Looking down at the coffin, I bite my lip, and Kyan turns me back to face it. He stands behind me, his hands running down my arms and over the backs of my hands.
“Ready?” he asks again, and I nod my head. He locks his fingers through mine and places our hands on top of it, pressing closer to me.
“Don’t push me out. You have to let me in,” he whispers, and I wonder what Kyan means when I notice the shadows that tattoo his skin wiggle and writhe down Kyan’s arms to his hands before bleeding into me.
I gasp at the cold feeling. It is ice cold, the sort of cold that is painful, and I want to jerk my hands from his as his magic ebbs and flows into me. Instinct tells me to stop it as his shadows crawl up my arms. “Shh, nearly there,” he whispers as I feel it move through every cell and vein in my body, chilling me to the core.
I fight the urge to cry out when I feel this sudden snap sensation as the shadows tainting me latch on to his magic. Kyan’s grip tightens, and he jolts behind me. I don’t think the icy feeling inside could get any colder.
I am wrong. The moment my shadows latch on to him, he forces his father’s magic out of me, forcing it down my arms to our interlocked hands. Kyan mutters strange words, his voice doesn’t sound like his own.
When I feel like the air thickens and is being sucked from my lungs, causing me to gasp and pant, a violent shudder runs up my spine and my eyes bleed black as the shadows of my own curse, Gemini blood, take hold.
“Mara!” Eziah calls, and I blink to see him walking around the outside of the ruins.
Jonah grabs him. “Kyan won’t let them hurt her.” I vaguely hear Jonah whisper over the wind that has picked up with a ferocity that has my hair blowing into my face.
Whispers carry on the wind-blasting around me, the shadows call to me to let them in, and the hypnotic sound of their voices has me wanting to agree, promising the world if I just give in, and I relish the feeling.
“Focus on my voice, Ella. I am about to take it, but I can’t if you let them in. You can’t give in to them,” Kyan says. Yet, they sound so reasonable, their voices soothe me as they tell me to set them free.
Eziah
Something is happening. The moment Kyan’s magic latches onto her, she jolts. A cold rush moves through me, and her eyes bleed black. She smiles sadistically. The look on her face is eerie, like she is looking straight through me. Jonah refuses to let me go to her, and I am a second away from blasting him with my magic as she speaks to something, agreeing with it, while Kyan tries to coax her out of whatever state she is in.
He looks at her worriedly, whispering to her to ignore the voices. I can’t hear anything, but it is clear she can. Black tendrils writhe all over her exposed skin and she chuckles, smiling as what appears to be euphoria moves through her.
Thunder and lightning streak the sky and rumble loudly, cracking like a whip and igniting the sky in angry streaks of light.
Kyan speaks calmly when blood starts to stream from her eyes, nose, and ears. His voice grows higher and louder when he suddenly bites her. He sinks his teeth into her neck, remarking her. Her eyes flicker, and my heart jolts in my chest, beating frantically at what I am watching.
She blinks rapidly, and Kyan rips his head back. His eyes have turned white like a storm is brewing within their depths. Darkness emanates out of them yet never breaches the barrier held by the ruins. Black fog creeps along the edges of the coffin before smothering it and obscuring it along with their hands.
Kyan murmurs words I can not understand, but the power I can feel is electrifying, truly showing how much power the Octavians are capable of, and I gulp. That realization I have been prodding and poking the beast suddenly seems foolish as his lips move too fast. Kyan has the power to destroy me.
Kyan is right, magic should not be played with, and the power he is using is unlike anything I have ever seen before. Otherworldly and ancient, and for the first time, I witness the darkness glow. It is the only way I can describe it. Mara’s eyes flicker between black and white as he channels the shadows from her. Kyan gasps, stumbling back like a force field has hit him.
Mara collapses on the ground beside the coffin, and I rush forward to help. Only the moment I try to run through the ruins, I am blown backward. Tossed through the air, I crash into something hard behind me, only to find it is Jonah, as he takes the brunt of the impact as we hit the ground.
Electricity zaps around the rocks, lightning repeatedly hitting them as Kyan stands. Only when he does I blink rapidly, unable to believe my eyes, when ghostly figures suddenly stand inside with them. Hundreds of translucent shadow people stand within the runes surrounding them.
Goosebumps rise on my arms as his eyes move to the coffin like he is in a trance, or maybe just hyper-focused.
Yet, the look on his face is demonic, his body completely obscured as the shadows wrap around him, leaving only his neck up visible. Engulfing him as his hands lift outward, he tilts his head toward the sky, and my heart nearly stops in my chest when the air stills abruptly. Like time freezes over, and we have hit the center of a storm. Deathly quiet, I am too scared to even breathe in case I disturb it.
Seconds feel like hours as I get to my feet and amble my way closer when light engulfs my vision like the worst welding flash. The lightning hits the dead center of his chest, blue streaks of light flicker within the shadows, and his entire body jolts. Jonah whimpers behind me at the same time Kyan’s hands slam down on the coffin lid.
“Morte, leto stat hora, tuo more silent, umbrae sub luna tegunt, sub lunaque latent, nec nisi lunae possunt surrexere umbrae,” Kyan speaks, his voice rings out loud and echoes around us.
As he utters the last word, lightning hits the coffin. The power erupts outside the ruins, flattens the trees on the outer parts of the clearing, and creates a circle. The lightning then bounces off the ruins, etching runes into the rock as Jonah and I are knocked off our feet.
Sitting up, Kyan’s eyes bleed, and he collapses to the ground. I hold my breath and hear a gasp beside me. Turning my head to see Jonah staring with wide eyes at his mates. They both sit up stunned, and the air turns stagnant. yet also charred – it feels charred and smells it. The power charge drops, and Kyan shakes his head before he gasps, reaching for Mara, who is staring vacantly to the side of them. Her lips part and her gasp of shock is audible. I follow her gaze to see the lid on the coffin is wide open.