53. Eva
Chapter 53
Eva
P ain woke me as quickly as it had dragged me under. I tried in vain to breathe through it, my vision hazy as I forced my eyes open.
Aviel wrapped my braid around his fist, dragging me into the water.
I struggled, trying to dig my feet into the black stone, fighting against the bands of light searing into my wrists. But Aviel was far too strong, and my magic was only a whisper. He pulled me into the gleaming lake, its water soaking through my leathers, lapping at my blood. I realized a second too late what he was about to do when his hand moved to the back of my neck.
Convulsively, I sucked in half a breath before he pushed me under the water. My bound hands slipped frantically against the glowing rocks, their cerulean gleam all I could see. I thrashed, losing my fight against my panic, but his hold was too firm. Bubbles streamed around me as I flailed, the urge to breathe consuming me.
There was a flash of silver in the corner of my vision, and I realized my dagger had fallen into the shallows beside me, its slender blade refracting strangely through the clear water even as my gaze fixed on the black diamond on its hilt.
I needed to breathe. Couldn’t hold on much longer?—
There was blackness on the edges of my vision when Aviel yanked me back above the surface. I wheezed, my chest heaving as I drew in gasping gulps of air.
Everything blurred, but I could make out a blazing golden light ahead, hovering over the lake. I blinked rapidly, losing my breath entirely when I realized what it was.
A leisurely spinning crown floated slowly toward us, flecks of gold rising above it like embers flying above a fire. It looked like it had been woven together from delicate strands of gold, each whirling around the other in ethereal swivels before tapering into elongated points that dissipated into the darkness. It hung above the lake as if suspended by an invisible string, the tiny stones embedded into it reflecting the luminescence of the cavern around us.
There was something about it that drew me in like it was calling to me—something as undeniable as it was destructive. I pressed my hand against my stomach, breathless from the pain as my blood slipped between my fingers.
As I looked down at the dark swirl of my blood in the water, I realized I had summoned it. My blood. Because this was the Choosing, and I was the rightful ruler of this realm.
Which meant I needed to get to that crown first.
But Aviel’s light chained my wrists before me. His hand tightly gripped the nape of my neck, holding me in place at his feet where I knelt in the shallow water. I pulled against my bonds, only succeeding in wrenching a moan of pain from my throat as they seared through my skin.
Aviel had the magic of the land on his side. I had foolishly thought I would be able to beat him this time when it mattered the most.
Stubbornly, I forced that thought from my head. There had to be a way.
I will not give up. I will not let him win.
As the crown moved closer, I repeated those words over and over in a silent mantra. And for a second, I felt…something. Something that shouldn’t be there.
I closed my eyes, trying to tunnel into the power that should’ve been entirely drained. Yet somehow, it no longer felt that way. There was a warmth moving through me, a magic that felt like an old friend as it traveled through my bones.
And as I reached for a force I didn't entirely understand, I abruptly realized what it was. That bioluminescent glow had gathered around me, dotted streams clustering around every part of me that touched the Source. Dewdrops of bright blue light lifted from the lake, brushing against my skin as they twirled in an unearthly dance. The magic of the land—my birthright—bequeathed to me , not the pretender before me.
As it sank into my veins, it felt like I could finally exhale. Pure, raw power crackled through me, licking across my lips, binding around my wounds, flitting along my knuckles like a row of ringless jewels. Pulsing under my skin in a current that very well might sweep me away. But I hadn’t stolen the land’s magic like the monster beside me. It had given it to me, chosen me, imbuing it into its rightful ruler.
I greedily drew on it, letting it fill me as Aviel stood above me unaware, his gaze still fixed on the rotating crown.
He may have been able to force the magic from this land, taking it as he had done to me—but this power was always meant to be mine.
Aviel’s eyes were locked on the crown mere feet away now. But perhaps sensing the change in me, he glanced down, then froze.
I knew what he would see. The bands of light chaining me had slipped down my glowing skin, no longer able to contain me. My hair had broken free from my braid, spreading around me in a halo of chestnut waves, each strand entwined with threads of blazing blue. And I knew the twin crowns around my pupils matched the color of the crown he was trying to steal from me, as if they had always known this exact moment was coming.
I didn’t bother going for my blade.
