Celeste

  Steam drifted through the clearing, carrying the hiss of cooling Ice and the faint, lingering warmth of my Light. My palms still burned, heat pulsing through my fingers in slow, aching waves, but I didn’t lower my hands.

  The Brotherhood stood frozen in a loose ring, their oaths holding them rigid as the fog curled around their boots.

  I stayed where I was. My pulse raced as fear stirred, but it never took hold. I knew exactly what I’d done, and I knew I would do it again.

  I wasn’t leaving Lioren to die.

  Whatever judgement awaited us, I would meet it at his side.

  “Celeste,” Lioren said, worry threading his voice. “What are you doing?”

  “Saving your ass,” I told him. “If that wasn’t clear enough.”

  Lioren drew a breath, clearly about to protest.

  “Enough.”

  Darius’s voice cut through the steam. He stepped forward, gaze fixed on me. “No one was meant to interfere. This was between him and me.”

  “If Lioren wishes to leave The Brotherhood,” he continued, “then he must prove he has the strength to do so. That has always been our way.”

  “Fira told me what this was about,” I told him, letting my gaze flick briefly to her. “I’m not Brotherhood. Your rules don’t apply to me.”

  A murmur rippled along the edge of the circle.

  I turned my focus back to Darius.

  “This went far enough,” I said, my voice steady despite my nerves firing. “Whatever this was meant to prove, it has.”

  I glanced back at Lioren, then let my gaze sweep the circle.

  “He’s your friend,” I continued. “Your Brother.”

  The word rippled through them. Tobar’s jaw flexed. Elena dropped her eyes. Even Harl’s stance shifted.

  “Friendship doesn’t outweigh oath,” Darius said evenly. “Strength does.”

  I snapped my gaze back to him.

  “And what strength is this meant to prove?” I asked. “He asked to walk with me. I refused him once, yet he chose to persist. If I’d known that meant severing himself from you, I would have fought harder to keep him here.”

  Lioren took a step forward. “Celeste—"

  “No,” I said, the word came our sharp. “You already made your choice. I’m making mine.”

  I held Darius’s gaze.

  “If he isn’t allowed to walk away – and this is being done in my name – then I won’t stand aside,” I said. “Whatever this fight is, I am a part of it now.”

  Darius studied me for a long moment. Then he nodded once.

  “So be it.”

  Darius moved first.

  The ground cracked beneath his first step.

  Light surged from my hands, tight and focused, a narrow lance forming between my palms – then doubt cut through me.

  A single, flashing hesitation.

  Did I have it in me to kill him?

  Darius’s eyes flicked to the forming Ardor, then back to my face.

  I forced the doubt down and fired.

  He Cast Wind with one hand and shot sideways, twisting clear.

  The beam tore through the space he’d occupied, slamming into a distant tree and shaving bark from its trunk.

  I knew I was holding back.

  …Now so did he.

  “You have the power,” Darius said. His voice didn’t come from where he had been standing; it came from right beside my ear.

  “But you lack the resolve to finish.”

  The air shifted.

  A gust slammed into my side before I could turn. Panic flared hot in my chest as I twisted, catching only a blur of motion, Wind carrying him in a tight arc around me, his feet barely touching the grass.

  I threw my hands up on instinct, trying to catch his center, but the Wind was already on me. It howled in my ears, whipped my hair across my eyes, and struck like an invisible hammer against my shoulder.

  I stumbled back with a gasp, concentration shattering as pain tore through me. The force drove deep enough to bruise bone.

  I hit the ground hard, breath tearing from my lungs as the world spun. Grass and trees smeared together, my shoulder screaming as I rolled on instinct.

  A blade of compressed air carved into the earth where my leg had been, gouging a shallow trench through dirt and roots.

  Had he led with the blade, this would have all been over.

  He was holding back.

  “You’re afraid of what happens after,” he said as he circled. “Of what it costs once you decide.”

  I pushed myself upright, arms shaking as I raised my hands again. Light flickered between my palms.

  “So are you,” I said.

  His steps slowed. Just for a moment.

  If I wasn’t going to kill him, I had to break him.

  I pulled deeper – past the instinct for precision, past the narrow shapes Art had drilled into me, and into the heavier forms he’d taught me instead. I let the Light spread, thickening between my palms until it hummed with pressure.

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  Darius didn’t answer. He only looked at me, eyes unreadable.

  Then he moved.

  I drove the Light forward in a wide arc, the Ardor slamming into the space ahead of me like a battering ram.

