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“You seem to forget.” Narrowing my gaze, I watch his face morph into confusion. “That was you, Father, who killed my mother, a goddess of this world. For even a god can’t escape death. But you also seem to misunderstand.” Leaning forward on the wyvern, I pause to reign in the current of rage filling my veins.
Gnashing my teeth together, I swallow the ball of anger down roughly. “I’ve had time to think about this, and how you bring nothing to this world. Only pain and heartbreak, while leaving the dust of bones in your wake. Your death would be inconsequential to the world.”
I catch the way his eyes widen for a split second, his nostrils flaring as he jerks against our power binding him.
Even though the pressure of my power is weighing down on me, I huff with a slight smirk. “But who said anything about wanting to kill you?”
That gets a true reaction from him. His head rears back, shaking while trying to muster up enough power to fight off the energy of hundreds.
“Death would be a mercy and not nearly deserving enough for what you have done.” My lips stretch, a bitter smile curving my lips as I watch Whiro continue to struggle.
I can tell he still doesn’t know what his fate will be as those black pools bore into mine. His entire body stops fighting for a moment, his gaze narrowing, thinking, assessing. But then he freezes. Understanding igniting in his deadly eyes, until it wipes away with a smirk of his own.
“Impossible,” he spits. “There is no way you can trap me in something from my own making.”
Looking over to the Sea of Souls, the water reflecting back, eerily still, I find myself shifting another piece ahead in this deadly game. A silent move that he never saw coming.
I tsk. “You forget that I’m more than a weapon you tried to wield.”
“Instead, you became a deceitful little monster. Thinking you could go against me without realizing your place,” he seethes. “And assuming you can take me on with an army that has been dead longer than they have been alive. You forget I have my own.” His ghouls shift on their taloned feet, readying for a command to strike.
I relinquish my power binding him, letting the shifters’ darkness take control and keep him imprisoned in their grasp. With a deep breath, I move my left hand to rest behind my thigh that hangs off the side of the wyvern, keeping my shadows subtly trickling from my fingers, while pushing against the fatigue my body is starting to feel.
Then, I hold my right hand out in front of me. A blinding crackle of light comes to life in that hand, glinting in Whiro’s dark pools. The power kisses against my fingertips, ready to silence the world from Whiro’s darkness.
“Father, you should be proud. I might be a monster, but I’m one that you created, for my heart was never born black.” I have been burned too much in this life. King Oren physically played his part in breaking my body, but Whiro… he likes to torment my mind. Sinking his claws in my psyche while fusing his venom into my veins. A toxin so potent and dark, it forever will stain the organ beating in my chest. “How does it feel to have your own power take you hostage?”
He bares his teeth, snarling as he loses control of his indifference. “All of you only have this power because of me! You should all be bowing at my feet!”
The wyvern beneath me beats its powerful wings in what seems like a display of anger holding a threat. He keeps his talons secure by scraping them and gouging holes in the rocky ground. The powerful muscles beneath me shift when he beats his wings again, and my hair flies up off my shoulders.
Playing with the light, I let it dance over my fingers and swirl around my hand. “Hmm. If it was truly your power to wield, then why do the shadows betray you and serve us?”
Draven inches closer to the wyvern’s side I sit on, but slowly, I push up, rooting my feet between the wyvern’s spikes to stand.
“And how does it feel to have your creatures turn on you?” I taunt with a wicked tilt of my lips.
Whiro starts to strangle out a laugh, but it dies the moment my smile falls away, letting an unsettling calm overcome my face. I never tear my eyes away from his as I finish targeting each ghoul, infusing my will into them. During our conversation, I began snaking minuscule trails of shadows along the ground without being noticed. Traveling them down from behind my leg, along the side of the wyvern, and to the ground where my shadows seeped into the fractured crevices. Making my way to the other side, I filter my darkness into each ghoul to claim them as mine.
He finally notices his army of ghouls that once faced us to prepare to strike are now all turned toward him. Slowly surrounding him in a trap of his own making.
Whiro goes to speak, but I beat him to it. “They wait for my command now.” I prove it by making the closest one to him slice its arm through the air, eliciting a hiss from Whiro as the ghoul’s talons leave behind a slender cut.
I wait for my father’s eyes to lock on mine, relishing in the shock that is showing through his hard mask. “But it’s not the darkness you should fear… It’s the light that will smother it.”
Before Whiro can come up with a vicious retort, all of our shadows drown away his words. Draven’s tendril of power pries its way past Whiro’s lips, snaking down his throat to keep him silent. We hold him hostage as I stretch my mind to each ghoul, letting my darkness manipulate their control. A pinching pain spreads beneath my skull when I collectively order the ghouls to lift up their previous master, carrying him over to the Sea of Souls.
I try to ignore the uncomfortable ache, while keeping a hold on my power. My gaze stays secure on Whiro. He jerks and bucks against his creatures’ hold on him while trying to release his hands to break through our shadows, but it’s no use.
With every scraping step, the ghouls shift closer to the still water, the wyverns hovering above and growing restless as they sway, following right above Whiro. I hold my breath the moment the ghouls shriek, tossing my father into the Sea of Souls. The water splashes when he goes under, but we don’t relinquish our hold in fear of him shadowing out. He sinks beneath until the surface of the silver water settles as if nothing happened.
In unison, the shifters tighten their darkness, roaring loud enough to shake the mountain.
Without a second thought, I close my eyes, grabbing hold of the light flaming inside me. Letting it spark beneath my skin, I steady my balance on the back of the wyvern and inhale deeply. Then I count to three.
One. I let the light strengthen.
Two. My power begins to rush fiercely through my veins.
