A Court of Stars and Fire | ACOTAR Fanfic

Chapter 34 - Nyssa/Cassian

✧ Nyssa's POV ✧

Cold. All I felt was cold.

Not the freezing cold of the air around me, as I winnowed back into that Northern forest, clinging to the ice-slick branch. The air temperature rarely bothered me.

It was the cold-striking fear, the anger. I rarely feel fear. But seeing Azriel halfway to the underworld - it was scary.

My nails dug into the broken arrow in my hand, the pain a distant ache in the back of my mind.

Fury literally bubbled in my stomach. Roiled, like a sea of white-hot molten anger.

How dare Aurora do this?

I should have known better.

She traveled to the ruins, searching for one of the last parts of my heart. I shared that with someone...

I should have known better.

Our magic - it isn't normal. We connect with the world, interact with it, in a special way that is a part of our very being. It's constant - life, death, night, day. A steady and natural cycle.

We are magic. We feel, live the bonds between the world and our physical beings. On all planes of existence.

Of course, she would know. Of course, she could get to him.

She wouldn't dare to face me. She's a fucking coward, afraid of her own failures. I'm the more powerful one, especially with my twin's magic. She did that, by letting our mother follow us to Prythian. To the world, Astrid birthed and paid for with her own blood. To the world Ashwyn died in, cast off a cliff to her own death. Aurora never inherited the powers the same way I did - Ashwyn didn't die in her arms. She was spared that mercy.

That was one of the only days I felt true, heartbreaking sadness. And grief.

It was followed by the death of Nyx and my son.

And it would be followed with Azriel if I don't find the bastard who shot him.

The world materialized around me as I came out of my own thoughts. Thoughts, emotions - they made me human. They made me weak, a filtered version of the raw catalyst of power gods are. I focused on that.

Power. The magic trail I had sensed earlier. And I went hunting.

Slipping into the world of shadows was easy. It was second nature to me by now, a simple shift in being as easy as falling asleep after an exhausting day. The forest blurred around me, darkness tinging my vision as I floated off the branch, to the soft, snow-covered forest floor.

My steps didn't register in the physical realm, but I felt the world around me, hyperaware. I got a scent - sickly, rotten sweet magic, the one of death. Aurora's magic.

The sky flickered around me, shadowed hues of midnight blue, despite it still being early afternoon. Birds chittered amongst themselves, shuffling nervously if I got too close to the resident trees.

Tick, tick, tick.

I'm coming for you.

I clung to as much darkness as I could, stalking around the base of trees as I followed the magic trail north. Further and further north, further and further into the harsh winter winds. The weather didn't phase me in my shadow state.

I was a wraith, barely visible to the bare eye, a small floating ball of energy. A predator, closing on its prey.

The land had started to gradually increase, and I realized there were caves. Small overhangs dotted the hillside, but along the path of magic, there was a mammoth opening, like an asteroid that fell from the heavens and struck the earth in this spot.