Chapter 38
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
THEA
Tesni stares down at the blade in her chest, frowning. Blood pours, soaking her front, but she still just stares.
“How...” She falls to her knees and gasps, the sound wet and sticky.
“How...did you survive...the Brink. I...saw you...I saw you reach it. I felt it.” A part of my heart clenches at that, knowing that the connection between us that I had always thought made us so special still remained, despite everything.
“I did reach it, but my own power isn’t all that resides within me.”
Just as I’d reached the Brink, that oddly beautiful end to my story, I felt them all grab me, clutching me and pulling me back.
The tattoo on my neck is an ancient troth rune, one from the days of magik, according to Duskthorne legend.
Killian and I were bound by love and the laws of Hypathia, but this tattoo—and his matching one—bind us in old, lost ways.
Ways that connect us, twining our lives and our powers together on a level I can’t even fully understand.
But that connection also gave me a line to his power, along with a certain dragon’s.
Soren’s power held me aloft from that churning endless sea of the Brink. Isolde’s hauled me back up that never-ending trench, closer and closer to the light. And Killian’s had hurled me back into myself, telling me in no uncertain terms that I would not be leaving his side. Not today. Not ever.
Of course, when I’d found the symbol in an old tome in the library, I hadn’t had any idea this is what it would mean.
It just called to me, and since I’d always admired his tattoos, I’d told Killian I wanted to have one as well.
I’d shown him the ancient symbol of love and devotion and eternal connection, and he’d immediately agreed—and had touched and kissed and licked the swirling knot any chance he got since it had been inked there, saying that it was his new favorite thing on this earth.
Again, I feel the Makers’ hands in all of this. They led me to that book, that symbol, knowing it would save my life and end this war.
Tesni coughs, blood bubbling over her lips and dripping down her chin. She meets my gaze then, her emerald eyes, an exact reflection of my own, softening for the first time in nearly sixteen years. Her lips curl into a surprised, but real smile.
“I’m sorry...I turned out...so wrong. I did love you...Tee. I really did.”
Tears burn my eyes.
“I loved you too, Tess,” I whisper as a tear slides free and freezes on my cheek.
She smiles wider, blood staining her teeth, and then collapses back, the blade sliding free from her chest. I try to ignore the way it grinds against her bones on the way out, the way the blood drips onto the stone beneath me, the way Tesni finally looks like the sister I’d known again, that cold sharpness gone in death.
I drop to my knees beside her and let the dome around us fall away.
The blade falls to the stone and slowly melts, the water mixing with the blood.
If the battle still rages on below, I don’t hear it.
Soren is at my back a second later and Killian drops to the rampart beside me a heartbeat after that.
Isolde lands a few feet away, claws digging into the stone.
Killian falls to his knees beside me, cupping my face gently.
“Thea? Thea, love, are you alright?”
After a moment, I lift my gaze to his, letting the tears fall freely.
“No,” I tell him honestly, and he pulls me into his chest, letting me fall apart inside the safety of his arms. He strokes the back of my head as I cry, letting everything that’s happened wash through me.
We fought a battle.
We lost thousands of our people.
We killed thousands more of theirs.
I killed a true monster.
I killed my sister.
“It’s alright, love. It’s alright.” Killian rocks me gently and I feel Soren’s forehead against my back, giving me even more of his strength, just in a different way now.
-You did well, Daska. I am proud to call you mine.-
I can’t speak but I send as much love as I can to him through our pathway. I clutch at Killian for what feels like hours, but I finally pull away, sniffling. He cradles my face again, brushing away tears and blood with his thumbs.
“There you are,” he whispers, his smile so heartbreakingly beautiful.
“What happened?” I ask, voice rough. I jerk my head toward the lake and field beyond. “Down there?”
“Once you contained your sister, we were able to overtake the rest of their forces. Most of them cowered and surrendered before Isolde, truth be told.”
-I am quite fearsome, in case you’ve forgotten,- she adds, a smile in her voice. I huff out a laugh, scrubbing at my eyes.
