Chapter 13
“This feels new. And by new, I mean I hate it.” ~Elora
“I’m never fighting with Cush again and I totally don’t care if he wants me barefoot and pregnant, never sparing another elf,” Elora groaned. “And I’m never going on another adventure again.”
The forest had not been merciful, or perhaps the Chamber manipulating the forest was what was making it so angry. Because that’s what it felt like to Cassie, that it was practically vibrating with rage.
“We both know all you speak right now is lies,” Cassie huffed as she shoved away some hair that was in her face. “Better to save your breath, and don’t say anything I could hold over your head later.”
Branches whipped at their clothes and scraped their skin, and the shadows lengthened too quickly to be natural.
They’d been walking since dawn, but it felt like days.
The Chamber had twisted the paths, smoothed the ground beneath their boots, cut away the ache in their legs, and in doing so, made them cover leagues when they should have covered miles.
It wanted them here faster. But the forest seemed to be putting up a fight and she and Elora were the ones being punished for it. Perhaps it was sick of being used.
Cassie could feel that intent moving with them, an invisible hand planted between her shoulder blades, nudging, guiding, commanding. Faster.
Every time her thoughts flicked to Triktapic, the flare of his magic, the weight of his roar through their bond, the world around her pulsed in answer.
His power was alive in the realm now, wild and unrestrained, announcing himself to the Chamber the way only an ancient could: I know what you’re doing, and you will not take her.
The air vibrated with it. He was the forest’s heartbeat, shaking the leaves from their branches, promising blood for daring to come between them.
Cassie’s chest ached at the echo of it. The connection hummed under her skin, equal parts reassurance and dread.
Trik’s reaction had changed everything. The Chamber could no longer pretend ignorance, could no longer manipulate them without consequence.
Now it was a race, and they had no choice but to run in the wrong direction.
Elora broke a branch that blocked their path and muttered something foul. “You know what I hate most about being magically dragged through increasingly suspicious terrain?”
Cassie didn’t answer. There wasn’t air to spare for humor.
It didn’t seem to bother Elora as she answered her own question. “Knowing something worse is coming than a tree trunk to the face.”
The forest no longer looked like a forest. The colors had dulled, light pressing sideways instead of down, moss losing its green and bleeding into gray. Even the birdsong had disappeared. The silence left behind was too thick to be empty—it was listening.
“We’re close,” Elora said quietly. That preternatural steadiness was in her voice again, the kind that came from surviving things better left unspoken, and scars that didn’t fade.
Cassie nodded once. “Not reassuring. I think I’d take that tree trunk to the face instead.”
Her hand had settled protectively over her abdomen. The life within her stirred just enough to make her breath catch. Her child was awake. Aware. And calm in a way Cassie couldn’t be.
The Chamber was calling, but it wasn’t only her it wanted. Cassie could feel it. The intent was there. How she knew, she couldn’t explain. But she’d bet her favorite pair of shoes on it.
Something electric cracked through the air ahead of them, a ripple that felt like the realm inhaling sharply.
Cassie’s steps slowed, not because she chose to, but because their guide had decided it. She felt it lock into place, as if the forest itself had finally exhaled. The air thickened, not with cold or heat, but with presence.
Elora felt it, too. Cassie saw it in the way her shoulders squared, the way her hand flexed once at her side like she was resisting the urge to draw a blade that wasn’t there.
“Well,” Elora muttered, scanning the bent trees and warped shadows ahead. “This feels new. And by new, I mean I hate it.”
Cassie didn’t answer right away. Her attention had turned inward, drawn to the tight, steady awareness blooming beneath her ribs. Again, she knew the pull wasn’t after her alone. It was after what she carried.
They stepped into a clearing that did not belong to the forest. The trees bent away from its edges, trunks twisted as if unwilling to lean closer.
Light pooled wrong here, too bright in places, swallowed entirely in others.
The ground beneath their feet was smooth stone, veined with pale silver and deep shadow, the two braided so tightly together it hurt to look at too long.
At the center, the air rippled. Not a doorway. Not a structure. A space that pressed back when Cassie looked at it, like a held breath.
Elora swore softly. “That’s . . . not what I expected.”