  He cut sideways, a violent burst of Wind detonating from his palms and shoving him off-line. The blast missed him by a breath. He hit the ground in a roll, came up hard, and broke into a run.

  I didn’t wait.

  Another broad burst followed. The recoil shuddered through my arms and into my chest, forcing me to plant my feet as the Ardor slammed forward again.

  Wider Casts cost more, the effort dragging through me as if the Light carried actual weight.

  He veered again, Wind cracking from his hands as he changed direction mid-stride.

  I tracked him and released. The Ardor surged wide – not a beam but a wall of pressure.

  Darius slipped past the edge, boots barely touching the earth as he sprinted for space.

  Ice erupted at his flank.

  Shards flashed in from the side, thrown from Lioren’s hands, launched fast and straight for Darius.

  He twisted, blasting Wind from both palms. The Ice shattered midair, fragments spinning away in a storm of frost and broken earth, but the disruption slowed him for a breath.

  That was all I needed.

  I surged forward, boots pounding over torn ground as I drove the Light ahead of me.

  The air shrieked.

  A Wind blade tore free from his outstretched hand, a thin, invisible edge racing straight for me.

  I flared the Light outward in a dense burst just as it struck. The cutting edge unraveled on contact, Wind fraying as it hit the broader pressure front before blasting past toward its Caster.

  The Ardor caught him mid-turn – not fully – but enough. The impact lifted him off his feet and hurled him across the clearing. He hit hard and rolled, Wind tearing loose around him as he skidded through churned grass and dirt.

  He came up on one knee, breathing heavy, eyes already locked back on me.

  He drew his arms back, then drove them forward, Casting the Wind down and out. The surge struck the ground in a widening shockwave, flattening the tall grass and hurling grit and dead leaves screaming in every direction.

  I threw up my arms, Ardor flaring in a frantic burst to keep the force from knocking me off my feet, but dust still blinded me for a heartbeat.

  “Left!” Lioren’s voice cut through the roar.

  I didn’t think. I pivoted and hurled a wide, punching blast toward my left flank.

  The Ardor swept through a blur of gray. Darius was moving so fast the wind seemed to be pulling him along. He didn’t try to dodge the blast; instead he used a short, violent gust to vault over it.

  He was airborne, spinning with controlled grace, a Wind blade already forming in his hand.

  A pillar of Ice flew toward him from Lioren, a jagged spear, perfectly timed to cut across his path. Darius redirected the strike of Wind, intercepting the shard and bursting it apart instead.

  He landed on the ground in a roll and was up instantly, hands already moving.

  A volley of Wind blades tore into the dirt in front of us. Earth exploded upward in choking plumes, debris filling the air and turning the clearing into a curtain of dust.

  When the haze thinned, he was no longer within reach – standing several paces back, stance reset, Wind coiling loosely around his hands.

  My arms burned as I held the Light ready, the ache sinking deeper with every breath. The first blast I’d thrown when I jumped into the fight still lingered deep in my core. I’d Cast it wide and blind, and the cost of it stuck like a bruise I couldn’t touch.

  Since then, I’d kept the Ardor spread, forcing it outward again and again to disrupt his Wind Casts. It worked, but each release drained me further.

  Darius watched me with a different focus now.

  Then he moved.

  I broke into a run, boots tearing over churned ground as I hurled a wide Ardor Cast into his path, trying to cut him off before he could close the distance.

  He slipped past it.

  A sharp gust from his hands and he was already elsewhere, the blast tearing through empty air as he kept running.

  Lioren reacted instantly.

  Ice shards screamed toward Darius from his outstretched hands. Wind snapped outward in answer, blowing them aside in a spray of frost and shattered fragments as Darius launched himself upward.

  He rose high, carried by a violent burst of Wind, and Cast midair.

  Blades tore downward.

  Lioren threw his left arm up, Ice flashing into place, but the shield that formed was smaller than before, thinner too, its edges uneven. Blood dripped from his arm where it hadn’t fully held under the strain of earlier attacks.

  Wind struck it hard. The Ice still held, but cracks spidered across it as the force drove him back a step.

  He was wearing down.

  Darius dropped from the air like a falling blade.

  He landed between us in a spray of dirt and dead leaves, Wind collapsing inward as his boots hit the ground.

  From where he stood, I couldn’t Cast without risking Lioren – and Lioren couldn’t Cast without risking me.

  The clearing went taut.

