Alyn lost the sensation of magic pushing back, into which she had channelled her few remaining reserves of strength. Caught off guard by the sudden ease, she instinctively stepped forward but couldn't keep her balance and collapsed to her knees. The sand dug unpleasantly under her nails—today, of all days, she was wearing fingerless gloves.
The orb of bright light began to fade, slowly plunging the cave into darkness. Alyn's eyes stung from the grains of sand stirred up by recent relentless casting. The first thing she noticed was the man, who, just moments ago, had been screaming with all his might. He had collapsed too. Was he... dead?
What had just happened?
She didn't rush to get up and didn't want to be the first to approach this man. She could see Sebastian from the corner of her eye as the light dimmed further. He stood frozen a few steps to her right. His left hand was extended towards Alyn as if attempting to protect her from a distance. His wide-open eyes were locked on the man on the ground, lying in a grotesquely unnatural posture. Alyn could hear Sallow's heavy breathing echoing off the stone walls, much like her ragged gasps pounded inside her head along with her frantic heartbeat.
A rustle behind her caught Alyn's attention, and she quickly turned her head, lingering panic making her desperate to locate the source of this noise. Ominis, still kneeling, was running his slightly trembling hands over the sand, searching for his wand. This time, Alyn's heart ached not for herself but for him—his movements were growing more erratic as his wand seemed nowhere to be found.
With each agonisingly long second that passed, Alyn became more aware of how the sight of the body—was he really dead?—made her stomach clench. Sweat on her forehead, once burning hot, cooled unpleasantly on her skin as nausea threatened to overtake her.
It was harder to see through the encroaching darkness.
When did all this start going so terribly wrong? Was it two months ago, when that terrifying incident at dawn occurred, when this all started? Or perhaps, had it all begun last year, when she first discovered her magic, and this nightmare would only grow worse, following her for the rest of her life. How much longer could she even live if such things kept happening around her? The scene now felt as an eerie echo of one of her worst memories, as if it had returned to force her to relive it all over again.
But no, there definitely weren't any green flashes. What on earth?..
The orb of faint light vanished into thin air, finally casting everything around into utter, impenetrable darkness.
YOU ARE READING
Hogwarts Legacy: Shades of Silver Lining
FanfictionThis work is marked as part of a series BUT I cover and explain all important points from already posted stories so you don't have to read them before this one. The new term was supposed to be much better for Alyn: Sebastian is no longer in danger...
