“No.”
The single word rang through the courtyard. Cheyenne cocked her head with a frown. “No?”
“I do not accept your terms, Aranél.”
Ruuv’i stepped toward the Crown with a hiss. “Ba’rael, this isn’t—”
“I’m not playing games with you, Cheyenne.” The drow tossed her head and spread her arms. “You brought me your terms, and I reject them in favor of combat. If a new Cycle turns today, dearest niece, it will not be yours.”
The halfling let out a shaky sigh. “I did not see that coming. Fuck.”
Chapter Eighty-Six
The Crown’s soldiers swarmed into the courtroom from all sides, grunting and snarling and banging their weapons against metal armor and what little metal existed within the Heart.
Cheyenne spun to look at Corian and shook her head. “That didn’t work the way we wanted.”
“She never planned to consider your terms.” The nightstalker’s gaze flicked to Ba’rael. “She just wants an audience. Cheyenne, I’m sorry this is what it’s come down to.”
“What?”
“You have to fight her.”
“Are you fucking serious? Hey, in no way did I prepare for this!”
“Not true, kid.” Maleshi gave the halfling a firm nod and a gentle smile. “You know what you’re doing. Just go do it.”
“I can’t!”
A powerful force knocked Cheyenne forward, and she spun around.
Ba’rael laughed, her arm outstretched toward the halfling, that same crazed determination behind her golden eyes as Cheyenne had grown used to seeing in L’zar’s. “This will be fun.”
“You pushed me.”
“I’m merely waiting for the Aranél to begin.”
Gritting her teeth, Cheyenne lunged and threw a sphere of crackling black energy at the Crown.
Ba’rael swatted it aside with a black light of her own and chuckled. “Please tell me you’re offering more of a challenge than the last time we fought in front of this tree. I really was hoping for something a little more.”
Cheyenne unleashed another energy orb, then another, and another. Each time, Ba’rael dodged her niece’s magic, deflected it, or ignored it.
“Hmm. I think your fear’s affecting your aim.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” Cheyenne dipped her chin and glared at her aunt. “I’m just annoyed.”
“Oh, is that all?” Snarling, Ba’rael lunged into enhanced speed and struck Cheyenne’s cheek before darting away again. The blow made the halfling reel back, flailing to catch her balance. Her jaw and cheek burned furiously. “See? I said it would be fun.”
The Crown disappeared again in a blur of white and black. Cheyenne darted into drow speed to meet her, and Ba’rael sent a telekinetic wave hurtling against the halfling’s chest. Cheyenne grunted, skidded back across the cracked stone floor, and watched Ba’rael streak back across the courtyard before slapping her niece on the other cheek.
Cheyenne glared at the darting blur, following Ba’rael with her gaze and moving nothing else. “Just fucking fight me already.”
A screeching laugh erupted in the courtyard before Ba’rael charged into the halfling and threw Cheyenne back again. The halfling’s back slammed into the thick, rough bark of the Nimlothar. She felt a pain that didn’t belong entirely to her coursing through her body, and when she blinked away the dizziness, she saw three purple leaves flutter to the ground. They landed at her feet and pulsed weakly, like the tree’s final plea to cut out the heart and the rot and let it live.
“Fine.” Cheyenne pushed off the tree and staggered forward, clenching her jaw against the pain in her back. “You wanna have fun, Ba’rael? I can make this fun.”
“Oh, now you want to play, do you?”
“No.” Cheyenne thought of the Nimlothar seed within her and the pulsing cries of purple light from the leaves behind her on the ground. Her eyes flashed purple, then erupted in black flames, and drow fire raced across her flesh. “Now I’m pissed.”
Ba’rael’s eyes widened above an unsure smile, then Cheyenne unleashed a column of black fire at her aunt.
The Crown darted away but wasn’t fast enough to avoid a blast of black fire against her shoulder. She spun sideways, cried out, glanced at the charred flesh through the hole in her robes, and snarled. Her hand lashed out with a burst of black lightning. Cheyenne lifted a shield and sent the attack hurtling up to the walkway around the courtyard. Then she stepped forward and launched another spray of lightless flames.
“You think you have it in you to stand against me?” Ba’rael shrieked and sent two more bolts of black lightning at the halfling. Cheyenne deflected one with another shield, then caught the other with her lashing black tendrils and whipped it back at the Crown. Ba’rael ducked and screamed in fury. “You may have my brother’s blood, Aranél, but I have all of Ambar’ogúl.”
“No, you don’t.” Cheyenne pounded her fists together, then drew them apart and sent black fire arcing around the courtyard to converge where Ba’rael stood. “You only have yourself.”
Screaming, the Crown threw the flaming attacks aside with her own shield of howling wind and acrid smoke. The black fire snuffed out, then she charged Cheyenne again with another sizzling attack of black lightning.
This time, Cheyenne reached out and plucked the magical bolt from the air, the black drow fire protecting her as Ba’rael’s magic buzzed and shuddered in her fist. She only has her own magic right now, not everything she stole. If I could punch L’zar in the face, I can take her down.
The sight of her black lightning bolt clenched in Cheyenne’s fists snapped what was left of Ba’rael’s sanity. She screamed and threw her arms out to her sides, her mouth opening far wider than her jaw should have been able to manage. The courtyard shuddered. The Nimlothar tree swayed from side to side as if standing against a cyclone. Dust and chunks of rock fell from the domed ceiling all around them, then the Crown darted into enhanced
