Page 126 of The Crown of the Dark Prince
I wasn't even close to matching her power.
Which meant we weren't going to win this fight.
“Run,” I whispered to Iris.
Her eyes flashed in horror, as she realized what I already had.
I was going to die in this room.
I just hoped I could give her enough time to escape. As I turned back to Pasnia, golden light suddenly flaring in my palms, warm and glowing. I had only a second to marvel at this new manifestation of my magic before I hurled it at the throne, shattering it into a thousand glimmering fragments.
But she was already gone.
“I think your friend should stay,” her voice rang out, dripping with mockery.
I spun, my heart lurching. Pasnia stood behind Iris, a blade pressed to her throat. The Book of the Gods dangled carelessly under her arm, as though it were only there as an afterthought.
Iris struggled, but Pasnia didn’t flinch.
“In fact,” Pasnia mused, her tone light and cruel, “I think all your friends should join us.”
The ballroom doors groaned open again and a swarm of guards dragged in the battered, bloodied forms of my friends.
Clay stumbled forward, blood dripping from a gash on his forehead. Rankor’s eye was swollen shut. Kent—
Kent wasn’t moving.
Two arrows protruded from his stomach.
“Kent!” I screamed, my magic catching his body as the guards threw him mercilessly to the ground. I scrambled to his side, my hands shaking as I pressed them against his wounds.
Blood coated my fingertips, flowing out of him too rapidly.
I wasn’t a healer. I couldn’t fix this.
He was going to bleed out right in front of me and there was nothing I could do.
A sharp yank on my hair tore me backward, and I cried out as Pasnia’s laugh echoed through the room.
“Lower the Veil!” she whispered into my ear.
Her hand twisted cruelly in my hair, pulling me further back. I clawed at her wrist, desperation tightening my throat.
“No,” I insisted through a locked jaw.
She snarled and threw me backward. My shoulders slammed into the ground, but I barely had time to breathe before she grabbed a sword from a guard and swung it sharply toward Kent.
“Lower it, or he dies,” she hissed.
I didn't dare meet the eyes of my friends. I couldn't. Tears blurred my vision as I pushed myself to my feet. My whole body trembled, caught in the impossible choice before me, but the word came out firm, steady, even as my heart broke.
The fate of the Mortal Realm was at stake. Kent would understand.
“No.”
Pasnia stared at me, incredulous, before a cold smile spread across her face.
“Fine. Her, then.”
