I let him see the justice and reckoning in my eyes.
“How many others have you killed to line your golden throne?” I whisper as he breaks. “You are the source of so much death, so much greed, all in the name of a crown you do not deserve.”
The magic speaks through me now.
“You could have been the greatest king of all. You had choices, ones that would have led you back to our greatness, our magic, and you didn’t take them. Instead, you chose the easy way. You chose to let others suffer for you. You chose money and gold, while others withered away and died. But the magic saw it all, every crime and every death, and it judges you, King Tinos, and finds you guilty. You will die here as a sacrifice to the future, to the past, and to the present. With your death, and the death of your line, our people will be free.” Kneeling before him, I meet his eyes. “Know this. After you are gone, the wall will fall and monsters will be free, magic too. We will prosper, we will live, and your golden throne will be forgotten, along with your name. The darkness will steal it and keep it for its own.” I pull back then, power still in my voice. “And I, the female you discarded and sent to her death for your own power, will be the wielder of the sword that kills you.”
Without torturing him further, I send my magic into his body, obliterating him.
I stand back and watch as the magic rips him to pieces, his scream hollow and silenced as light fills him and escapes his throat. He explodes in a cloud of golden dust before it’s swallowed into the darkness, the sacrifice accepted.
His crown falls where he begged for his life.
The magic comes back to me, wrapping around me as I stumble and fall forward onto my hands and knees before collapsing completely. My face presses to the stone as I howl my agony.
My sister!
“Cora!” one of my men yells, his voice breaking through as the storm dissipates. “Look!”
Lifting my tear-stained face as the magic settles, I look where he points and see the fingers gripping the edge of the tower.
Kai!
ChapterForty-Eight
Without waiting for anyone else, I rush to the edge, desperate to make sure…to see.
It’s her.
It’s really her. Her heart-shaped face strains as she stares up at me, dangling from the edge.
I reach over and try my best to help her up, despite the way she hangs there. I grip her dainty wrists and pull, and although she barely helps me, Grim leans over and helps her up the rest of the way. I could cry when she appears and stares at me with bloodshot eyes, but she doesn’t look distressed in the way someone who’s been saved would.
She looks upset that she’s alive.
“Kai,” I croak out as I cup her face with my hands. “I thought I lost you.”
Her eyes, that used to be so full of laughter and happiness, are filled with nothing but phantoms and pain now. When she meets my gaze, I nearly stumble back at what I see.
“You lost me the moment you stepped through the wall, Cora,” she whispers.
Horror fills me. “No, don’t say that. Kai—”
“Cora,” she interrupts, and her hands come up to hold my face. Her forearms are covered with bruises.
Bruises she didn’t have before I’d been taken to the cells.
White-hot fury fills me again, but I can’t do anything about it. I’ve already disposed of the king.
So why then does it still feel like he’s here causing pain?
“Kai, it’s going to be okay. Everything will change now,” I assure her, but the phantoms in her eyes grow thicker.
“Do you know what he did to me?” More tears start to roll down her face. “Do you know what he made me do?”
“I’m so sorry, Kai,” I rasp out, my own tears spilling over my lashes. “I didn’t know—”
“No. How could you have? You were supposed to die.” She takes a stuttering breath. “I mourned you the moment you walked through the wall. No hunt survives.”
