61

“Stop!” Elyn shouts again, breathing heavily.

“You’re gonna make your otherworldly kill me?” The air around me crackles, and I thrust another sizzling gale at her with my free hand.

She tumbles back again, rolling into a crouch. We’ve reached the banks of the sea, and she has nowhere to go. “The otherworldly are not my beasts. I didn’t create them—neither did Supreme.” Her eyebrow arches as her gaze travels from my feet to my head, taking in my hand-me-down luclite and trusty cloak.

“Yeah, I’m beating your ass wearing rags.” I stand before her, legs apart, sword at my side. “I hear you’re looking for me.”

Elyn squints, then grimaces. “And you look like shit.”

“Aren’t you the judgmental one,” I say.

She shrugs. “That’s my job.”

“Why are you here?” I growl. “What is this about? Why will you be dying today?”

She throws her head back and laughs. Like…belly laughs. “Tears in her eyes” laugh. Her eyes scan me again, and she falls into another fit.

“Fine.” I lift my hand, and blue crackles pop across my fingertips.

Her eyes widen, and she yells, “Don’t.”

But it’s too late.

This time, I use wind to sweep a boulder from the pile of fallen rocks and throw it at her.

The boulder hits Elyn’s left side. She cries out in pain as she’s slammed to the ground.

I pull that boulder back and let it hang in midair over her.

Elyn, supine on the ground, lifts her head, eyeing the boulder and watching me. Tears shine in her eyes. “You’re still Kai,” she says, her voice weakened. “Still quick to act. Still quick to judge. Still impatient. And all of that has led us…” She reaches out and takes control of the boulder hanging above her and hurls it into the sea. “For once in your life, listen to me. Please .”

I search her face for duplicity. I see none and drop my hands.

“I never thought I’d be on this side and you on the other,” Elyn says, climbing to her feet, “especially since we started our journeys of becoming together. And now, here we are, on Vallendor, in yet another war.”

“Another?” I cock my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She squints at me, wondering if my confoundment is true or not. “Mutiny.”

“By?”

“You.”

I roll my eyes and murmur, “Not this again. I refuse to believe that I willfully destroyed the realm of my kin. I would remember something as horrible as that.”

“Do you remember the realm of Kestau, then?” she asks, breathless. “Forests and blue lagoons, animals, rocks, and shells. One of the oldest and largest realms, so large that it needed separate governments. The realm of marathons and athletes.”

Not really, but I don’t want to show any kind of weakness, and so I nod. “Yes.”

She squints at me. “Then you remember that we visited Kestau as children all the time. You were there with your mother and my mother, and I ran my last marathon there while a convocation was being held. The convocation turned deadly.”

When I say nothing, she takes a step forward. “Danar Rrivae.”

That name. I startle and lift my head. “The sunabi.”

Elyn says, “Excuse me?”

“Back in Maford,” I say, my eyes darting from one place on the ground to another. “The ones you sent to attack me in the Ealdrehrts’ cottage. One of the sunabi I’d fought was dying, and it said those words, ‘Danar Rrivae,’ before it passed. ‘Danar Rrivae’ and ‘Devour.’”

I look up and around me, my gaze lingering on the toxic green sea. My throat closes as a memory comes into focus—a giant Mera warrior with his long black hair tied back, his bloodred armor, the largest sword I’ve ever seen.

“And when was the last time you saw Danar Rrivae?” Elyn asks.

I shake my head.

“On Kestau,” she says. “He was a senator of that realm. But he grew displeased with his station, with the council, and he thought so much of himself that he believed he should have been able to run Kestau the way he desired. That last convocation, he was ejected but refused to leave the realm. No, he stood on the steps of Kestau’s abbey and tried to force his way into the convocation that had gathered to vote on his punishment for insubordination. He and his followers—Eserime, Dindt, Mera, and mortals—tried to push their way past the sentinels blocking the doors.” She cocks her head. “Danar rammed his sword into the belly of the sentinel captain.”

My jaw tightens, and I shift my eyes back to Devour as memories fade in and out of focus like a mirage. “There was fighting afterward.”

