75. Veli

Chapter seventy-five

Veli

Above the sprawling city, the late afternoon sky became a battlefield of its own as I put every ounce of myself and power into defeating Azenna. Our onyx robes billowed around us like raven wings as we soared through the air.

I sent blasts of power at her every chance I could, unleashing a torrent of shadowy tendrils, each pulsating with the ominous energy that I had come to love, feeling as if they were part of my very being. The shadows of darkness snaked through the air, aiming to ensnare Azenna in their suffocating grip.

The High Witch countered with a burst of flaming light, as if it had come from her conjured wyvern, not the palm of her hand. The heat of her blaze forced my shadows to disperse and singed my robes, the tails of it catching fire from the blast.

“Veli, Veli, oh foolish Veli,” she hissed through the air. “Did you truly think you would win? Did you think that your power could defeat that of your High Witch?”

“You are not my High Witch,” I roared back at her, sending a blast of shadows back in her face, but she blocked it by putting up a wall of flames .

As the blaze dissipated, her gaze locked on me, lip curling back in disgust. “Yes, well, you made sure of that yourself when you turned your back on the only real family you’ll ever have.”

I grabbed her by the throat, surprising each of us, and her skin caught fire, burning my flesh and taloned nails, but my grip didn’t falter.

“I have found a family of my own,” I announced, not expecting the words to ring so true. “Admit it, Azenna. You lost. You finally lost after all these centuries.” My eyes roamed over her while I ignored the blisters forming on my hand as I gripped her throat tighter. “Or perhaps you lost a long time ago when I took the only thing from you that you desired. More power.”

Azenna conjured gusts of wind, sending turbulent currents spiraling around us, shooting my shadows outward and distracting me enough to loosen my hold.

I forcefully waved my sizzling hand in the air, urging my skin to mend quickly. Yet, the strain from my earlier injury and the exertion of using my powers made the healing process significantly slower—and I couldn’t afford it.

Azenna took the opportunity of distraction and retaliated by conjuring beams of otherworldly fire, shooting them directly at me. However, my shadows responded with a swift, swirling barrier of darkness that consumed and snuffed out her flames, leaving behind only a fleeting trail of smoke.

Our personal battle raged on, weaving a tapestry of light and shadow high above Isla and its citizens, who were now funneling into the streets. They stared up at us in fear and awe, their screams echoing and mixing with those of the true battle that lay just beyond their gates.

My body was faltering, the power I had used to get me here draining me nearly entirely.

“It’s over for you, Veli. I sense your magic failing, little witchling.” Azenna cackled at her own words.

I knew this was the last chance I would get, and I would give my entire self over to the darkness if it meant defeating her and giving Elianna and the others a chance at survival. For what is The Queen’s Aide if not an unfaltering line of defense?

Sinister shadows exuded from me, conjured in a swirling vortex of wrath. “No, Azenna. The only witch it’s over for is you .” Her crimson eyes flared at my declaration, and with a booming, rebel yell, my summoned darkness erupted, threatening to consume everything in its path, including the High Witch.

The collision of our final, devastating force of power created an explosion of uncapped energy that threatened to consume the both of us—and then my shadows snuffed everything of hers out.

They wrapped around her limbs like prisoners’ chains, forcing themselves down her throat through her lips and nostrils. The dark tendrils were relentless, choking and blinding her as they worked to save me—their maker.

My body levitated toward her as the ethereal swirls of darkness lingered around me, guarding me as fiercely as Elianna’s wyvern did for her.

Azenna’s skin repeatedly tried to ignite itself in flames to remove the shadow's grasp on her, but it was no use. She was finally trapped as I desperately held onto the thread of power I had left, keeping her held in place, high above the city.

“ Veli ,” she croaked out through her mind as her body lashed in all directions, trying to free herself. “ Please, it was the dark magic! Not me. Spare me, and I will leave all of Velyra. I won’t return to the isles. Please .”

The High Witch feared death.

A smirk tilted my lips, knowing that the dark sorcery only responded to that of the mind of the witch it was summoned with. My shadows were proof of that.

“Go to hell, Azenna.” My words were that of the most soul-freeing wrath.

Her jaw locked in response, the false plea for mercy in her eyes vanishing.

Power surged from her, ready to break her free. I appeared in front of her then, taking my taloned hand and digging it into her chest, pushing through cloth, flesh, and then bone, until my fingers wrapped around her beating heart.

She screeched in agony, lashing around frantically as I held the life of the all-powerful High Witch in my hand and then ripped it from her chest.

Azenna’s body instantly burst into flames and plumes of smoke. Ferocious cracks of all-consuming lightning erupted from the immense power she possessed as High Witch. Midnight-slick gore rained down on the city below, her screams still echoing through the wind.

However, the power from her eruption crashed into me, and the lightning struck my chest, ripping my breath from my lungs. The force of it had my shadows seeking shelter back into my palms, and my body began free-falling, descending rapidly toward the ground below.

My power was depleted, exhausted from the efforts of everything I had done.

The rushing wind threatened to deafen me while my body plummeted to the unforgiving terrain. My gaze locked on my hand, drenched in slick, onyx blood—and between my taloned fingers, the High Witch’s heart remained, still beating.

And then—as the lightning fizzled out in my veins—my own heart was reduced to ash.