Page 171 of Prince of the Phantom Sky

The statue Kora referred to as Samuel shoved Erick away easily, then reached for Aryn’s body. Aerion cried once again—it was getting annoying—as Samuel’s brute force from the armour kicked Aerion back. He grabbed Aryn by the ankles and Barron whispered, his orders flowing through his dark magic connecting him to his braindead minions.

In a twist Kordelia hadn’t predicted, Samuel hurled Aryn’s body, throwing it far into the ash cloud. A splash followed and Aerion bellowed, racing towards Samuel. Wind whipped across the deck, fierce and lashing. In the back of Kordelia’s mind, the smallest of urges commanded her, telling her to stop this all now.

As Barron laughed, consuming her magical attacks like a never-ending trench, Kordelia threw a wave of power at Samuel. Barron’s laugh vanished as the armour encasing Samuel crumbled, stone disintegrated into powder, falling apart down to his feet.

He was disgusting. Putrid and skinny. By the gods, humans reeked.

Samuel breathed, inhaling deeply. Some level of normal clarity returned to his stare, and he crumbled to the dock with a howl. Aerion came to a stop, his hand raised mid-air for a strike.

It was far too much emotion.

Theron peered up from his position, his breathing laboured. His magic danced across his stare, the veins writhing and snaking out, pulling images of the future from thin air and showing them to him. Kordelia grimaced as they all turned to darkness before her. As a creature of the void, she could see an illusion’s gift.

Speaking of illusions. She glanced to her former lover, sodden in ash, blood, and rain. He was still perfection. Still desirable. Yet she now wanted nothing to do with him.

A darker, more tempting male had caught her attention.

Raiden’s own illusion power poked her, his nose bleeding as he probed, looking for a way in. Males were such idiots. She pushed back mentally with the same effort as swatting a fly, and Raiden stumbled, his face falling.

“I created you!” Barron yelled. “Submit to me!”

Kordelia snarled, snapping her jaw. “I am my own. I am darkness. I am the void.”

Delving deep, following the path back to her home in the void, Kordelia summoned everything she had, and it flowed into Barron’s chest like a spear. His eyes bulged, the black fading, the stormy gaze returning.

“It’s too much. Stop!”

Barron gripped her forearm, pulling Kordelia close. His power shuddered within his stare, unable to settle as she overloaded it. If she couldn’t kill from the outside, then she’d explode him from the inside out.

A small thread of panic lingered at the edge.

Kordelia spared a glance towards Raiden, her lips curling. “Go, fly boy.”

“Come with us!” he urged.

Barron’s grip squeezed, as their dark powers melded together. She’d underestimated him, and as the spear of power faltered, Barron’s own darkness retaliated, tangling with hers. Like kraken’s tentacles, they wrapped around Kordelia’s human shell. Her control must’ve weakened from the expenditure of power, this measly human skin pitiful against true wielding.

“See you in the void, pet.” Barron winked.

Cold darkness that wasn’t her own consumed her. Submerging her. She wrestled as his slimy tendrils coiled around her, forcing Kordelia back inside her own cage. Forcing her to submit. Kordelia screamed, her watery darkness leaking out, unable to withstand the crushing power of Barron’s magic.

He’d trapped her—even her corporeal form. The power she’d tried to expand him with, in hopes that his own flesh bag couldn’t contain it, had just made him invincible. Capable of creating prisons in the mortal realm, beyond the void.

And now, the human vessel slumbered. Her fifteen minutes of freedom ended. Kordelia sighed, floating back in the dark abyss, the endless void. Home.

Somewhere beyond, cries echoed. The ears of this human body still attuned to the realm outside. Darkness unfurled, consuming the air, wiping out the light. Thuds of power landed, the stench of familiar black armour burning a hole in the fabric of reality.

“Kora!” Raiden’s voice broke through, but the darkness pushed it away.

“Do you think they’re alright?” Kora whispered beside her. Kordelia glanced over at her shiny counterpart. She was stretched out, hands behind her head, blue eyes lighting up their corner of the darkness.

“Don’t be stupid. Barron will kill them all.” Kordelia paused, a strange new feeling overcoming her. Was this . . . regret? “I’m afraid I didn’t avenge the archer.

Kora remained silent, fidgeting as she adjusted to Kordelia’s home. They both had been grappling for control for so long, and Barron had subsequently locked them in together. She’d spent a decade resenting Kora, wishing for her demise. But now, the company didn’t seem entirely catastrophic.

A white thread lit up the void, spearing from Kora’s chest to the beyond. It was faint, and thin, and wholly too bright for Kordelia’s personal dark space. It ruined the décor.

Kora smiled, thrumming it gently. “Could be worse.”