Page 38

Chapter 38

Karus

My feet fell steady, my heart in sync with the one we’d come to bleed. This was the path the Blightress had chosen for us. This was the outcome she had risked by not backing down.

The scent of my first homeland wafted through the cave. I caught the familiar smells of the marketplace, the crisp green of fresh grass that I had rolled down on the hills surrounding Hyrithia .

I ran a hand under my nose, leading our party closer to the heart, trekking across the damp stone floor. The deadly sword Revich and I had made together hovered in front of us, waiting for our command to cut down the abscess growing from above.

A wind shifted through the cave, drifting over my skin in a frigid touch, smelling of the farmland we had come upon as we had traveled to Radyx . Then salt. The salt of the sea wafted under my nose as well. I paused, hesitating in the spell I seemed to be under.

“ What is it?” Rev whispered at my side.

“ Do you…” I wiped under my nose again. “ Do you smell that?”

His frown deepened and he lifted his head, drawing a deep breath through his nose. “ I don’t smell anything unusual.”

I continued forward, my skin prickling in the chill of a frozen heart. Where I imagined I’d feel warmth in the glowing beat, I was instead left with an empty cold.

There . Again . The slight breeze with no real origin swept more urgently across my face, pulling at the long white strands of my unbound hair, shifting across my skin and bringing with it the scent of home.

Felgren’s trees, moss, fresh blooms of spring and the dew that settled in a meadow of golden flowers… I closed my eyes for just a moment, imagining I was back in the forest I loved.

“ Something’s wrong,” I whispered low, only loud enough for Rev to hear.

“ Can you feel her? Is she coming?” he said hurriedly, his eyes darting to the hole in the top of the cave.

“ No , I don’t feel her. It’s just…” I shook my head, shaking the sense of Felgren away. “ What does the Spire smell like?”

Revich opened his mouth slightly, his eyes narrowing. “ It smells like the sea. Salty brine.” He squeezed my hand. “ Tell me why you ask.”

“ I —”

“ If we need to leave, you need to tell me right now.”

I shook my head. “ You don’t smell that? The snowy drifts of the Attatok Mountains ?”

He gave me a short shake of his head.

“ The salty air of the Spire ?”

Again , a short no.

I tried to swallow, my throat suddenly dry, deprived of moisture from the rapid bouts of air I was inhaling. I shivered again as we reached the point where our magic could slice down the heart in one fatal swoop.

“ The …” I began, watching Lia’s silver slivers of magic rise to the arteries hanging from the cavern roof while Talon and Ilyenna’s power poised at the side of the cold organ above us. Flames encircled Philius’s wrists, the most power I’d ever seen him wield at once. “ The earth of Felgren , Revich .” I shook my head, too late in my understanding of what had been true in my own heart for so long.

Lia let loose her power over the heart with the slash of flayed flesh resounding in a sickening clean slice throughout the cave. My hand shot to my own heart, and I grabbed at my vest, pulling at the fabric. “ Wait ,” I gasped, too late and too quiet. Talon and Ilyenna took Lia’s opening as the cue to plunge their glowing knives into the pulsing tissue, piercing the side. A spray of blood, thick and cold, splattered onto the rock of the cave walls.

I screamed, my cry echoing off the stone as I fell, and in the moment my body hit the floor, I caught Lia stumbling with her hand at her own chest.

My heart had been cut just as deep as the one above us, same as all the other magic wielders in that cave who cried out in unison. I had been too late to recognize what the cavern wind had tried to convey. The Blightress was a part of every crevice of this isle, and we had just flayed what fueled us all.

Revich pulled at the back of my vest, heaving me up off the ground. Blood trickled from the sides of his mouth, and he winced as he wrapped an arm around my back, hauling us toward the portal. “ Get up!” he yelled in a bloody cough that left him wheezing. “ Back to the portal! Now !”

I moved my feet toward Ilyenna , despite the push from Rev in the other direction. I held my hand out to pull her up from the ground, Talon unconscious beside her.

I yanked on her cold fingers. “ We have to go!”

Philius rose with a long gash spilling dark blood down his face. “ Talon ! Get up!” He fumbled, hitting Talon’s cheek with his wrists. Talon’s eyes shot open, and he blinked rapidly, finding Ilyenna resisting my pull toward the portal, reaching for him instead. Bolting from the ground, he coughed, spitting blood and rushing to Ilyenna’s side.

“ Take them out!” I screamed, clutching my chest with one hand, pointing to the glowing knives jabbed in the heart with the other.

Talon and Ilyenna pulled back on their power. Blood oozed from the clean cuts, pouring in a steady drip, drip, drip onto the stones below.

“ Sh -she’s here,” I stuttered at the same time a cackle of laughter ricocheted off the cavern walls.

Revich had me in his arms instantly, hauling me over his shoulder in an agonized grunt.

Her voice lifted through the iron-tinged air for all to hear. “ How foolish you have been, Daughter of Felgren . Did you not wonder at how easily the Blight fell? Did you really think I would not guess at your next thoughts? Do you still not see how well I know you, regardless of how defiantly you shut me out of your mind? I’m beginning to enjoy my dark corner there, Little Sprout .”

