53. Chapter Fifty-Three
~Kalo~
The silence that followed Death's departure lingered for several long moments, as though none of us quite trusted it was truly over. Even the dragons seemed strangely subdued, their earlier excitement settling into thoughtful murmurs as they inspected the shrivelled remains of Tarron's heart.
Finally, Felix cleared his throat and clapped his hands together brightly. "Well, I think we've monopolized enough of everyone's time. Why don’t we head home before something else catastrophic happens?"
I smiled faintly at the attempt at levity, but before anyone could move, the dragon king lowered his enormous head into my line of vision.
"This one still owes us his memories."
A grimace flickered across Felix’s face. “I was kind of hoping you’d forgotten about that.”
The king blinked slowly. "We do not forget."
“Or understand a joke, apparently,” Felix murmured under his breath.
Calista stepped forward before any further misunderstanding could occur. "The offer still stands, but we don't actually know how to extract memories the same way as the last-breath crystals work."
Several dragons shifted unhappily, but the king simply shrugged his enormous wings. “That’s not a problem. We can consume the man directly and retrieve them ourselves.”
Leo’s arm wrapped around my waist in an instant, pulling me close against him with unmistakable possessiveness. “That is not happening.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal,” Vaughan growled in agreement.
The king tilted his head thoughtfully. “So, you have another way to extract them, then? Since you made the promise, I assume you do.”
The threat beneath his mild words came through loud and clear, and everyone from the Crimsontooth pack exchanged nervous glances, hoping someone else had come up with an idea of two.
To everyone’s surprise, Visenya stepped forward. “I may be able to help.”
Beside her, Darius beamed with pride and a little bit of concern. “How?”
"It’s old elvish magic, used to preserve knowledge by transferring memories into objects. I might be able to remember how to do it, but it’s been centuries."
“What happens if it goes wrong?” Leo asked, his hand still firm against my stomach.
“Nothing,” Visenya assured him. “If it doesn’t work, it simply doesn’t work. But if it does work, the memories will be transferred, not copied.”
“What does that mean?” Evalina whispered to Felix, loudly enough that we all heard.
“I think it means that Kalo won’t remember anything that Visenya takes from him,” Felix guessed, nodding at the elf. “Is that right?”
“Correct,” she confirmed. “They’ll be erased from his mind.”
Leo’s arm somehow went even stiffer around me. “No. Absolutely not.”
His desire to protect me was very sweet, but my gut reaction to Visenya’s explanation leaned more towards intrigue than alarm. “Wait. Would I be able to choose which memories you take?”
“Yes. Our minds would link, allowing me to serve as a conduit between you and the object, and whatever you think of will be the memories that are taken.”
Fascinating.
“You can’t be serious?” Leo asked in horror. “They’re a part of you.”
“Are they?” I wrapped my hand around his and squeezed it gently. “So many of those memories aren’t mine in the first place. They were forced into my mind to serve masters I never asked for.”
So many wishes gone wrong. So many tragedies and so much pain.
“The memories of my mortal life, before I became a genie and after Amanda freed me, I want to keep. But everything in between? I don’t think I would miss them.”
Leo finally released me, but only so he could turn me to face him fully, his handsome face filled with worry. “But all the languages you speak, all the history you know and the people you met…”
“I won’t remember them,” I acknowledged. “I’ll have to learn things the old-fashioned way if I want to know them again.”
“But you won’t be the same,” he pressed.
My fingers drifted up to the mark on my neck. “I’m already different from when you met me, and you’ve changed too. None of us stay the same forever, but the important parts will remain. I won’t forget you. I promise.”
Silence stretched between us before he finally closed his eyes and rested his forehead against mine.
"If you’re sure it’s what you want, then I trust you."
The more I thought about it, the more certain I became, and besides, we still needed to fulfill our side of the bargain. It didn’t seem like we had many other options.
The dragon king summoned several large crystals from deeper within the cavern, and Visenya arranged them carefully around me, nearly two dozen in total. Their surfaces glowed softly beneath the flickering lights of the cavern.
"Hold tightly to what you wish to keep," she instructed. “Think of it now, and then push it away. Take my hand when you’re ready. When I touch you, think only of the things you want to give away.”
She began to hum a few words in a language I’d never heard before while I closed my eyes and drew upon the memories I wanted to keep.
My mother’s face and my father’s smile. The smell of spices and the warmth of sunlight in the city where I’d been born.
The feel of Akkara’s lips against mine during our first kiss, and the pain of hearing his final wish and realizing he had sacrificed me for his own ambition.
That one hurt, but it was an essential part of my story, and I needed to keep it. Besides, it seemed to sting a bit less now that I knew I had Leo to look forward to.
My mind flashed to the moment in the woods at Amanda’s pack when Leo first appeared.
He had seemed intense from the beginning, which I knew now was because he had recognized me as his mate.
I remembered the uncertainty and the feeling of loss and betrayal when I realized he’d marked me, taking away my freedom once again.