  And Darius stood exactly where he wanted to be.

  His eyes found mine, expression smooth and unreadable.

  Then, he pivoted and ran.

  Straight for Lioren.

  I ran after him without thinking, boots thudding, lungs burning as I closed the distance that I already knew I wouldn’t cross in time.

  He was too fast.

  And I couldn’t shoot.

  If I Cast now, he was in the line. Wide or narrow, it didn’t matter, Lioren might take it, and he was already barely standing.

  One hit like that and he might not get back up.

  My hand stayed outstretched in indecision, Ardor burning between my palm, useless and aching as I ran.

  Panic crept higher. I wasn’t going to stop him in time.

  Pressure built in my palms as my core dragged under the weight of everything I’d already spent. My arms shook. My breath came in shallow pulls. I held the pressure anyway, even knowing I couldn’t fire.

  Darius nearly closed the distance.

  Each strike devoured the space between him and Lioren, Wind gathering in his hands, coiling for the strike I knew was coming.

  Lioren hadn’t moved. He was braced, set to take Darius’s next attack.

  My hands burned, useless now, as the gap shrank. Anger and fear knotted tight, squeezing out thought.

  There was no plan left. Just the need for him not to take another step.

  Anything.

  Darius took one more step—

  —and his foot slipped.

  His momentum broke as his stride failed, pitching forward with a sharp grunt. He caught himself too late to recover cleanly.

  “Lioren – move!” I shouted.

  Lioren jumped out to the side.

  I Cast.

  The Ardor tore forward in a wide, violent surge, aimed straight at Darius as he regained his footing. Light slammed into the ground at his feet as he twisted away at the last instant, Wind flaring hard to wrench him off-line.

  The impact ripped loose earth and stone upward in a brutal spray, rocks and shattered roots hurled forward with the force of it. Darius staggered as the debris slammed into him, the shock driving him sideways while grit and stone exploded across the clearing.

  Blood matted into the white of Darius’s dreads, darkening the strands where debris had torn the skin near his ear.

  He turned his head toward me.

  Then he came.

  Wind blasted from Darius’s hands in hard bursts, each Cast hurling him forward faster than his body alone could manage. He was pouring power into the charge now, forcing speed where control had once seemed effortless.

  I raised my hands and fired again, a wide Ardor Cast tearing out in front of him, meant to shove him back and buy space.

  He dodged through it.

  A violent gust wrenched him sideways, the Light slamming into empty ground as he twisted past its edge and kept coming. At the same motion, his arm cut across his body and a Wind blade tore free – thin and fast – the grass bowing hard in its wake as it screamed straight for me.

  I dove, the edge ripped through the space where my legs had been a breath before, biting into the dirt behind me and carving a shallow trench as I rolled and came up hard on one knee.

  He was closer now.

  I could feel the Wind building around his arm again, coiling for the strike he meant to land.

  I didn’t try to push him back this time.

  There was no more space to give.

  With one hand extended, I loosed a blinding Ardor burst outward in a raw, violent flare, flooding the space between us with searing brilliance.

  Darius twisted sharply, forearm snapping up across his face as he shut his eyes, but the Light still caught him.

  A strangled sound tore from his throat as his momentum broke. He staggered mid-stride, boots skidding as he fought for balance, coming to a halt only a few paces from me – vision stripped of focus, senses scrambled, Wind faltering around his hands.

  The Light burned out of me in its wake.

  My knees threatened to give as the strain caught up all at once, a hollow ache opening deep in my core where too much had been wrenched free. I forced myself to stay upright, arms shaking as I kept my hands raised. Empty or not, I kept them ready. If he moved, I would find something left to give.

  Footsteps closed the distance behind Darius.

  Lioren stood only a few paces back, an Ice shard formed in his hand and leveled straight at Darius’s back. Blood ran freely down his left arm where the earlier strike had torn through his guard, soaking his sleeve. Dark bruising bloomed along his cheek and shoulder, his breath shallow through clenched teeth.

  Darius blinked hard, dragging air with each breath. His gaze found me first, then shifted past me as he sensed Lioren behind him.

  He turned his head just enough to see the shard.

  Then he looked back at me.

  For a long moment, none of us moved.

  My hands were raised. Lioren’s Ice didn’t waver. Darius stood between us with no room left to turn without choosing which of us would strike first.

  Then Darius exhaled slowly and let his hands fall open at his sides.

  “I yield,” he said.

  The Wind slipped away – and did not return.