Bright Wicked 3: Infernal Dark (A Fantasy Romance)

by Everly Frost

  He draws himself up to his full height, shoulders back, his weapon held in his strong grip.

  His lips draw down, truly angry with me. “No.”

  “I’m your enemy, Nathaniel,” I say. “You asked me what I would choose if there was no fae and no Fell. Well, I’m neither. I don’t have a choice because I don’t belong here. I never did.”

  He steps into the clear ground and that’s all I need. I’ve already put away the light inside my chest—the fire that burns for him.

  Striding toward him, I raise my weapon, sweeping it toward his throat. He blocks the blow, but my left hand shoots out, starlight streaking between us, biting his face and hands. He reacts on instinct, provoked by the pain, his halberd flashing as he cuts the air, blocking my power and forcing me onto my back foot.

  He strikes back.

  Our weapons clash, colliding against each other so hard that his light magic and my starlight explode around us, two immense forces bursting across the field and far into the sky.

  Every fae and human who was standing near us turns and runs, escaping the deadly energy pouring around us.

  I break the connection before my starlight would cut through his weapon, deftly angling my blade so he will be forced to retaliate.

  We trade blows at lightning speed, every deadly attempt more brutal than the last as we fight with everything we have. My muscles scream as I take the force of Nathaniel’s blows, his strength. The light magic in his weapon streams through me every time our blades connect, a strange agony of pain and weightlessness while I fight back with my starlight, every sharp bite making his instincts fire, not giving him time to think or question.

  I’m facing west, away from the sun, waiting for the moment just before the first rays strike across the air, fighting Nathaniel with every muscle in my body, every ragged breath until then.

  Above us, the sky brightens.

  The moon’s outline becomes pale and the stars fade.

  My time is up.

  “Where is your power, Nathaniel?” I scream at him, pouring my starlight across his face, filling his vision with bright, white light as our blades clash so savagely that the metal shrieks.

  For a moment, he can’t see me.

  My final moment.

  My sword clashes against his halberd’s blade and slides upward. I was holding my weapon with both of my hands, but now I let it go, my right hand flying wide. At the same time, I grab his halberd with my left hand and add my strength to its momentum, pulling the blade toward me in a single brutal blow.

  Light magic floods his weapon, giving it the power to cleave my armor.

  His blade carves a space through my chest.

  My power beats outward, raw magic pouring across Nathaniel and the field as the pieces of my heart are exposed. Dying shards cut in half.

  My knees can’t hold me.

  I slip to the ground, but Nathaniel’s hands shoot out, his muscles tense, a reflex as he catches me, his arms circling my back, tracing my body by feel alone.

  Finally, his vision clears, my starlight fading from his face, his wide eyes focusing on me. On the blade. On my open chest and my silver blood flowing to the muddy earth.

  “Aura!” His roar is faint in my ears, even though he’s shouting at me. “What did you do? Aura!” He grips me, trying to support my head, trying to keep me upright.

  His voice is far away and fading, screaming at me as he collapses to the ground with me, rocking me in his arms. “No… Please… AURA!”

  The sun’s first rays wash across the battlefield as my head tips back and my vision finally fails.

  Death is mine.

  Now he will live.

  Chapter 27

  There is no waiting.

  Within a single beat, everything changes around me.

  I stand in a vast, empty space.

  Darkness spreads in every direction. It doesn’t have any corners or edges, no beginning or end.

  It is my nothing, the place I feared my heart would take me.

  I’m wearing my indigo armor. My chest is whole, not cut apart, but silver blood slides down my left arm from my shoulder, trickling across my palm. The color of my blood is what must have startled Nadina when I fought her. Slow drips of silver liquid fall from my forefinger and disappear silently into the nothing at my feet, a reminder of my death.

  I am dead.

  There is no sound or breeze, but forms take shape in the distance, four figures striding toward me from my left, right, front, and back, as if they each occupy the four corners of the world and are now converging on each other.

