Page 77 of Morning's Light

Yes, yes. Think of the explosion, the tide turning in my favor. Think of the pain you can inflict, and how deserving they are.

“I can’t control her,” Aisanna said instead, teeth chattering. Her eyes had been rubbed raw with fury and pain. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You need to come with us.” Zelda didn’t need a word or a potion to bring forth the full force of her magic. Her brow furrowed and a ring of fire roared to life around them, keeping them penned.

“Leave me alone.”

“Aisanna—”

“I said leave me alone!”

A puppet with her master’s hand pulling the strings, Aisanna let her magic burst forth, enhanced by the slithering blackness inside of her. A wild range of emotions competed for possession of her, like rival generals in front of vast armies bent on taking the same native land. Excitement. Rage. Dread. Grief. She tried to focus on here and now, to push away the bad feelings and regain control. A creeping sense of futility infected her, the same one incubating in her heart since the first night she’d been struck with the death rune.

The dam broke, the only barrier holding back everything she tried desperately to contain.

And Darkness was thrilled.

Power sprang out from her to manifest as thick poisonous green trunks. Tiles burst from the floor as those trunks wound toward the ceiling. They burst through sheetrock and cement, metal and wood, until they reached the rooftop.

The ring of fire shrank down in surprise. Zelda drew her brows together, livid. “Miss Cavaldi, call this off! That’s enough.”

Thorns the size of a giant’s forearm grew from the stems, with points gleaming black. The thorns formed a wall around her and forced the others to retreat.

“I’m sorry,” she cried, the sentence quickly cut off. Darkness rose and she clutched at her throat. She was forced into a corner until her vision dimmed and she watched the display through a small circle of light. She was an observer in her own body. Unable to stop the tainted black power using her.

Don’t fret. They deserve everything they get. In this game, there’s no loyalty.

A second wave of vines whipped around—summoned out of nothing—and snapped at the air in front of her. They lashed out at the Claddium members like cat-o’-nine-tails, cracking anything they touched and leaving a pool of acid-like liquid in their wake.

Orestes retaliated with a wave of his own earth magic. “I have had enough of this! Cease now or you’ll spend the rest of your miserable life in the Vault.”

The vines shrank back an inch, then thickened. Grew larger and more impenetrable. That’s when Aisanna lost all hope of fighting the one who strengthened her.

Zelda recovered quickly and added her own power to the free-for-all. Flames licked the thorns in bursts that would have normally been able to melt the paint off a tanker. Instead, the plants absorbed the fire and doubled in size.

Aisanna was not one to give in to hysterics. The opposite, usually. She delegated hysterics for Karsia. However, at the realization that Darkness would never let her go, she went ballistic.

With a scream to make a banshee proud, she released the flow of magic and bolted toward the back door, gaining enough control of her legs to stumble along.

Her dark passenger found the resistance amusing.

Run, run, little one! I’ll give you this escape tonight.

Her muscles protested after everything she’d been through. She pushed on into the freezing cold. She had no place to go, no sanctuary for escape. She ran over frozen sidewalks and across blocks, ran until her vision dimmed. Her feet slowed and a slick patch of ice had her sliding into a nearby building. Needles pierced her insides and she bent over her knees, sobbing.

Sobbing and woozy-headed, Aisanna sank to the ground with dizziness swarming like bees in her ears. “Just take me already.”

As if from a distance she heard a boom, an explosion of mortar and stone when her building collapsed to the ground. Her business had been decimated.

Her vision tunneled once more until she beheld only a single point of light from a nearby street lamp.

Then she gave in.

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