Or so I thought at the time. Now, I knew that our bond gave me a new kind of freedom I’d never known before, and as my mind cycled through all of our time together, the earnest conversations and the electrifying intimacy, my heart swelled anew at the idea of having years ahead of me with this incredible man.
As Visenya had suggested, I took all of those memories, everything vital to the core of who I was, and locked them up tight. Then I let myself think back to that first awful day of finding myself in front of a new master and realizing I was trapped as a genie.
With my eyes still tightly closed, I stretched my hand out. A moment later, Visenya gripped it, and a magical current sizzled through my body. The memories didn’t leave quietly. They came apart in layers, peeling back through centuries that had never truly belonged to me.
A merchant appeared first, standing on the deck of a ship somewhere on the sea. I knew the rhythm of the waves against the hull and the smell of salt in the air before I even recognized the man himself. His wish had been simple enough at the time: wealth and influence for his family.
I remembered granting it, and I remembered the pirates who followed him home after hearing rumours of his fortune. I remembered the sound of his wife’s screams.
The memory dissolved into light and drifted away, and another replaced it almost immediately.
A young queen stood before me, her hands stained with ink from signing decrees she barely understood.
She wished for wisdom and I gave it to her, but it proved too much.
She understood every lie and every hidden motive of those she met with, and it soon drove her mad enough that she took her own life.
That memory followed the first, breaking apart into shimmering fragments as another came, and another.
Too many to count as the faces blurred together and cities rose around me before disappearing again.
Languages I spoke fluently one moment vanished the next, slipping through my grasp before I could hold onto them.
I granted wishes born from love, greed, desperation and grief, and all of them went badly in the end.
For a terrible moment, I felt myself drowning in it all as the weight of thousands of years pressed against me from every direction, and I finally understood just how much of my mind had been occupied by lives that were never truly mine.
Finally, I reached the moment where I found myself standing outside the Ravenstone pack territory, summoned by Alpha Amanda.
With all the force I could summon, I yanked my hand away from Visenya’s grip before I could go any further and lose the memories I needed to keep. As the magic that had been flowing between us evaporated, so did my energy, and my knees gave way beneath me.
Before I could hit the floor, strong arms caught me and warm hands cupped my face.
“Kalo? Are you okay?”
I forced my eyes open to find Leo inches away, looking utterly terrified.
If it were Felix asking, I would be tempted to ask who Kalo was, just to tease him. But that might give my dear Leo a heart attack, and I didn’t want that.
“I’m drained,” I admitted. “But I’m okay.”
He swallowed hard. “I mean… do you remember?”
I couldn’t resist teasing just a little. “Remember what?”
His eyes widened in such panic that I instantly regretted it.
“Leo, it’s fine. I remember you, and I remember why we’re here. But my time as a genie…”
I forced my thoughts back, searching for something to hold onto, but nothing was there.
"You told me about a man in Persia," he prompted. “Do you remember that?”
Again, I reached for it. I knew I had told Leo the story, and that it had mattered enough to share, but where the memory should have been, there was only absence.
"I remember telling you, but I don't remember him."
Leo glanced over at the others. “I guess it worked, then?”
Next to me, Visenya also seemed drained of energy, her skin paler than usual as Darius supported her. She seemed too dazed to answer.
“There’s one sure way to find out,” Calista suggested, walking over to select one of the crystals from the pile on the floor and offering it to the dragon king.
Just as he had with the first one, the dragon swallowed the crystal whole, and a moment later, his scales shimmered and his eyes flashed with brilliant colour. He let out a deep rumbling hum that echoed throughout the cavern.
"This..." he whispered. "This is magnificent. It’s worth far more than Tarron's heart."
The other dragons perked up excitedly as they eyed the remaining crystals, and Leo pulled me out of the way, to a safe distance, before they could attempt to inhale them.
"You are honourable creatures," the king added, exhaling a puff of smoke from his nostrils. "You helped us retrieve Tarron’s heart, and now you have exceeded the price of its exchange.”
“Our bargain is satisfied?” Felix clarified.
“More than that. You may consider us your allies."
Vaughan inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Since we may need allies sooner rather than later, I’m glad to hear it.”
"You believe Death's warning?" the king asked.
"I do," Vaughan confirmed grimly.
The king nodded in agreement. "As do I. In which case, we won’t want to miss the excitement.”
“Alright, now we can leave,” Felix announced, and everyone eagerly agreed. As we made our way back through the cavern, I found myself leaning into Leo, still feeling a little weak from whatever magic Visenya had performed.
“You didn’t need to sacrifice so much,” he whispered to me.
“I was the only one that could do it,” I pointed out. “And that’s what being a part of this pack is about, right? Making my own contribution, whatever that might be?”
His look of surprise quickly morphed into pride. “That’s exactly right.”
“And whatever I might have forgotten, I remember exactly where I belong,” I assured him, savouring the pleasant tingle of the mate sparks against my skin. “Let’s go home.”