Page 159 of Veinblood
“This is what you have never understood,” he shouts, voice strained. “Power without the will to use it properly is worthless. Strength wasted on protecting the weak is no strength at all.”
Blood is flowing from his eyes and nose now, but he doesn’t stop, and he doesn’t retreat. I don’t know if it’s the crystal or his own twisted obsession that’s driving him forward, demanding more violence, more destruction, and more proof of his superiority over me.
Ice spears hurtle toward Ellie’s position. She manages to deflect most of them, but one grazes her shoulder, sending blood spattering across the platform. The sight of her injury sends fresh fury through my already fractured control.
“You want to see strength, Sereven?” I snarl, desperation and fear for Ellie making me reckless beyond all reason. “Let me show you what protecting people really means.”
I reach for Voidcraft again. “Haael devan korveth’an!”Let stillness claim what corruption has seized.
The incantation tears out of me with the last of my strength, filled with every memory of the people I’ve loved and lost, every promise I’ve made to keep others safe, every moment of joy and devastation I’ve found in this dark world. I don’t aim it at Sereven, but at the crystal pieces.
The shadows find gaps in his defenses, spaces where the crystal’s influence doesn’t quite reach. They tighten around him like a noose, sliding around his throat, his arms, his legs, seeking to immobilize him long enough for the Voidcraft to take hold.
The blue light flickers, and Sereven staggers.
“Impossible! You shouldn’t have been able to?—”
He doesn’t finish, instead he straightens, the crystal flares. My Voidcraft shatters and falls apart. Pain beyond description tears through my connection to the shadows, and every single one of them collapses, their essence being drawn into the crystal. It feels like having part of my soul ripped away.
“You still don’t understand. The crystal doesn’t just take power. It takeseverything. Your memories, your will, your identity. It will all become part of me, like all the rest.”
The pulling sensation intensifies, and I realize with growing horror that it's not just affecting my shadows. The crystal is reaching deeper, trying to drain my very essence. The part ofme that has always been connected to darkness, everything that makes me who I am—it's all being drawn toward those pulsing blue fragments.
I try to sever the connection, to pull back before any permanent damage can be done. But the crystal's grip is too strong, too persistent. No matter what I do, I can’t get free of its hold.
My knees hit the cavern floor, weakness spreading through my body. Around me, the shadows begin to fade, turning transparent and insubstantial as their connection to me turns weak. Sereven advances, moving with renewed confidence now my primary defense has been stripped away.
“This is how it ends, brother. You on your knees before me, where you always should have been.”
He raises his hand once more, and power builds around him. More power than anyone should ever be able to channel, and it’s all focused on erasing me from existence.
And I have nothing left to stop him.
The crystal has taken too much, drained too deeply into the well of my abilities. Even if I could find some reserve of strength, some hidden cache of power that has escaped his hunger, it wouldn’t be enough. Not against the accumulated might of thousands of Veinbloods twisted into a weapon of pure destruction.
Ellie is shouting something behind me, but her voice is distant and distorted. I want to turn, to see her face one final time, but my body won’t obey my commands. The crystal'sdrain has left me hollow, emptied of everything that once made me dangerous.
This is what I deserve, perhaps. The final price for all the people I failed to protect, all the promises I couldn’t keep. Varam lies dead because I led him here. Mira is broken and unable to escape. Ellie will die because I was too weak to end this when I had the chance.
The failures pile up like stones in my chest, each one heavier than the last. Every choice that led to this moment, every mistake that brought me to my knees before my brother. Maybe Sereven is right. Maybe sentiment really is weakness. Maybe caring about people really does make you vulnerable in ways that ultimately prove fatal.
“Goodbye, Sacha.” Sereven’s voice holds something that reminds me of the love we both once shared for each other. “Iamsorry it had to end this way.”
In the crystal shards embedded in his face, I can see reflected images of everyone I’ve failed to save. Their deaths will be my last sight before oblivion claims me.
I close my eyes and wait for the end.
Chapter Forty-Four
ELLIE
“The greatest magic is not in the taking, but in the choosing to give.”
The Nature of Veinblood Rebirth
“No!”The word tears from my throat. I try to send out my mist stalker, but it doesn’t respond or materialize. The crystal must be blocking my connection to it. I can’t stop what’s coming. Sacha is going to die, and I can’t do anything other than watch.
Sereven’s hand seems to rise in slow motion, shadows and fire wrapping around it. Sacha’s head bows, and through the bond, I can feel his defeat, his weakness. He has nothing left to give. Everything has been torn from him.
