Dragon Tide: Waves of Destiny by Sarah K. L. Wilson

Author:Sarah K. L. Wilson [Wilson, Sarah K. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sarah K. L. Wilson
Published: 2019-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

I would have expected that a magical rite that stole a person’s life from them and turned it into power would take more than one person. I would have expected a lot of people – probably in terrifying costume and intoning in unison.

Instead, there was just Atura with a long rod in one hand and a stone in the other. She stood beside the torch, her head tilted slightly to the side, concentrating.

Seleska?

The voice in my head was weak.

Kyrowat?

I tried to keep my expression calm. If Atura saw me, I didn’t want her to notice anything strange. There was a long silence – likely he was talking to Hubric.

“Hubric?” I said. “Hubric?”

He gasped, eyes wide.

And then he fell forward as if he was a puppet whose strings had been cut.

My breath was sucked away.

And that was all.

In one nearly silent moment, everything had changed.

Something bright and pure as spun gold spread from his body to the rod in Atura’s hand and then into the stone in her other hand. The satisfied smile on her face was all I needed to know she’d succeeded.

My mentor was gone.

My mouth fell open as I gasped. I just ... didn’t know what to feel.

Horror.

Horror that threaded through my ribcage reaching for my spine and bone-deep guilt. I’d told him not to be my mentor! I’d told him what had happened to Ramariri and Vyvera. Why hadn’t he listened to me? He should have listened!

My thoughts raged, angry and horrified, sick and confused. Loud, but incoherent.

Hubric’s head was slumped on his chest. His eyes were still open. I could feel the sob bubbling up in my chest. Someone needed to close his poor eyes. Someone needed to protect him from seeing what had happened to him, from seeing the victory on his tormentor’s face, from seeing the hopelessness his death had birthed into the world.

All that nonsense about bad things being for something. I didn’t believe that. Not for a second. This was nothing but a waste and a desecration. This was bone-deep wrong and if I made Atura pay for it forever it wouldn’t be enough.

My belly burned hot from the stone within. Whatever magic was contained in it – dark or light or something else was longing to come out and I was longing to let it. Come out, little magic. Come and play! Let’s show Atura a little life force magic, hmmm? How would she feel being sucked out of her body and fed into a rock, hmmm?

“Well, I can see why you have so many ropes,” I said, trying hard to keep my flowing tears from clouding my tone of voice. “It’s the only way you can keep people around. Even your friends over there are scared of you. Have you been making them into a rock collection, too?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Atura said as she directed the rod to continue feeding the golden strands into the stone. My heart throbbed painfully as the stone began to glow brighter.

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