I screamed,my arms stretched impossibly wide as I refused to release any of my mates.
Constantine’s cruel laughter circled me in an invisible rope of sound, slithering across my skin and taunting my ears.
I hated him.
Hated this.
“I refuse to choose!” I yelled.
Which only made him laugh harder.
“Oh, Aflora. You act as though that’s an option.” His voice came from right in front of me, his body encased in shadows, leaving me in the perpetual dark with the ropes of magic tearing from my palms. “You must sacrifice one.”
“No.” I wouldn’t do it. I could never sacrifice any of my mates. I’d rather die. I’d rather lose. I’d rather not ascend. “Take it all back. Take the power. Take the source. Take it all back!”
His amusement blackened my soul, telling me there was no reasoning with him.
He’s insane. Mad. Completely lost to this idea of genocide.
I could feel his hatred whipping around me, his need to destroy all those he considered to be other. Abominations. Wicked beings with too much power.
Except he was the one abusing the Dark Source now, forcing me into a wicked web of death and despair.
This isn’t the way, I thought. This isn’t how the Dark Source wishes for someone to ascend.
I could feel it weeping, begging the ruler—Constantine—to stop. To take it all back. To redirect the trial to something of growth and potential, to have me prove my worth in a more appropriate manner.
But Constantine ignored the plea, his mind made up.
This was the path he’d chosen, this cruel game of sacrifice-a-mate.
I shivered, my heart fracturing into a million pieces. I could feel Kols’s strand weakening, his ties to death too tender and fresh. The Dark Source was absorbing him, the lesser of all evils.
He’d almost died once.
It made logical sense to take him again and finish his path.
No, I thought, shooting energy down that strand and emboldening it with my Earth Source. I was a being of life and creation and I used that gift to root Kols to me now.
Aflora?he whispered, his voice a beautiful caress to my mind.
Kols, I breathed, sending more vitality to him and renewing his strength.
What are you doing?
Holding onto you,I replied, strained as the source rippled around me in a demand for me to release a mate.
I cried out as it pulsed, stretching me wider, thinning the souls of those I loved most. No! I screamed, slamming the vines with another bout of inner strength, drawing my own version of vines around them to reduce their strain.
But at the detriment of my own soul.
It burned.
Ached.
Left me breathless in this mass of black magic.
You can let me go, Kols said, his voice soft and understanding. It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ve already been gifted with more time, a chance to say goodbye to you all. To love you, even in my short weeks left. It’s enough for me to dream of you for eternity while I rest, Aflora. It’s enough for me to have lived a full life.