Chapter 70

Chapter 70

FEY

T here was screaming. Everywhere around her, there was screaming.

Vee, racing forward, arm outstretched for her uncle as he fell, screaming in shock. Alice, screaming just once, a single startled gasp before her hand came up to cover her mouth.

And Fey. She was screaming, too, she realized. A heartbroken, inconsolable sound full of fear and rage.

“No!” she screamed, stumbling toward the edge of the roof, reaching for him…

A blur of black and gold whipped through the air, next to her, fast as lightning toward the ground as Jasper fell. Fey would never reach him in time, had no chance at all.

But maybe—just maybe—Joy could.

Even with a burst of air from Joy cushioning his fall, the sound of Jasper hitting the pavement was enough to turn her stomach. It was too dark to see him. But he was hurt down there, and she had to get to him, had to help him…

“I’m sorry.” Vee was on her knees at the edge of the roof, looking stunned. Twin rivers of tears ran down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to, I didn’t… ”

Vivian.

Now was Fey’s chance. Scrambling back over the rooftop, she reached for her blade to finish this, once and for all.

Alice must have thought the same thing. She moved forward, raising her hand to call Fire, her face a mask of cold fury.

Vee looked up, eyes widening when she realized what was happening, but it was too late. Fey was already holding her blade, Alice by her side.

It hurt even more this time, when the Blood Witch took control of her body. Her powers rose inside her, fighting that influence, but it was too slow.

Fey swallowed a scream as her body twisted, bones close to shattering.

Vee stood.

“I’m done playing nice,” she hissed, taking a step toward them as Alice collapsed to the ground.

Back bending, Fey’s neck twisted painfully on her shoulders, threatening to break.

In her peripheral vision, she watched Princess Amalia rise to her knees, hands pressed firm against the brick underneath them.

Amalia had been forgotten in the fight. And, somehow, with the effort to control Fey and Alice, Vee had let her concentration on the princess slip. Maybe she’d done it on purpose. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to risk hurting her accidentally again.

Lips set in a thin line, Princess Amalia reached inside herself and called Earth.

The rooftop shuddered. A sharp wave of power tore through the bricks, rippling outward from where the princess knelt. It rolled underneath Fey, rolled toward Vee, who stumbled, barely staying upright while the ground bucked beneath them. And it rolled to the edges of the roof, to where the flood lights stood, looming over them all.

“No!” Vee screamed. She dropped her hold over Fey and Alice in her panic, stepping toward the closest light as it teetered.

Too late. It fell, smashing into the one next to it. The lights shattered as they hit the damaged roof, their bright light suddenly extinguished. Vee pivoted, racing toward the one light that still remained standing.

Amalia was faster. Her hand shot out as she called Air.

The cyclone that exploded toward the flood light was more than enough to send it tumbling off the building.

“No,” Vee murmured, watching the light fall further and further away. “No, no, no, no.”

Darkness returned to the rooftop. Fey almost thought she heard a light laugh as the shadows began to descend, flowing over the bricks like smoke and racing toward one solitary figure.

Vee screamed as the shadows consumed her.

And then, a moment later, she was gone.