Page 18

THEREN

Delendren Glade

“Yes,” Pyre says with glee. “I feel the Veil’s presence here. The ethers are thin.”

He stands at the heart of the volcano and rips open the fabric of the universe. It’s beautiful magic, yes, but treacherous if not used carefully.

“It will transport us directly to Eilish.” The necromancer gestures toward the rift.

I’m the first through the portal and a sharp wave of dread lances through my body. Why are we here? Why is Eilish here? This place holds very little happiness, filled with agonizing memories that are sure to harm her more than do any good.

“What the fuck?” Baron shouts. His voice echoes through the mountain.

Dragan punches the vampire in the arm. “Good job alerting whatever’s here that we just arrived.”

Pyre stands between them like an irritable father.

“Enough fighting. Eilish is here for some reason, and we need to get to her before she discovers there are darker things on this mountain than the four of us.” He shoves them down the worn path, where the prints from Eilish’s boots are still visible.

But I sense something else. Morrigan. She’s near.

“I feel weak and I won’t make it up that mountain. I still need to heal,” I say on a breath. “You go without me; I’ll make sure nothing comes after you.” It’s not a lie, but it’s also not the truth.

“We aren’t leaving you so you can flee as soon as we turn around,” Baron says.

“I’m in no shape to go anywhere,” I answer.

Pyre nods. “Theren speaks the truth. Were he to try to escape, he wouldn’t last long.” Then he walks over to me and places a hand on my shoulder. He closes his eyes and I feel his magic swirl around me.

“What are you doing?” Dragan asks.

“Ensuring our friend does not try to voyage any further than ten miles from this location,” Pyre answers.

The others say nothing more and simply follow Pyre as he begins the long walk up the side of the mountain. I watch until they disappear behind a cluster of trees and then I enter the small hovel where so many of our destinies became entwined.

Footsteps approach from behind me, and I recognize the sound of her heartbeat whenever I’m near. She doesn’t expect me. I never wanted to come. It’s been years since I last saw Eilish. So many that I fear she doesn’t remember me.

And yet I sought her out, trying to ignore the raging beat of my own heart as she comes closer, wings dragging on the ice. She sits beside me on this felled tree where we shared our first kiss. The snow falls gently to the ground.

“I thought you were dead,” she whispers.

I chuckle bitterly, flinching slightly when she rests her head on my shoulder. “If my father had his way, I would be. The Midnight Queen saved me…” I look up at the unforgiving sky and wonder how it is that we’ve come to this. “I can’t stay long.”

“I come here to think about you often,” she says.

“Oh?”

“The young man with golden eyes…”

I can hear the smile in her voice and I swallow past the lump in my throat. She lifts her head and forces me to face her. She’s too close and yet still so far away.

I shift uncomfortably and she wraps her wings around us. “I miss you, Theren.”

“There’s nothing of worth to miss.”

“I don’t believe that.” She entwines our fingers and I feel her warmth as potently as I feel the sun shining down on us as we sit beside the lake. “Tell me what happened. Please? Tell me what kept you away for so long. D-did your father hurt you?”

“You don’t want to know, Eilish.”

“I do,” she whispers. “Please, let me heal you.”

“The wounds that cannot be seen are ones that cannot be healed.”

How right I’d been that day. Those wounds left behind by my father left me achingly fragile inside, broken in a way my soul could never repair. Physical pain I can endure, but the mental scars that collect within my mind are irreparable. I’m broken.

“My father has always hated me because I showed promise when I was very young. My magic was more powerful than his before I could walk, even though he’d all but succumbed to the darkness. Whenever he got angry at Cambion, I stood up for my brother. I took the beatings and the torture.”

Her faint gasp grates on my nerves as I don’t want her pity.

I pull away, moving to stand so I can look out at the frozen water.

“This time, I couldn’t fight him off. I was dragged down into the dungeon and held there without food or water for so long.

.. When I refused to break, he summoned me to him.

..” The breeze swallows my voice and the quiet echoes between us for a few seconds.

“Theren?” Eilish asks in a soft voice.

I nod, remembering. “The things that happened... the pain is far more than you can imagine,” I say as I look at her and wish I hadn’t. She’s more beautiful than I remembered. So angelic. So innocent.

“Tell me, Theren.”

I shake my head. “I dare not speak of it. But I endured because I had to—for Cambion. If my father didn’t have me as an outlet on which to release his anger, then he’d do so to my brother.”

