Page 58 of Vicious Is My Throne

“Is that what you are offering, Princess, in exchange for their lives? To kill my brother?”

I swallowed down all the insults I wanted to unleash on this vile creature. “He is destroying this world. Soon enough, there will be nothing left for any of us.”

“Even from the bare bones of this world, I could still wring enough magic to survive.” Her smile returned, though its brightness had dimmed. “But your kind…you cannot live without green, growing things, can you?”

“No. We cannot.”

“Then you have far more to lose than I, and killing my brother benefits you more than it does me. Which leaves us at a crossroads, Princess. One more realm remains to be freed. One more ward must fall for the magic to fully return.”

“There is no magic in Varitus.” I shook my head out of habit more than anything else. “What little is left is nothing but parlor tricks and games.” Oh, but how that pale imitation had beguiled me when I was young.

“You were clever enough to unlock the magic in Solarys. I have no doubt you will do the same in Varitus and unite the three realms once more.”

“Why should I, when your brother will only devour that magic too?”

“Because if you do not, I will take these males you are so fiercely bonded to and feed them to my brother. You have seen how he twists fragile, growing things. Think of what he can do to flesh and blood. One more realm, Princess. That is my price for their lives.”

“The world is dying,” I snapped. “And all you can think about is your own power?”

“Their lives for Varitus. Then…you can go wherever you wish.”

I snorted. “Just like that? You’d let us walk away?” I fed more power into my stardust shield, wrapping it tighter around Raz and Tavion, Tristan still staying well outside the Oracle’s magic.

She gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “I am content to claim this realm for myself. There are others across the sea where you might find a home.”

“How very magnanimous of you.”

A trap…but why? Why did she want the magic in Varitus when there was barely any?

“I do wonder…if like before you are only motivated to succeed if I keep your males as my guests.” The Oracle's power cracked the air like lightning, a bolt of power heading straight for Raz and Tavion, powerful enough to shred them apart.

But I was quicker, blasting through her onslaught with ribbons of pure power.

Aimed not at the Oracle…but at the bay of windows.

The glass blew outward, the wind roaring through the room in a raging torrent, our magics colliding in a dazzling eruption of light and shadow before being sucked outside. Hair whipping wildly, I slid across the floor, pulled by the strength of the storm and the air being sucked out of this room.

“Now,” I screamed to Tristan as I flung everything I had at the Oracle. “Do it now.”

Then the room was a nightmare of scales and talons and that deadly, thrashing tail, spikes whipping back and forth, shredding the walls before he grasped Tavion in one taloned paw and leapt through the broken-out windows.

“Go,” I screamed at Raz. “That’s an order, in case you were thinking of refusing.”

Raziel’s jaw worked, his eyes blazing before he vanished, leaving a swirl of rain and fog in his place.

Relief flooded through me. The Oracle had lost her means of hurting me. Of controlling me.

Being alone made me strong.

She knew it as she turned away from the windows, soaking wet hair whipping around her face. One thought and my darklings dropped from the ceiling, tangling around her in a squeezing mass of shadows, pinning her arms to her sides.

They could only hold her for a few seconds, but that was all I needed.

“Now.” I pulled out my thread of power like separating one strand of silver from a skein of cotton.

“Let’s see what you really had planned for us.”

Bexley had given me the idea with his talk of what witch magic could do. We didn’t have the skulls, but we had something even better. Peering inside her head would give me the answers we needed.

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