The space moved. No— it focused.
A voice filled the clearing. Out loud, gentle, coaxing, and familiar as if it had always been there and they were only just now capable of hearing it.
“You have arrived.”
Cassie felt the words settle into her bones, not invasive, but intimate. Like something reading the shape of her rather than her thoughts.
Elora’s jaw tightened. “We didn’t exactly have a choice.”
“Choice is why you were called.”
Cassie’s hand drifted to her stomach, fingers splaying protectively. “Then speak plainly,” she said, voice steady despite the hammering of her heart. “No more pulling. No more games.”
The presence paused. Cassie swore she felt uncertainty ripple through it.
Very well.
The air shimmered, and images pressed gently against Cassie’s mind, not forced, not overwhelming. She saw flashes of stone split by magic. Light and shadow colliding so violently the world itself seemed to fracture. She felt fear–raw, newborn fear–and confusion that had no language yet.
Something becoming, being created. She watched the light and dark elves battle, and with clashes of swords, something erupted when two elves slain one another.
When both light and dark fell, shadow emerged.
Cassie thought of Peter Pan’s shadow, only pulsing with a power that practically caused the edges of their form to ripple.
Over and over this happened until there were countless forms looking around the battlefield.
Confused, angry, and unsure. Then, a figure rose, more solid than the rest, and he led the charge, telling them to follow him.
He led them to a sanctuary. Time passed, power pulsed from inside the deep opening in the side of a mountain.
The power began to pull from within, and Cassie could feel magic from the elfin realm being funneled inside.
Then, Trik was there, along with an army–other elves dressed in robes, looking regal and powerful.
They spoke in the language she recognized as their own and stone formed in front of the opening.
Slowly, it formed from the ground and the sides of the mountain until a massive stone door covered it, sealing the occupants inside.
Rage, pain, and confusion radiated from inside.
Cassie’s eyes focused on her Chosen, long before she’d ever known him.
Before he’d become the dark elf assassin, stepping down from his place as King of the Elves.
She saw a shadow fall over his face. She saw darkness wrap around him like a cloak as his shoulders slumped forwards, as if he’d been defeated instead of being the one who’d protected the realm.
Her heart broke for him. This had been the moment he’d changed.
He’d given up on there being peace between the two races.
He’d chosen a side, and it hadn’t been the light.
Then the thought planted firmly and she whispered, “Shadow elves. That’s what you are. Created from light and dark clashing.”
Elora sucked in a sharp breath. “That sounds incredibly badass, but since you’ve run us nearly to death through a forest, I’m forcing myself not to be impressed.”
“We are what remained when balance failed,” the voice replied. “We are consequence given shape.”
The images shifted, showing a cavern, vast and alive with magic, light and dark bleeding into its walls until the stone itself seemed to breathe.
“We sheltered them. We held them. And in holding them, we learned. We realized that the light and dark would never deserve the power given to them. They would forever battle, continuing the cycle. We decided it was necessary to weaken them, show them what it was like to be unable to fight. If they didn’t hold any magic, then they couldn’t destroy each other. ”
Cassie felt the hunger beneath the words. Not malice. Need.
“You learned? You decided?” Elora asked flatly.
“Yes. We became the Chamber.” Pause. “Not as it is known, the Chamber of Light and Dark. We are the Chamber of Shadow. We decided because it had to be done.”
The admission settled heavily.
“So these shadow elves took cover in you,” Elora continued, anger sharpening her tone. “You took advantage of their power, used it for your own gain, and when it failed, you bided your time and decided to try again?”
“The king stepped aside. He was weak. Our leader would have made a better king. And he will replace Triktapic. He will set us free once light and dark have been united.”
Cassie lifted her chin. “So not only are you delusional, you’re self-destructive as well. Noted. Because if you think you can unseat my Chosen, you’ve got to be batshit crazy.”
The presence turned its focus fully on her.
“How many would have said that a human filled with light would be able to tame a king turned dark and murderous? How is that not a form of delusion? And yet, you did. And in your joining, you created what we have not been able to.”
The pressure intensified, not painful, but insistent. Cassie’s breath stuttered as the awareness centered on her womb, on the steady, radiant presence there.