Page 107 of Rose and Shadows
Liberating the victimized and wronged without hefty collateral damage.
And Velra achieving closure and empowerment at a time when she dearly needed it.
I had to hold to our agreement. She had earned that from me several times over. My trust. My respect. My belief.
I watched as Velra merely smiled, then swept a wisp of her frost over her cheek and healed it with her left palm easily.
Lavra’s eyes widened, but she swiftly forced her shock into disgust, which Arvent then voiced as he told Velra, “Sickening hybrid heresy.”
“Wow. Coming from you and what the two of you are doing here, that’s some next-level hypocritical bullshit,” Velra spoke. “And that’s without even factoring in your bigger-picture goals. Goals, by the way, that your supposeddear songave me the full lowdown on.”
Lavra and Arvent exchanged a look, their worry clear.
“Now get the fuck off him,” Velra demanded of her father upon the dragon. “And end the rest of this shitshow while you’re at it.” Her eyes flashed. “I’m sure your revered leader, Gregor Varsellis, has enough data to work with from this twisted display to determine how useful the mind-meddling capabilities you’ve offered to weaponize for him will be.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine Darethor sanctioning this alliance with the leader ofPuritas.”
“That fool is inconsequential!” Arvent snapped.
“You’d think.” Velra shifted her weight, making a calm, composed show of weaving her purple power between the fingers of her right hand, while doing so on her left with her frost, while her shadows continued to swirl around her. “The thing is, he’s still King. By blood, which is very important in the Dark Fae Realm, as I recall. As members of his Royal Fae Court, you completed an induction ritual, remember? Onethat included your blood and power briefly melding with his, something that represented unity. On the surface. But beneath that, it was still a magical ritual. Did you neglect to factor that in with your betrayal? With believing you were able to act independently and in ways that your king will not take well to?”
I could feel Velra’s urgency through the Soul Brand, despite how well she was doing with not showing it at all to them. But she was sick about what was still happening to the dragon and all the other beings in the immediate area.
I knew she’d made peace with her parents’ treatment of her, so she didn’t need to interact with them now like this, nor did she want to, but she was affording me time to forge the magical means to siphon.
She could not end the mind-meddling while so much Celestial power was present.
I stepped as close to the illusion barrier as possible, still keeping out of sight, as I began to spin the circles on either palm, gathering my power, preparing it to be able to siphon suddenly from such a vast expanse, and several sources—all three dozen corrupted Dark Fae currently using it infused in their mind-meddling.
Ryker had been able to do something similar because of his special makeup, wherein he could nullify magical energy. There was a barrier employed there essentially that prevented that draw from impacting him directly—at least for a time.
I did not possess such a makeup.
“You dare to threaten us?” Lavra demanded.
“Threaten?” Velra answered, arching an eyebrow beautifully, in a way that conveyed so much. “These are facts. And it really seems with how surprised and freaked you both are that your power hungry determination really blinded you to it. Big time.” She gave a faux grimace. “I guess that means you aren’t prepared at all that I advisedThryneto inform Darethor, to strike analliance with him. With what you’ve done, that’s now become viable.” She cocked her head to the side. “Funny, isn’t it? How all this is going to come back on you and actually put them and Darethor on the same page after all this time? Now it will no longer be a resistance movement. It will betheway of running the Dark Fae Realm actually supported by the king himself.”
“No!” Arvent yelled. “You understand nothing. There are complexities that—”
“Oh, you’re referring to Darethor being weakened? Him essentially wasting away due to dangerous magic usage for too many years?” Her eyes glinted. “Yeah, about that… he has more incentive to align withThrynethan I just mentioned. With myheretic-likeabilities as you call them, I have the means to spare him.” She lifted a shoulder. “You know, so long as he proves himself no longer a threat.”
Incredible work, my love.
I registered many of her parents’ minions reacting to that claim.
They appeared to be reconsidering their alliance.
Lavra screamed and started forward, intending to strike Velra again.
But with a flick of her hand, Velra’s shadows ripped the harpy off her feet and sent her careening into Arvent, which, in turn, tore him from the dragon.
The dragon still could not move, bound by Arvent’s mind-meddling.
As Lavra helped her husband to his feet, the two of them called their power in unison.
But Velra was already steps ahead, sweeping her frost at them, which had them both screaming as it spread up their fingers and forced their power to snuff out, while causing severe frostbite in the process to the point that they couldn’t even move their fingers.
As the Dark Fae minions reacted, Velra swept her shadows up and out all around her.
They passed over the victimized vampires and dragons, but tore into the hostiles, knocking some back, while tearing others off their feet.
