Page 36 of Crowned By the Shadow
“It’s too late for plans!” I interrupted, frustration bubbling over as panic clouded my thoughts. “We have to act now before he corrupts her completely!”
Eldric stepped closer to Wyn, as if sensing our hesitation. “You see? Even now, she grows weaker. Every moment you waste strengthens her bonds to me and to the Empress herself.”
The runes beneath Wyn flickered ominously, and she gasped as darkness flared across her skin, coursing through her veins like fire. The sight tore at my heart. For a second there was a flicker in my vision and I felt like Wyn and I had switched places, like she was standing here trying to save me from the corruption and I knew what she would do if our roles were reversed.
“No!” Thorn shouted suddenly and launched forward without waiting for me or Ronan to react. Why had he pulled me back only to go after Wyn himself?
“Thorn!” I cried out as he dashed toward Eldric. Confusion filled my mind. What happened to needing a plan?
Before I could stop him or even follow, Eldric raised his hand sharply, and Thorn collided with an invisible barrier surrounding the dais. He staggered back as if he’d hit a wall made of solid steel.
“You thought you could simply walk into my domain and rescue your friend?” Eldric mocked, looking between us with amusement dancing in his reptilian eye. “You’re all so naïve.”
Ronan gripped his weapon tighter but didn’t move forward yet; he was waiting for the right moment, just like me.
“Eldric!” I called out desperately, trying to pull his focus away from Thorn. “You can’t keep doing this! The Empress is coming! You think binding Wyn will give you power? You’re only hastening your own demise!”
He turned away from Thorn and towards me again, curiosity sparking in those corrupted depths where his humanity once lived. “And what do you know about power? You’re simply an Eclipse Child. You’re nothing more than a child born under unusual circumstances. Not the first and not the last.”
I swallowed hard against the rising anger and dread. “Then let me show you how much power an Eclipse Child can wield!”
With that declaration hanging heavy in the air between us, I focused on both artifacts, the Veilshard Pendant pulsing against my palm as I clutched it, and the Starforged Mirror trembling in my other hand. A surge of energy flowed through me as they responded to my determination.
“I will not let you win,” I declared fiercely.
Wyn’s eyes widened slightly; even through the haze of darkness creeping over her consciousness, she seemed to recognize what was happening.
“Senara!” Her voice trembled as she fought against her restraints. “Don’t?—”
But it was too late; the darkness had already taken hold of her voice again and twisted it into something alien and hollow, a reflection of Eldric’s own corruption that made me shudder inwardly.
Ignoring Wyn’s warning, I lifted both artifacts high above my head while simultaneously channeling magic through them, not just my magic, but Thorn’s as well. Silver and gold light spiraled outward from both objects until they formed a brilliant halo around me.
“Enough!” Eldric roared, his frustration boiling over as he spun around towards us, but by then it was already too late for him.
In one swift motion, the blinding silvery gold light engulfed everything, including Eldric, sending him tumbling backward along with anything else nearby. Echoes reverberated deep within the chamber the magic reflecting on itself from the curved obsidian walls until eventually it subsided like waves finally stilling on a lake.
When silence fell like thick fog settling heavily upon each of us, I saw that the ground beneath my feet had cracked, breaking the runes that were inscribed upon it until they were nothing but rubble around my boots.
As I looked around, all I could see for a long, unsettling moment was black and purple dust. A moment passed before I forced my feet to move, to cross the boundary that Thorn had held me back from again and again.
Nothing happened as I stepped closer to where the dais had been. I kept my gaze locked on to the area, waiting for Eldric to emerge and taunt me further.
The dust finally settled, gradually revealing Wyn. She emerged slowly from the cloud. Whatever had been holding her in place was clearly gone and, as she realized it, she ran toward me.
Chapter
Twelve
Senara
“I’m free,” Wyn gasped, stumbling toward me with outstretched arms. “Senara, you broke his hold?—”
Her words cut off as her eyes rolled back in her head. She collapsed, her body going limp before she even reached me. I lunged forward and caught her just before she hit the ground, cradling her against my chest.
“Wyn!” I cried, frantically checking for signs of life. Her pulse fluttered beneath my fingertips, weak but present. The corruption still threaded through her veins, dark lines against her pale skin, but they seemed less pronounced now, as if the fight had weakened their hold.
Thorn was instantly at my side, his hand on Wyn’s forehead. “She’s burning up,” he said grimly.