“Cambion is lucky to have you as a protector.”

I shake my head and look away, realizing the danger I’ve put her in. She moves over to me silently and pulls me into her embrace. A whisper of a kiss on my brow nearly shatters me to pieces.

Broken. I’m broken.

Tears fall from her beautiful eyes.

“I must live with the knowledge that you’ll leave me,” she says. “And I’ll drown in the guilt that I’ve caused you so much sorrow.”

“Our love was destined, Eilish,” I say as I shake my head. “I could never have fought the bonds between us.”

“Yes,” she agrees and then inhales. “But look at the pain it’s caused us both. If my love only brings you hurt, then please... don’t love me, Theren.”

“Asking me not to love you is like asking the sun to stop rising.”

The door swings open and Morrigan’s boots click against the wood, interrupting my vision of the past. I scrub a hand across my face and try to push down my nausea.

Morrigan’s scent is like a cloud of deception.

Her presence is somehow more disturbing than the memory of my father’s rage.

I turn to take in the sight of her carefully crafted facade of power.

I know she weakens herself with each spell she casts using her stolen magic.

“I always knew you’d come crawling back here, Theren,” she says. “Eilish is here, I sensed it the moment she stepped through the gateway.”

“So?” I demand, surprised.

“Bring her to me and none of you have to die. Hasn’t enough blood been spilled on this land?”

***

MORRIGAN

Delendren Glade

The glade is serene. Tufts of white fluff trickle down from an azure sky as I stare across the frozen lake where the hovel still sits after all these years.

Somehow, it’s remained untouched by the madness of the realms. I can almost feel the healing powers of Eilish’s mother as I walk across the fragile surface of ice that covers the water.

There was a time when I might have called Maeline a friend, if not an equal.

To think it was her daughter to be born the night the prophecies were spoken. .. it rattles me. Even now.

Though the fields are covered in frost, lavender still sweetens the breeze, bringing forth memories best forgotten.

I approach the hovel, brushing my hand along the wood of the door where notches have been carved to mark the growth of two children.

The sense of home hasn’t been lost, despite the great acts of violence against Maeline and her daughters.

Fate would have it that I will be the one to end Eilish.

Perhaps today. Perhaps here in the glade. Perhaps soon.

The shrill screech of the door’s hinges echoes inside as I step over the threshold.

And I laugh when I see Theren standing at the heart of a small kitchen, his eyes looking haunted by ghosts of the past. He turns and looks at me with an expression of pure contempt before the shutters slam on his emotions, blocking me out of his mind.

“So, here we are,” I chuckle. “A fallen king and a desperate sorceress. My, how times have changed us, Theren.”

“Why come here, Morrigan? What do you hope to find in the glade?”

“I’m here for the same reason you are—to find Eilish.”

“No, you’re not,” he replies with a hint of humor in his voice. “You sensed him, didn’t you? Silvanus. He’s near.”

“Silvanus?” I repeat, hating the taste of the word on my tongue.

“Yes. Perhaps he’s in the Raven Forest or some other pocket realm. I can feel him, and I know you wouldn’t leave Oronrel without Variant unless you had to. You couldn’t wait, couldn’t risk losing Silvanus’ trail. So you’re here, using Eilish to draw him out of hiding.”

“My, my, you seem to have gotten quite bitter since we last spoke.”

“Being tortured by my own people tends to do that.” Theren reaches behind his back.

I take a step toward the door and summon a blade of ice, drawing on the elements.

His head cocks to the left with a knowing smirk on his face.

“I know your spell lingers, Morrigan. And the only way to defeat it is through magic. So, I hereby challenge you to an arcane duel.”

He slices open his hand and the blood flows from his palm like a scarlet ribbon.

“My blood magic against your sorcery,” he adds.

I use my own blade to carve a rune into my wrist. A magenta flame crawls up my fingers, reaching for the ribbon of blood. “I accept your challenge. If you lose, then you must submit to me. If I lose, then you go free. Forever. My magic will never have a hold on you again.”

“I accept the terms,” he says with a nod.

Our magic weaves together, forging a mystical contract bound more by the fabric of the universe than our words.

A vibrant glow envelops us, swelling until Theren gasps for breath.

I hold back a bit longer, waiting for the sensation to become unbearable before I breathe in.

Then, I spin on my heels and transport myself onto the frozen lake.