Sacrifice (The Snow Queen #2)(75)

Farrin listened as he sheathed his sword.

She struggled to hold back her words and Tenebris’s power. “Thank you. For everything,” she said.

Farrin gave her a quirk of a smile that was warm with affection. “I’ll be a moment.” He tapped his magic and was gone.

Rakel clenched her eyes shut as she leaned into her shield. She wanted to scream with pain—from her crumbling heart and from Tenebris’s magic. Her mouth was dry, and her hands shook, but Rakel shoved more of her magic into her ice, scattering Tenebris’s strike.

Then she initiated her plan. She spun around to face the Verglas forces. With a silent farewell, she clenched her hands into fists and dragged them up. Starting at her feet and radiating out in a U-shape, dagger-sharp spikes of ice shot out of the ground, fitting together so tightly it was impossible to move through them.

The magic pushed the two armies away from her, spreading them out and making it impassable—even for Farrin with his speed magic.

“Tenebris!” she shouted. “We end this now!”

Tenebris laughed as he sauntered closer. His hooded, golden eyes gleamed with glee. “You seek to sacrifice yourself for your troops? How very heroic of you.” Black flames writhed around him, and he smiled, making Rakel get goose-bumps for the first time in her life. “You must know you can’t beat me. We’re evenly matched, but you are too weighed down with your concern for others.”

He’s evil. Already he has wrought irreparable damage. If he is left to run amok he will bring ruin to everyone. I must kill him. I must!

Knowing she needed him within an arm’s length if she wished to follow-through with her intensions, Rakel goaded him, hoping to draw him closer. “I know where the mirror is.”

Tenebris’s smile froze—though his eyes sharpened like a snake spotting prey. “Do you?”

“If you promise to leave Verglas, I will give it to you,” she lied.

Tenebris laughed up at the sky. “Come now. I don’t believe you are that stupid.” He chuckled. “You know I would do no such thing.”

“Rakel!” Farrin shouted at the other end of the ice field.

“Princess!”

Rakel stiffened her spine and kept herself from looking back. “Why do you want the mirror?” she asked.

Tenebris shrugged. “Why would anyone else want it—except for foolish idealists like you—power. I will unite this world under my banner, and magic users will rule.”

Rakel took several steps towards him and was emboldened when he didn’t back up. She was two horse-lengths away from him when she gestured to their still-fighting troops. “You think this will make you a ruler?” Rakel asked. “Conquering countries and wiping out their population—enslaving people? You’ll bring an end to everything!”

“Then let the world burn, Princess,” Tenebris said with a new smile. “As long as I’ve brought vengeance on this place, as long as every commoner pays with his life for the damage he’s caused, I don’t care.”

“You’re mad,” Rakel said. She glanced over her shoulder. Frodi was slowly melting his way through the ice field, chowing down on food like a madman. Behind him, standing practically on his heels, was Farrin.

She turned away—afraid her resolve would falter if she caught his eye. But he shouted, “Rakel! Stop this!”

“I am rather unhinged. But you can’t stop me.” Tenebris’s tone was factual as he closed the gap between them and stared into her eyes. “Hate is the most powerful force there is.”

He was close enough now that Rakel could grab him and finish him—finish both of them.

But she couldn’t do it. Fear stayed her hand. Yet she knew—she knew!—sacrificing herself for everyone else was the only way to silence the monsters, both the one facing her and the one within her. “Maybe hate is the most powerful,” Rakel agreed as she tried to rally her nerves. “But love is the purest.”

“Is it?” Tenebris asked, his tone frighteningly polite. “Let’s test that, shall we?” Like a viper striking, Tenebris lashed out.

Rakel brought up an ice shield and braced herself, but Tenebris’s magic streaked past her. No! Even before the curse reached its target, Rakel knew who it was meant for. “FARRIN!” She built a massive ice-wall for him, but she was too late. The curse had already wound tight around him, sending him to his knees. His eyes were unseeing, and his breathing was ragged, but he stretched a hand in her direction.

“Oh dear. It seems love didn’t save him, did it?” Tenebris asked.

Liv scurried towards him, but time moved unbearably slow. Rakel felt tears as hot as fire splash her cheeks, and she finally understood what Phile had tried to explain to her.

Love protects. Because of the brokenness and evil of the world, those who fought to do what was right would be forced into difficult positions. But it wasn’t their fault—it wasn’t her fault.

The fault lay entirely with the putrid darkness.

Rakel felt horribly cold and alone as Liv knelt at Farrin’s side. She saw the moment Liv purified the curse. As Farrin breathed once more, her anxiety eased…and a strange calm washed over her.

It was okay.

She wasn’t a monster; she wouldn’t be evil because of what she was about to do.