My head went quiet, everything seeming to still. Then my magic detonated like an explosion. Darkness merged with light, wisps of night mixing with the blue. Aviel’s body slammed back against a stalagmite, slumping against it. A smattering of rocks showered him as he gaped at me.
Shaking with the sheer force of the power within me, I got to my feet, retrieving my fallen dagger. A wave of stolen darkness surged toward me. I didn’t even look up as a bright shield appeared to stop it.
Snarling, Aviel stalked forward, closing the distance between us as I walked to the water’s edge.
Raising my dagger, I said with a lethal calm, “That is not your crown.”
The stone in my dagger emitted that familiar hum as my palm brushed against it. And suddenly, it clicked. I might never know exactly how, but the last gift my parents had given me, the dagger my mother had made for me, had also been a gift from another mother. One who couldn’t have possibly known her son would be linked to its recipient.
Somehow, the same power that had removed the band from my neck was imbued in the black stone of my blade. Perhaps fate had intervened in more ways than one.
Aviel laughed mockingly, bringing me back to the present. “Oh, Evangeline. You know all I have to do is drain you of this power too? And then both realms will be mine.”
Our magics clashed again. This time, neither of us seemed able to get the upper hand as that blue light fought against its twin. I just needed to get close enough…
I smirked at him as light flared in the corners of my vision, so different from my usual darkness. “Afraid to fight me hand to hand again, Aviel? After all, I would’ve beaten you last time if you hadn’t used my power to cheat.”
His face contorted with rage before smoothing out in a cold smile. “I see I’ll have to beat you before I break you.”
I pointed my dagger at him in overt challenge—the one I had no intention of discarding—even if part of me was convinced he could see through the ruse. But Aviel released his barrage of magic just as I let go of my own, wisps of steam rising in the air between us in its absence.
Aviel sheathed his sword in a practiced movement. “I’m afraid someone took the dagger I’ve grown accustomed to in recent years. Perhaps it’s time I took it back.”
He was fast, so fast I barely dodged as he came at me.
“I’m happy to stick it exactly where it belongs.”
I let out a battle cry as I thrust my dagger toward him, angled in what would be a fatal strike. He laughed as he parried it, then lunged forward, grabbing for me again. I drove my blade between us, aiming up toward his ribcage in another would-be fatal blow, but he knocked my arm away, kicking out in a rebuttal that nearly flung me back into the water.
Panting, I raised my dagger once more. I couldn’t let this go on much longer, not with the blood loss starting to make me feel lightheaded despite the magic now keeping my wound closed.
“I don’t want to kill you, darling,” Aviel purred. “Though I’d be lying if I said your disobedience didn’t make me want to punish you.”
His next attack found its mark, my side screaming at the blow. But my defeat of him wouldn’t be through skill alone, nor magic, old or new. It would be because of the gift I had been given long before I knew what it truly was, and through exploiting Aviel’s own surety in his victory.
I clutched my stomach, swaying. Letting my dagger hang limp in my hand. Giving Aviel an obvious opening as he charged toward me?—
My dagger embedded into the shoulder he had left exposed, digging in deep. He had expected me to go for that fatal blow yet again. But I didn’t need to kill him, nor did I want to with his link to me.
Not when I needed only to drain him.
Aviel’s face twisted in a smirk as his hand engulfed mine where it was wrapped below that black diamond. His fingers dug into my skin, about to pull my blade out, when his eyes bulged. My opposite hand covered his, holding him against the humming stone.
Stolen magic ran in rivulets along his skin into the device that I had finally recognized for what it was. Taking his power from him, like he had from so many others.
His free hand fastened around my throat. The power I had borrowed from the Source spilled out of me in an excruciating torrent, even as what he took from me disappeared into Bash’s mother’s invention.
The diamond flared impossibly bright, blue light streaming between our splayed fingers. Then the stone cracked right down the middle, shattering into nothing.
No.
A shockwave of magic burst from my broken dagger, bits of darkness mixing with the blue. I stumbled back, taking the blade with me as I stared at the oval hole where my salvation once lived, Aviel’s blood dripping down into its ruined, melted pommel.
I didn’t have time to regroup. Aviel sprang forward, and I twisted away too late. Shock and blood loss made my movements sloppy. His fist drove directly into the wound on my stomach, the edges of my vision blurring as pain threatened to pull me under.
