Chapter 16 THE DUEL _PART 2
CHAPTER 016: THE DUEL – PART 2
The moment Morgana raises her hand for the final strike something inside me gives way. It isn’t a clean break.
It feels like a rope cutting strand by strand. My chest gets tight and hot and the air around me trembles like it is scared too.
Her shadow blade comes down and I open my mouth but no sound comes out at first. Then it rips free a raw scream pulled from somewhere deep and the world reacts.
Everything around me jerks like someone pulled a cord. Colors stretch then fold then slide backward. The arena twists. The shouting crowd becomes a blur of pulled voices. Morgana’s wrist lifts back up. The blade unforms into mist. My body rewinds every hit reversing the pain. I watch myself go from bleeding to bruised to untouched.
The time rewinds.
Thirty seconds rolled back and settle like a reset button. Then everything snaps back into place with a soft pop in my ears.
I am standing where I was before the worst of the beating started right at the beginning of the final exchange. My lungs are burning but I feel sharp awake alarmed. The ground is still under my feet. Morgana hasn’t struck me yet. But I remember everything she will do.
Every angle, every blow and every shadow movement, she doesn’t know that I know all her next move.
Morgana smirks the same way she did before. “Ready to fall again?” She asks in that bored cruel tone.
My hands shake. Not from fear this time but the shock of what I just did. “Then, come try!” I dared.
Her eyes narrow. She flicks her fingers and the first shadow tendril shoots out. I step back before it forms. It misses its mark and hits the ground at my feet. She blinks, now looking confused.
More tendrils fly. I dodge each one. A twist to the left. A faint drop and a backward lean.
The crowd murmurs. The boys on the sidelines press against the barrier. I hear Kieran swear. Cassian’s flames flare behind the barrier even though he can’t use them. Alaric’s red eyes widen with sharp interest. Zev’s mouth tightens like he is trying to hide how impressed he is.
Morgana’s face darkens. “Stop playing around.”
“I’m not the one playing.” I say though my heart beats fast.
She steps in hard sending a thick shadow whip straight at my chest. Last time it wrapped around me and squeezed until I couldn’t breathe. Now I was able to catch its rhythm before it finishes forming. I duck under it so fast her eyes widen in disbelief.
“Impossible.” She mutters.
Her attacks come fast, fierce and wild. A flurry of shadow blades cut through the air. The crowd gasps as each strike misses by inches. I move as if someone else guides me someone who already lived this moment. Even my breath feels rehearsed.
I hear Sofia whisper somewhere in the stands. “She’s predicting Morgana’s moves.”
Morgana changes direction snapping a blade toward my shoulder. I pivot and it slices the air beside me. A shadow spear bursts from the ground. I jump before it erupts. Sweat rolls down Morgana’s temple as she snarls.
“Why won’t you stay in one place, so I could hit you.” She shouts.
“I already did.” I say quietly.
Her eyes flicker with confusion then rage.
She thrusts both hands out and the arena darkens as a massive shadow wave rises behind her. The crowd screams. The shadow crashes forward like a black tidal wave.
I know this attack. It slammed me into the wall the first time.
I run straight toward it.
“What are you doing?” Morgana snaps.
I jump at the last moment landing on a small piece of stone rising from the arena floor. I push off it flipping over the wave as it crashes under me.
The crowd roars. I land in a crouch breath shaking but steady. Morgana stares at me like I have turned into something she can’t define.
“You’re cheating.” She yells.
“No!” I breathe. “You just already showed me everything.”
She rushes towards me recklessly. Shadows swirl around her arms forming sharp black claws. She slashes. I lean back and gently press two fingers against her wrist redirecting her momentum. She stumbles and gasps ripple through the crowd.
I lift my hands out in front of me ready to freeze time but the pressure of everyone watching presses heavy on my skin and my power stutters again.
My fingers twitch. I push harder from inside myself reaching for that strange stillness but it doesn’t answer me.
Morgana sees my hesitation and her face lights with victory. “You can’t use it, can you?” She laughs. “Weak little first year.”
She lunges.
Something hot stirs inside me, it's not anger, not fear but something sharper. I force myself to breathe steady. My body remembers now. I step and shift letting her attack slide past me.
Then it happens, that click inside my mind like a lock turning and finally time freezes but only for half a secon
I step behind her. All sound is silent. The dust hangs in the air unmoving. The shadows freeze in place like dark glass.
Then time rushes back in.
