“I have been fighting,” I huffed. “Just as you said; I haven't been winning because I'm fighting myself.”
“Yes, but you didn't know you were fighting yourself. Now, you know your enemy.”
“And knowing is half the battle.” I grinned brightly. “Go, Joe!”
Arach cocked his head at me.
“Ugh, baby,” I whined. “Why do I waste my best lines on you?”
Chapter Forty-Eight
As soon as I woke, the fight began. I could hear Viper shouting at me, but I was focused on the invader in my mind and couldn't comfort him. I was too busy confronting the evil that wore my face. The hardest battles aren't fought on land or sea or even in the air. They are waged within the mind and that was where I was making a stand. Perhaps my last.
Mist filled the landscape of my mind. Not the mist of the Dream Realm but heavy clouds of confusion. I blew them away with a thought and there stood Star. Grim and proud, chin lifted and hair flashing. Gone was her pallor, now she shone with dark light while I felt dull and drab. In here, I was the phantom; a ghostly version of myself. Star held all of my power, but that power was stolen. I owned this magic; I had pieced it together with blood and sweat and tears. It was mine. Only I controlled it.
I reached out a hand toward her and pulled. The Dark Star gasped as beams of moonlight poured out of her and shot to me. It hit my chest and sank into me.
“No!” Star shouted and grabbed the ribbon of light.
A horrendous tug-of-war ensued. I clutched the moonlight with both of my mental hands and held on tightly. It didn't burn like starlight. The Moon only reflects the Sun, it isn't actually on fire. But with my thoughts of flames, Star started to scream. Her hands charred, the glowing skin blackening and flaking away like dirty snowflakes. I gave a solid yank and the magic tore free of her then snapped into my chest like a rubber band.
Star growled, chest heaving, and narrowed her eyes at me. “You will never vanquish me, Vervain. I am the Trinity Star.”
“You are a projection of my mind,” I corrected. “A representation of the evil that has invaded me. You're not my magic. You're not even a part of me. You are a magic thief, just like the god you came from.”
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law.” She smirked. “And I still have eight points of your star.”
I blinked as the falsity of her words vibrated over my skin. Star couldn't lie to me here, in my head. She frowned as she watched me process it, weeding out the truth. If Star didn't have the eight remaining points of my magic, what did that mean? As soon as I asked the question, the answer revealed itself to me.
“No, you don't,” I whispered in revelation. “You can't steal who I am. You can trick me into giving up control, or into doing what you want, but you can't steal me. I am human and goddess and faerie. You can't take those things; they are melded into my blood, into my very cells. They are the foundation of who I am. My magic is only frosting.”
“Fine!” she snapped. “Then I'm licking up all the frosting.”
“It'll make you sick,” I chided like a mother would with a child.
Then, as she rolled her eyes at me, I used her distraction to latch onto another piece of my star. I already had the first trinity, which also gave me my dragon, and I had just taken back my moon. That left my wolf, my lioness magic—which also held my lioness—and Love. I knew exactly what I needed to reclaim next; the magic I should have gone after first. The magic that could conquer other magic. As soon as I touched it, I realized that I didn't need to tear it free of Star. The magic was mine; all I had to do was summon it home.
I called Love back to me.
Star screamed and fell to her knees as butterflies poured out of her chest—delicate wings shining pink with power—and flew straight into my heart. Love is the greatest of my magics, and I knew that if I could bring it home, the rest would soon follow. But Love is just the tip of the collection of magic I had taken from Aphrodite. There is also Lust, War, and Victory, and they barreled into me right on the heels of the butterflies.
Taken from Aphrodite. That gave me pause.
“That's right,” Star sneered. “You're no better than I. A thief just like Vainamoinen. Evil to the core.”
The stream of magic froze, hovering in the air between us. The deep crimson of Lust, the steel gray of War, and the golden glitters of Victory. The glowing ribbons hung suspended and hardened, turning into spears. The tips pierced my chest and blood began to stream down my mental body. Her words had literally cut me.
“No!” I shouted. “I am nothing like you. I took magic from gods to defend myself and save others. I liberated that magic and gave it a proper home. I didn't take it to simply gain power. I didn't destroy it and force it to fuel me. I claimed it in battle; a victor's prize. I am not a thief. I'm the Godhunter!”
The magic turned on Star, spears flung in the opposite direction, and sliced at her chest until her rib bones broke and her glistening, poisoned heart was exposed. There, within the cage of her toxic heart, laid the rest of my trinity star, its pure light shining through the darkness. I called it back to me as she fell to her knees in a puddle of blood the color of rotten plums.
“Kill me and you hurt your star,” she hissed painfully. “I've
