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GAIDA

“My Queen.”

I open my eyes at the voice and smile. “Draken. What are you doing here?”

“Saving you again, it seems. It’s my lot in life.” His smile is amused, and it makes me giggle.

“Sorry for being a burden.”

“Don’t apologise. This situation is…” He frowns. “Cursed.”

“Cursed?” I echo, trying to sit up. My body feels leaden, as if gravity has doubled its hold on me. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“The Blood Queen’s consciousness is overwhelming yours,” Draken explains, his form shimmering with an ethereal light that seems out of place in this dark chamber of despair I’ve been plunged into. Whatever visions were flashing through my mind have stilled. Maybe the Blood Queen has decided that I’ve given up fighting her so she can stop showing me all this shit. “With each passing moment, the merger of worlds progresses.”

“But you’re dead,” I mutter, squinting at him. “Mashtar’s destruction killed you.”

His lips quirk into a half-smile. “Death is a more fluid concept than most understand.” He gestures around us. “This place exists partially outside normal reality. A sanctuary designed by those who knew what might come.”

“The others are trying to save me,” I say, feeling the Blood Queen’s presence recede slightly in Draken’s company. “But I told Dante they need to kill me. It’s the only way.”

Draken’s green eyes flash with something like anger. “So quick to sacrifice yourself. There is another way.”

“What way? She needs to be destroyed. Anything else isn’t an option. She can’t be put in a place where she might return one day.”

“Sometimes the bravest thing is to live, Gaida,” Draken says, his voice softening as he kneels beside me. “The Blood Queen can be contained without your death.”

I shake my head, wincing at the pain that lances through my skull. “She’s too powerful. You don’t understand what she is.”

“I understand better than most. The chalice that contained me was created using the same principles as the chamber you are currently resting in. Both are designed to isolate and contain consciousness without destroying it. Your friends are retrieving the chalice now.”

“But you found a way out of it. What if she does?”

“The sword has been destroyed. It was the only key.”

“That you know of. What if there is another one, or another one that can be made?”

His eyes narrow, studying me. “Perhaps I’ve underestimated your resolve.”

“Is that a compliment?” I manage a weak smile.

“It is. But your sacrifice isn’t necessary. The chalice can be modified to contain her specifically, using your blood to calibrate it. That connection is what will allow the chalice to draw her essence from you without destroying you in the process.” He pauses, his expression growing serious. “But it will require your active participation. You must fight her from within while the ritual happens externally.”

A tremor runs through me, and reality buckles around us. The Blood Queen’s presence charges ahead, her rage electric.

“You!” she hisses at Draken. “How dare you interfere!”

Draken stands, positioning himself between us. “Hello, old friend. Still determined to destroy everything in your quest for unity?”

“Unity is salvation,” she snarls.

“No, it never was,” he replies calmly.

The Blood Queen’s form solidifies, her resemblance to me twisted by rage and power. “You cannot stop what has begun. The worlds already merge.”

“Not irreversibly,” Draken counters. “Not yet.”

She lunges at Draken, her form shifting between solid and ethereal. “You should have remained dead!” she snarls, crimson energy crackling around her fingertips.

Draken sidesteps her attack. “Death has given me certain insights,” he replies, his voice unnervingly calm. “Like how desperately afraid you are.”

“Afraid?” She laughs, the sound distorting the mental landscape around us. “I am the Primordial. I fear nothing.”

“Then why the rush?” Draken circles her, drawing her attention away from me. “If reunification is inevitable, why force it now through destruction? Why not guide it slowly, carefully, with minimal loss?”

I use their confrontation to gather my strength, pushing myself to my feet despite the crushing weight of her presence.

“Because she’s running out of time,” I realise aloud. “The worlds have been separated for too long. They’re evolving independently, growing further apart rather than closer together.”

The Blood Queen whirls toward me, her eyes blazing.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” I press, finding my footing both literally and figuratively. “Every moment the worlds remain separate, reunification becomes more difficult, more catastrophic.”

“You understand nothing,” she hisses, but her fury confirms my suspicion.

“I understand enough,” I say, straightening. “Instead of a simple merge aeons ago, we are now looking at a head-on collision of thousands of worlds. We will all die. Every single one of us. There will be nothing left for you to rule, nothing left for you to control.”

“Except you forget who you’re talking to. I am the worlds. Where do you think life came from? I will be returned to the earth, and life will grow anew.”

“You are seriously deluded,” I remark.

“I am not deluded,” the Blood Queen snarls, her form expanding, filling the mental space between us. “I am inevitable.”

Draken moves to stand beside me, his presence somehow strengthening my resolve. “She believes her own myths, Gaida. That’s her weakness.”

The Blood Queen laughs, the sound reverberating through my skull. “Weakness? I have waited millennia for this moment. You will not stop me.”

Her raw power crashes into me, knocking me off my feet. Draken swoops down on her, slamming her back with a strength only an ancient like him could possess. She stumbles, but her control over my mind doesn’t waver. If anything, it strengthens.

“Hold on, Gaida,” Draken shouts. “I will hold her off for as long as possible, but you have to promise me you won’t give up.” He slams his fist onto her face, and she stumbles back some more, hissing, her fangs and claws extending. “Promise me, My Queen!”

“I promise,” I say, forcing myself back to my feet. “I won’t give up. Thank you, Draken.”

“Thank me by living,” he replies and unleashes unholy hell in my mind that makes me scream, but weakens the Blood Queen’s hold a fraction.