Chapter 39 Serena
SERENA
“You think we should try to contact Silva, the Mother of Witches?” I squeak, trailing Eaton up the stairs. It’s hard to keep up with him in his state of excitement.
“It’s worth a shot.”
He shoves open the library doors, striding toward the large floor globe as we pour into the room behind him.
“No one has managed to summon a god in centuries. But there also hasn’t been a Blackblood witch for centuries. I’m curious to see if she answers you.”
“How are we even supposed to attempt this?”
“You’ll need an obscene amount of energy.” He gives the globe a spin, stopping it with his pointer finger.
“Aeix,” I read. “The Outlands?”
“The Burning Tree.” He nods. “Where the witches fell. It’s an energetic hot spot.”
I glance at Zadyn, who’s gone pale.
“Maybe our answer is there. Or a clue at least,” Eaton presses.
“Are we really about to raid an ancient witch gravesite?” Mar asks from behind me.
I look at her. “We’re really about to raid an ancient witch gravesite.”
“Great.” Kai hops off the armrest he was perched on and dusts himself off. “I’ll grab my shovel.”
Without time to second guess or decide that this is a very bad, very horrible idea, we’re on Furi’s back, flying toward Aeix. The journey takes two days. I’m insanely grateful when the frigid cold of Hyrax gives way to the southern heat—that is, before breathing becomes difficult.
Aeix has all the heat of Vod, except with air dry as ash.
The desert is bare beneath us, nothing in sight as far as the eye can see. Not a plant, not an animal, not even an insect. It’s like we have entered a space void of all life, only sky and flat dirt like the deserts out west back home.
I slide down Furi’s warm scales, my feet touching down on the dusty ground.
Hey, are you okay? I ask.
I can feel her fatigue echoed in my bones. She’s wary of this place. It’s making her…sad.
I have not been here in two thousand years. Since that day.
I can’t believe I didn’t realize that this might be difficult for her. We are standing in the place her first rider fell to Ienar. The place where she watched as her mothers and sisters were slaughtered by an angry god.
Furi, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have brought you here. I wasn’t thinking at all.
No need for apologies, Blackblood. It was a long time ago.
But her mind’s voice is laden with sadness, grief. I place a gentle hand on her leg.
Why don’t you take off? Maybe find some water or a place to rest for a little while. We’ve got this.
Her peridot eyes blink at me, looking a bit glassier than usual.
I will not go far.
I watch until she becomes a blip in the sky, then disappears altogether. The sun is so bright I have to use my hand as a visor. But even against the blinding daylight, it would be impossible to miss the glowing white mass in the distance.
As we grow closer, that mass becomes the largest tree I’ve ever seen.
Thick, corded roots wind up the sturdy trunk in spirals.
Its circumference is at least the size of four regular trees put together.
The branches are solid, fanning out over the land, with exotic ivory flowers lining each crooked limb.
But it’s the snow-white flames engulfing the entire treetop like a blazing halo that have me enchanted.
We pause at the base, staring up at this strange, beautiful tree that, against all odds, exists—defying the laws of nature.
I step closer, my eyes closing.
The land around us is supercharged. This is where the witches fell. I can feel them around me. My mothers and my sisters. Thousands of souls released with their dying breaths, returned to the land with the magic that birthed them.
I can hear them whispering in my ear, speaking words I don’t understand. Their presence is overwhelming, coaxing my own magic to the surface, urging it to come out and play.
Mar stops beside me, her face reverent, and I know she feels it too.
“So should we just spread out and start calling Silva’s name? See if she pops up?” Kai prods from behind us. Dover elbows him in the ribs.
“Have some respect, Kai. You don’t want to piss them off,” I warn.
Kai tickles his fingers along the back of my neck, like a spider. I swat him away.
“Afraid of a few bones, savior?”
The air itself seems to narrow at his joke.
“The witches don’t find you funny. You might want to quit while you’re ahead.”
Something is pulling me toward the tree, to the dark, hollowed arch within. I follow the call as if entranced.
“Can you guys give me a minute, please?”
“Serena, be careful,” Zadyn warns.
Everything behind me seems to fade away the second I cross the threshold. I keep my hands outstretched as I walk, waiting to hit the back of the tree, but I don’t. I keep going, the daylight behind me growing dimmer until it’s extinguished completely, leaving me alone in the dark.
