I came to a halt, hovering right behind her, and a twisted smile pulled at my lips.
Goodbye, shadow bitch.
I released the fire, the short range blast sending me flying backwards through the air as the fireball collided with Lavinia, and I raised a hand to shield my eyes against the flames. I beat my wings to counter the blast, my gaze adjusting to the brightness as I flew forward with a ruthless determination to end her.
Her body was consumed within it and Lavinia shrieked and wailed, the dark tower beneath her crumbling away within my flames. I followed her towards the ground as she fell with a scream and triumph scored through my blood. Fire exploded from me once more as I circled down after her like a bird of prey and she hit the ground with a thwack, her body jerking and writhing within my Phoenix fire.
I came to a halt above her as I beat my wings, unleashing all I had on this monstrous bitch for all she’d done to me, to my friends, to Clara.
“Fuck you!” I cried, frying the monster who’d dared tried to curse me, who’d thought she could win with her brutality and darkness.
But she was nothing compared to our light.
My power stuttered out and my wings fluttered away as I went to land beside her, hitting the ground awkwardly, but managing to stay on my feet. Panic rushed through me as I reached for my Order, but my Phoenix didn’t answer the call.
Orion was at my side in an instant, watching as Lavinia burned and the rebels cheered nearby, the tide of the battle finally turning in our favour as I struggled to catch my breath.
I’m tired. That’s all it is.
Just breathe.
Orion cast a shield of air around us, holding the Nymphs back who tried to dive in to save their princess, but she was still burning within my fire and I wasn’t going to let anyone take her death from me now.
Lavinia’s screams died away and my flames simmered all the way down, leaving a husk of charred bones in their wake, and though exhaustion was falling over me and I couldn’t reach my Phoenix at all, I laughed my relief, my complete fucking joy. Because she was dead. Fucking dead and gone and without her, Lionel was nothing.
“You did it,” Orion laughed like he’d known I could and I turned and threw myself at him, hugging him tight as a choked sob of happiness left me. He kissed my cheeks, my head, anywhere he could get to as I buried my face in his chest and breathed in the scent of cinnamon and fucking victory.
“It’s over. She’s gone. That fucking nightmare is dead,” I sighed.
“Wait.” Orion stiffened and pushed me back, forcing me to turn and look at the bones once more. And the smile slid from my face as I found them standing there, a skeletal hand pointed at me as shadows wrapped around the horrid creature and clad Lavinia’s bones in skin once more.
From the bottom up, she was remade, her body reforming as the shadows twisted and writhed around her like a living beast and Orion and I backed up in horror as her face was reforged. Dark hair grew out the top of her skull, dancing in the ethereal wind her shadows created and as the darkness cloaked her in a black dress, she looked to me with a vicious sneer on her lips.
She was still pointing at me in a way that made my heart turn to a lump of solid ice in my chest.
I raised my hands as Orion raised his sword, but no Phoenix fire came out, no whisper of magic, nothing at all.
Lavinia twisted her fingers and something twisted in my stomach in response, making a gasp of agony leave me as I doubled over.
“Stay back!” Orion shot forward with a yell of defiance, his sword raised and flaming with the gifts of my Order and a scream of fear left me as Lavinia’s eyes snapped onto him. But as he swung his blade, she just knocked him aside with a blast of shadows that made him hit the ground hard.
A tendril of shadow ripped the sword from his hand, turning it back on him and holding the tip of it to his throat. She carved his air shield to pieces around us with her dark power in the next moment and we were exposed, at her mercy.
“For the true queens!” one of the rebels bellowed, racing forward to attack Lavinia but she sent shadows his way which cut him in two right down the middle, blood spilling and making me wince in terror as I continued to try and will power to my hands in desperation.
Lavinia walked towards me, unleashing her shadows on the crowd to my left and screams of terror carried through the air as they ripped my people to pieces.
“Stop!” I cried, looking to Orion in anguish as he struggled on the ground, panic making me shake as I saw his end so clearly that the fear nearly drowned me.
“Vega filth,” Lavinia spat, glaring at me with a sea of venom in her eyes. “You think your Phoenix is stronger than my shadows?”