Silver Moon (Colors of the Moon #3)

Chapter 34

"No! It can't be too late. Give me the stone, so I can stop her." I grabbed a fistful of Skylar's shirt and glared into his eyes, which were focused on my neck.

"They're both gone." 

He was still sitting on the ground, with his back pressed against the wall and me crouching in front of him.

"Then give me the stone, so I can go to Allium."

"You can't. Your life is too import—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, I tightened my hold on his shirt and tried to pull him closer to me. Tried being the key word. While Theo might have made threatening someone look easy, it didn't turn out the same for me. I wasn't strong enough to pull him away from the wall. All I managed was to yank his shirt for another inch, but that was it.

In the blink of an eye, he pushed his open palm against my shoulder, which caused me to lose my balance. I tried to grab onto him, but he was too quick. He darted up to his feet and jumped across several stacks of books, while I tumbled down onto my butt.

"I don't want to hurt you." I glared in his new direction, which was now almost across the room from me. "But I will, if you don't give me the blasted stone."

"Don't do this. You have no idea what you'd be walking into. Allium isn't safe anymore."

I ignored my softly throbbing behind and rose into a standing position. I tried to tell myself to ignore his words, however, a part of me couldn't help but wonder what I was missing. Although I had felt the pain of Darlene channeling the life magic of my people, I had no real idea about what was going on.

"Tell me what you know." I was still determined to head straight for Allium, but it would be the height of stupidity if I didn't first find out what exactly I would be walking into.

"Darlene has moved onto channeling the life magic of anyone still supporting you."

"I already know this." My chest vibrated at the mere thought of my people suffering.

"No, it's bigger than you think." He shook his head, while I took an almost invisible step closer to him. "Only a few of your supporters managed to flee Allium before Darlene was named as the High Priestess. Almost immediately after the position was hers, she began to openly channel life magic... She... A few are already dead because she completely drained them."

"What?"

Despite everything, I thought of Darlene, I hadn't considered her capable of going this far. Not to the extent of killing her own kind.

"She's gone mad. The ones on her side refuse to see the truth or are too scared to do anything about it. And the rest of us... The rest of us around the country are just as scared." He edged a small step backward and hit a stack of books with his heel. "If you go to Allium no one will come to help you. You would be on your own... That's why I can't let you do it. We need to wait until the life magic takes an even bigger toll on her."

"And in the meantime I should let my people die?"

"To win this fight sacrifice will be necessary. They will understand."

"But I won't understand. I won't allow any more of my people to die because of that deranged fanatic." I stepped around a stack of books, but so did he.

"You can't see it yet, but I'm doing you a favor. All of us. Your life comes before any of us. You're the only one who can help us build a better world once Darlene is gone. Without you our species will never be the same. One day you'll thank me for this."

"My life doesn't come before anyone else's. What you are doing is prolonging the suffering of our people. The blood of those dying right now is on you."