Page 57 of Vicious Is My Throne

“Clever girl, locking me inside my head.” The Oracle’s voice dripped with malice. “I must say, I never saw that coming, and it is not often I am surprised, least of all by mortals.”

I stopped short of the glass room, raw magic crackling at my hands as I waited for her to make the first move. She was closer to Tavion and Raz than we were, close enough to snap their necks.

When we’d left this morning, I’d only taken what we’d needed.

A change of clothes for Tristan, and the bag to carry them in.

The keystone was upstairs in the top drawer of the bedside table. I didn’t even know if its power would work against her, but I’d never reach it in time anyway.

I had two knives, Tristan had three. But this wouldn’t come down to that kind of fighting, not from the bloodthirsty look on her face.

No, she’d use her magic and she’d make us suffer.

“I’m the one you want, Gelvira. Leave them out of this.” My voice echoed off all the glass. “Let’s you and I settle this between ourselves like sisters should.”

The Oracle chuckled darkly, her eyes glowing with malevolent power. “You know that’s not how this works. It has never truly been between the two of us.” In one step she was beside Raziel, dragging her fingers through his hair.

With a flick of her wrist, the Oracle gripped a handful and yanked his head back, baring his throat, tendons and muscle stretched to their limit, and my heart lurched. Beside me, Tristan hissed a warning when I took a single, stumbling step into the room.

Dark energy crawled over me the moment I broke through her invisible barrier, probing for a way through my shield. Energy meant to rip and tear and sunder flesh, should my magic fail me.

“Take your fucking filthy hands off him.” Violence ripped through me, the kind that would make me do something foolish. “Or I’ll make you let them go.”

She threw her head back and laughed, the sound ringing like a bell. “We’ve done this dance before, Anaria, so many times. You wouldn’t remember, but such blustering threats never work in your favor.”

In one swift motion, I cast a shield of shimmering light over the two of them, and the Oracle snatched her hand back as if she’d been burned, her shadows writhing, trying to cast off my starry power as her body torqued in pain.

Tavion and Raz shifted, enough for me to see their faces. Twisted with fury, but their eyes were clear enough to tell me she wasn’t controlling their minds.

“I tried to warn you,” I said mildly as she glared at me through narrowed eyes. “Now let them go so we can finish this.”

Stars shattered the air as she threw off my power, Raz’s eyes darting between me, the door, the windows. Outside, the storm blew hard, rain lashing the glass, the floor vibrating from the wind and the thundering waterfalls.

“I knew you were a fool from the moment you opened your eyes,” she hissed. “But it was too late. The magic chose you, even if I did not. I would have slit your throat right then, before you drew your first breath, but Torin stopped me. I never should have listened.”

She rounded the still-kneeling Tavion and Raz, dragging her shadows behind her. “You have made a mess of things, Princess. Both kings dead, the magic released, and for what?” She swept her hand across the windows to the blighted forest beyond.

“Trapping me only gave Corvus the chance he’s been craving all these millennium. You ruined all the glorious life you created out of ignorance. You are not worthy of becoming one of us.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

“Why did you allow him to exist, knowing what he was capable of?”

The mocking smile slid off her face. “Because he is my brother. The only true family I have left. But this world only lasts forever if we consume its magic in small sips. Corvus doesn’t know restraint. He would swallow this world whole. Now, I don’t know if he can be stopped.”

Behind me, Tristan held back, tense and ready. Tavion’s eyes slid between us, waiting for the Oracle’s magic to fail and give him an opening. When it did, he’d go for his sword, or his knife, or shift into his wolf.

And end up bleeding on this floor.

Lightning crackled outside and thunder boomed. The Oracle’s head swiveled toward the rain-coated windows, the forest beyond blurred to a dark smear.

I met Raz’s and Tavion’s eyes, then flicked my gaze to those same windows. Again. A third time. Tavion’s mouth tightened and he managed to shake his head. No.

Stubborn wolf. You stubborn, stubborn wolf.

“If killing Corvus was the only way to stop this, is that what you’d want?” I clenched my hands, my fingers swollen from clinging to Tristan’s back, arms shaking from holding my magic on such a short leash, from the creeping cold of my darklings suspended on the ceiling overhead.

Waiting patiently as her gaze narrowed, malice turning to speculation.

---