Page 137 of Vardaesia
“You see all this?” Aven said, and for the first time, Alex was gratified to hear his own breath sounding laboured—finally. But that could have been because he wasn’t fighting just her now; he was also using some kind of shockwave gift, waving his free arm and causing anyone in range to crumble to the ground before they were able to stagger weakly back to their feet. Three times he managed it before Kaiden focused his nullifying gift on Aven, something Alex only knew when Aven’s eyes sought out her boyfriend moments before an entire legion of Meyarins swooped towards him. But Kyia, Zain and Roka had been watching and were quick to jump to his defence alongside Declan, Nisha and Jeera.
“It’s all happening because of you,” Aven went on, his eyes narrowing at the fight Kaiden and those around him were putting up. The transcended Jordan and Bear had now joined them as well, keeping Kaiden even safer, all so that he could continue blocking Aven from using any of his stolen gifts.
“No, Aven,” Alex panted, knowing she was coming to the end of her endurance. Her strength had waned and she’d lost enough blood that she was beginning to feel lightheaded. She needed to make her final move against him now if she were to have any chance at victory. “It’s all happening because ofyou.”
With a surge of strength drawn from deep within, she rushed at him, her movement fast enough to cause his eyes to widen. He wasn’t going to stop her in time, she knew it. And with a feeling of anticipation, she swung her blade forward.
But she never made contact, because arms grabbed her from behind and yanked her backwards before her sword met flesh— Skraegon, who had approached without her notice.
And yet, before he could change his grip enough to either make a killing blow or give Aven the chance to do so, he was crying out in pain and dropping to his knees, with Mayra standing behind him and ripping her silver-bloodied arrow from his shoulder. In one swift move, she drew it against her bowstring and fired it straight at Aven, screaming, “This is for my brother, youkregon!”
He spun out of the way, but not fast enough for it to keep from skimming along his neck, the shallowest of wounds opening up on his skin.
In the blink of an eye, Skraegon was up again, tackling Mayra to the ground, her bow no match against his sword that was sailing in an arc right towards her heart.
And then through her heart.
“No!” Alex cried, and she wasn’t the only one, for across the battlefield came Cykor’s bellow, with him arriving beside his daughter an instant later—but still an instant too late.
Uttering a tortured scream, he turned on Skraegon with reckless abandon, the two of them spearing each other with their blades at the same time, the light leaving their eyes as they joined Mayra in death.
It had happened so fast. Three more deaths. Three more people gone from this world forever.
Whirling back to Aven with a sob in her throat, Alex found him standing frozen with his hand pressed to his neck, silver blood dripping between his fingers as he stared at her, concern clouding his face for the first time.
Struggling to push through her grief that cut deeper than any of the wounds on her flesh, Alex realised she’d been right when sharing her fears with the Library. Aven knewexactlywhat she had planned. And he was going to do everything in his power to keep it from happening.
If she’d thought he’d been fighting her before, it was nothing compared to the power he unleashed in his renewed attack. Blow after blow after blow he rained down on her, to the point that she barely managed to keep her knees from folding, barely managed to keep raising A’enara to shield herself. Gashes opened up along her arms, along her legs, along her torso. She was like a human pincushion, slowly bleeding to death, protected only by her immortal armour.
When one particularly vicious strike had her stumbling back and falling to the ground, her heart stopped, certain such a mistake would lead to her downfall. But before Aven could take advantage, Roka was there, pushing him back. Zain, too, lunged forward, both of them crossing blades with Aven in a lethal dance of strikes and parries.
Seeing them take up her fight didn’t fill Alex with gratitude or relief, only dread, since she knew it would take just one single nick from Vae’varka for them to be dead in moments.
“Stop!” she screamed at them.
But as she scrambled back up to her feet, she was too slow to reach her Meyarin protectors before Aven found a weakness in their defences and stabbed Vae’varka straight towards his brother.
The look of triumph on Aven’s face forced the remaining air from Alex’s lungs as she watched the fiery weapon sail towards Roka, but it wasn’t him who succumbed to the blade.
It was Niida.
The queen had heard Alex’s cry and arrived on theValispath, using her body to shield one son from being slain by the other.
With a sickening slowness, Aven withdrew Vae’varka from his mother’s chest. Her beautiful face was ashen as she pressed her hands to her wound… and crumbled at his feet.
“NO!” Roka cried, just as Alex had with Mayra, lunging to grab the queen. But before he could so much as wrap his arms around her, Vaera and Gaiel arrived on theValispath, along with four more ClaimedZeltora. The six of them leapt for Roka, keeping him from his last moments with his mother as they engaged both him and Zain in combat, drawing them back into the battle.
Aven, however, remained motionless as he looked down at Niida, his face blank but his eyes ablaze.
The queen reached for him then, her hands covered in liquid silver as she pressed them against his armour-clad legs and whispered, “I forgive you.”
And then her body went limp, her golden eyes now sightless as she looked out into nothing forevermore.
Aven’s chest began rising and falling with deep, turbulent breaths. As if he’d forgotten what had transpired in the palace library when he’d been willing to sacrifice Niida himself, he turned his blistering gaze on Alex and screamed, “You did this!”
She raised A’enara, ready to meet the blow she knew was coming, ready to try and end this once and for all.
But Aven didn’t lunge at her. Not this time.
