Page 51 of Unseen Lord

It works reasonably well. Some of the lightning is diverted, but the castle still takes heavy damage, and I can hear people screaming. I cringe.

"You bitch," I holler, throwing my fury at her. "Do you know what you did to that village on the island? You killed a little girl named Lala who had the sweetest smile and parents who loved her. Is that your idea of peace?"

"I've realized peace can only be had when you remove the elements of discord. In this case, that would be people."

"Well, that's going to get lonely pretty damn fast," I say, loosing another series of arrows.

While we fight, Arias uses his power to channel the waters of the lakes around the castle, creating walls with them, moving them over land as his serpent appears in them and attacks her from behind. This has the bonus affect of taking out some of her ground army, who are storming the castle. The wall of water slams into her and the serpent coils around the bird, but with a flick of her wrist, she pulls her cape around her and blinks away, into shadows, taking her bird with her and appearing to the right, away from the serpent.

And then I get it. I finally get it.

We've had the Shadow's Mantle all along.

Aya has been wearing it.

With perfect timing, Elias and Kayla run up, and she presents me my daggers. "Ace helped me. Sorry it took so long but we added a special touch to them."

"Cool, thanks. Gotta go. I'm about to retrieve the third piece of the Shadow's Bane."

With that, I stick the daggers into their sheaths, swing the bow around my back and hop onto Theo. "Distract her for me," I say, as we take to the air.

At this point, a lot happens. Arias gets his Spirit in on the action once again, regrouping. Kayla fires up her Phoenix (see what I did there? Fire Spirit… fires up? Even in battle I'm that good) and sets it to attack mode on the Thunder Bird. Varis and Tavian both use their mojo to help protect the castle and save the people in the cross fires.

We armed the soldiers with wooden bows rather than swords, since the metal would just electrify them, but mostly it's going to be up to us to stop her.

I face off with her, mid-air, pulling out a dagger and flipping it in my palm. Oh, this is nice. Perfect balance, firm grip, beautiful design. I hope I don't lose these, because I'm seriously in love.

"Hey, Aya. I like your cloak."

She looks up, surprised, and I let my dagger lose.

My aim is impeccable. I even account for her attempt to blink away. But I'm really, really fast, especially with my power pulsing through me like fire. The dagger hits the clasp on her cloak, breaking it. And then, my dagger flies back to my palm. That's amazing. I'm going to kiss Kayla—and Ace—when this is over. The black fabric falls off her shoulders, and before she even realizes what's going on, Theo takes us to it. I snatch it out of the air and secure it around my neck. And then I feel it.

The power of the Shadow's Bane.

But it's not necessarily a new power. It's an old power that always lived in me, and the magic in these artifacts awakens it.

Using my daggers once again, I throw them simultaneously, one at her throat, the other at her bird. Together, they fall from the sky, and as my daggers return to me, I unleash a flurry of arrows on them, then dash down with Theo to land on the ground next to them.

They are both bleeding, lightning pouring out of their wounds, but it hasn't slowed them much.

And her power is growing. The storm is increasing in intensity. Lightning breaks apart the earth, splitting it in two, and cracking open a wall in the castle. Guards fall to their death screaming. Rage boils in me.

Her soldiers attack, pouring into the castle.

My people need backup. We're overpowered.

My friends are using everything they can to defend the castle and the people in it, but it's not enough.

And with all the power I have, I explode.

The sun darkens as the moon rises prematurely covering it.

The earth trembles, and it's not from the storm.

I have become the storm.

The Tempest lashes at me with her lightning, but I dodge it, blinking into the shadows.