Chapter 50

CHAPTER 50

WREN

Finn stopped there on his knees before Leander, as if any further movement was too much, too difficult. He looked over at Wren and a smile passed over his mouth, just for a moment. Finn’s smile, Finn’s mouth.

Her heart trembled in her chest.

Oh he was still consumed by the Aurum, but that power had no reason to save an Ilanthian boy, or to keep Wren from killing him and compounding the Nox’s power over her.

No, that was all Finn.

And now he was at his brother’s mercy once again.

Leander took his time approaching him, his triumph assured now. He wielded the royal sword of Ilanthus like a toy, spinning it in his hands as if this was just a game or an exhibition match.

Strength seeped out of Wren’s body with growing horror. She braced her arms on the throne, forcing herself to stay upright.

‘I don’t know why you bother, little brother,’ he sneered. ‘I always win. I always will. This has always been inevitable. This time we finish it.’

‘No,’ Wren cried. But there was nothing she could do now. She didn’t have the power of the Nox at her fingertips and even if she did, it wouldn’t cooperate with her. Finn had sacrificed his only defence to stop it, for her. Because even with all the power of the Aurum driving him, he would always sacrifice himself for her.

He couldn’t help it.

She threw herself forward, but Gaius caught her. She didn’t see where the general had come from. ‘Don’t look,’ he whispered harshly.

Even he had given up. He was a general of Ilanthus, Leander’s general, and he was trying to be kind to her at this last moment. It was almost too much to bear.

‘Finn!’ she screamed, trying to tear herself free. She couldn’t see him, not around Gaius’s broad chest, but she saw Leander.

He grinned at her. ‘Be ready, my queen. This ends now. You and I will be one and all this fruitless struggle will come to an end. Time for my bastard brother to finally die.’

The sound of battle seeped into the Sanctum from outside but it seemed so distant and empty, echoing from a hundred miles away. All she could see was Leander’s face and the sword. Wren shoved Gaius aside and this time he released her. Finn knelt while Leander bore down on him in a rush of movement and finality, his head bowed as if accepting all this, just waiting.

Her mind screamed, and she did what Elodie had always told her. She reached for the light with everything she had left in her.

It had to help him. It had to.

‘Ward!’ a great voice roared from the entrance to the Sacrum and something bright as the sun arced through the air. Finn reached out without looking and snatched Nightbreaker from the air. The sword was a line of fire in his hand, an extension of the fire in his heart. It belonged there. It had always belonged there.

With the simplest of movements, an almost casual twist, he brought the great sword of the Grandmaster of the Aurum in against his own chest as if praying over it and then thrust it upwards.

Straight into the body of King Leander of Ilanthus.