A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

54. Rev

Chapter 54

Rev

My voice shattered through Viridis as I called her name once again in fear.

I sprinted after her, weaving through the Growers as they bent to the ground, their limbs sinking into Viridis’s earth and replenishing it with life anew.

They’d stalled my ability to enter Viridis and Karus had gotten too far ahead.

Branches wrapped around my waist, pulling me to the ground as a Grower towered over me, hindering my effort to get to her, stopping me from saving the one soul that kept me alive.

Fuck.

That.

My power burst from my palms in a blaze of blue, blasting the Grower back from my sight, snapping its branched torso in two. A piercing cry of agony filtered through the courtyard as another branch caught my leg.

I raged, summoning a blue wall of power behind me. I snapped the branch on my thigh with my bare hands, throwing it to the new grass at my feet and sprinted forward, following the light of the sun before me.

Ten more Growers lay ahead between me and Karus.

“Move!” I roared, a line of azure flame, cold and static, piercing through their wall of thorns in their attempt to stop me from getting to her.

They wanted more time to bring Viridis back, but they did not understand the risk. They did not know that they would doom themselves—doom Felgren—if they let her fall.

Her sun rose higher into the dome of Viridis and I saw her arms open wide at the bottom of the marble steps, facing the trees she’d grown herself.

I tore through their brambles with my power and hands, now scratched and bleeding as more and more walls grew.

I could take them down.

I could destroy every one, but that would not get me to Karus in time.

She fell to her knees, the monstrous trees alight in her flame, and I screamed her name again.

She could not hear me, of that I was certain, as more walls formed ahead.

“Moira!” I thundered, seeing the flutter of her wings as I tore my way through another thicket of thorns.

Her violet eyes turned to me in understanding as she flew to one of the Growers blocking my way and whispered something in its ear.

It fell into the green grass in what looked to be uncontrollable, painful laughter, its wall of thorns falling with it.

She moved to the next and I didn’t stay to watch as she used her magic to knock them down. I bent to the ground and summoned all of the power of the Baron of Felgren.

I had seconds to get to her—to break the spell before it broke her.

The earth erupted in a straight path of upturned soil, rumbling and sending the few remaining Growers flying back, leaving an open space for me to reach her and tearing through several newly healed trees in its wake.

I sprinted to her huddled form, my knees hitting the soft earth, just inches away from her. I smacked headfirst into a wall of iridescent magic I had not seen.

No .

I was so close.

I pounded on the shimmering force, calling for Karus to hear me.

The wall was not coming from her.

It was coming from her .

This was the Blightress’s attempt to stop me from breaking the spell, and in my rage, I didn’t stop to wonder why.

I slammed my palms flat on the shimmering surface, taking one last look at my love and closing my eyes, breathing in deep.

I summed all of the power of Baron. Each thread of magic I held inside and never needed to use.

“I need everything , ” I called, pushing harder into the Blightress’s power.

“ It will not be enough. ” The same voiceless wind addressed my plea, finding its way into the cavern of my mind where it had dwelled for years.

“Give me something . I just need to touch her. I just need her to feel me to break the spell.”

“ This is the one you’ll split your power for? ”

“When she passes the Baron trial, yes. This is her.” I felt a burning under my palms, but I still pushed all my strength. Karus’s head fell back with her eyes closed, facing the sun as it began its descent toward her, the grove of trees dead and withered on the stairs.

“ She is…tainted. ” The wind whispered in my ear as the wall of shimmering colors began to crack, one minuscule hole beginning to form.

I took another breath and sought that power from the cavern in my mind. If the power of the Baron of Felgren wasn’t willing to help me, I’d force my way in, pulling from every tendril of ancient magic passed down through the ages.

The strength of it swelled in my chest as a flash of the entirety of Felgren Forest unfolded behind my eyes as if I flew above it. I saw the top of every tree, the Blight that still took hold of the northeastern quadrant, the river that flowed through the dense thicket to the west, and the black pinnacles of the Fortress itself.

I sucked in one more breath and sent it from my chest, down my arms, to the palms of my hands as the wall shattered into thousands of iridescent specks.

My arms wrapped around my beloved, and I pulled her lips to mine, gently lowering her to the ground. The sun flickered before it snuffed out in a cold reminder of its absence.

Her arms wrapped around my neck, her mouth opened on mine as my tongue slid over hers in relief and declaration—in promise—that I would always come to save her.

And as I felt her tire and begin to fall into unconsciousness, I left that cavern in my mind, which held precious secrets, ensuring I was heard before slamming the door on the essence that gave me the power of Baron. “She is everything .”