Revich raced over the stone floor, waving his arm in the shape that would produce a portal. It formed instantly, a bright spot in the dim of the cave. “ Philius ! Go !”

“ I can help!” Philius called just as a low growl swept through the cavern and two Blight beasts prowled down the stairs behind the Blightress .

“ I can’t get her out quickly while worrying about you!” Revich boomed. He lowered me to the ground, grabbed Philius’s arm, and shoved him toward the portal. Anger overtook the fear on Philius’s face as he fell, disappearing in an instant. The portal dissipated along with him and Revich made another, calling to Lia who stood at the base of the heart, watching her sister descend the stairs.

“ It’s been too long, little sister,” the Blightress cooed, finding the last step.

“ No …” I whispered, getting a closer look at the beasts prowling low behind her. One was not fully black, its legs short and ears still covered in a gray fur I knew well. “ Parvus ?” I trembled. The beast swept its head in my direction. The eyes of the monster the Blightress had created flashed red toward me, and I knew where Parvus and Rauca had gone.

“ No ,” I whimpered. Revich , unwilling to hesitate, picked me up over his shoulder once more. “ No !” I screamed this time, reaching for my loyal friend, my lumen for over seven years, turned dark and distorted by the Blightress’s magic.

“ You will not leave, Karus .” With a wave of her hand, the Blightress cut off our exit, sending a tremble through the cave. An avalanche of rock fell over our path back to the portal.

“ Go !” I cried to Revich , scrambling down from his shoulder. “ You go! Take Lia and Talon with you!”

He ignored me, pushing me behind him and backing up, facing the Blightress as Talon and Ilyenna did the same.

Lia spoke to her sister for the first time in centuries. “ Let them leave, Visalia . You can have me instead.”

The Blightress crept forward with our lumens turned Blight beasts growling low behind her. “ Why would I want you, Thalia ?” she sneered, drawing out her sister’s name in mockery.

“ Because you seek to reclaim the power you’ve given.” Lia wiped at the blood on her face. “ Here it is, in me.”

The Blightress tilted her head back to laugh in a flush of long white hair, her fingers ending in pointed black nails lightly touching her throat.

I didn’t miss the quick shift of Lia’s gaze to Revich which he returned with a subtle nod.

I was weak, barely able to stand, my heart heavy as if it was pooling blood inside my chest. I coughed again, spitting up a mouthful. My head swam in a haunting pulse that mirrored the one still echoing in the cave.

Revich murmured, just loud enough for Talon , Ilyenna , and I to hear. “ Be ready to run back to the portal.”

I turned my head, confirming in my dizzy state that it was still blocked by impenetrable black stone.

Rev called, “ Each one of us felt those wounds through your heart, why not you?”

It took me a moment to realize he was speaking to the Blightress , and I blinked rapidly, doing what I could to stay conscious.

She displayed no sign of weakness from our destruction of the Blight in Felgren . There was no gripping of her chest as her heart bled profusely above us. We had slipped right into her trap. She flashed him an amused smile with her crimson lips. “ I ripped my heart from my chest precisely so I would no longer be weakened by such a useless thing.”

“ But it’s not useless,” he countered, unfazed by her answer and taking the time to continue backing us up towards the fallen rock.

Revich was stalling.

“ Your heart is the pinnacle of power on this isle. Felgren is just a tool. It’s your heart that feeds it. You are a part of everything—the mountains, the sea, the grasslands, the forest.” He gripped me tighter, pushing me back further. “ It’s not that magic and its wielders do not exist without Felgren . They do not exist without you.”

“ What a clever Baron you’ve ensnared, Little Sprout .” Her iridescent eyes swept to me while I struggled to keep mine open. “ I did wonder what had you so enamored. I should have taken you when you dallied with that soldier in Hyrithia . He would have been no obstacle.” She laughed in unrestrained cruelty. “ Now hand her over, Revich of the Hallow Marshes . You know I will do her no harm. I only seek to return what is mine.”

I filled my lungs with a ragged breath, swallowing the blood sliding down my throat. “ Why didn’t you come for me then? For all those years in Hyrithia , why didn’t you just take me?”

Lia’s hands formed a ball of silver light behind her back, readying her power.

The Blightress only had eyes for me, her face cool and calm. In my rapid blinks, I thought I saw her face soften slightly. “ Because , Karus , I wanted you to come to me .” She drifted past her sister, drawing nearer. “ I wanted you to reach out your hand and ask for mine because you needed me . I have always held all the answers you needed. I have always been the only one in this world who could understand you because I made you what you are. And we will be great rulers in our reign.” She lifted her fingers toward me, her palm outstretched. “ Mother and daughter, reunited to choose the fate of our isle together.”

Revich shifted, his hard body covering me further, but I saw her face over his shoulder. The face of longing, of loneliness. The face of a woman who had forgotten that love could never be taken by force.

