally, she was able to get into her mind, to see the pain and rage she carried. Not toward Adeena...but toward another whose face was blurred all except for his smile, which held nothing but wickedness and malice. It was his magic that controlled Sophea and everything she did. He'd been the one doing so ever since she made a deal with him...a deal Adeena knew the empress regretted as soon as he captured her, making her his puppet, poisoning her mind and every thought she ever had, trapping her in herself.

Sophea screamed again, eyes wild as she collapsed against the edge of her desk, sliding down the side to the floor.

But when she looked up at Adeena...it wasn't the same Sophea who had been there just moments before, who had been intent on making her suffer.

"Please," she whispered, voice feeble as her hand dropped to her neck, fumbling for the stone necklace. "Please. I can..."

Hands raised at her sides, her magic still wrapped around the empress in a vice, Adeena took two hesitant steps toward her. She'd smothered the dark magic the held onto Sophea, allowing for the empress's own light to appear after being subdued for so long.

Sophea let out a cry as her hand, still wrapped around the stone, began to glow with golden light.

She wasn't just going to willingly give up the necklace that tied Adeena's magic to hers. She couldn't, not when it not only controlled Adeena, but Sophea, too. She was going to shatter it, breaking the dark god's hold over both of them, just as long as Adeena could help her.

This time, the scream that echoed through the office, through the palace, through all of Krahzara was one of rage and heartbreak. She clutched the stone with both hands, that golden light shining even brighter between them, and creating the first crack in the stone...until it shattered completely.

The ground beneath them quaked with the sudden burst of magic.

Sophea's scream was silenced as her head fell back. Black shadows poured out of her mouth and nose, trying to escape before Adeena's magic went for them again. These shadows were different from what she remembered Cleo's being. These were foreign, otherworldly. They continued escaping, swirling around Sophea's limp body as she sagged against the desk.

Before they disappeared, though, they took something else. This time, it was from Adeena.

Adeena gasped as something inside her was yanked free. Those magical bonds that held her for so long were unraveling, disappearing into the space around her. After being in a different kind of darkness other than her own for so, so long, she couldn't help the cry that escaped her throat as she fell to her hands and knees.

Both of them watched the shadows rise and swirl, then disappear almost instantly.

And when Adeena managed to look up as the ground finally steadied, she found the empress's eyes wide and staring at her. The darkness they previously held was gone. The hazel clear and bright.

Before Sophea suddenly turned and vomited black blood on the carpeted floor.