That was good. It meant she was planning to try and help me. At least, that’s what I hoped.
I didn’t understand fully what a Familiar was, or what she could do. But if she had the ability to spew fire, that was a weapon we could use. She’d be able to protect herself when we escaped this place.
“I’m not the fourth. Not with Easton no longer a part of us. I’m the third.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, letting the Wielding grow within me. It burned, the tingles sharp like pinpricks of ice. It was almost as if my limbs had been asleep for far too long and were just now waking up.
“You know nothing. You’re just chained here. You’re nothing.”
“I know that The Gray has a son. Wouldn’t he make his son the second? Push Durlan to third? That would still make you fourth. Always last.”
I expected the slap, but my head still shot back, and my cheek stung as the hand hit my face. I spat out blood, annoyed with myself for letting him hurt me. But I needed him to remain here, distracted, to not notice that I was slowly regaining my Wielding. I needed to keep him from seeing that Braelynn was steadily working on her bindings.
I needed him to focus solely on himself and his plans. If he did, he wouldn’t notice that he was losing.
At least, that was my goal.
“You’re nothing. Just a bitch.”
“Maybe. But there’s a reason The Gray wants me bound. Is he scared of me? Maybe he has to be. It would only make sense. That’s why he continues to keep me alive. He has uses for me. What good are you? The Gray already knows all the secrets that he can ferret out. There’s nothing left for him to uncover. To be worried about. And yet, he keeps you around. For what? To torture me? No, that’s his second’s job. Maybe you’re just here because he doesn’t know what to do with you. He pulled you back from the Maison realm into this shadow dimension. You might be a Whisperer, but there are no secrets left for you to find.”
“I’m going to enjoy when Durlan slices you into a thousand little pieces, and you scream for your king. The one who hasn’t even tried to find you. It seems you weren’t that special, after all. He’s probably already replaced you with that other Wielder. The one with the dark hair and darker eyes. You always were replaceable. Nothing special. You weren’t even the real Spirit Priestess, were you? You are just an abomination. Not strong enough to do anything. To be anything to anyone.”
“Go to hell,” I snapped, not letting the words hurt me but needing to make him think they did. They didn’t. Honestly. I didn’t believe a word Garrik said. He was using whatever fake stories he had to keep me angry, to elevate himself. But it wasn’t going to work. Brae and I would get out of here.
I looked up again as the Whisperer began to pace back and forth, seemingly not paying attention to me.
I met Braelynn’s gaze, and she growled at me, a low sound. I knew it was time.
I tugged on my Wielding, and it sliced through me, causing agonizing pain as it slammed into my pores and ran through my body.
Fire licked my extremities, Water sliced through me, creating steam amongst the shadows. Earth trembled, and Air slid around, pulsating.
Garrik froze. Stared at me wide-eyed.
“How? How did you—?”
“I am the Spirit Priestess. I hold more power in my pinky than you could ever imagine. You might have thought you could harm me, to take everything. But you used lies and deceit to make that happen. You utilized the worst of humanity, the depravity of what you could have had, to try and take everything from me. You’ll never do that again.”
“You’re nothing. Nothing,” he said. But I knew he didn’t believe it. There was too much fear in his eyes.
“You are the one who believes in falsehoods and lies. You’re the one who killed my parents.”
“And they screamed, didn’t they? You couldn’t save them. You weren’t strong enough then, and you aren’t strong enough now. Not in my realm.”
He emphasized the word my, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Is it truly your realm? Or is it that of The Gray, and he just allows you to live here? You have nowhere else to go. No one wants you.”
“No one’s coming for you,” he said quickly. “I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish by this stunt you’re trying to pull. You can’t escape. The only reason Easton left before was because of me. It was my plan. What I wanted. He wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t smart enough to realize that he had been played.”
I just shook my head. “Easton always knew there was something wrong with you.”
“Well, his knowledge wasn’t enough to save your parents, was it?”
As he said that, the last tether of my bonds broke, and the shadow chains around me snapped into pieces. I watched as Garrik’s eyes widened with fear.
Part of me relished this, the bit that had tried to take control every time I gained a new element. It wanted to savor his pain. Wanted to force him to feel the agony I did.
The other part of me knew that if I focused too much on making him hurt, I’d be no better than the others who had tried to kill us—the ones who had tried to take everything.
I couldn’t allow that to happen.
Instead, I tamped down my agony, and knew that this was how it was going to be. This was how it would end.
The shadow chains disappeared, turning into smoke. Finally, I was free.
“Are you ready?”
Garrik’s eyes widened as I said that. “Ready for what?”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I said softly.
Braelynn let out a growl, one so loud I knew she wasn’t a mere house cat anymore.
The shadowed cage disappeared, and Braelynn, now the size of a panther, stood proud next to me, her claws tapping on the cave floor.
“What? How?”
“Once again, I am a Spirit Priestess. This is my Familiar. You killed my parents. You murdered so many. You don’t get to tear another family apart.”
“So…what? You’re going to kill me? I thought you were supposed to be better than that.”
He threw a knife, a dagger I hadn’t seen, but not at me. Not towards my heart.
Instead, the blade shot towards Braelynn, and I slammed out my Earth Wielding, smashing the weapon into pieces as it fell harmlessly to the rocks below.
The Whisperer blinked at me, calmly, then threw another dagger—this time towards me. I used my Air Wielding and flipped the blade. I pushed harder, knowing that a part of me, something deep inside, would die because of this. I didn’t want to kill him, but I couldn’t let him live. Not only because of what he had done to my family but because of what he could do to so many others if he continued on his current path.
Spirit within me slid around my heart and squeezed, and the dagger slammed into Garrik’s chest. The sound of flesh tearing, of blood pouring, filled my ears. It didn’t make any sense. I shouldn’t be able to hear every little nuance of his death, but as the Spirit Wielding slid through me and towards him, I knew that what was happening was for a reason. I needed to remember every action, every death that lay on my soul and on my conscience.
Because I couldn’t become callous. I might now be a warrior, but I couldn’t let death after death make me numb.