AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The shadows slither up his legs, wrapping around him like inky tendrils. Eldrion’s eyes widen in panic, his hands clawing at the darkness as if trying to peel it off. But his fingers pass right through, unable to grasp the intangible threat.
“Alana!” he cries out, his voice strained. “Do something!”
His wings begin to twitch and spasm as the darkness envelops them. Eldrion’s face contorts in pain, a silent scream etched across his features.
The shadows reach his neck, curling around his throat like a noose. I can see the struggle in his eyes, the fight to breathe as the darkness tightens its grip.
Finally, the shadows engulf him completely. He is totally obscured, a silhouette of pure darkness against the backdrop of the castle.
I roar loudly and thunder crackles in the air above us. It begins to rain. I call for it, for the water that will slick the roof and our skin.
Finn sends his shadow magic snaking out towards me. Vipers of blackness, slithering, coiling, coming for me.
I pull my own magic into my hands and throw a few bolts of smoke in his direction. But I have no intention of stopping him. I let the shadows come for me. I back away, allowing the illusion of fear to enter my eyes.
Finn tilts his head. “There is still time to change your mind, Alana. Say the word and this all stops.”
I am beside Eldrion now, pushed up against the wall. I reach for his hand and grab hold of it as shadow and smoke consumes me the way it consumed him.
I let it enter my body. I feel it race through my veins and tighten around my bones, its vice-like grip squeezing and squeezing until I can barely breathe.
It is trying to suffocate my other powers, stamp them out, extinguish them.
But that is as far as it will go.
With a scream that Finn interpret as pain, I let the gates down in my mind and I suck those shadows further and further into my soul. I keep pulling.
Now Finn is screaming. When I open my eyes, his body is being dragged towards me by an invisible force. Shadows fly from his chest, and his mouth, and his eyes. His wings beat as if they are being tossed around by a storm.
He tries to fight it, but he can’t. And then realisation dawns in his dimming eyes.
No longer bright red.
Darker.
Greyer.
Like his wings.
“Take them from him, Alana,” I hear Eldrion whisper beside me, and I let out another cry. I break free from the shadows that bound me, and now I am the one wielding them. I wear them like jewellery, watching them form dark rings of power around my arms, overwhelming the light and the elemental magic I had consumed from Kayan and the Sunborne.
Overtaking everything.
As I move towards Finn, more shadows come.
There are screams, and the sound of Finn’s army trying to resist me.
I can see them too, being dragged from the grand hall, unable to stop themselves being taken by me.
I see the Sunborne gathered together like scared children, confused and sobbing with relief as their attackers are hauled with brutal strength away from them, through the large glass windows, their skin and wings torn and bleeding.
I bring them to me. All of them. And one by one they fall at my feet.
They writhe on the ground, the way the Leafborne did when they were taken from me.
They try to escape, try to crawl away, but I do not let them.
“Alana. Let me help.” Eldrion is free now too, and striding towards me. I hurl some of his magic back towards him and he sucks in a huge, deep breath as it reunites with his body. His wings are instantly back to the way they were. Huge, bright, powerful.