“Yes.”

I hear the sounds of battle, cries, explosions. “He took Kestau and vowed to take the regions especially of his enemies. The Council of High Orders.”

Mutiny .

Elyn nods. “He lost access to the first realm, taking with him scores of warriors and believers of every order. Some served as his spies, influencing their commanders in a way that would benefit Danar Rrivae. That’s when the Great War started—”

A towering burnu, muscles rippling beneath its reddish-gray fur, lumbers toward us with a boulder hoisted high above its head. With a guttural snarl, it hurls the boulder straight at me. I dive to the side just in time, feeling the rush of air as the rock crashes into the mountain wall behind me. The impact sends tremors through the ground, dislodging a cascade of stones from the cliffs above. I thrust out my hand, sending a fierce wind current that slams into the burnu and flings him into a throng of snarling sunabi.

Elyn smiles and nods at me. “Impressive.”

“Fuck you,” I mutter, wandering away from her and scanning the men fighting and dying. Gileon and Jadon still move crisply and in sync. “What does the Great War have to do with you? With me? With—?” I sweep a hand at the vista before us.

Elyn also looks across the battlefield, and a small grin finds its way to her lips. “Danar Rrivae took Kestau. And then he took Fendusk. And then he took Kynne. And he now plans to take this realm.”

I snort. “Let him try. Vallendor is mine.”

“You’ve forgotten: he’s a dangerous asshole, to say the least.”

“And I’m a bigger dangerous asshole,” I say. “If I recall correctly, this lovely prison of mine still belongs to Supreme. Danar Rrivae can’t step one foot on this ground because its prisoner— me —is still Vallendor’s Grand Defender.”

“Correct,” Elyn says.

“So, what?” I peer at her. “Should I be scared? Are you warning me that you’re his captain and you’ve turned on Supreme, too? Is he your boss? What do you want?” My fingers are starting to burn.

Elyn watches my fingers with slitted eyes. “He wasn’t the only agitator. Like Danar, there was another who didn’t seek to rule the realms as commanded by the council. No, this agitator wanted to destroy realms that teetered on the precipice of destruction. Even if a decision hadn’t been made, this agitator thought that they knew best. Ithlon, your home, was one of those troubled realms, but no one dared say that Ithlon—the home of little Kaivara and her mother, Lyra, the former lover of Izariel Megidrail, Lord of Mera, your father, a member of the Council of High Orders—needed to be destroyed.”

My nostrils flare, and a lump forms in my throat. “I may be quick-tempered and rash at times, but I’d never willfully destroy Ithlon.”

“Correct,” Elyn says, coming to stand beside me. “But two members of your battalion were spies of Danar. High-ranking Mera who served as your closest confidantes. You knew Ithlon was problematic, but you refused to kill your family. So the generals promised to whisk Lyra and your kin to safe places throughout the realm. You still resisted, but they appeased that part of you needing recognition. They told you that making such a tough and just decision to destroy Ithlon guaranteed your future on the Council, taking your father’s place once he ascended. Believing that your family had been taken somewhere safe, you launched the destruction of Ithlon.”

She chuckles without humor. “But they lied to you, Kai. Your mother was still on Ithlon when you commanded the first fiery star to fall from the sky and into the Glass Sea. Danar not only took Ithlon—he also destroyed Lyra, your mother. You did exactly what Danar wanted.”

Rage burns through my body, narrowing my vision, tinting the world around me. My heart clenches with horror and disbelief as fragmented memories claw their way to the surface of my consciousness. Screams. Pleas. The crackle of destruction . My blood chills as shadows creep across my heart. I was the fire that destroyed my world. Tears blur my vision as this devastating truth—a truth I can’t fully recall—crushes every opinion I have of myself. This anguish now gnaws at my soul—this pain is real. The knowledge that I’m adrift in a sea of remorse and that I am not me—that’s real, too.