“She killed Barony. The others, too. Or had them killed anyway.”
Killian blinks at that, brow furrowing.
“That means...” He lets the unspoken words hang in the air. We all know what it means, but I’m in no state to truly think about that now. “Later,” he says and I squeeze his hand gratefully.
Apparently Dessa and the others are securing the rest of the castle now, rounding up the alchemists and freeing the Gifteds from the dungeons.
“So...it’s over?” I ask.
“It’s over,” Killian confirms, arms still wrapped around me. I know there is so much more left to do, so many things to figure out to try to fix this ruined empire, but for now, there’s only one thing I want to do.
“Let’s go home.”
He smiles, kisses me softly, that touch of his lips like oxygen bringing me back to life.
“Home it is.”
“From an orphan on the road alone, to a tavern owner and Gifted in hiding, to an imposter prisoner, to the queen of six kingdoms,” Ryker shakes his head. “That is quite a life, my dear.”
I laugh. “You’re telling me.” I still can’t quite wrap my head around everything that’s happened, what killing Tesni and ending this war really meant.
The alchemists were all imprisoned for their crimes, the Gifteds being held in the dungeons in Lyanna all released and healed and offered homes in any kingdom they wished across the empire.
All Hunting and slaving has been outlawed, allowing Gifteds throughout Hypathia to feel safe for the first time in centuries.
King Decosta and Queen Pheobe were more than happy to agree to our terms after hearing of the fall of Barony and Tesni.
Neither of them wanted anything to do with the Alliance to begin with and neither of them had wanted to take Gifts like the others.
Decosta just wanted to go back to living his life mostly separate from the rest of Hypathia, which wasn’t surprising, but Phoebe had some really intriguing ideas of creating a council of sorts for the empire, a place where representatives, not just the royals, from each kingdom come together to discuss the wellbeing of everyone in Hypathia, making decisions together that keep everyone safe and happy.
She and Killian have been corresponding nonstop about the plans, the idea of it making excitement dance in his eyes any time we discuss it.
“A queen to six kingdoms...” Ryker continues, clearing his throat lightly, “and an heir to a seventh, it would seem.”
I frown. “Heir...?”
“I’ve had my scholars combing through records over these months since I first met you, and they finally found the records to prove it: you are my niece.”
“Niece?” I breathe. My mind reeling, my heart swelling.
“My brother, Edmund, was your father. You have his eyes,” he says with a sad smile.
“But...but how?”
“Edmund had a wild and restless heart—a good heart, mind you, but wild and restless all the same. He never had interest in court or politics or the life of a royal. He wanted to travel, to see everything the empire had to offer. So that’s what he did.
He loved every second of it, especially when he reached Lyanna.
He met your mother, they fell in love. They had plans to travel together, explore the islands, but he fell ill.
He died before he even knew your mother was pregnant.
” I blink, unsure how to process all of this, but a strange, profound sorrow fills my heart for the stranger who was my father.
“I believe that Barony knew Edmund was your father. The two of them had dealings when he was in Lyanna, so it stands to reason that he might have known about his personal relationships and that’s why he took the opportunity to adopt you when your mother died.
He knew that Edmund was Gifted—he could turn any object to silver with a touch—and hoped that his children would be as well. ”
I’m silent for a long time, trying to process everything.
I’ve never known a single thing about my father, and all we’d been told of my mother was that she’d died alone.
To know that she had been loved, that she was happy and had plans to explore this world with the man she loved, makes something deep inside me heal, something I didn’t even truly realize was broken until now.
“I don’t mean to have upset you, I just thought—”
I smile at him. I wish I could explain how this makes me feel, that though I have so many people that I love beyond measure, who are my family down to my soul, having someone of my blood here with me after I thought Tesni was the last means so much.
With the way he smiles back, I think perhaps he doesn't need me to explain it. He understands.
I throw my arms around him and he hugs me tightly.
“I can tell you all about him.”
Through tears, I tell him, “I’d like that very much.”