My back hit the rock. Then Aviel pinned me to the ground in an echo of my worst nightmares.
I couldn’t help my strangled cry as a slither of his magic came to take the last of my power a second time. My lungs protested; the taste of blood filled my mouth.
Numb acceptance consumed me as I looked down on myself as if from far away. Like I was watching someone else struggle, her options dwindling into one—and one alone.
Because I knew what I had to do before Aviel could succeed. What I had known all along since that moment in the dark woods by that faerie mound.
There had never been a chance that I would survive this. Even with the magic of the realm on my side, Aviel had stolen too much of the same power for me to wield it successfully against him. And if he reached the crown first…
We would lose.
For a heartbeat, I saw that future I had once dreamed of—my future with Bash, and the life we would have lived together. All those things I so desperately wanted to experience with him. Exploring the realm, rebuilding it with our friends by our side. Getting to know the kingdom I had been born into. Catching up on those stolen years with my brother and my best friend, our trio finally reunited. One day growing our families in a world of peace and laughter.
Simple, lovely dreams. All the things I would never get to do now.
I love you , I thought, fervently hoping Bash could feel an echo of the force of it across our muted bond. That the depth of my love for him could cross time and space, realms and universes to reach him one last time.
I should’ve said goodbye.
With what felt like the last of my strength, I shoved my hand hard into the center of Aviel’s chest. Not expecting it, he reared back, falling off me. Clumsily, I rolled to my side, crawling away. My head swam dizzily, my body screaming in protest as I forced myself to my knees, then my feet, standing between him and the crown by the water’s edge. I refused to die kneeling before him.
When I looked at him, a gleam of something entirely too pleased flashed across his face. Confirmation he had been toying with me yet again.
He wouldn’t be smiling for long.
The worst part might be that ever since the moment I learned of this damnable choice in that faerie glen, something deep inside me had accepted my fate. Knew it in my bones from the moment of the sprite’s proclamation. But my stupid, stubborn heart had refused to admit defeat. Refused to give in.
Until now.
There was no other way. And I would rather die than let him win.
The truth of what I was about to do settled under my skin, the weight of it unbearable. My pointer finger fell against my scarred palm, the hilt of my ruined dagger clenched tightly in the other. I didn’t look down as I quickly scrawled my final message; the three words that meant everything. It was all the goodbye I could offer him.
There were tears in my eyes. I hastily blinked them away.
Aviel laughed softly. “What, exactly, do you think you can do against me now?”
In answer, I brought my dagger against my throat. It cut into the pale, thin line where he had forever marked me, a trickle of blood tracing a warm path between my collarbones. My eyes narrowed as I stared him down, living on the razer’s edge between two fates.
Aviel froze, his eyes flaring wide. For a deranged second, I wondered if his horror was only due to our bloodlink—or if his obsession had crossed the line into what he thought was love.
“How did you…You can’t?—”
“You made a mistake when you linked our lives,” I hissed, my resolve unwavering even as my fear multiplied. “When you took my blood.” My hand was shaking so hard, my dagger dug in deeper, the slice stinging against my skin as my blood slowly dripped its way downward. Adding to the white scar banded around my neck as if I had never escaped that collar, its presence taunting me with what would happen if I didn’t go through with this. “And now, I’m going to end us both.”
Aviel’s hands fell to his side, fear twisting his face. “ Evangeline .”
My mouth twisted into a savage grin as I took in the panic in his voice. “You thought you’d use me. Instead, all you’ve ensured is our mutually assured destruction.”
Steeling myself, I took a deep breath?—
A woman’s laugh echoed through the chamber. Aviel spun around just as an explosive blast of flame encircled him. Despite my shock, I took advantage of the opening, stepping back into the lake. Blue stones swirled around me, the magic of the realm answering my call. I was merely a conduit for the Source as it funneled into the inferno enclosing the False King, cerulean mixing with the amber of Alette’s mounting fire.
She stepped toward me, the gray dress she wore torn and filthy. I kept my dagger firmly where it was—too afraid that if I moved my arm away, I wouldn’t have the strength to raise it again.
“Eva.” She said my name in two syllables, sung like a haunting melody. “You don’t want to do that.”
“Alette,” I replied, unable to dredge up a hint of surprise. “I should have known you would be hiding around here somewhere.”