  I recognize them, even though I’ve never met them before. Not really.

  Crimson light surrounds the woman on my left, flowers cascading from her tiara down her long, amber hair, falling to the hem of her long dress. She draws to a stop at a safe distance, considering me with sharp eyes, her head held high.

  The human woman on the other side of me tilts her head cautiously as she stops a little closer to me, golden light glinting off the armor that hugs her muscular body, while her halberd sits comfortably across her back.

  Behind me, I sense the approach of the man whose crown sits around his eyes, concealing his sight. Half-turning to see him, my gaze passes from the points at the top of his black crown down his gray face to the bottom of the long, black robe that swishes across the floor. His silhouette flickers with dark light, making him appear wraith-like as he slides to a stop, standing the farthest away.

  The final figure is the girl with the white hair that flies at her side as if she walks in a breeze I can’t feel. Her pearly dress ripples gently, but her bright, ivory gaze passes warily across the others before coming to rest on me. The light dances around her as she moves, making her appear as if she’s never in one spot for longer than a second.

  They each stare at each other, their arms slightly extended at their sides, their power flickering around their fingers. Golden, crimson, white, and dark.

  The tension rises around me, a charge in the air.

  I break the silence. “Why am I here?”

  My voice sounds faint. As far away as Nathaniel’s shouts of pain when he called my name as I died. It’s like I’m listening to myself through water, like my heart has sunk to the bottom of the Spinning Lake again.

  I don’t like it. Somehow, my soul has brought me to this place, but I won’t accept that I have no control over what happens here.

  As soon as I speak, the newcomers look startled, glancing at each other.

  The human woman’s eyes are wide as she picks up her jaw. She gives a shocked hiss, speaking about me as if I’m not here. “She should not have a voice!”

  On my other side, the fae woman arches an eyebrow, attempting to mask her own surprise with a haughty declaration. “Clearly, her magic has not separated from her soul yet. Perhaps we are too early.”

  I spin to the girl, whose glowing silhouette flickers and vibrates as she takes a step closer to me. She peers into my eyes, the first to speak directly with me. “Do you know who we are?”

  “You’re the keepers of magic,” I say.

  Because of their positions around me, it’s impossible to keep all of them within my sight at the same time, but I sense the darkness growing behind me from the sightless man.

  “Correct,” he whispers, his voice much closer than I would like, sending a chill down my spine. “You, on the other hand, are a problem.”

  “A problem?” I turn to him while I stand my ground. “Why?”

  He doesn’t answer. Instead, the fae sweeps her amber hair behind her ear as she begins to circle around me. “For starters, you still have a voice. And second… your magic has called all of us.”

  “Why is that a problem?” I demand to know.

  The girl in the white dress flickers closer, her form brightening and fading as she floats around me, tracing a path that avoids the fae. “When magic dies, it must be claimed,” she says. “We are charged with ensuring that all magic returns to
its rightful keeper. All magic must be… controlled.” She glances at the others. “Unfortunately, it appears that we all have a claim on you.”

  As she moves, the human woman—the keeper of light magic—also begins a slow prowl around me, pacing a wider arc than the other two females and walking in the opposite direction. Now all three are circling me like moons around a sun.

  “Your heart was held by a Bright Heart who carried the light,” the woman says, reaching back to tap the handle of her weapon. “Your magic belongs to me.”

  The fae woman scoffs. “Hardly. She lived the life of a fae. She willfully molded her magic to their customs and beliefs. She took on their traits. Her magic belongs to me.”

  “But it was dark magic that created her,” the man snarls, his still form a dark spot in my vision. “Dark magic pulled her from the sky and broke her heart into pieces. She has scars that burn with darkness beneath her light. I see the darkness in her. She can’t hide it from me. Her magic is mine!”

  The girl raises her voice, a cry that vibrates in the air the same way a piece of glass hums before it shatters. “She is Lucidia! A Celestial Star. The oldest magic. Her essence never changed. She is mine.”