Three of the emperor’s men, their tunics grimy with blood and gore, charge at Elyn and me with pikes outstretched. I focus on the soldier to my right—letting out a fierce growl, I knock the pole from his grip, sweep his legs out from under him, and drive his own weapon through his neck.

Elyn mirrors my actions, dispatching her opponent with a strike to his cheek, piercing flesh and bone.

The remaining soldier, caught between us, faces his doom: two skilled women wielding weapons of destruction. In moments, he loses his left hand and right foot, collapsing in a scream of agony.

Panting, Elyn and I lock eyes once more, ready for the next challenge.

“You should’ve been punished for going against the Council,” Elyn says, glaring at me through narrowed eyes. “Because of that downright insubordination, no one wanted to defend you. But I did, Kai, and as your Adjudicator, I argued that you deserved another chance. I asked that the Council consider your age. Your intention. Your heart. Your commitment to justice, fairness, and equality. That you’d been targeted and misled by the Vile One.

“The realm of Melki. A pisshole, yes, but not sanctioned to be destroyed. You did it anyway. This time, you were punished and stripped of the twenty realms you oversaw. Because you’re Lord Mera’s daughter, because he begged for you to have another chance and promised that he’d help you correct the errors you made, the Council gave you Vallendor.

“You served as Grand Defender of one realm. And for a moment, you listened to your father, and you did your best to cultivate this place, and the mortals who soon came to populate this realm called you their Lady of the Verdant Realm. Veril Bairnell tried his best to be your sage—he’d been your teacher from birth. But mortals will do as mortals do, and the realm started buckling under corruption, from disease and murder.

“Emperor Wake started his campaign, then, against those who believed in the old god— you. You, and rightfully so, lost your mind when that bastard started calling himself ‘Supreme.’ You wouldn’t have it. And thus, the second Great War began, with orders now taking sides. The Renrian and Eserime with you. The Dashmala, some Renrian and Eserime, forced to fight for Wake. All of us—the Council, the Adjudicators—were on your side, Kai.

“That’s when you were given approval to destroy Trony Province by the sea, one of the worst provinces in Vallendor, a stronghold of the emperor. You sought to show him your ruthlessness, cunning, and strength, and so you commanded the sea to wash away Trony.

“But then you destroyed Danforth without approval,” she says. “The worst was Chesterby. You really, really hated Chesterby, and you showed it. Water. Fire. Earth. Without approval. That land is still uninhabitable. So many smaller villages, innocents, suffered from that destruction. That’s when you were stripped of your battalion, stripped of most of your learned abilities. Some of your soldiers defected to avoid punishment, and they joined Danar Rrivae’s mutineers. Your father could no longer protect you, and as your Adjudicator, I was sent here to mete out your punishment.

“By then, you’d destroyed Goldcrest and Eaponys without an army —that’s how strong you were, Kai. You evaded me, but you were also growing weaker each day—it’s not easy to destroy without help if you’re not whole. You were tenacious, though, and you ran from me and used the last of your strength to take to the sky. I don’t know where you were going, and I don’t think you did, either, but in mid-flight, you collapsed from exhaustion and fell from the skies and into the forest outside of Maford.”

“I opened my eyes with Olivia’s hand around my pendant,” I whisper.

“The pattern is repeating, Kai,” Elyn says. “You’re not as quick as you were before, and so your destruction is slower. The results, though, are the same. Maford—gone. Caerno Woods—burning still. Caburh—wrecked.”

“To fight the emperor!” I shout. “To retain control of Vallendor.” I shake my head, still unwilling to accept this version of my story. “And if I’m so evil, so reckless, then why did Sybel tell me—”

“Sybel is not an Adjudicator,” Elyn says, bristling. “She shouldn’t have interfered. Her heart has always ruled her head when it comes to you. She is weak, and her love for Lyra clouds her judgment.”

“How do you know who she is or isn’t?” I snarl.

“Because,” Elyn shouts, “Sybel is my mother!”

My legs buckle as though she’d punched me.

