Light of Stars [2]

Chapter Seventy-Two

♕ Silver Tears ♕

This time there was no fire or growling or anything at all as the earth cracked underneath them. Dead roots and rocks breaking through the stone floor, as it sank with them above it.

Aubrette opened her eyes, but she could not see past the darkness. Could not see past the rage and the ache inside her chest that was incrementing with every second. She stood, and screamed, and tried to push them away from her.

No more would they push her inside her mind, until she could no longer pull herself away from it. No more would she allow them to sink their claws into her skin. No more would she let them erase what was left of her, the good parts, the parts that had yet to know darkness.

The shadows came crashing towards her, and she fought to keep them at bay, but there was only  so much she could do. Their claws teared through her shield of light, entering her only speck of protection. Outside she could hear them all screaming. If it was for her or because they were too facing their own battles she couldn't know.

Aubrette pushed through the pain, grabbed her swords with scattered pieces of stardust on it and waited. Waited until they were all as close to her as she wanted them to be. Waited until all of them would dare approach her, would dare try to touch her skin, her cheeks, would dare try to wrap their shapeless hands around her throat to stop the air from entering her lungs.

Someone yelled her name but sounds meant nothing.

The world meant nothing.

All she could see were them, endless, circling around them to wait for their turn to attack. The first one dropped. And Aubrette did not hesitate to slam the dagger through its head, and then the next one and the next.

The stardust sinked into their fog as if it were solid rock, and ripped it open like it was nothing more than very dense mud, like a pool of blood, dripping above her. Aubrette yelled, turning and slamming her knife onto the next one, they all came crashing down onto her like she was nothing more than a vessel, some of them managing to touch her skin burning themselves apart.

She could feel herself ready to explode, she could feel her blessing, hurting, aching, burning through her skin like the first day the rays of sun had touched her and she'd wanted to end it all. But the sun now burned through her, like it had been preparing her for this moment all along. Like it had been telling her, get used to hurting, so you'll know how to strike, so you know how they'll feel when your fire burns through them. Her blessing sang to her, and she let herself  unleash itself like rays of their own free will, like arrows flying through the sky to the cloud of shadows floating above her, sinking into the middle of their chest and tearing them apart faster than her knife could.

The earth beneath her trembled, once, twice, three times before it stabilized again. And then, the sky groaned, like it too could feel the excess of darkness around, unwanted, unnatural. From the corner of her eyes she saw the rest of them fighting, for what she didn't know. But they could see them and that was enough for now. They would rip them to shreds, and she would never let herself be afraid again. Not of them. Not of her mind.

She was endless. She was lighting and fire and moonlight and stardust. They would fear her.

No more would she yield to her mother's desires.

And no more would she allow herself to trick her own mind into feeling like she wasn't enough, like she couldn't do this. Because she'd been born for this exact thing. She'd been born a daughter of shadows, she'd been born and reborn into something even deeper, and she would not be afraid ever again.