The power of ground flickers at my fingertips. It's warning me. There's another player on the field. I catch at the last second, Silas, behind a mass of my own power hurdling towards me. I throw up that shield, taking part of the force pinning down Darius. The shield is barely enough, and it crumbles underneath Silas's ancient strength. Even with our powers being the same, his age reins superior.

Again, I'm thrown back. But this time I've prepared myself to stop the landing. I create another wall behind my flying body, one that bends back against my weight until I'm standing on my feet again without a scratch. Silas drops his hands and swallows down his fear when I'm advancing towards him, my palms hovering over the ground and twisting the surface like vines underneath.

Everything is shaking. The sky, the ground, my hands. The entire world.

Darius breaks free but he isn't part of this anymore. My power has completely forgotten his existence and ignores as he limps away. No, now my power wants to show these princes exactly who I am.

"You have to stop this!" Silas shouts over the teeth-rattling thunder. Wherever Renit is, he hasn't given up on what is happening overhead. "We don't want to hurt you but if we have to—we will." He gives a glance back at the castle and the king no doubt watching from within.

A deep rumble of laughter breaks loose from the dried surface of my throat. "Hurt me? You've already hurt me!" My voice doesn't sound like my own, it doesn't feel like my own, but it's there. The power swirls around me like a second skin. Dirt, sand, rock; it flutters around my surface. "And you've given me the tools I need to show you what happens why you ruin everything I've loved!"

Behind you, the power whispers. I whirl, just as Renit is ready to drive the pommel of his sword into my skull. The power of ground, taking matters into its own hands, shoves him back. The air leaves his body at the same time it leaves mine. What is happening?

The storm is suffocating me on its own, finding its way into my throat. If Renit can't quell me, then the power will have to do that itself. I remember the Grounding training and all it took to stop Renit's power from ever touching me. I went through the chills and the fever so this could come to be and that will not be wasted. He was there for me then but he won't be there for me now.

Grabbing his power around the throat, I toss it out of me and throw him back again. He rushes at me but at his waist, is bent over and slammed against what is left of their beautiful, cobblestone courtyard. My power wraps around him like a bind. Blood drips from his nose and lips; his nails dig into the stone and grip tight so he can stand.

"See what you've done?" Silas shouts behind me. I will myself to stand against his crumbling frame, in the chaos. Darius is nowhere to be seen, neither are the guards or the king himself. "You've ruined her!"

I take a moment to realize the crown prince is referring to his brother, the witch trying to rise from the cracked stone. If he wasn't worth anything, I might suffocate him the way I nearly did to Darius. He would have died; my power doesn't give in before that. It beckons to me, a second being inside my soul. There are two spirits inside me now, myself and that power—they're both fighting for a spot but I see my strength as half and half. Both of us are in control.

"I didn't—" Renit tries, shaking his head. Blood drips. "I didn't mean to!" He slams his palm against the surface and my power feels that as a threat. It lurches, attempting to attack, and I let it.

His thunder strikes down in defense as well and with that shield, I keep it from breaking through. I am stronger than Renit's power of storm, although it carries a great threat, he is nothing compared to me. That lightning holds a shield over him, crackling white as it deflects the blows that the power of ground will leave behind.

My power is eternal. Drainages are common in witches but I am nowhere near that. Nor will I, if I keep going this way. There is strength in the surface of what is underneath and the ground is always near.

There's a second break in my power, a blink, and Renit releases lightning from his hand. It wraps around my body, warming my soul, and the ground power winks out. My entire body is shaking and my eyes—they're rolling into the back of my skull. The lightning threatens to kill, to take what remains, and it's then I know that's what Renit is trying to do. He knows there's no other way to stop me from what I'm about to do. Once I finish with this courtyard, it's the castle next. My power wouldn't be able to determine between Celestine and the king.

I sink back into myself but on the outside, I'm screaming. The lightning binds tighter around me and I channel all that I have left—a great deal—and sent out a force from my soul. The entire courtyard quakes and shifts. Through the blurred, crackling vision of my eyes, I watch as Renit stands. His lightning has departed and I heave, my skin burning and tingling, and the power of ground quickly prepares itself to throw another shield.

There's something different in Renit's eyes, a cold stare as he watches me cleave the world in two. The courtyard opens up, a crack snaking from one end to the other. Behind me, Silas gasps. This is a completely different game now, one he knows he can't win.

"You couldn't just treat her with respect?" Silas shouts at his brother. "You're a fool, you're a fool for comparing her!" Comparing me to who? Renit doesn't fight back.

