Page 115 of Claim the Twilight
I pulled myself up as Loviator bore down on me and I tried to blur out of the way, but my body refused to cooperate. She had her hand around my throat in a blink, lifting me up into the air.
“Let her go!” Hemlock rushed toward us and halted as if gripped by an unseen force.
“Enough!” Loviator boomed. “You stupid girl,” she spat. “Always defiant. Always stubborn. I gave you a second chance, and you…” She growled softly. “You could have lived.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she squeezed my throat. “You could have lived…” Her tone softened.
I forced words past the constriction in my throat. “I don’t…want to live…in a world ruled…by you.”
Her gaze dulled. “Then you will die. Again.”
She released me, and I fell back, staggering away from her and clutching my sore throat.
She stood frozen, her hand still out in front of her, eyes wide in shock.
I looked to Hemlock, whose gaze was on something behind me. I followed it to the figure striding toward us.
Harald? He was bigger somehow. Taller and broader and his skin seemed to glow, but it was still him.
He walked past me and came to stand in front of Loviator. “You haven’t aged a day, Mother.”
Mother? What the…
Loviator blinked slowly. “En…can…tor…home…”
Encantor? The ninth son.
I backed away, moving around them to get to Hemlock. He hurried toward me, pulling me against his side.
“What the fuck is going on?” he whisper-hissed.
“Shall we tell them, Mother?” Encantor drawled. “Tell them about how you locked away your children because you feared their power? You didn’t want them to surpass you because you knew that together we could end you. But you never stopped to think that your potential destroyers could have been your biggest champions. We could have protected you, Mother. If only you’d allowed yourself to truly love us.”
“I…loved…you.”
“Liar!” His eyes blazed. “You loved only yourself. Your ego. Your mission. What you felt for us was nothing in comparison. Where is she? Where is my sister?”
Loviator’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t kill me.”
“Where is she, damn you?”
Rough laughter bubbled from Loviator’s frozen lips. “You can hold me here for a while, but you don’t have the power to kill me. Not without Elanthra.”
“You think I can’t find her?” Encantor sneered.
“I know you can’t. Because your sister is dead.”
Encantor’s head snapped back as if he’d been slapped.
“Orina!” Ordell ran toward us, a winged figure in the air behind him carrying someone.
“You killed her…” Encantor said softly. “You…She was your favorite.”
“And she betrayed me. I had to make an example of her.”
Encantor’s chest heaved. “No…I…I felt her when I was freed, I felt?—”
“Nothing!” Loviator snapped. “You imagined what you wanted to feel. She’s gone, and soon your hold on me will snap,and I’ll be free. You can fight me, but you cannot kill me. Join me, son. Together we can form a new world. You at my side.”
“You killed her…” Encantor’s hand went to his chest.
