Page 323 of The Edge of Darkness

And then, my body convulsed.

I didn’t know what was happening, or why. My chest heaved off the ground, then crashed back into it, repeatedly. All I could see was light. All I could feel was power.

Something distant pulled at my body, an agonizing pain that I felt so deep in my bones, it brought tears to my eyes. A tether, one that I was sure was attached to my very soul, snapped, and whatever had been before, was re-written.

Then came the burning. It was as if my veins were being made anew. Light surged through every corner of my body, giving me a new life-force. A final form.

Remade.

Immortal.

As quick as it came, it ceased, and I settled onto the dirt, feeling a renewed source of strength. My core was now vibrating with energy—infinite and all powerful.

The talisman hissed atop my forehead as it restructured itself and cooled into its new shape. I reached to run my fingers over it, and found that what had once been a smooth band, was now braided.

The soft howl of a hollow breeze brushed by, caressing my face, and I felt each strand of my hair shift along with it. Grains of sand plinked against my armor, and the sound was like a chime in my ears. I heard every leather fiber groan and stretch as I moved to sit up. I was hyperaware and attuned to everything. Every aspect of my immediate surroundings shocked my senses, but the expanse beyond was eerily quiet.

All the sounds of fighting had ceased.

Still in a daze, I rolled over onto my side and looked toward the valley.

Familiar armor and weaponry . . . Fae . . . Dionachs . . . Witches . . . Dreki . . . Wolves. The forces from our realm were the only ones left standing.

Lyceius’s armies had disintegrated with the death of their maker. The ash of their bodies now drifted in the wind, fading into the hazy sky. Even Skadi’s shadows had ceased to exist. A few cries of victory pierced the air, echoing across the war-torn plains.

I turned over and noted the ground that had been scorched and ravaged around me. A line had been gouged deep into the earth nearby. Then my eyes landed on Niall. He was lying on the ground about forty feet away. Silas was still with him, and crouched at their side, was Torin.

I squinted at Niall’s form until I realized that the way he was lying was all wrong. His head sagged against the dirt. His skin was too pale. There was now blood running from his nostrils and out of his ears, drying on his neck.

“Niall?” I whispered. My voice was raspy, my throat dry.

Then I remembered what had happened. The poisoned blade . . . The bundle of shadowfire . . . Him yelling in my mind, Do it now! Those words, followed by that prickling sensation that I’d felt only a few times in the past . . .

It was . . . magic.

He had compelled me!

No! No!

I pushed myself up and fumbled over my feet as I ran to him. Torin and Silas moved away just as I fell to my knees at his side and pulled his body into my lap. I frantically wiped the hair away from his eyes and shook him repeatedly, hysteria pressing in on me.

“Niall! NIALL!”

I was manic. And he wasn’t waking.

The quiet, the stillness, all of it felt heavy, and I suddenly became terrifyingly aware that the thrumming in my chest, the feeling that had become an ever-present part of me, of our connection . . . had ceased.

I lifted my eyes to the split-tailed banners that whipped in the wind atop crooked poles. Court colors and sigils, splattered with red and black blood, looked down at us like vultures waiting to descend upon our corpses. I’d seen war before. I’d seen its hardened heart and its unforgiving hand, but never had I experienced it to this extent.

Gabbath was brutal, but this . . . this was tragic.

If it had just been Lyceius’s creatures that we were facing, perhaps it would not have been this bad. But with Skadi’s shadows, our odds had dwindled tremendously. They were nearly impossible to eradicate without the witches’ death spell.

Thankfully, I had my cù-sìth dagger. I’d cut down as many shadows as I could with it, trying to tell myself that every one I destroyed was one less threat for someone else. But the effort felt futile when endless swarms of them continued to spill over the horizon.

My arms were beginning to feel limp. I heaved in breaths as I peeled my eyes away from the banners and took in the scene around me once more. The clamoring of swords, pained grunts and sharp wails, the gnashing of teeth, the clang of iron against armor, all of it bit into my consciousness and muddied into a sorrowful chorus.

I was used to noise—the Aura had conditioned me to it since I was born. Every scream and slice and shuddering last breath fell into a lull, fading from focus as I assessed those around me.