Sadie
WE TRIED IN VAIN TO SHIFT THE DEAD BEAST BLOCKING OUR exit to the library.
Try as we might, the creature could not be hacked apart nor moved.
Eventually we gave up and affixed a rope to the balcony to climb back up the way we came.
But when we entered the hallway, we found half of it caved in, the far wall gone.
The floors above were now open to the sky and the nearby trees had all been felled by the palace collapse.
I stared at the moon who now dipped below the forest in the distance as the sun began to rise.
Thank the Goddess, I thought. The rest of the castle had crumbled but we had been saved.
Not that we were in any way safe. Our passage through the rubble was slow-moving, as each movement had ripple effects that made us fear the section we were in wasn’t long for this world, either. And that was just a part of the terror.
It made my stomach turn to see hands and fur peeking up between the stones. The ground reeked of blood and piss, but we didn’t see a single survivor amongst the avalanche of stones. When we finally descended the loose shale of shattered glass and silver rocks to the first floor, all was quiet.
Navin whistled and Haestas came flying through the predawn sky. Tears welled in his eyes at the sight of her. Her leathery wings were tattered, a few scales bent at odd angles, and one pupil more dilated than the other, but she was still flying, still alive.
“Did you do all of this?” he murmured.
She released a snort of steaming air as if in response.
“Thank you, my firestorm,” Navin whispered before singing her back out to the forests beyond.
We looked back to the path we’d carved. “She was trying to get to you, I think,” I said, noting how the only part of the palace not destroyed was the location we had been.
Navin gave a sad smile as he watched the red dot fly toward the horizon for a much-needed rest.
We traversed the carnage in the direction of the grand hall, moving the right way through memory alone.
Olmderian guards carried wounded comrades out to the front courtyard.
A few healers wearing the Golden Court’s crest swarmed through the lined-up soldiers.
And I knew if they were able to start openly triaging their soldiers upon the silver stones of the ruined palace, it meant one thing: we’d won.
As I moved farther across the devastation, I spotted a familiar face and the tears I’d wanted to shed for her for many moons caught me off guard. Maez lifted her head, her eyes catching mine, a profound sadness in them as she walked toward us, Briar a few steps behind.
I had been staring so hard at my old friend, I didn’t quite get a chance to look at Briar.
When I did, I blinked. She was the only one who looked entirely unscathed, abnormally so, practically glowing.
I gasped when I realized that’s exactly what she was doing, spotting the flicker of flames in her eyes.
I looked between her and Maez twice more before Briar smiled at me in a way that relieved some of my nerves.
She wasn’t a sorceress, too, or maybe she was? But she was far from evil.
Or was she?
I was too tired to care.
I ate up the distance between Maez and me, throwing my arms out wide. Maez’s brows pinched, and she took a step back. “I’m sorry, Sadie,” she said. “For what I did. For what I’ve become. For everything.”
I took another step. “I don’t care. I don’t care if you’re evil.”
“Evil is subjective—”
“I don’t care about a Gods-damned thing except that you’re here right now.” I kept going, ignoring whatever nonsense she was trying to say. I grabbed her by the bandolier that crossed her chest and yanked her forward. “Fucking hug me.”
She let out a surprised laugh as her arms wrapped around me and I hugged her back just as tightly.
I half laughed, half sobbed as I fused myself against her, the strength of my hold letting her know just how much I fucking missed her.
My best friend in the entire world. I hugged her in a way that told her I would never be letting her go again.
Dark magic or no, we were still going to be friends. I would make sure of it.
When we pulled apart, Maez’s eyes immediately found the ring on my finger. “Are you engaged?”
“Is it really so noticeable? I knew this ring was a mistake.” I chuckled. “There’s a lot I need to catch you up on.”
“And I you.” She clapped me on the shoulder, and it made me want to start crying all over again. I thought the next time I saw her she’d have sprouted horns or try to carve me up with her power, but she was here, alive, still her in all the ways that mattered.
“Briar!” a voice shouted from the distance.
Calla started running, Grae beside them.
I don’t know who moved first but we all started running toward them, colliding in a clumsily unified embrace.
We all began looking the others over, relief coating us, adrenaline flooding us.
So many had died but we had made it out the other side; we were alive.
“Your cheek,” Briar said, studying the slash across her twin’s face. “Here.”
She swiped her hand across it and the cut disappeared, but the magic that emanated from her fingertips wasn’t the same emerald green as the sorcerer’s magic . . . No, this was like a bloodred flame, less lighting and more blazing fire, one that healed? Why did that sound so familiar?
“What is that?” I gaped at Briar’s hands. “What happened?”
Maez shook her head. “It’s like a magic all her own,” she said. “She’s siphoned off my power and turned it into . . . something beautiful.”
Briar studied her fingertips. “I don’t know,” she murmured. “I just willed it so and knew I could do it. I felt it hanging there in the air between us and I grabbed it.”
“Do you think this power feeds on death magic?” Maez asked, a hint of fear in her voice. “Though I suppose there is enough of that to draw upon to last us a lifetime.”
Briar shook her head and looked at her mate. “I think this power is fed by us, by the connection between you and I.”
Maez’s gaze softened at that as Navin let out a whistle. “A new kind of magic rising in the world,” he said, looking at Calla. “One that heals and unites instead of destroys. A light to balance the dark, a heart of crimson flames to balance the emerald spark.”
“Forgive him,” I said. “He’s a musician.”
Navin chuckled and looked at the carnage all around us. “We will need it now more than ever.”
“Music or magic?” I asked.
“Both,” he said.
“Now we can finally go back home,” Calla said to their sister. “The Golden Court. I think that ‘one day’ has finally come.”
With a twinge of sadness, I opened my mouth to speak, to tell Calla that while their court was united again, we wouldn’t all be returning to Olmdere.
“Not yet,” Grae cut in, saving me from my explanations.
He kissed Calla’s temple. “There’s one thing I need you to do first,” he said, looking up to the single stained glass window, impossibly whole.
The only part of the great hall still standing.
The Moon Goddess’s light seemed to sing from it even still.
“What?” Calla asked.
He smiled at his mate. “Marry me under the light of the full moon.”