“She was your mother’s best friend, too,” Elyn says, “and when you were off destroying parts of Vallendor instead of doing your job as Grand Defender here, Sybel took over. Yes, she tried to convince you to save this realm from total destruction. To save this land from you , Kai. You are the One who will destroy the world—”

“No!” I shout, squeezing my eyes shut. “Enough.”

“You know this is true,” Elyn says, her voice cracking. “My mother had faith in you. She believed that you could change. She tried her hardest to find a way to tell you about yourself in a way that wouldn’t end like this. Because every time, Kai, every time, it ends like this. You keep making the same mistakes. And you’ve reveled in your disregard of Supreme’s will.”

I hold my chin high even as my heart shrinks in my chest and my fingers numb.

“You should be ashamed of your actions,” she whispers, the muscles in her face twitching. “You should drop your head and beg for forgiveness this very second, but you never remember long enough to do that, and so you’ve never asked to be forgiven.

“Instead, you took your marking for destroying Ithlon, the second sphere on your shoulder, and you gained courage to take your third one, Melki, but that sphere wasn’t enough. You demanded a new one.” She touches the space beneath her breast. “Destroyer of Worlds.”

Another growl pulls my attention from the white-haired woman standing opposite me. An aburan, with the powerful body of a massive bear and the shrewd eyes of a man, throws himself between Elyn and me. He bellows, baring sharp teeth, and glares at me as if I’ve deeply wronged him.

Elyn laughs, retreating a few steps, leaving me alone to face the beast.

Fine.

“You are no Lady of the Verdant Realm,” the aburan snarls. “You have no power—”

Before he can finish, I swing my sword in a swift arc. The blade slices through the air, beheading the creature in a single, fluid motion. His words die on his lips as his body collapses to the blood-soaked ground.

My muscles burn with exhaustion, each movement turning sluggish and heavy. Is this Elyn’s plan? To let these otherworldly drain me so thoroughly that she can easily slip her blade into my heart without resistance? The air around me hurts now, and I just want to sit and rest my head against my knees.

Elyn approaches until she stands just a reach away. “You won’t ask for mercy, especially now that you have—” She flicks her hand, and she’s holding an illusion of my moth amulet.

I look down to see… No, she’s holding my amulet.

“You’ve become too much,” Elyn says, “and yet you will never be enough. My mother is wrong. You’ll never change. This realm will never survive, because you will never be the god you were born to be—the god that Vallendor Realm needs and deserves.”

I wave my hand at the chaos around me. “I didn’t start this!”

The battle rages on. More dead otherworldly pile high on both sides.

Elyn surveys the fighting and sighs, her expression sad. “No. But the conditions were perfect for the original usurper to breach the realm.”

The original usurper. Danar Rrivae.

“He’s come here to take Vallendor from you,” she says, “with the help of his associate.”

“Emperor Wake.”

Elyn nods. “And Wake has been working all this time with Danar Rrivae.”

Sybel warned me about Wake.

He is only a consequence of the One, but he is a force working against you. The One is far more powerful.

Danar Rrivae—it’s his magic that keeps Wake alive. That allows Wake to fight with otherworldly. Not Elyn after all.

And now I remember the last time I saw Danar Rrivae. Kestau, at a garden party before convocation. That afternoon, he smiled at me, tugged one of my braids, said that I was a perfect mixture of Izariel and Lyra. “He called me ‘L.D.’ Little Destroyer,” I whisper now.

“And he’s now here to take Vallendor,” Elyn says. “And if he wants to do that, then he must kill Vallendor’s Grand Defender. He must kill you. And if he kills you, then Danar Rrivae becomes even more powerful, and Vallendor becomes yet one more realm lost to Supreme. But you are his obstacle, Kai. You are the One destroying Vallendor with your power, province by province—and, of course, doing so without consent from the Council of High Orders. Both of you have turned against Supreme, and only one has been punished for that but has escaped final reckoning. That is the job of another Adjudicator. I’m here to complete mine.”

My body feels like it’s catching fire and tearing in two. And now I know the truth that I’d traveled across Vallendor to learn. Now I know who the One is.