She let out a dark laugh as she eyed the blade at my throat, skipping toward me like she didn’t have a care in the world. Then held her hand out, as if expecting me to hand it to her. “Come on, little bird, we don’t have time for this.”
“I have to do this to stop him.” My voice splintered despite myself, even as I tried to find it in me to simply cut my throat and be done with it.
Because I could save them. I could save this entire realm, could save my brother, could save my friends who had become my family…and I could save him , even if I couldn’t save myself.
Bash would survive my death, the breaking of our bond. He had to.
“We won’t hold him for long,” Alette said in a singsong, breaking into my thoughts. “Already he is leeching what is ours.”
I could feel it, the steady drain on my borrowed power. Aviel bleeding away the magic used to contain him faster than I could replenish it as he grew even more powerful.
Again, Alette gestured for the dagger with an impatient flick of her wrist. “Put it down. Killing yourself won’t solve anything.”
Something about the way she said it had alarm bells ringing in the back of my head. “It’s the only way. I—why are you even here? What do you think you’re doing?”
“Fixing your fate.”
Her words made me pause, even as I knew Aviel couldn’t be contained much longer. The only reason we had been able to hold him this long was due to how much the broken stone had been able to drain him before it was destroyed.
Beads of perspiration ran down my forehead as I sank to my knees. “He took my blood. It has to be me.”
“Your life is not the cost, little bird.” Alette’s tone was casual, her eyes glowing like embers. “He trusted me to drug you, and he trusted me to drain you. But he didn’t realize then that I was no longer his. That I didn’t give him your blood for the link.” Her smile radiated pure triumph. “Instead, I gave him mine .”
My face slackened. Shock rippled through me as I gaped at her, barely managing to keep my grip on my fleeting magic. She had… she had?—
Of course, Alette had been the one to bring him my blood. And she had the forethought to thwart Aviel’s plan to hijack the Choosing before I had even known it existed.
Changing destiny’s a weighty business. Though there is something…strange. Perhaps it is not yet set in stone.
Had the sprite seen Aviel’s intent but not the flaw in his hubris? That someone he had deemed so far beneath his notice, even after what he had done to her, would be responsible for altering our future?
A faint tremor ran through me. “Alette. You…”
“Me.” That smile turned cruel. “After what he did to me, he handed me the tools to his own destruction— my revenge and salvation and redemption all in one little glass syringe. I’ve been waiting here for him, so I can end things before he can. Hiding in the walls after what I did to his pretty, perfect castle.” She let out a maniacal laugh. “It looks better scorched. He gave up looking for me long before I came down here. But I knew he would come to me, eventually. I wanted him to see who was responsible for his undoing: the placeholder he thought unimportant.” Her eyes flickered as she tilted her head at me in that unnerving angle. “I was hoping we’d have the chance to say goodbye first though.”
My teeth chattered at the power channeling through me, scorching through my veins as Aviel stole it nearly as quickly as I used it against him. I couldn’t sustain this much longer.
A shard of blue light escaped from the fire, its jagged bolt reflecting in the ripples of the water. Aviel’s power was starting to break through the cocoon around him, a second sharp beam of light slicing through his fiery cage.
I knew we only had moments before he broke through.
“You don’t have to do this,” I begged, suddenly bereft at the thought of Alette sacrificing herself. At taking on the task I had long since accepted as my own.
She smiled even as she shook her head. For a second, I caught a glimpse of the person she might have been before misery and madness had molded her into vengeance incarnate.
“There’s nothing he can do to undo what he’s done,” Alette said almost pityingly. “And so, there’s nothing that’ll save him.”
The cavern tremored. Alette’s eyes burned a molten, fiery red.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out.
“We don’t let him win.” Alette’s voice went hoarse as she repeated my own words back to me, the same ones I had once prayed would sway her to save me. Smoke began wafting from her hands, her bare feet, a fiery orange glowing in her throat like a dragon about to breathe flame.
I realized with growing horror that she was going to burn herself from the inside out. And take him with her.
Bursts of flame shot from underneath her skin, her fingernails. Her dress turned to ash, her entire body starting to bubble and blacken.
There was a voice screaming at me to run. But I knelt there, frozen. Unable to do anything but watch. As if witnessing what was about to happen would somehow help, as Alette made the sacrifice I had thought would be mine.