Morgana’s own claws swing forward with her full strength and she hits her own shadow trap. The tendrils slam into her abdomen. She gasps as the force throws her backward across the arena. She crashes onto the ground her breath gone.
Silence filled the whole place for one second.
Then Sofia stands up in the stands and shouts. “She reversed the attack.”
The arena erupts.
Morgana groans trying to stand but her own shadow spell still clings to her like tar. She tries to tear it off but it holds her firmly.
The duel sigil above us glows bright gold.
I did not move. My heart thuds loud in my chest. My legs tremble with the exhaustion of using time twice in one duel.
The headmaster’s voice rings through the arena. “The winner is Thalira of House Nocturne.”
The crowd roars loudly.
Morgana looks up at me with a mix of fury and fear. Her voice cracks. “You… What are you?”
I swallow. “Someone who won’t be stepped on anymore.”
The sigil floats down pulsing between us waiting for my command. One single order that she must obey, everyone watches me. Everything grows quiet as if the whole academy is waiting for my choice.
My throat feels tight. I don’t want to ruin her. I don’t want to be like the people who tried to destroy me.
I open my mouth to give a light harmless command. Something merciful.
But before I can speak the sigil flickers.
Then it spins very fast.
The glow changes from gold to silver. Gasps echo through the crowd. This isn’t normal. I take a step back as a sharp wind bursts through the arena. Morgana’s eyes widen in horror.
“What are you doing?” She whispers.
“I’m not doing anything.” I say but my voice shakes.
The sigil rises between us spinning harder until the lines blur together. The air hums electric around it. The hairs on my arms rise. Even the boys look stunned behind the barrier.
“Kieran.” I hear Cassian murmur. “That’s not a normal duel sigil.”
“No.” Alaric says voice low. “That is a bond sigil.”
My chest drops.
Bond sigil.
As in binding two souls, as in something ancient and forbidden.
The crowd backs away. Teachers stand but none of them could step in.
The sigil flashes once then dives straight into my chest like ice. I choke gripping my shirt, another flash hits Morgana. She cries out falling to her knees.
A cold line forms between us like a thin thread made of light.
“What is this?” I gasp.
Morgana’s eyes are wide in terror “No no I didn’t agree to a bond I didn’t…”
Her voice cuts off as the light threads pull tight. A sharp burning sensation slices across my ribs like someone drew a mark on my skin.
Sofia screams. “Thalira move away from her.”
I try but my feet feel stuck.
The boys slam against the barrier trying to break it. Kieran roars “Break the damn thing she can't be bound to her.”
Cassian pounds his fists against the wall flames exploding around his knuckles. “Let me out.”
Alaric’s eyes glow red as blood rage starts to surface.
Zev’s voice is cold. “Someone should stop that sigil now.”
But no one can. It isn’t normal magic. It feels older and darker and almost alive.
The sigil pulses once more.
The pain hits me like a whip. I fall to my knees. Morgana screams too. The thread between us glows bright white then vanishes.
Everything goes silent.
I pant trying to breathe. Morgana lies limp on the ground trembling. The crowd is frozen in shock.
I look down at my side. A faint glowing mark shaped like a cracked hourglass burns against my skin before fading into a faint scar.
I lift my head. Morgana does too her eyes wide.
We both speak at the same time.
“What did that do to us?”
No one answers.
The barrier around the boys falls. They rush to me at once but stop a few feet away like they are scared to touch me.
“Thalira!” Kieran kneels in front of me, his voice low trying to hide the panic. “What happened, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.” I whisper. “It wasn’t my choice.”
Alaric studies the fading mark on my ribs. His voice is soft but heavy. “That mark means your souls reacted to the duel.”
Cassian shakes his head. “That shouldn’t happen in a first year duel.”
Zev’s stare is sharp and dark. “It shouldn’t happen at all.”
Morgana backs away from the arena floor shaking so hard because she can barely stand. She keeps looking at me like I am a ghost she accidentally summoned.
The headmaster steps forward his face pale. “Students leave the arena now Duels are dismissed for the day.”
But his voice trembles.
Because he saw it too, something ancient woke up. I push myself up slow still dizzy.
The boys try to help but stop as the headmaster shouts. “Do not touch her.”
The whole arena freezes again.
The headmaster’s voice echoes deep. “Something has been bound tonight and until we understand what it is no one touches Thalira.”
My hands shake.
Everyone stares.
Morgana whispers one last thing before being taken away.
“You weren’t supposed to exist.”