  “Stop!” I shout. Anger rises inside me, hot and boiling. They are talking about me as if I no longer exist, as if I am a thing to be owned, my heart a possession. A trophy.

  I take a threatening step toward the fae woman, who has moved the closest to me. My eyes narrow to sharp slits as I reach for the dagger that should rest against my hip, but it’s not there. It seems my armor doesn’t work like normal in this place. I have no weapons except my body and my mind.

  The fae stops in her tracks and blinks at me. Her lips are parted in surprise again.

  My silver blood drips into the nothing beneath me as I continue to close the gap. “Why,” I ask, “do you think I would accept that I belong to any of you?”

  “It’s the law,” the fae woman says. “Your magic must return to one of us.” She gives a laugh, but her amusement fades as I continue to glare at her. “Those are the rules,” she repeats. “It’s only a question of who has the right to claim you.”

  “The law?” I snarl. “The rules? I’m sick of the fucking rules. I died because of the rules. I will not be controlled by rules or laws anymore. Not for one. More. Second.”

  My outburst makes the keepers freeze again. They all stare at me, appearing as wary of me as they were of each other when they first arrived.

  The girl finds her voice first. “You refuse to comply?”

  I cast my gaze across each of them. “I’ll make you a promise. Whoever can beat me is the one who has the right to claim me.”

  The girl arches an eyebrow at me and then the others. “Well, that sounds sensible. Whoever can dominate her obviously has the greatest claim to her magic.” She spins to the fae. “Fae, why don’t you try first?”

  The fae hisses at the girl. “Just because you think my claim is the weakest…”

  She thinks I’m not paying attention. While she speaks, her power gathers in her chest and pools in her palms. Firelight… Frost… Springtime… Harvest… Dawn… Dusk… Each power controlled separately and completely.

  I sense the approach of thunderbirds behind and above me—illusions she controls with her thoughts. I sense the ground beneath my feet coming alive with plants and her preparedness to heal herself if she’s hurt. A faint breeze picks up around me, chilling my face while the heat at my back builds like a furnace.

  She calls all of her powers within the space of a single breath—a breath I exhale, frosting in the air while sweat pours down my back.

  She blinks. Just once.

  The thunderbirds take shape and rage toward me, crackling with lightning, their talons extended and ready to rip off my head. Vines spring up under my feet, whipping around my legs, preparing to yank what remains of my body in the opposite direction. Ice freezes across my chest, coating my armor and making it brittle. Burning fire blisters my back, screaming agony raging through me.

  My chest glows. A single thud pulses out from the location of my heart.

  The dangers pause around me, suspended. Deadly talons glint, thorny vines gouge my calves, my skin burns with ice and flames. The fae woman’s arms are outstretched, all of her powers streaming toward me.

  I take my own breath, dragging air into my body.

  Sweet, fresh air.

  Thud.

  Starlight explodes through the birds, the vines, the ice, and the flames and knocks the fae woman backward. Shards of ice impale in her chest and thorns hit her arms. Her tiara flies off her head and drops into the nothing, disappearing into the darkness. She screams, trying to stop her descent, reaching out desperately as the emptiness sucks her down.

  I spin to the human woman, my left arm flying up to block the downward cut of her weapon, my right palm pressing to her chest. Her light magic ripples across me, her halberd thrumming with power.

  Thud.

  My power bursts through my palm directly into her heart, throwing her away from me. Her eyes widen, her mouth opens. She screams, trying to hold on to her weapon, but it spins, over and over, whooshing wildly into the nothing, taking her with it.

  Dark magic falls across me like a heavy blanket, suffocating my thoughts and my instincts, pressing down on me as the man whispers inside my mind. “I do not need sight to see the darkness in your heart. You will succumb to me.”

  “We all have darkness,” I say, rising upright.

  Thud.

