his fist raised above me. All around us, black powder swirled. When he noticed that I was awake, a dark scowl overtook his face.
"I should've known that wouldn't be enough to kill you," he snarled. Once more, he disappeared and then reappeared, this time with a dagger in hand as he held it over me.
"Not this time," I shot back. The second his arm descended, the dagger aiming straight for my heart, I lifted my arm. The blade pierced my forearm, making me scream at the pain it sent—but pain was better than death. It was better than not breathing.
The Lanuaet was glowing, hovering between us. "It won't matter!" Tyr screamed at me. "It will take your life force anyway!"
An idea formed. I didn't know if it would work and there was no time to figure out a second plan of action. If the Lanuaet wanted power, then I would give it power. All of it. My skin glowed as I reached up and yanked the dagger out of my forearm. Blood oozed from the wound before being lifted and sucked right into the glowing orb’s spinning sphere.
I panted as I closed my eyes and focused on the space around me. Power was everywhere, the voice had claimed. In the air. In the stone. In the breath we breathed. I conjured it, calling it forward. Focusing as Sorrell had taught me. Only instead of flames, I was pulling everything.
My body felt hot—sweat beaded on my brow and that, too, was taken into the Lanuaet's dark globe of magic. I pushed more and more out. Like I was trying to heal Orion all over again. I pictured the sun within me and let it burn outward. I would give until there was nothing left. I would make Tyr regret this.
"What are you doing?" Tyr demanded as the Lanuaet began to vibrate in his palm. He screamed and the sound of burning flesh reached my nostrils. I didn't care. I had to focus.
More and more power was thrust into the orb Tyr tried to keep hold of until finally, it became too much for him. He released the sphere with a shout, holding his shaking burned hands out in front of him as he gaped at the thing he’d created, hovering all on its own.
"Stop!" he screamed.
A white light blinded me as a fissure cracked across the surface of the orb, emitting the power that it had consumed. Tyr jumped towards it and, just before his hands touched it, another crack formed and the power that slipped out slammed into him. Blood spurted out across my body, raining down over my chest. I turned my face to the side only to watch as Tyr's severed body fell to the stone and his unblinking dead eyes met mine.
In the next instant, the Lanuaet shattered and a brilliant white light crashed into me, sending me straight back into the same oblivion that I had almost let myself die in. At least this time, I thought just before my mind winked out, the others would survive.
I woke to someone rattling metal not very far from where I laid. My thoughts were murky and my head felt as though someone had slammed it into a stone wall more times than I could count. A groan left my lips seconds before my eyelashes fluttered open.
"Miss?" A round faced woman with large eyes and wearing a white apron stood alongside the bed I lay in holding what looked like a fireplace poker. "You're awake?"
I looked from the poker in her hand to the look of shock on her face and back again. "If you're planning to kill me with that, can you wait until I have the energy to defend myself?" I asked around a groan.
"I must tell the Queen!" she half screamed. I winced as the high pitched sound of her voice ricocheted into my skull, but before I could say another word the maid was gone, leaving the door on the bedroom chamber hanging open as her fast footsteps faded down the hall.
I doubted she'd even heard a word I said. Slowly, as gingerly as possible, I rose from the bed and stared down at the gown I now wore as well as the growth in my hair. The dress was a silk nightgown with puffy sleeves and lace on the cuffs. Though I couldn't remember getting into it, even stranger than that was the fact that my hair was no longer cut short. It was