Page 143 of Merciless Is My Crown

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I muttered, rallying my magic, this strange new mixture like some bastardized marriage between life and death. My old, shadowy magic, black and cold, tangled with this new power that tasted like spring and smelled like a summer day after a long rain.

Somehow—and I might be slightly insane—I had a shred of hope for the future, as if I wasn’t about to incinerate all of Solarys.

“At least there are no Reapers this time,” Raz said cheerfully. “They were seriously the worst.”

“Keep that shield up, Raz. Don’t let your magic buckle,” Cosimo warned softly.

“Worry about yourself, old man,” Raz taunted, his dark eyes flashing. I refrained from rolling my eyes as he and Tavion grinned and bumped fists. “I’ve never had a problem keeping it up.”

“For fuck’s sake. Just…” I blew out a shaky breath. “Open the portal.”

I stepped closer to the doorway, my power rallying, the scent of freshly struck lightning stinging my nostrils as Cosimo pried the doorway open. The entire wall groaned then rippled like a shimmering wave down the full length, as far as I could see. I flinched, waiting for the deluge to wipe us away, but light flared then a wash of warm, humid air flooded over me.

Caladrius smelled so alive, every breath settling into my lungs like I’d put down roots and they were delving deeper and deeper into the exhausted, barren ground beneath me. Feeding the ground, giving it life.

“Now, Anaria. Do it now.” Cosimo’s voice came from far away, a brush of sound that was lost in the rushing winds curling around me and the playful breeze that lifted my hair and kissed my cheeks.

Life.

The air was filled with the promise of life.

A future for this realm if only I could somehow harness this power and make the wild magic save this realm like it had saved Caladrius.

I lifted my hands, letting my shadows spill out filled with a galaxy of stars, like I’d reached into the heavens and dragged the constellations down to the mortal realms. I ran my fingers through the balmy wind, leaving a glistening, shining trail of light behind.

“All I want is a better future for us all,” I whispered, but the words got lost, or maybe I’d only imagined them, but then…I swore even the wind paused again to listen.

“I want things to be as they were, alive and growing. I am sick of all this death. I am tired of Old Gods and corrupt kings.” A certainty settled into me then, a rightness that while even if I didn’t fully grasp what was about to happen…

We’d been brought together for a purpose.

Torin and her males were here to join our fight, to free this world from the invisible chains that bound it for an eternity. Since the Old Gods landed here eons ago. And once they were destroyed, and perhaps us as well, this world could truly thrive like it was meant to.

I didn’t say any of this aloud.

Only felt that rightness in my bones, yet the magic understood, sweeping past me like a tempest of great and terrible purpose, churning through the emptiness, the dry, brittle cold of this realm like a thundering storm.

Power boomed up and down the ward, sending flocks of startled birds exploding from the trees around us, bending and warping the air in both directions, my ears hollowing out. Everyone braced themselves, faces shielded, crouched against whatever was coming.

Please. Please let this realm survive what’s coming.

We fell to our knees when the wall crashed down, the ear-shattering bellow of an ancient fortification finally—finally—breaking apart. Magic that had remained unbroken for a millennium fell, from Meridian Bay all the way to the Taranth Mountains, and then…

“Get down,” Raz screamed, wrapping a shield of his magic around us seconds before the shockwave hit.

I reached for Tavion, but all I saw was black when the magic exploded into Solarys.

Darkness and Raziel’s weight on top of me, his body shuddering as he held me in place, didn’t let me so much as raise my head. Over the roaring I heard shouting—Cosimo, maybe. It was hard to tell over the pressure building in my ears, blood trickling from my nose faster and faster.

I sent my own magic out, by instinct more than anything, letting my shadows twine with Raz’s, fortifying his shield, patching holes, and shoring up weak spots as fast as they appeared, not knowing if it was enough. Raz panted against my back as I fed more and more magic straight into him now, uncaring of the marks or us turning into monsters.

Only surviving this.

This was cataclysmic, being this close to the nexus. We should have…

“Stay down,” Raz grunted, “Don’t you dare move, Anaria.” His voice was raspy. Pained.

I stayed down, but I also sent my magic rippling outwards, shoving the storm back, creating a pocket of hot, humid air around us smelling of freshly struck lightning and crushed leaves. I lifted my head enough to see Tavion climb to his knees and vomit, Cosimo rubbing his face, staring at me in either awe or fury, I couldn’t quite tell.

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