Chapter 10: THE SHADOW’S REBELLION

The cold edge of the blood sword pressed against my neck. It was my own shadow, standing tall and solid. It had my face, but its eyes were like two black holes. Kael stood frozen just a few feet away, his sword raised, but he didn't know who to strike.

"Let her go!" Kael yelled at the shadow.

"Why should I?" the shadow hissed. Its voice was a dark echo of my own. "Aria is weak. She worries about these people. She worries about you. If I take control, I can kill Seraphina and the Priest in a heartbeat."

Across the square, Seraphina laughed. She looked younger and more beautiful than ever, her skin glowing with stolen life. Behind her, the high priest held a golden staff. The golden chains hummed, pulling the life out of the thousands of innocent people tied up in the palace yard.

"Choose, Aria!" Seraphina shouted. "The shadow is right. You are too soft. Give me the Sun-Eater’s power, or I will snap these chains and kill every person in this city!"

I felt the hunger of the Sun-Eater burning in my gut. It wanted to come out. It wanted to burn everything.

"You think you can handle this power, Seraphina?" I asked, my voice trembling with rage. "It’s not a gift. It’s a curse that eats you from the inside."

"I don't care!" Seraphina screamed. "I am the Saintess! I am the one the people should love! Not a fallen princess who smells like the Abyss!"

The high priest stepped forward. "Enough talk. Shadow, kill her and bring us the core of the sun-eater. We will reward you with a real body."

The shadow’s grip tightened. I felt the blade nick my skin. A drop of my dark blood fell onto the ground.

"Eat it," the Shadow God whispered in my mind. Eat the shadow. It is just a part of you that ran away. Take it back and show them what a real goddess looks like.

"No," I whispered. "I’m not doing what you want anymore."

I didn't fight the shadow with a sword. Instead, I leaned back, letting the blood sword sink deeper into my neck.

"What are you doing?" the shadow gasped, its dark face showing surprise.

"I’m giving you what you want," I said. "You want my body? Take it. But you have to take the pain, too."

I opened the gates of my heart. All the agony of the Abyss, the memory of Kael’s betrayal, and the cold loneliness of the dark flooded into the shadow. The shadow screamed. It wasn't ready for the weight of my suffering. It began to shake, its smoky form flickering like a candle in the wind.

I grabbed the shadow’s wrists and pulled it toward me.

"You are me!" I roared. "And I am you! We are one!"

With a loud crack, the shadow shattered. The black smoke rushed back into my skin, turning my hair into a wild mess of silver and ink. The power of the sun-eater and the shadow merged. I felt a surge of strength so great that the stone ground beneath my feet turned to dust.

I looked at the high priest. "My turn."

I didn't run. I simply appeared in front of him. I grabbed his golden staff and snapped it like a dry twig. The golden chains tied to the people turned black and vanished.

"No!" the priest shrieked.

I punched him in the chest. My fist went right through his holy robes. I didn't draw blood. I drew out his soul. It was a small, shriveled thing that looked like a gray worm.

"You’ve lived long enough," I said. I closed my hand, and the worm popped.

The priest fell to the ground, his body turning into a pile of ash.

Seraphina backed away, her eyes wide with terror. The Northern General, Marek, raised his green-flamed sword. "Stop her! Archers, fire!"

A thousand arrows flew toward me. I didn't even move. I just looked at them, and they stopped in mid-air, caught in a field of gray energy. With a flick of my wrist, I sent the arrows flying back at the Northern army.

The screams were deafening. The army that had looked so strong was falling apart in seconds.

"Kael! Help me!" Seraphina cried, reaching out for him. "She’s a monster! Look at her eyes!"

Kael looked at me. I stood in the middle of the carnage, covered in ash and shadow. I looked like a queen of death.

"Aria," Kael said, walking toward me. He didn't have his sword out. "It’s over. You won. Stop now, before there’s nothing left of the city."

I looked at Seraphina. She was cowering behind the palace gates. I wanted to end her. I wanted to hear her scream one last time.

"She has to die, Kael," I said, my voice sounding like thunder.

"She will," Kael said. "But not like this. Not by your hand. Don't become the thing she said you were."

I looked into Kael’s blue eyes. For a second, I felt like the old Aria again. The girl who loved him. The girl who wanted to save the world.

But then, a sharp pain shot through my head. The Northern General, Marek, hadn't died. He had sneaked up behind Kael.

"If I can't have the power, no one can!" Marek yelled.

He drove his green-flamed sword through Kael’s back. The blade came out through Kael's chest, right through his heart.

Kael’s eyes went wide. He coughed up a spray of blood that hit my face.

"Aria..." he whispered, his body going limp.

The world went quiet. The wind stopped blowing.

I felt something inside me snap. It wasn't the Sun-Eater. It wasn't the shadow. It was my heart. It finally truly broke.

"Kael!" I screamed, catching him as he fell.

But Marek wasn't done. He pulled the sword out and raised it to strike me.

"Die, you witch!"

I didn't look at him. I just let out a wave of power that leveled every building within three blocks. The palace towers crumbled. The Northern army was erased from existence.

I held Kael in my arms. His skin was turning cold.

"Don't leave me," I begged, the tears finally falling. "I'll give it back. I'll give all the power back if you stay!"

Kael smiled weakly, his hand touching my cheek one last time. "Be... a good... queen..."

His hand dropped. His breath stopped.

I sat there in the ruins of my kingdom, holding the dead man I loved. But as I sat there, the Shadow God walked out of the darkness of the ruined palace.

"He is dead, Aria," the god said. "But he doesn't have to stay that way."

I looked up, my eyes burning with a terrifying light. "What do you mean?"

"The Sun-Eater can eat souls," the god whispered. "And it can spit them back out. But it requires a sacrifice. A soul for a soul."

I looked at Seraphina, who was trying to crawl away through the rubble.

"Take her," I said, my voice as cold as the grave.