Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
PORTIA
The weight of Asmira’s revelations threatened to take me to my knees. The gods had chosen me to smooth the tangled threads of the past—to break Mullo’s curse.
No, his second curse. The one he’d lodged in Albie’s eye, only for me to be born as Albie’s mate centuries later.
Had the gods arranged my birth? My head spun, the events of the past three weeks parading through my mind.
All the jumps through time. Meeting Tavish and Albie.
Watching history unfold. Setting events in motion. All of it had led to this moment.
Had the gods planned all of it? Had they foreseen it?
“Why not just fix everything themselves?” I asked, the question spilling forth before I could stop it.
Maybe it was unwise to challenge Asmira, but I was done being manipulated with no explanation.
I stepped next to Da and fixed my gaze as high on Asmira’s face as I dared.
“If the gods are all-powerful, why did they need me at all?”
Mullo’s shade twisted and seethed over Asmira’s shoulder, but she ignored it as she said, “Everyone has free will, young one. The gods create the threads of time and fate, but it’s up to mortals and immortals alike to weave them.
” She spread her hands, and fire danced over her fingertips.
“If the gods unmade every mistake and poor choice, the world would lose all opportunity for growth…and love.”
Love. The power my great-grandsire had failed to understand. My species’ mate bond was built on it. Mullo had used it against us.
The glow around Asmira brightened, and Mullo’s shade behind her recoiled.
“You’ve done well, Portia Balfour,” Asmira said. “Your tasks are finished. Tonight, the gods look to another.”
Albie stirred. He rose to his feet on shaking legs, drawing my gaze. He was pale, but his good eye burned with resolve.
“Me,” he said quietly. Then he reached up and removed his glasses.
My heart skipped a beat. “No,” I croaked, a horrible suspicion forming in my mind. I grabbed his arm. “Albie, don’t—”
“It’s all right,” he said, turning to me. A soft smile gleamed in his good eye as he leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to my mouth. When he pulled back, my tears gleamed on his lips. “It’s okay,” he amended, his sweet smile tearing my heart in two.
I came alive, grabbing at him. “You can’t do this! I won’t let you!” Strong hands gripped my shoulders, and Da spoke in my ear.
“Wheesht, Portia. He’s doing what he has to do.”
“Let me go!” I screamed, struggling. “Da, please!”
Tavish grabbed Albie’s wrist, his face contorted with anguish. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “Don’t do this,” he begged, his voice breaking. “Albie, please. There has to be another way.”
Albie smiled. “I love you, Tavish. From the very first moment we met.” He brushed a tear from Tavish’s cheek. “Let me go now, love. I have to fix an old mistake.”
“No!” I shrieked, thrashing against Da’s hold. Tavish stepped back, tears streaming down his face.
Fire swirled through Albie’s good eye. Smoke curled around him as he lifted a hand. His first two fingers elongated, his fingertips shifting into shadowy dragon claws.
“Don’t!” I screamed.
He drove his claws into his damaged eye. Blood spurted.
An animal sound ripped from my throat. Horror and sorrow pumped through my veins as I fought my father’s grip.
Blood poured down Albie’s cheek. Jaw clenched, he dug his claws deeper into his own eye.
Tavish collapsed to his knees, a broken sound tearing from his chest.
Albie dug even deeper.
Then he pulled.
The eye came free with a wet tearing sound that would haunt my nightmares forever.
He held the eye in his palm, blood dripping between his fingers. A thick cord of pink, bloody tissue dangled from it. But so did something else.
Black and glistening, a second cord unfurled from the ruined eye. It thrashed in the air, whipping back and forth like it sought escape.
Albie flung the eye to the ground. The black cord sprouted tendrils. The wet length bristled, then shivered across the grass, dragging the eye behind it.
Da released me and rushed forward. Power exploded from his hands and struck the eye. Dirt flew. A shockwave knocked me backward. I flailed, going down, but someone caught me.
“Got you,” Tavish said.
The black cord caught fire, the flames quickly going from orange to red to blue. And, finally, pure white. The cord shriveled.
The shade of Mullo Balfour threw back its head and wailed. It climbed higher…and higher, piercing my ears. Tavish wrapped his arms around me, and we winced against the sound.
The white fire burned higher. A thousand ticking sounds filled the air, joining Mullo’s wail.
The eye and the cord winked out of sight.
Gone.
Another shockwave crashed into me, rocking me against Tavish. He held me tight.
Silence.
I stared at the spot on the ground where the eye had fallen. Nothing remained, not even blackened grass.
Asmira smiled. Light blazed around her. She stepped backward, and it poured from the portal in waves. Her long, white curls floated away from her face.
“The gods are pleased,” she said.
Then she was gone.
The space between the stones was empty, the clearing silent except for the scrape of a soda can tumbling over the parking lot. Mum and Dad stood hand in hand across the clearing. Da waited at my side.
Albie was on his knees with one hand pressed to his ruined socket. Blood seeped between his fingers and ran down his forearm.
Tavish and I fell to the grass beside him.
“You idiot,” I sobbed. “You stupid, brave, beautiful idiot.”
Tavish wrapped his arms around both of us and buried his face in Albie’s hair. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t cry, lass,” Albie told me. “I’m glad to have done it.” He turned his head toward Tavish, and even with half his face covered in blood, I could see the affection shining from his good eye.
“You were right, love,” he said. “My curiosity was nearly my undoing.”
Tavish shook his head. He cupped Albie’s face, careful to avoid the ruined socket. “No,” he said in a voice gruff with emotion, “your curiosity is what I love most about you.”
A sob tore from my throat. I couldn’t stop crying. Couldn’t stop shaking. Albie had given up his eye for our people. Magical injuries were different. Da said some never healed. Albie might go the rest of his life in pain. For an immortal, that could mean thousands of years.
And I was supposed to just accept that?
No.
My dragon stirred, and this time, she was lithe and quick. Controlled and steady.
Heat flooded my veins. My vision sharpened. And then the tears came. Not the helpless, grief-stricken tears I’d been shedding. These were different. They burned as they fell, and when they splashed my arms, they bounced and rolled into the grass.
Diamonds.
Healing tears.
“Portia…” Mum murmured in a thick voice.
My hands trembled as I gathered the tears. They were small, no bigger than raindrops, but they glittered in the moonlight.
I cupped the diamonds in my palm and held them to Albie’s lips. He opened, and I placed them on his tongue.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then light bloomed beneath the hand he still held against his face. My mother gasped.
The light grew brighter, fat beams of blue shining between Albie’s fingers. At last, he lowered his hand.
Flesh knit together. Tissue reformed. A white bubble swelled, filling the socket.
Tavish found my hand and squeezed hard. We breathed together, watching the white bubble grow into an eye. A black dot appeared in the middle, and then color spread around it.
Behind me, Dad said something softly in Gaelic so old I couldn’t translate it. Da answered him in the same language, laughter in his voice.
The transformation stopped, and Albie stared back at me and Tavish with two healthy, whole eyes. But the new one was different. Instead of brown, the iris was a brilliant, vibrant—
“Green,” Tavish whispered, brushing Albie’s blood-crusted hair away from his face. He grinned. “You carry a part of our female with you now.”
Albie ducked his head. He rubbed at his new eye with his thumb.
Panic gripped me. “What’s wrong? Can you see?”
He lifted his head, and fresh tears sparkled in his mismatched eyes. “I can see.” He took my hand and kissed it, then grabbed one of Tavish’s and tugged us both close until the three of us rested our foreheads together.
“And I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as you two.”