Behind him, the Origin hissed and seethed, blood pouring down her back, but I focused on Vann when he came at me with hands sputtering silver.
But his magic had never been silver; that had always been a weak form of void magic he used to blend in with the other weapons. Why wasn't he using the full force of his power?
Unless he'd been told not to? Told to hide that sign of his monstrous nature. Or he … he was still in there, and this was his final act of rebellion.
Don't be delusional, Hala,I snapped, and threw myself aside with a yelp when Vann came at me. I hastily lifted my pink-glowing hands as a shield. Over his shoulder, I saw Mav shift away from the wall, a streak of blood left wherever he stepped, but I could only focus on Vann when he charged at me faster than he ever moved before.
What the hell had theydoneto him?
When he reached for me, I knocked his silver-wreathed hands aside with my gauntlet, but I faltered. For a moment, grief and hurt eclipsed my adrenaline, and all the suppressed pain came flooding back into my senses. Vann's hands closed around my throat, his magic cool against my skin, and for a disoriented second I froze, staring at my dead friend even as he squeezed.
"Vann," Mav barked. "Over here, fucker."
Vann shoved me into the wall and took a step towards Mav—Mav, who'd grabbed a discarded void gun from the floor.
A choked sound crawled up my throat when I realised what he was about to do.
I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye one last time before dark shadows blasted from the gun and hit Vann, collapsing his body into dust.
Reeling, I stared at the pile of ashes on the already ash-strewn floor, and everything went quiet in my head.
A tentacle hooked around my neck, dragging me into a rough hug, leaving a smear of hot blood on my chin. I barely felt it. In the same movement, Mav repositioned the gun, aiming at the Origin.
I watched, detached, as her face twisted in a snarl and the steam around her churned hotter, warping the air. I could practically taste her fury on my tongue, like mist and blood.
Her hand shot out and knocked the blocky barrel of Mav’s void gun aside, her skin so hot it melted the metal, and a pool of it formed in the middle of Vann’s ashes. Mav swore and retreated a step, pulling me with him.
I'd lost Vann all over again, and this time he wouldn't come back.
Although the way he'd come back, the emptiness in his eyes, the sharpness of the knife when he cut me open … maybe it was better that there was no way to resurrect him again. He'd have hated it.
"You still think you can survive this, don't you?" the Origin laughed, her wrinkled eyes narrow with amusement. It was easy to forget how old she was; she was so intimidating, so confident, so full of violent life, that she seemed stronger than even Vann. She had no weakness to expose, nothing to take advantage of. "Pathetic."
"Shit," Mav breathed, looking from the melted end of his gun to the Origin as she stalked closer, bringing her bone-melting steam. Sweat broke out down my spine, my skin tingling.
When a thready scream sounded from far away, echoing strangely as if through layers of stone, my shock and grief ripped away like a knife cut through it. The rage from earlier slammed back into me like a tsunami's wave and I jolted like I'd been shocked with a thousand volts.
My eyes met the Origin's narrowed grey stare when she reached through her cloud of mist for Mav, her lips twisted into something between a smile and a grimace. Mav was already bleeding and broken, welts covering most of his tentacles and a dangerously deep slice down his side.No fucking waywas she getting her hands on him.
I might have been burned but—wait, my chest and stomach didn't throb with pain anymore, only my arms where she'd pressed damage far deeper.
I was healing.
That realisation pumped me full of strength, and I didn't allow myself to second guess it. I knew the pain would paralyse me again, but I still knocked the Origin's scalding hand aside and reached within the blanket of steam that covered her. Even if it broke me, I would do this. If it meant my mates living, I’d endure it.
Another distant scream came through the walls and cut off with deafening silence. I pumped all my fury, fear, and pain into magic, screaming through gritted teeth. I seized the Origin's wrinkled throat and squeezed hard enough to bruise her, opening the floodgates on my power and letting every deadly drop slam into her.
Pain tore all the way up my arm to my shoulder, biting deeper into the places I was already raw and weeping blood, but I didn't drag my stare from the Origin's narrowed eyes. All I could do was breathe and let the magic flow through me into her, the pain so intense that my head swam and my knees were weak.
But then Mav was there, his only uninjured tentacle holding me up as he pressed his burned body to my back, offering silent support that turned the burning in my eyes into streaks of tears.
Holy fuckingshit, it hurt. I felt everysecondof my skin burning and peeling from my bones, but I also felt my power rushing through the Origin's body, dissolving anything it touched, covering her organs like poison.
She didn't collapse easily. She was too powerful for that, too full of determination and rage. But I didn't let go even when the room threatened to go black around me, or when the ground shook with a furious roar, or when weapons and keepers rushed at us in a blur of magic and panic.
Without the Origin, what were they? What were any of us?
"Free," a deep, raspy voice answered my unspoken thought, and my bottom lip wobbled, tears flowing faster.