“Fly away now little bird…” Alette’s voice was fire and flame as she sent a burst of embers toward me, chasing me toward the mirror. “Your fate is your own.”
I shot to my feet in a burst of pure adrenaline. But the crown was gone, the space where it had floated now empty. My stomach sank. Had I somehow failed the Choosing?
The cave groaned, shaking from the force of the magic at war inside it. An ember burned my cheek, and I ran, every thought eddying out of my head except the need to survive. Shards of rock shredded through my leathers, tearing into my skin as they shook loose from the high ceiling above.
Agony flared from the stab wound in my gut, stealing my breath. I stumbled, falling to my hands and knees. The air had grown dangerously thin, like Alette’s approaching eruption was burning right through it.
A massive stalactite crashed down in front of the mirror, blocking it from view, only adding to the already insurmountable distance.
I had to get back. To my friends, to my family. To my anima .
Because he was mine. And I’d promised him forever.
I forced myself toward the mirror, crawling, every inch of me screaming as I hauled myself over the suddenly scorching rocks, their serrated edges slicing through my palms. Not looking back even as I sensed Aviel break free, sucking the power from his temporary prison. Not even when I heard his echoing scream of rage.
I was so close?—
But I wasn’t going to make it.
A whip of Aviel’s stolen fire wrapped around my leg, burning through my leathers as it tried to take me back to him. I screamed, my fingers clawing against the black rock, knowing I was far too drained to stop him.
My fingers slipped as I was yanked backward. Then a stalactite fell inches from my face, shrapnel barely missing my eye. I wrapped my arms around it. Gritting my teeth, I dragged myself forward, refusing to give up.
Even if I was meant to be this realm’s High Queen for only a flicker in time, I wouldn’t end my reign without a fight.
This was my realm to protect, powerless or not.
I was distantly aware of a weight settling atop my hair as if in confirmation. My head snapped around, looking back at the lake, even though I knew that golden crown wouldn’t be there.
Flame licked at my feet, real for once, and Aviel’s hold on me slipped, his screams echoing throughout the cavern. I reached up, feeling the warm metal encircling my head, those flecks of gold I thought might burn brushing almost excitedly against my palm.
I had come through the Choosing victorious. Despite Aviel’s schemes and maneuvers, the crown chose me . Perhaps it too could sense intent. By choosing the good of the realm over everything else, I had won its allegiance—and, apparently, the right to summon it.
Smoke curled around the black stone ceiling like storm clouds. I coughed, my eyes streaming as I tried to make out a glimpse of the mirror where it had been blocked by an avalanche of obsidian.
I had to get back to Adronix. I had to.
As I tried to stand, I fell hard, a rush of dizziness overtaking me. I had nothing left, that well of power inside me entirely drained, and the Source too far to draw from. Yet that feeling of magic still remained, perched on one finger.
Where my mother’s ring seemed to tremble in anticipation.
For a second, I thought I imagined it. But no…there was a vibration of magic, a familiar ripple from the stone glimmering at me as if happy I had finally realized the truth that seemed so obvious. One that I might have figured out sooner had it not been for every distraction since.
After all, my mother had told me the answer before I even knew the question.
The only way out is through.
The boon the sprite had given to me, the ring that had once been my mother’s, pulsed frantically. My bloodied finger pressed against it almost unthinkingly.
The gray diamond split in two, disappearing in a wisp of Celestial power that felt like my own. A tiny, oval mirror lay beneath it, its rippling surface unmistakable.
A way out.
There was no way this could work…but this was magic. Just because I hadn't thought of the possibility, especially since every gate I had mirrored through had been enormous, didn't mean it wouldn't .
Hope felt too dangerous. But I was out of time to do anything but believe.
I let out a hysterical laugh, unable to stop it. The thing that had scared me all this time had been perched on my finger all along, its power hidden until I needed it the most.
My mom had saved me one last time.
I didn’t question it, the final gift she had left me. Not as my ears hollowed out, the air turning thin. My breath dragged from my lungs toward the fiery cyclone that was now Alette, her explosion imminent.
Only death lay behind me, the rest of my life waiting on the other side of the mirror. If only I could reach it.
The Seeing Mirror, I thought as I pressed my finger against it, willing this to work with every fiber of my being. Adronix. Bash.
That deadly heat raced toward me, oblivion beckoning as I fell through.