Instead, his eyes merely shift from me to his helpless brother. Silas was born with a complex power but with mine in his grasp, he won't have that strength for long. A witch of his kind is susceptible to a Drainage quicker than anyone.

The storm thickens, as does the rain and the wind until I can't stand on my own two feet. Renit isn't in control any longer. He's not moving me to try to kill me but so I'm not a blockade against his brother. "After all you've done and you couldn't look at Roux once with the respect she deserves," Silas goes on.

"Silas, wait," I falter. My voice sounds more of my own. But he doesn't hear me.

"My brother, you've done enough for one lifetime. You've killed, you've lost, and now...it's your time to go." Silas raises his hand, ready to kill his brother with an unforeseen power from his arsenal when the lightning falls from the sky like shards of glass.

I throw a shield over my head but the lightning isn't coming for me. Silas can't move out of the way and if he could, the lightning would drag him right back in. It hits him directly in the skull and then, his entire body is convulsing, his cheeks turning white with lightning, his body sinking to his knees.

"Renit, stop!" I scream. He's gone. What have I done?

There's nothing left of the prince inside him and if he doesn't stop, Silas doesn't stand a chance at surviving. I run to Renit, shutting off every bit of my power and slam it directly into him. He slams to the ground and like I did with Darius; I throw the stone over him and hold his strong body down. Only for a second do I allow myself to look back at the crown prince.

His knees crack against the stone, bile swirls in my cheeks, and Silas slumps to the side, blood dribbling from his lips. I don't have time to deal with that now. If Silas is dead, I won't have to. The king will take my head before I can properly explain myself and he might very well take it for what I've done to this ancient, beautiful courtyard.

Renit screams, rather his power does, and I don't waste my time. I press my palms against his temples and with all my might, will all the power I have left, I throw that force into Grounding the storm. My strength rushes through him and eats at the storm, much faster than it ever has. The lightning crackles around me, a warning call, and with my spare hand, I put up a strong shield to block out that threat. His power can't get to me now.

"I know you're in there," I grit. "Your brother might be dead."

Still, his power persists. His body thrashes underneath the stone my knees are cutting into, drawing blood. I can taste it too, the taste I longed for when I pressured Darius into this fight. How long has it been since then? Long, perhaps. I can't remember.

The clouds droop down into a spiral. Tornado.

Shit.

I press harder, forcing more of my power into him as the wind kicks to a new pace. Blindly, I sense my power finding its way through like a snake, slithering through the openings, some closed, that my power has to slam into and break immediately. My arms shake and my very being threatens to collapse as I realize this is taking more power than I imagined. Enough for a Drainage.

My body is sticky with sweat. The tornado is so close to touching the ground and breaking free from those spiraling clouds. But there's not enough power left and his power is now eating away at mine. The shield. I have to take down the shield. Even if that means losing the fight to his lightning, he won't stand a chance of hurting Silas again. This is it. The final play of the game that turned into a deadly battle between me and the princes.

The shield drops and a new breath of power rushes through. Again, that push and shove charges in my direction and through his veins, my power floods. Renit's storm doesn't have a chance.

I press my forehead against his. His eyes are squeezed shut but I know he's trying to open them, to see. "This heart needs you," I whisper. "I need you." The truth I've been avoiding all along and the words I've been clinging to since the engagement celebration.

With all I have left, I throw the rest of my power into stopping his. The final toss has me weak and my head spins but I force myself upright as the storm clears. It parts as quickly as it came, one final roar of defeated thunder and a blast of lightning too slow to take me down. The tornado never touched, for our luck.

I slump to the side, falling on the sharp stone, and Renit's eyes fly open. He reaches for his knives first but finds me there at his side, limp and bleeding, breathing heavy. If he wanted to kill me now, my power is drained enough and unable to stop him. Hardly a wink rumbles in me and if I used it, I wouldn't be able to move for days.

I want to tell him about Silas, what he might have done, but Hallie is rushing across the courtyard, holding up the skirts of her dress. Like she's been doing this for ages, she navigates the broken stone and craters with ease until she drops at Silas's side. When he sees the heap of a body, Renit realizes what he's done.

The world spirals and I can't move as my betrothed lets out a strangled cry of anger towards his brother and fights to get to him. Hallie is already in the process of healing whatever life he might have left, her white light works quickly, especially with fear in her eyes.

Renit cradles his brother's head in his lap, quietly pleading for him to breathe. Silas's lifeless body is the last thing I see and the last thing I want to understand as my eyes roll into the back of my head and the blackness swallows me whole.