Stepping forward, her hand still outstretched, she admitted softly, “ I did not foresee Heimlen’s deceit, but I did what I could to keep your mind intact. I kept it quiet, hidden away until the day you were ready to feel again. Keeping you safe in Felgren is the one thing to be thankful to your lover for.” Her eyes flashed to Rev then back to me. “ Karus , come. Revich can join us if you must have him.” Her lips pulled into a hopeful smile. “ It is time to come home.”

Lia’s ball of light grew behind the Blightress , shaping into a wall of brilliant silver.

I shook my head, my heart in my chest bleeding for what she asked of me that I could not give her. “ I cannot love you.”

“ Your life is long, Little Sprout , and time is healing.”

I shook my head again, losing strength in my legs, adding, “ I do not want to love you.”

Her nostrils flared and her chest heaved under her sheer black dress. “ I grow tired of this defiance. If you will not come willingly, then let me be clear. I will not make the same mistakes with your daughter that I did with you. I will take her for myself, and she will be raised under my love, my rule.”

In a flash, Lia struck. The boom of rock hitting rock behind us thrummed through my ears and Revich scooped me into his arms, turning from the Blightress and her sister without another look back.

Talon and Ilyenna ran just behind him, and my eyelids drooped as I struggled to keep them open. A mound of the stones blocking the path now piled on top of where the Blightress had stood. Her dark shadows wove under the rock and her scream of rage echoed through the cavern as black magic wrapped around Lia , gripping her throat.

I cried her name, my voice hardly more than a whisper, blood still trickling down my tongue.

Revich reached the portal, ready to shove me in as I heard Lia’s choked words stumbling on another phantom breeze through the cavern. “ I should n-never have left her. I won’t leave her now.”

Rocks continued to fall, blocking our path back to the heart, trapping her in the cave with the Blightress .

“ No .” The cry I meant to scream escaped my throat in a pathetic whimper, the sound ending in an abrupt cough.

Rev pushed me into the portal where I lay silently in the abyssal dark.

Alone and afraid.

* * *

Saelyn stayed with me in those moments that moved.

The ones I could not feel as they passed.

My child’s heart beat with mine, wounded as it was, and we lay, suspended in time, place, consciousness. My mind woke and faded, brought me back to awareness before drifting again, not ready to wake, not strong enough to leave.

But Saelyn stayed, living and growing.

I felt her presence there in time that was not time. In space that was not space. In darkness that was not dark, for light did not exist on its own in this place.

Saelyn would not rest. Saelyn would not be still, kicking endlessly at my ribs, shifting endlessly across my growing belly, refusing to rest with me, refusing to give into the dark.

She kicked me again, jabbing herself under my left rib and I started, jolted back to consciousness again, but different.

I blinked, I assumed. I felt the movement of my eyes, yet the darkness continued. “ Illuminare ,” I rasped, and the smallest spark of green light flickered at my fingers. It faded out, and I gulped, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth in a coating of iron. “ Illuminare ,” I spoke again, this time using the spell as an anchor, catching myself on the comforting glow of power I knew.

Saelyn planted another kick, and this time, I grunted, the force of her little limbs in my belly much stronger than anything I’d known before. I lifted my hand, hovering over my womb to confirm my revelation. My belly had grown fuller, rounder, spilling over the band of my skirts, the hem of my vest pulled back to reveal my skin stretched taut.

The sight pulled me to more clarity, and dread pooled in my spine as the creeping fear of just how long I’d been inside this portal reared its head, stark and vicious.

My breath came in heavy rasps as I tried to sit up, my body limp and useless on the floor that was not a floor.

My light burned brighter. I lowered my head, closing my eyes again. The faint glow behind my lids gave me enough hope to focus on what I needed to leave this place.

My desire, my current, innermost want in this world would let me leave.

My eyes too dry to cry, I let the memory of how I got here slip back in, let it brighten as I heard Lia’s last words to me in that cave.

She wouldn’t leave her sister again.

The Blightress was alive. I felt her there, lingering in that space of my mind, still shoved in the dusty corner. I knew what that meant for her sister.

I bit down and focused on what I needed to do to leave the portal.

My desire.

What did I want most?

Rev .

Saelyn was well, better than well, it seemed. She thrived, not missing a beat and kicking me from the inside yet again, pushing me to get us out of the place that was not a place.

I took a deep breath, pulling that truth forward between myself and my love.

You breathe, I breathe.

You live, I live.

Rev .

I wanted Rev safe. I wanted to go to him. To be in his arms again, holding me and telling me that everything was going to be alright. I repeated my desire over and over again, and then, I heard his voice.

“ It’s alright, Karus ,” he whispered somewhere above me, cradling me in his arms, pushing my hair back from my face.

I blinked.

Once . Twice .

There was my love, sitting on the other side of the portal, in a tunnel lined with dark roots on which brilliant blue blooms littered the walls. His face had changed, covered in rugged black hair over his jaw, and chin, and lips. But his eyes. I knew those eyes. Those eyes of which I’d never spend enough time gazing into. The soft blue of a rolling ocean surface, wet and salty tears streaming down his cheeks.

He shifted his hand into my hair, pulled me to his chest, and wept.