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He extended his hand before us, opening his fingers wide as he cha
I smiled as Mzatal forced Rhyzkahl back a step, and I opened myself more to the grove, feeling the murmurs of its semi-sentience. Rhyzkahl’s gaze slid over me, and a ripple of sensation set my skin itching faintly, as though the sigil scars had goose bumps. The memory of the torture rose again, and I dove into the co
Rhyzkahl fought to move against the dual force, face hard and determined, neck muscles and braced stance revealing the extreme physical effort that accompanied his resistance. Half-step by grueling half-step, he retreated into the tree tu
“I will have you,” Rhyzkahl growled, the words carrying to us and the mountains beyond.
The threat speared me, igniting pure hatred like a fountain of flame from my gut to my head. “Never!” I shouted. The grove power scorched through me, welcome and unhindered. Mzatal cha
I bared my teeth, feeling power like a vast, still sea respond to my deep need as he sprawled to his back. Now I had him at my control. I wasn’t the one writhing in pain this time. Power suffused me. I bore down on him with the grove energy, willing him to suffer. Willing him to die.
I leaned back against Mzatal, smiling as I watched Rhyzkahl struggle to shift from the supine position. Amkir stepped toward him, and I raised a barrier of shimmering grove potency between the two lords. Rhyzkahl was mine. I opened the floodgates to the sea of power and, through the grove awareness, I knew what Rhyzkahl felt: invisible pressure closing in on him, crushing, taking his breath. I tasted his first flickers of fear, and my smile widened. I dimly felt Mzatal telling me I had to release Rhyzkahl, but the song of the grove washed it aside, raw and wild and torrential. My breath came in shuddering gasps as power seared its way through me. Vahl sought to enter the tree tu
I heard Mzatal shouting my name, but the words burned away as soon as they reached me. He shouted to Vahl, to Ilana, to Amkir, but my focus was on the vile sack of shit who even now could barely draw a breath.
A sudden resistance slid between the Tormenter and my power, blocking my vengeance. My eyes narrowed and I pushed harder.
Kara! Kara, you must let go!
Awareness hit me like a slap. The resistance was Mzatal as he fought to keep me from killing Rhyzkahl. No. He deserves to die!
Kara!
Mzatal called to me on all levels as he maintained the shield on Rhyzkahl. The loss of even one lord would throw all of the arcane perilously out of balance. Turek had shown me, and Mzatal sought to remind me now. Mzatal. I realized with horror that I was about to hurt him as well. Aghast, I hurriedly sought to disengage, but the power rushed through me in torrents, responding only sluggishly to my efforts. Mzatal swayed behind me, his arm locked across my chest. Rhyzkahl went still. Amkir stood in the tu
Vahl strode toward me, but I had no time to spare for him in my desperate bid to curtail the flow. His eyes narrowed, then he drew back his arm and slugged me hard.
White pain exploded in my face. The power dropped away from me like water from a burst balloon, and I sagged heavily in Mzatal’s grasp. As the world spun around me, I thought I heard Mzatal yell to Vahl to get Rhyzkahl out of our grove.
Our grove.
Mzatal went to his knees, breathing heavily and still holding me. “Kara?”
I groaned. Pain throbbed in my jaw, and everything dipped and tilted around me. “Here. Ugh.”
His hand came up to cradle my face, easing the worst of the throbbing and the spi
Somehow I managed a woozy smile. “And you’re here,” I slurred.
He looked down at me. “We are here.”
I gave him a radiant smile.
And then I passed the fuck out.
Chapter 37
I woke about a thousand years later, certain that someone had driven a truck through the bed and over me a few dozen times during the night.
Ilana chimed and stroked hair back from my face. I gave her a faintly puzzled smile, while I tried to remember why I ached from head to toe and why Ilana would be so close and attentive. “What happened?”
“Rhyzkahl sought you yesterday,” she said as she brushed her hand over my forehead.
Rhyzkahl. All of it flooded back to me. “We won,” I said.
She inclined her head. “Yes, you did. Rhyzkahl was denied.”
I exhaled. I knew I should be elated at the victory, but tension coiled in the pit of my stomach with the memory of exultation in sharing with Mzatal and then my subsequent loss of control of the grove energy. “And Mzatal? Is he all right?”
She smiled. “Until only a moment past, Mzatal has not left your side, and then only to attend a matter that could not be left longer.”
“But he’s all right?” I asked again.
She smiled. “He is depleted, though otherwise well.”
A feeling of ease and comfort stole through me. “Now I feel bad for waking up after he left,” I confessed.
The syraza chimed in laughter. “You woke because he left, precious one.”
“Hunh?”
“There was a peace upon you while he was here,” she told me, “and you slept deeply and well. When he left, you reached for that peace like a blanket that had slipped from you, found it missing and so, awoke.”
The truth of it wound through me, and I smiled wryly. “He’s still going to be a
“Yes, he will be,” she replied, violet eyes alight with amusement. “Take the opportunity to bathe, and you will feel more refreshed when he returns.” Her head tilted, and her eyes unfocused briefly. “He is still with Idris.”
I considered everything that had happened in the past few days, and my smile slipped a bit. “It scared me that I liked him so much.” I grimaced. “When we argued, it was like I lost something I couldn’t replace. I wondered if maybe it was just Stockholm Syndrome, where a prisoner begins to have, um, positive feelings for their captor, but now…” I shook my head.
The syraza leaned forward. “What you name ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ originates here.” She touched my forehead with a long finger. “Determine if the origin of your ‘like’ of him is here,” she tapped my forehead again, “or here,” she tapped my chest above my heart, “or somewhere beyond both.”
“Before yesterday, I was too confused to know.” I sat up and dragged my hand through my hair. “Something happened when we faced Rhyzkahl.” I paused, considered. “I’m not confused anymore. It’s not about weighing pros and cons in my head, and it’s not a weird falling-in-love thing. It’s…” I trailed off as I realized I didn’t have words for it.
“Beyond both,” Ilana said quietly. “Find the balance between the head, the heart, and that which lies beyond.”
“Easy for you to say,” I said with a smile. “But right now I’m going to take a nice long bath. Deep thinking will be a lot easier once I start feeling human again.”