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“Yes, it’s still there,” I said instead.

Syrra nodded. “Just as there are five branches of the Myram tree, there were five Elvish warriors who first builtNiikir’na. When they were done, they sealed their own swords with each other’s blood. It was said that Elverath herself blessed those blades and imbued them with special powers. They were passed to the best warriors for generations until eventually each weapon was lost or broken.”

“And you think my dagger is like those blades?”

Syrra tilted her head to the side. “The others were blades of gold or bronze. One still hangs in Sil’abar, though its blade has been shattered.”

“When I spoke to my mother that day … she said magic has a way of bringing us what we need.”

Syrra smiled softly. “It is said that each of those blades chose their next wielder. Somehow they would find their way into the hands of whoever they chose. I would think your dagger chose you in the same way.”

“To kill the king?” I choked on my own laugh. “It didn’t stop Damien from doing it first.”

Syrra’s arms flexed, pulling her scars tight. “Magic can only go so far.”

“I would wager my keys to the library in Volcar that this word meansto cut.” Vrail interrupted by jumping up onto her feet again. She looked at me. “Do you trust me?”

I swallowed, suddenly feeling the weight of everyone’s eyes on me, and nodded.

Vrail waved her hands until Riven and Gerarda stepped back from the seal. “I need you to retrace the seal with your blade. Start with the outer circle and end in the middle.”

“That’s it?” I blinked back my surprise. “My mother meant for me to stab Aemon through the heart, but I could have cut through dirt instead?”

Vrail bit her cheek. “This is powerful magic, Keera. I have no way of knowing what breaking a seal of this magnitude could do to you. It took dozens of Light Fae to create and seal the siphons. And that magic cost them all their lives.”

Riven hardened beside me. “You’re saying Keera could die?” His shadows crept up my legs.

Vrail twisted her fingers nervously. “I’m saying we need to be prepared to help her in whatever way we can.”

Riven stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the others. “You do not need to do this,diizra.”

“Are you stopping me?” I lifted a brow up at him.

Riven closed his eyes and sighed, already knowing the point was moot. “No.”

“Good.” I stepped around him and looked at Vrail. “I’ll do it.”

She nodded and turned to Gerarda who pulled my bloodstone dagger from her satchel and handed it to me. I gripped the bone hilt tightly in my hand as I stepped to the edge of the seal.

Everyone stood a few feet back, equidistant from one another along the perimeter. I could hear the elevated heartbeats of Vrail and Riven and the slow, steady tempos of Gerarda’s and Syrra’s. I focused on those as I brought the point of my blade to the burning ground and cut into the earth.

Something powerful took hold of my wrist. It was as if my arm had plunged through the dirt and was being pressed by the weight of the mountain. I couldn’t pull it back or let go of the blade, all I could do was step backward along the curved edge of the seal, dragging the blade across it.

As I did, the seal transformed behind my cut. The burning embers flashed bright and turned into a silver liquid that glowed with moonlight.

Gerarda nodded. “I told you.”

I gritted my teeth and kept cutting. The winds blew in violent circles around us but no one moved. The pull of the seal’s magic drained me of my energy with every inch. Ten times worse than any training exercise Feron had put me through. It was like I was using my healing gifts, feeling the warmth of my magic flow out of myself, but there was nothing warm about this. All I could feel was cold earth. My skin didn’t even notice the warmth of the burning embers as I cut through them.

I finished the outer circle and the coldness only grew, the lock on my arm got only heavier. I slowly maneuvered myself through the seal, careful not to step on anything but the small patches of green grass through the design.

Somehow I reached the final cut, dragging the red blade back through the seven other lines I had already carved in the earth. I paused, waiting for something to happen but it didn’t. The lines of silver I had left behind in the seal still shone, rippling like a pond waiting for something to dive into their depths.

The magic was waiting for something too.

“A blade marked with blood,” I whispered to myself as I lifted the dagger to my palm and sliced it across my skin. Riven took a step forward as a pool of amber blood dropped onto the center ofthe seal. The moment it touched the silver liquid the entire seal gleamed with gold light, just like the portal at Myrelinth.

Without knowing why, I plunged my dagger through the middle of the seal again. The world went silent as I was blasted by a gale of warm air that pushed through my lungs until I thought they would burst. I fell backward onto the ground that was now covered in blooms and small shrubs of every color.