"PLEASE," HE WHISPERED. The heartbreak had reappeared within his tone, grasping ahold of each word that left his lips tight. "Please, don't."

Ravenna's free hand lowered to her side. Her grip tightened tighter around the hilt of her sword. She did her best to remain upright. Small, jagged shards of ice formed around her feet and rooted her in place. "You've lost, Vyses."

"I have another talisman," Vyses said.

His hand glowed bright. Pieces of stone and metal lifted from the ground around him, shooting toward his fingers. Another necklace took shape within his grasp, dangling from his fingers.

"This talisman will not have any influence over you. It will only strengthen your powers," Vyses told her. "It will give you more power than you can fathom."

He held it out to her. The crimson-colored cloud vanished from his face. His eye opened – no longer injured. A single emotion swam within his wine-red eyes.

Hope.

"You will rule this world and every living creature within it," he promised her. "With this talisman, you will be unstoppable."

Her hand reached out, fingers curling around the silver chain. It felt heavy in her grasp — weighted down by the dark implications that she knew the talisman held. She stared at it. Sunlight glinted almost maliciously against the clean metal chain, against the marble-diamond stone that had been carved into the form of a vicious looking wolf.

Her eyes shifted back to Vyses.

A single spell came to the forefront of her mind. It had been scribbled within the depths of Caelan's spellbook, and one that she'd read an endless amount of times. It was a simple, spoken spell with no ingredients required.

It was a spell that would allow Ravenna to put an end to Vyses, once and for all.

The spell left her lips like a kiss — gentle but resolute. She clutched the pendant tighter and turned it so the face of the snarling wolf was pointed at him. An icy blue glow formed in the center of the glittering stone, easily overpowering the slivers of crimson magic that had already been embedded within it.

It burst forth from the pendant and stretched toward Vyses, hungry and searching.

His mouth dropped open in shock. That sliver of hope vanished from his wine-red eyes, replaced with flames of anger. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. Pain grasped at his facial features as he tried to crawl across the jagged layer of debris that coated the earth — away from Ravenna. A trail of blood leaked out behind him.

The icy magic latched onto his right foot.

"No!" he screamed.

A flurry of hate-filled curses and petrified screams fumbled past his lips. The magic slithered up the length of his leg and tugged him back across the stones, toward the pendant.

"Please, Ravenna!" Vyses begged again. He turned toward her, his desperate eyes meeting hers. Fresh tears painted his cheeks with a glistening glow. "Don't do this!"

The lower portion of his body appeared to disintegrate — forming a mist of icy blue that flowed into the pendant. His hands clutched at the stones beneath him, gasping for some sort of leverage.

The final word of the spell fell from her lips.

The icy glow reached the back of his head. His lips parted, releasing an anguished cry. A single hand reached out, toward Ravenna. It trembled in the air — a final silent plea for help.

And then the pendant swallowed him whole.

A heavy weight instantly dropped from Ravenna's shoulders. It was replaced by an almost sickening sense of lightness. For a moment, she closed her eyes. She inhaled slowly, feeling the air expand within her lungs. And then she exhaled. Her eyes opened again and focused on the pendant in her hands.

Swirling around within the glittery white diamond-marble was a cloud of ice blue magic. It wrestled with slivers of crimson, churning and twisting in an endless battle for dominance.

Vyses.

Her fingers closed around the pendant tight, concealing the stone from view. She held it to her chest for a moment. A thousand emotions raced through her. So close to her heart — she could almost feel the hurt and betrayal that Vyses had felt, as if the emotions were her own.

She didn't dare put the pendant on. Instead, she slid it into her boot for safe keeping.

Once she and Caelan left Capitol, they could then figure out what to do with it. She had a strong feeling that Caelan would know exactly how to properly dispose of the pendant.

Her head snapped up. "Oh, crap. Caelan."

Caelan's body was strewn out on the ground several feet away. The ice around her feet vanished. She bolted toward him. Her knees buckled as she collapsed beside him. Her hands grasped his arms, his chest. His skin burned against her touch.

"Caelan?" She called his name, frantic.

His eyes cracked open. Slowly, his head turned toward her. The corners of his lips twitched upwards. "You're okay," he said. His voice was hoarse and cracked. He started to sit upright.

"What are you doing? Don't move!" she hissed. Her hands pressed flat against his chest, pushing him downward. "You could have internal bleeding. You shouldn't move."

His laugh was breathless. His hands grasped her wrists, his fingers curling around her own and pulling them toward his lips. "I'll be alright," he said. His lips brushed against her fingers, featherlight. The heat of his breath made her skin tingle.

He smiled at her — a boyish grin that grasped fervently at her heart and illuminated the world around her. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

She nodded. "I locked Vyses in a pendant," she told him, her tone very matter-of-fact.

Another breathless laugh escaped him. "I'm so proud of you," he told her.

He started to sit upwards again. This time though, she let him.

One of his hands slid behind her head and tangled within her hair. The other curled tighter around her own hands. Both pulled her forward into him.

His lips crashed into hers — capturing her in a kiss so sweet, so intense that when their lips finally parted, Ravenna couldn't remember how to breathe.

His forehead rested against hers. His expression was overtaken with an overwhelming amount of happiness. He kissed her again, his lips melting against hers for a moment. His lips then moved, pressing featherlight kisses all over her face — her cheeks, her forehead, her nose. Ravenna giggled.

Then Caelan pulled away entirely and calmly remarked, "The world is on fire."

She wasn't strong enough to tear her gaze away from his face and take in the orangey-red flames that danced around them. But as the smoke and heat grew ever closer, she became more and more painfully aware of it.

"Yes," she responded just as calmly, "The world is on fire."

That cute grin tugged at his lips again. "We should probably move to a safer location," he said. His eyes drank in her expression as it morphed with displeasure.

"No flying," she grumbled.

He laughed. "I don't think that I could transform right now, even if I tried."

His hands dropped away from her. Their absence against her skin caused a sulky expression to form on her face. Slowly, he started to climb to his feet. A grimace marred his expression and his breath hitched.

Panic overwhelmed her. She grabbed his arms and helped him stand upright. "Caelan?"

"Just sore," he grunted. "I think."

Once upright, he lifted a glowing white hand to his head. His eyes closed for a moment and then reopened. He smiled at her. "Just sore," he repeated more firmly. "My magic didn't detect any internal injuries."

Her shoulders sagged with relief. She reached out, her arms winding around him, and buried her face into his chest. "Thank goodness," she whispered against his skin.

His arms curled around her and hugged her tight. She felt his lips press against the top of her head.

A flash of white magic engulfed them.

~
Aaaaand I think this is the best spot to share a teaser for next Sunday's comic episode ;)

Pretty fitting, right? If you want to check out the comic, the link is on my page! The first 5 episodes are free to read!!!

It's super hard to believe - but this novel is almost done too ;-; we only have like a chapter really left + the epilogue.