But the witches are with me, and I am not afraid.
I press deeper into the infinite space.
Here.
They want me to stop here.
Blood of my blood.
The voice is pure moonlight, cool, smooth, and bright.
And then I see her.
I know who she is without having to ask. Every part of me knows, though I have never seen her before.
It isn’t Silva.
It’s Queen Arden.
Words don’t do her justice. She is starlight. Silver-white hair that falls to the ground like a sheet of pure silk, irises the same searing blue as the dragon she bonded. Her beauty is almost too blinding to face head-on.
I fall to my knees, the full weight of who I am hitting me.
Up until now, I don’t think I fully understood that I am not a child of Earth—I never was. Or that I was born from the magic and the will of the Blackbloods who died on this sacred ground. But kneeling before this apparition, feeling the eternal souls around me, I am humbled and whole.
I am home.
“Daughter of my daughters,” Arden says, her voice warm and smooth. “Stand, child, let me see you.”
I rise, trembling and speechless.
“You’ve come home at last.”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“What heaviness weighs on your heart?”
“My kingdom is in trouble.”
“Which one?”
“Aegar. My kingdom is Aegar.”
“They are all your kingdoms. You belong to them all, just as they all belong to you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“This world will bow to none but you.”
I fight the urge to laugh in her face.
“No, I’m just a Blackblood—just a Dragon Rider.”
“Just a Blackblood? Just a Dragon Rider? My child, that is nothing to downplay. You are extraordinary. You have the blood of gods within you, the blood of true royalty in your veins. You are the last of us. You may yet be without your crown”—she drifts closer on an ethereal wind—“but you have been queen from the moment your soul was made.”
A queen?
“No,” I say reflexively. That’s absurd. “I’m just here for Aegar.”
“This is greater than Aegar, my warrior. The last Dragon Rider is no errand girl for warring kingdoms that seek to tear each other apart. Your fate is much bigger.”
“I don’t know if I can handle bigger right now,” I admit.
“Not today. And not tomorrow. But one day. The kingdoms are stronger united, and you must be the one to do it.”
“Well, today my focus is on stopping Kylian.”
“Your fight is not with Vod. Your fight is for the preservation of this world. You will need the young king to do what must be done.”
“What—”
“When you ascend and take your place as High Queen, he will be there beside you. It is already written. Your fate is to lead by his side, and he at yours.”
“No.” I step back. “No, there has to be some mistake.”
The wasteland I saw in that mirror, that war zone—all those deaths flash through my mind like a flipbook, growing more horrific with each new page.
Kylian had told me that if I refused him…No. That can’t have been real, it can’t—
“He did not deceive you. What you saw was correct. Fight against him, and you and your friends will die.”
“No. We can’t just let him—this isn’t right. He can’t win,” I trail off, my mind spinning.
“His triumph is your triumph.”
“What?” How?
Have I had it wrong this entire time? In thinking that good always wins? That love prevails? It’s what every fairy tale preaches.
But maybe it doesn’t. Look at history. Filled with tyrants and conquerors. Corrupt kings and fallen empires. Wars. Death.
This isn’t a storybook, this is real life. Maybe this is a fight we don’t walk away from. All I know is that, fate or not, I refuse to be on his side.
“I have said all I can say. The rest is yours to discover.”
Well, that’s helpful, thanks.
“Please just tell me how to get the portal closed. Is there a key?”
Her brows thread together. She pauses, her eyes falling to the locket around my neck. “Where did you get that?”
“Kylian.” The name tastes like ash in my mouth.
Arden stares at it, puzzled. “A word of advice. Keep that star close to you at all times. Guard it with your life, and never take it off. In the wrong hands, it will cause catastrophe.”
“I won’t let it out of my sight.”
How did she even know it was a star?
“Queen Arden, the fate of Aegar, possibly of all of Solterre, depends on me stopping Kylian.”
“I cannot say more, my daughter. I will leave you with this. Open your mind to the possibility you fear the most. You cannot move forward without facing it first.”
What I fear the most? What do I fear the most?
“Wait—”
But Arden is gone, leaving me inside the hollowed-out tree. When I reach out, my fingers finally hit the trunk. I turn, and the opening to the hollow is a foot away. I step back into the daylight, feeling even more confused than I did before.
My friends surround me with expectant eyes.
“I just saw Queen Arden.”