36. Reina

Chapter thirty-six

Reina

J asper.

I use a concentrated blast of magic from my hands and feet, dodging the golem's lumbering arm.

Jasper.

The fist slams down beside me with a crystalline tinkling that sends shards flying.

Jasper!

I scream as pain peppers my arms from the tiny shrapnel ripping open my skin.

Concentrate.

Survive.

Win.

Lances of broken crystal fly toward me and I jump back, barely avoiding them.

"If you're not careful, you might accidentally kill me," I shout.

I roll under a reaching grab and give the monster's wrist a blast of fire. The scent of burning skin and black magic turns my stomach.

"If you die, you were never worthy to begin with," the creature says with its many mouths. The sound is like the droning of bees, but worse. It makes me want to stab my ears just to never hear it again.

"Worthy—of being your daughter, or your vessel?" I snarl the word.

"You've never been more than a thing to me," the beast utters and something in me snaps.

It's the last thread of hope.

Some childish part of me wished and begged for the love of my mother, that perhaps she was just misguided and all the evil she did was really her best intentions in disguise.

That part is dead now, and my path forward is clear.

She must die, because I won't be her thing .

"Monster," I roar, blasting the giant with narrow beams of heat. My shots pierce through the crystal at her top left shoulder. The arm rips away from the torso and sloshes off to the floor with a sickening slap.

I can dismantle her. Do I have enough power left?

"You are my shell, my way into this world. It was ordained centuries ago," she goes on, and her next attack is sloppier.

Keep her talking, distracted.

"Centuries ago? Listen to yourself," I say, dodging her sweeping arm. "You're insane, Mother! You need help!"

"Stop fighting this. Your fate is inescapable."

I hit the crystal in her center mass with a heavy shot. A spiderweb crack spears through the gem and the sinew of the beast thins. The individual bodies pull away from each other as gravity starts winning the battle against her magic.

I aim for the center crystal again, but she blocks the shot with one of her arms. The other comes down faster than I can react. I'm struck dumb, suddenly landing on the ground beside a golden golem. My head throbs angrily and my vision spins. Nausea overtakes me and I spill my stomach.

"Pathetic," the voices rumble as one.

"I know you are," I mumble, wiping the spit from my lips with the hem of my dress.

"So childish," the creature laughs from many mouths. Some tittering, others bellowing, a few snorting. It makes my heart ache to hear them all and know they'll never laugh again. That Vansen murdered them, and my mother turned them into this abomination . I must free them.

She looms over me, reaching with tendrils of darkness to swallow me up. Not this time. Not me.

The sun's energy culminates in my chest, burning like a pyre. I grit my teeth against the pain, letting it build. When the agony is too great, I roar, releasing my fire. The blue beam rips through my mouth and smashes through the dark crystal, obliterating it. Bodies drop all around me with wet smacks, their skin blackened from ink and flame. The wind howls, screeching as evil magic whips around me.

Vile ice creeps up my arms and pulls me from the floor. I light up my skin with my heat and the cloud shrills, whistling in my ears so loudly I can hear nothing else. I scream against the power detaining me, a battle of pain and wills upon us.

"You cannot defeat me," the blackness whispers hoarsely as it drags me through the skylight. "In moments, the moons will align."

Fuck, what was it the dead bastard said? He would call upon the goddess of evil in the lowest hell.

Ashai.

My heart stops as I stare into the cloud of darkness. "Ashai?"

The blackness wheezes a laugh. "Your rebellion didn't tell you?"

A deafening explosion of water and stone makes me wince and curl in on myself, but Ashai's hold is too strong. My arms and legs won't move.

"Reina!" Jasper's call restarts my heart.

He's alive.

Alive, and coming for me.

"No!" Ashai snarls and I open my eyes just in time to see my life ending.

Massive jaws of razor-sharp teeth loom around me, and then snap shut. I fall onto something warm and squishy in the blackness. It smells like fish guts and feels like it too. I dry heave, and then there's a hand around my arm, yanking me up.

"Rei," Jasper cries, crushing me against his chest.

"What the fuck?" I ask, gasping for air from the stink.

"Ready your power, child," a voice rumbles around us, vibrating my chest until I feel like puking again.

"It's the Voice of the Abyss," Jasper says.

His opal magic lights up the space—the inside of the creature's mouth—and he sends a wave of healing magic into me. We jostle to the side, falling against the beast's tongue.

"The dark one is not defeated!" the thunderous voice booms again.

Jasper comes up to his knees. "Give me your arms," he says, turning me around so we're facing the rows of teeth that block our escape.

I kneel with him, planting my back against his chest. He raises my arms and puts them together in a triangle directly in front of our joined hearts.

"Draw strength from me, my love, and end this apparition for good." Opal magic twines around our arms, locking them together.

"I'll burn you."

"You won't. Call your flames."

I breathe deep, fighting another retch as I focus on pooling the last of my power into my chest. My heart thunders in my ears and my body protests the fishy putridity I'm filling it with, but this is it, our final stand. I can destroy her with my magic.

"Take strength," Jasper says, his opal magic throbbing in time with the beating of my heart. We're in sync.

I draw breath again, but with him, and feel the immensity of his love for me. It's right there at my back, giving me everything I need. I can do this.

"I'm ready," I shout, hoping the monster whose mouth we're in can hear me.

The teeth in front of us open and I wince my eyes at the minimal light that spills in. Darkness follows, Ashai's cloud of angry magic thrashing at the face of the creature concealing us.

Jasper cries out behind me, but there's nothing I can do to contain the fire. It's lapping at my skin, burning my dress. I want her dead so badly I'd die for it. I'd kill for it. For my people to be free…

The fire in my chest builds to a pinnacle I can no longer control.

"Crawl back to hell!"

Blue flames tear open my chest. Our joined hands channel my flames into a compressed beam, and fire dashes the darkness beyond. Little explosions detonate like fireworks all around us beyond the teeth.

Ashai wails in agony as our light consumes her. But the fire in my chest is growing too great.

"Jasper," I whimper, knowing he's behind me. Knowing he's being devoured by the flames just like me.

"I'm here, sunshine," he says in a strained voice.

"I can't."

"You are."

My vision is hazy with tears. "I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to die."

"You won't," he says, holding me tighter and nuzzling my neck.

The flames lick our arms and singe them black. It hurts. But there's no stopping it. The magic pours out of us, mine fueled by his. We're so strong together.

She really wouldn't stand a chance.

Bitch.

I hope she fucking…

Feels…

This…