Page 115 of The Half King
With panic screaming along her nerves, Cerise searched for the Petros Blade. As soon as she found it, she used her energy to send it flying through the air toward Padron’s chest. But her power was divided, weakened by holding the shield, and he easily knocked the blade aside with a teasingtsk, tsk, tsk.
“You’re wasting time, Cerise,” he said, nodding at Nina. “And she doesn’t have much left.”
Nina sank to the floor, her eyes bulging and watering. Fear shone in her gaze, but she pressed a hand over her heart and mouthed,I love you.
“No!” Cerise pounded her fists against the shield that had become her cage. Her mind raced for another solution. She thought of Nero and called out to him mentally, but she knew he couldn’t possibly reach her in time. She had just begun to focus on Daerick when he ran into the sanctuary, followed by General Petros. As their eyes widened to take in the scene, she pointed at Father Padron and shouted, “Kill him!”
The general moved with lightning grace, drawing a dagger to take aim. He had no way of sensing the energy that Father Padron fired at him, and Cerise wasn’t strong enough to block it. The dagger exploded in the general’s hand, and the force of the blow knocked him to the floor so violently it rendered him unconscious.
Daerick covered his head. “They’re coming!”
The priests.
“Don’t let them in!” Cerise yelled. She pulled the scroll from her pocket, stared at it to form a mental image of its markings, and then sent the image to Daerick with her mind.Translate this, she told him. She prayed that the information in the scroll would help her break the curse. It was the only way to free herself from the king’s compulsion and trade her life for Nina’s.
As Daerick nodded and ran out of sight, Cerise knelt on the floor to peer between the flames at Nina, who lay on her side, peering back with tears in her bloodshot eyes. There was a new calm in her gaze—the peace that came from a dimming light. Cerise slapped the tile and screamed at Nina to hold on. Then she summoned the image of her last ally in the castle and prayed that she would answer.
Delora, she called.Let Blue out of my suite and come to the sanctuary. Kill Father Padron if you can. Do it now!
“This is your last chance, Cerise.” Father Padron knelt down to taunt her, a smile curving the face she had once thought so handsome. “Your mother’s soul won’t stay with us for much—”
Cerise had enough energy to cast a blow through the shield and break his nose, which she did with pleasure.
While he stumbled back and cupped blood in his hand, she heard Daerick shout, “The priests!”
“I know!” Cerise said. “Don’t let them in!”
“No, that’s the missing element!” he yelled. “It wasn’t just the Mortaras who planned the Great Betrayal. It was the priests. The priests didn’t want to serve the people. They wanted to rule the people. They wanted power, and so their curse was bondage.”
Cerise scanned the floor for the Petros Blade. Using every last drop of her energy, she summoned the blade to her outstretched hand. It slid across the tile and through the ring of fire. The hilt burned her palm when she picked it up, but she ignored the pain. She stood tall, meeting Father Padron’s gaze as she slid the blade across her forearm.
“Shiera’s priests colluded with house Mortara,” she said as her blood flowed into the blade, “to usurp her holy authority and rule in her place. For their treachery, they were cursed to serve the whims of others. The priests are still undeserving, but this priestess is repentant.”
The blade glowed with the light of ten suns, forcing her to shut her eyes.
The compulsion blinked out.
She had done it. She’d broken the curses.
Now she was free from her bond of service to the king, and she didn’t need her eyes to drop her shield and slash at her father. She felt the connection with his robes and slashed out again, forcing him back. She was stronger now, in control of her magic. She extinguished the flames and slashed at him once more. When he cried out and stumbled to the floor, she took a moment to squint through the smoke and find Nina.
Cerise felt her arms go limp. She was too late.
Nina lay in exactly the same position as before: one slim hand resting near her heart and the other tucked lovingly beneath her womb. Her eyes were half open and sightless, her red lips parted as if she had fallen asleep. But she wasn’t asleep, and all of the magic in the world couldn’t change that.
Or could it?
Cerise sheathed the blade, ran to Nina, and skidded to her knees. Placing a hand on Nina’s chest, she channeled her energy inside it, willing Nina’s heart to beat. Nothing happened. She tried again, and again, and then again, even leaning down to blow air into Nina’s lungs.
Nina didn’t stir.
Cerise sank back, staring at her useless hands.
All this power, and for what?
For what?
All this power, and she couldn’t save Nina.