  Starlight streaks through his body, burning holes in his cloak and knocking the crown from his head. His eyes are hollow. He shouts and throws his arm across his eyes, his dark light disintegrating like burning paper.

  His crown bounces against the nothing, clangs, and then disappears while his body seeps into it, his shout fading.

  I spin to the girl, but she stands back, the light in her eyes sharp with fear.

  “What are you?” she asks.

  I exhale and allow the silence to stretch. “You’re not the first to ask me that.”

  Her white eyes narrow, sparkling with discontent. “That isn’t an answer.”

  I tip my head to the side. “Maybe you’ll never know what I am.”

  Slowly folding my arms across my chest, I curl the fingers of my left hand around my right arm.

  My body doesn’t feel like it did before. I used to have a phantom heart, regular beats I was sure I could feel. When Nathaniel gave me back the piece he’d kept, my heartbeats became flickers, glowing hot or cold depending on my emotions.

  Now I wait for the next solid beat.

  The next thud.

  A calculating light enters the girl’s eyes, a determined crease forming in her forehead, a confident smile twitching her lips. “Well,” she says. “It won’t matter in the end. What matters is whether or not you can beat me—”

  Her starlight crashes toward me, an explosive force so immense that it will destroy me, body and mind.

  Air slips through my lips.

  Breathe, Aura.

  I sense the tingle in my torso, the most basic impulse…

  The thud kicks my chest. At the same time, I flick my forefinger.

  The thinnest sliver of starlight, not much bigger than a needle, spears across the distance, cutting through the girl’s power. It hits her directly in her forehead before it shoots out the other side.

  Her attack diminishes in front of me, her power washing harmlessly into the nothing.

  She blinks twice. Then slower.

  A pinprick of silver blood slides between her eyes from the spot where my power struck her. She reaches up to touch it, then stares at her fingertip.

  Her lips part, her breathing increasing. “You don’t belong here,” she whispers, looking up at me. “You must not stay.”

  Her head tips back a second before she collapses, slipping through the surface and disappearing into the dark void.

  I am alone and unclaimed.

  My
chest aches, but not with pain.

  I press the heel of my palm against my heart, waiting for the next thud, not knowing what it means or where it will take me.

  I control my breathing as I wait. One breath. Two—

  Thud.

  Chapter 28

  I open my eyes to pain and blood.

  The sky fills with white, hot light, an ocean of power rippling across my vision. My back presses into the ground. A thudding beat crashes through me, every kick like the world opening up beneath me and then closing again.

  Nathaniel’s roar fills my ears.

  He leans over me, pressing both of his palms on my chest right where I cut myself open. Bright light spears up over his body and face, flames coursing up his arms and along his armor.

  I don’t know what’s happening, what he’s doing, until my hand jolts against my side and I realize… my diamond heart isn’t in its pouch anymore.

  My eyes widen and a scream rips from me as I realize what he’s trying to do, as I realize where the thudding was coming from.

  He’s pressing my diamond heart into my chest and holding it there.

  His bare hands hold my power, but he’s screaming with agony every time my heart beats.

  The diamond doesn’t want me.

  I don’t want it.

  My heart’s power saved me from the keepers but it’s fighting Nathaniel too, burning his hands, burning his arms. Burning him…

  Behind him, Christiana’s screaming and Evander’s sprinting toward us with a dozen Frost fae, but nothing will put out the fire while Nathaniel’s holding on to me.

  I grab Nathaniel’s arm. “I’m killing you!”

  Thud.

  My power kicks through him, a raw force that threatens to tear him apart, but still he holds on to me.

  His gaze shoots to mine. He heard me. Sees that I’m awake.

  A savage smile crosses his lips. “You did it, Aura. I’m the King of All. But you will never do what I command. And I love you for it. So choose! Live or die?”

  My response is instinctive, my choice instant.

  I slam my left hand over my chest and wrench his arm away from me at the same time, using all of my strength to shove him as far from my power as I can.