parentshiftbook Chapter 329: The Weeknd Evening 5
Chapter 329: The Weeknd Evening 5
Stone erupted upward between them. A flat wall of compressed rock slammed into place in the fraction of a second before the heel arrived.The impact was deafening in the enclosed space. The tip of the boot punched clean through the wall and stopped — the point of her heel protruding through the stone, hovering a finger’s width from his cheek.
Small chips of rock fell against his skin and scattered across his lap.
Lor did not move.
He looked at the heel through the hole it had made.
The polished black leather was still. A thin crack ran through the stone around the point of entry.
He could feel the residual heat of the impact on his face. Then he looked up at her face above the wall.
Aurora pulled her foot back cleanly.
She shook a fragment of stone from the tip of her boot with a small, precise motion. The boot returned to the floor with a soft click.
She remained seated on the stone throne as if nothing had happened. Her posture had not changed.
The floating coin moved.
Lor released it with a sharp burst of wind. The silver disc shot across the room like a bullet. Aurora raised one hand without looking and caught it between two fingers.
The air cracked from the speed of the deflection.
She examined the coin briefly, turning it once between her fingers, then set it aside on the armrest of the throne.
"Interesting," she said pleasantly.
Her other hand moved.
A bone sword formed in a single motion. White, dense, growing from her palm like something being drawn out of her body.
The blade solidified in less than a second, the surface smooth and slightly translucent under the torchlight. She brought it down in a clean arc directly toward him.
Lor raised another wall.
The sword hit it and the wall exploded.
Not cracked. Exploded.
Stone fragments scattered across the dungeon in every direction, sharp edges cutting through the air. Small chips struck his cheek and the front of his shirt.
Lor was already moving.
A concentrated burst of wind magic threw him backward across the floor.
The force lifted him clear of the impact zone.
The blade drove into the stone where he had been sitting, sinking three inches into the floor between the space his legs had just occupied.
The tip quivered once and then went still.
He landed on his feet several paces back, breathing steadily. His boots scraped against the stone.
Dust drifted in the torchlight between them.
She was still on her throne. She had not stood. She had not needed to.
"What are you doing?" Lor said. His voice was controlled but the question was real. "Stop—"
"You misunderstand the situation." Aurora pulled the bone sword from the floor with one smooth motion and stood from her throne in one fluid movement.
Her silver braid shifted over her shoulder and settled against the upper curve of her breast.
Her tone was still warm, still pleasant, as if she were explaining something mildly obvious to someone she liked.
"I don’t want the Light’s guidance. I want the Light." She tilted her head.
"The ability itself. And there is only one way to extract a bloodline ability from a living vessel."
Her smile was perfectly warm.
"I have to extract it at the moment of death. During the final breath." She raised the bone sword. The white blade caught the torchlight along its edge. "It won’t hurt very much if you hold still."
Lor stared at her. The dust from the broken wall still hung in the air between them. The chains on the far wall did not move. The floral scent of her perfume mixed with the sharper smell of powdered stone.
"I’d prefer to give you the chance to cooperate," she continued, genuinely. "It would be less messy. For both of us."
"Try," Lor said.
Her free hand came up.
A sphere of light formed above her open palm.
Dense, compressed, humming with contained energy.
Light magic.
Pure and concentrated, the kind that did not need careful aim because it could bend.
The sphere pulsed once, bright enough to cast hard shadows across the arched ceiling.
She released it.
Lor dropped and rolled left. The sphere passed close enough to his shoulder that he felt the heat of it against his skin before it struck the far wall and detonated.
The explosion blasted a section of stone into dust. Rock fragments and dust filled the air. The sound bounced off every surface of the dungeon and came back layered.
He was already back on his feet before the debris settled. His breathing stayed even. His eyes stayed on her.
Three types of magic.
He turned that over quickly as he moved.
The bone sword — that was bone conjuration, a bloodline ability.
The light sphere — that was light magic, another bloodline ability.
The stone throne she had raised from the floor earlier — elemental manipulation.
A person could have one bloodline ability if they had it.
Everyone knew that.
It was the fundamental rule of inherited power.
She had at least two confirmed bloodline abilities.
Possibly more.
Which meant either the rule was wrong about her specifically, or she had found a way to take abilities that did not belong to her.
And if that was true — if she had been collecting abilities from other people — then the Guiding Light made sudden and complete sense as a target.
She did not believe it was a supernatural phenomenon.
She did not care what it was. She just wanted another one.
"There’s no use running"
She was walking toward him, unhurried.
The bone sword hung at her side, white and dense, the tip trailing a few inches above the stone.
Another sphere of light was already forming above her other palm, dense and compressed, humming with contained energy.
The black corset held her upper body in a clean line.
Her boots clicked once, twice, three times against the floor as she closed the distance.