Page 58 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

57

Kat

I was still gaping at the first branch when a root speared my stomach. Breaths coming short and sharp, I looked over my shoulder to see the face of my attacker.

There was no face in the darkness. There was only the trees.

That was why I didn’t fall. The Yew held me up with its branch lodged into my shoulder, the Oak with its root in my gut. Their magic burned.

I sucked in sharp little breaths, struggling to inhale around the pain. What had I missed? Where had I made the mistake?

It wasn’t meant to?—

Another branch burst from my side, soon followed by another and another. I jolted with each one, unable to cry out.

When the trees lifted me, I could only sag in their cruel hold. I didn’t even twitch when they tore away my necklace. Blood spilled from my mouth, slicked my hands, soaked into my tattered dress. Agony laced every breath.

I could only wheeze as my bones creaked and cracked.

This was a punishment. I was not the anointed one and so the trees, the guardians of the gauntlet were tearing me apart.

My blood wasn’t truly royal. Or it was too long since I’d consumed the acorn and berry. Or I’d made some other error that meant the way wouldn’t open for me.

The ground fell away. Branches and leaves surrounded me under the endless night with no stars and no moon.

I lost count of the holes in my body but I knew one thing.

I was dying.

And deeper than my flesh—that searing magic? It was like they were trying to scorch my soul, scour it from my body—from existence.

My very being tore.

I tried to clench my fists, like that would allow me to hold on. No. I don’t want to. I need to stay here. I need to…

There were so many things I needed to do. Get the Crown. Tell Bastian about Braea. Tell him how much I loved him. Hug my friends. Ride Vespera one last time. The estate…

The world went dark. Pain became a distant concept, like breath and gravity. I was somewhere else, barely holding on to the precipice of my physical self. What waited below?

“ Let go ,” a whisper crept into my ear. Dark, comforting, like a mother soothing in the night.

“ Let go or your soul will be destroyed ,” came a second voice. Deeper, with a resonance that lulled.

But wasn’t letting go dying?

Hadn’t I spent my entire life clinging on, again and again? Survival had been my religion and creed. The one idol on my altar.

And now? I’d sought out the gauntlet so I could create a life that was truly worth living.

The edges of my self, my soul singed to flakes of ash, streaming away.

“ Let go ,” the first voice repeated, pressing urgency in their tone.

I threw my thought out into the void. “ What about my body? ”

“ That will die anyway. This is the challenge of the gauntlet—hold on and be utterly destroyed. Let go and your soul will be carried down ?—”

“ We shouldn’t be telling her this ,” the deeper voice hissed. “ You never told the others. ”

“ She isn’t just anointed. She is of us. Can’t you feel it in her magic? Like me. Like you. Like calling to like .”

The burning magic intensified as though it was the voices’ attention and everything left in me shrieked. I had no idea if my physical body still existed, but if it did, it was screaming.

“ I see .” The lower voice paused. “ She is our creature .”

“ This is the risk ,” they whispered as one. “ This is the challenge. Do you dare to die? ”

So I hadn’t erred. This was the gauntlet. Dying was… the point.

The Crown was in the Underworld. To make a place that was better, to let the people I care about truly live, I had to go there. Maybe there would be some way back. Maybe not.

“ Such hope is holding on. You must give yourself entirely. ”

If I went forward, there would be no way back.

Sura. She’d said goodbye to Amaya because she intended to sacrifice herself to retrieve the Crown of Ashes for her.

Braea had anointed that servant, willing to use them to gain it.

And when that had failed, she’d brought me to the Trees as her next sacrifice.

I’d always clung to survival, and slowly I’d begun to build a life. But here I was with a chance to not merely survive the world but change it.

Death was the risk. But I could leave something better for the ones I cared about.

I could stop others suffering as I had, caught in the politics of Dusk and Dawn. I could ensure Bastian had the throne and ruled by day and night, not confined to the Sleep. My death would be enough to push him to stand up to Braea and rule. He would make a good king. Our friends would help.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right one.

“ This is the risk ,” I sent my thoughts into the whispering dark. “ This is the challenge. And it is worth it. ”

I let go.