Page 103 of Claim the Light
It will only be seconds before Lana and Beatrix realize what’s happened, but in those seconds, the awful reality of Tyler’s power crashes down on me.
It’s suddenly clear to me why the keeper of dark magic was so certain I would want to keep the ash. And now, my mother’s earlier cry also makes sense.“I have no future unless he chooses me. I will be left to perish.”
Tyler’s power is invincibility.
He can’t be killed and neither can those he marks.
Of course, this may well include Micah, Lana, and Beatrix, but it’s not a power they would welcome. Even now, I sense Micah’s movements slowing, his hits becoming sluggish, every speck of ash covering his skin destroying his heart and mind.
I sense his life fading. The cold chill of death.
All while I live.
I take a step back, scoop up my golden knife, and press it back into place on the armor. Then I quietly ask the armor to retract because I need to expose as much of my body as I can.
I sense its reluctance. It takes moments to obey me, but I command it more firmly. “Thank you for protecting me, but now I need you to stay with my family.”
The gold peels off my body, plate by plate, returning to the shape and size of a belt, which I unclip and place on the ground.
Across the rooftop, Tyler has remained a cloud of dust, his gleeful face appearing and disappearing with every failed attempt on Micah’s part to subdue him.
“There’s no shame in surrendering, Grudge,” Tyler calls to him. “You will only be one of many.”
Micah ignores him for a moment, wobbling in the air opposite him, appearing on the cusp of attacking again, but he has paused.
His fists are dripping with ash. His skin is dark gray—not the silvery color of his dragon scales. His shoulders are hunched, and his wings are held low.
I suddenly realize that I spoke aloud when I commanded my gold to stay with my family and, even in the din of battle, Micah would have been able to hear me.
I tip my head back to meet his eyes.
He can’t possibly read my thoughts, or know what I’m about to do, but the way he looks at me tells me he senses the finality that’s settling within my heart.
His wings are shivering, he’s clearly struggling to stay aloft, and his voice is raw. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it, Sophia. There has to be another way.”
There isn’t.
I try to smile through the burn of my tears. “I love you, Micah Grudge. I’ll miss the life we could have had together, but I’ll see it in my dreams.”
With that, I charge toward Tyler, my feet flying, my power bursting through every limb in my body.
My breathing is calm, even though my heartbeat is jumping all over the fucking place.
I collide with Tyler’s ash, my power forcing him to become solid. I sense his sharply indrawn breath and the way he tries to wrench himself out of my hold, but my arms have clamped around his naked chest.
All I have to do is push him down.
Down through the dark.
The keeper of old magic told me I have a knack of finding cracks into their realms, but this time, I plan onmakingone.
As the force of my shove propels us both a few feet across the rooftop, I throw my right hand forward, reaching into the space between spaces, feeling for the energy I know is there.
My fingertips brush the edge of the vast nothingness that exists within our world, and that’s all I need.
Closing my fist, I tear a rip in the wall of the dark keeper’s realm and take Tyler with me.
Into oblivion, where I intend to destroy us both.