Elyn takes a step away from me. She holds my amulet in one hand and the sword with a silvery-blue blade in the other. The platinum hilt is marked with familiar-looking characters that spell out her name.

“You kill me,” I shout, “then you give Danar exactly what he wants.”

“I kill you,” she shouts back, “then you cannot destroy Vallendor Realm and Danar Rrivae will have no claim to this realm, since he failed to kill its Grand Defender. What happens to Vallendor once you’re gone, Kai, will be decided by the Council. Until then…”

She takes another step back and says, “I am Elyn Fynal. As Grand Adjudicator of Vallendor and the Nine Realms, Sentinel and Divine Mediator, with the approval of the Council of High Orders, including Lord Izariel Megidrail, you, Kaivara Megidrail, former Grand Defender of Vallendor, Lady of the Verdant Realm, Destroyer of Worlds…”

Tears glisten in her eyes, and she takes a deep breath. “Kai, I sentence you to death.”

“No!” I thrust my hands, and wind bursts from my fingers.

Elyn’s knocked off her feet and drops my amulet.

I dive for it, but I feel no tugging like I had before. What’s wrong with it? No light pulses from the moth’s—

“Stop!” Elyn shouts just as she blasts force toward me, strong enough to slam me back against a hillside and knock the air out of my lungs. Rocks and boulders from above break apart and rain down on us, and we both dodge stones now loosened from the palisade.

Elyn thrusts her hands again, keeping me pinned against the boulder, and the pressure intensifies. Her hair is free of that single braid and drifts like spiderwebs around her head. Her eyes burn gold like fire, and her amulet, that dove, also flares golden, and the air around us smells of crushed jasmine and snuffed-out candles.

“You will not—” I grit my teeth and force her hold off me. Despite the pressure, I manage to conjure and hurl fireballs at her, catching her off guard.

Alarm shines in her eyes, and her pressure weakens for a moment.

Desperate, I lift Fury, my arm shaking as my energy is nearly spent.

Elyn lifts her own sword.

We swing.

The impact of the blades makes sparks fly.

Elyn kicks my chest, knocking me back.

This gives me time, though, to tighten my grip around Fury’s handle.

Elyn charges forward and swings—and swings too forcefully.

I parry, and she stumbles. I kick her in the back.

She cries out but spins around.

I don’t wait to swing.

She meets my blade with hers and backswings, hitting my side, splicing open the luclite.

With a scream of agony, I send a last burst of wind.

She stumbles but gains her balance and charges forward…

Right into my swing.

The blade nicks her neck, hitting a vein that spurts blood. The grip on her sword loosens as she tries to decide if she should tend to her neck or keep swinging. She holds up a hand, and I watch as she conjures tiny bolts of lightning that pop from her fingers.

But she’s waited too long.

My fireball hits her hand before she can get a bolt off.

She screams again, her face twisting. She may be a judge, but she is no warrior. She nurses her left hand but sets her feet anyway. Her glazed eyes flick past me.

Is that fear or acceptance that she will end soon?

I knock her back again with a tiny puff of wind.

She presses against the bleeding wound in her neck, so weak that my pitiful burst makes her stumble backward. Her eyes flick away from me again. She takes a deep breath, grabs her sword, and staggers in my direction, her sword as high as she can hold it.

I step forward to meet her swing but knock her back with a kick.

She drops her sword again.

I kick that sword up with the toe of my boot. Now I have dual blades. One with a bloody handle.

Elyn’s eyes widen. “Kai —”

“I know,” I say. “And I’m not even wearing fancy fucking armor. Give me my amulet.”

“Kai—” Something in my expression alarms her, and she tosses the amulet to the ground. Her nostrils flare, and she looks behind me with wild eyes.

“What are you looking for?” I ask, drawing closer. I’m not cocky, though. Dying snakes always have one last bite left—and that bite can kill. “Keep hoping, Grand Adjudicator, blah-blah-blah. No one’s gonna save you.”

The muscles in Elyn’s face relax. “Oh, but you’re wrong. He will.”

This time, I look over my shoulder and see that her help has arrived.

Jadon.