Chapter 54
Reyla
The talismans lay within their circles like bones after a burial, silent. Still not fused. The curse loomed, and I didn't know what I could do to keep it from stealing Lore from my arms.
Time was running out, and with it, Lore's life.
I didn’t know how I knew, but the magic inside me had started to tug, panicked and wild. Lore’s life was tied to that, and I could feel the bond between us unraveling. He was still with me, but his soul was coming undone piece by piece, and I couldn’t stop it from happening.
Dorion didn’t speak. Laphira stood close to him, her shoulders hunched the same as mine.
Farris didn’t move. His ears remained pricked forward, his whole body ready to attack something that wasn’t here.
I stared at the pool, the cold stone sinking into my skin. The surface remained smooth but the ache it stirred made me want to crawl into the ground.
“The magic didn’t answer.” Shame burned deep inside me. “Because I didn’t give it everything. I’ve held this fear inside me so long I forgot what it felt like to say it out loud.”
My friends watched me.
“Everyone I’ve ever loved has died or been taken.
” Only my brother and best friend remained, but I'd left them. “My mother. Kinart.” I was certain Lore would die, too, and the fact that I'd never been completely certain I could save him had slowly sucked away my hope. “Even Farris. I thought—” My throat caught. “I thought I was cursed. That my love meant death. So I didn’t completely let go. All of you gave your truths. You gave your pain. I gave most of mine, but not all.” My voice broke again. “I kept a piece back, just in case. A little space I knew I’d need when everything shattered.”
I looked back into the pool. “But that’s not love. That’s fear pretending to protect, and if I’ve learned anything over the past months, it’s that true love can shatter the world.”
Or fuse talismans?
Lore took my hand. “You’re the reason I’m still here.
You pulled me out of nothing with every look, every choice.
And if something cracked because you were afraid, then let me help fix it.
” His hand tightened around mine while he dipped the one he’d cut into the water.
“What was broken, I choose to help you mend.”
A ripple curled through the pool.
The talismans trembled and light throbbed along the side of the pool before fading.
Dorion joined us, his shoulders locked into that battle stance I recognized. Not for swords, but to shed the truth.
“My father told me I’d never be good enough to rule,” he said, not blinking.
“Said I was weak and pitiful, not possessing the strength he needed in his heir.” He looked at us, at the pool, and at Laphira.
“When I refused to weaponize myself for his petty grievances, he threw me into the labyrinth. He did not even hesitate.”
Laphira’s eyes brimmed over.
“I thought I would die there,” he told her. “But my father was wrong. I was never weak or pitiful, and he did not break me.” He turned back to the water. “I see now I was waiting.” He lowered his bloody hand into the pool. “What was broken, I choose to help you mend.”
The pool shifted again. Cold, bright energy rippled across the talismans before dimming.
Farris whined from beside me. His eyes darted between us before settling on the talismans.
I sensed something deep stirring within him, something older than magic.
The pool churned, shimmering black. Silver. Crimson light flared beneath the surface. Smoke peeled off the nyxin’s fur, rising in coils. The shadows were leaving him.
He remained still, his eyes locked on the pool. Silver light traced up his legs and along his spine. For an instant, his lips pulled back like he was in pain. Then whatever Prager had tried to twist melted away.
Farris forgave himself.
He glanced at me and placed one paw in the water.
The shadows spiraled up in a swirl and wrapped around the talismans.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Farris. Farris. Dear little friend.”
Laphira joined me on my other side and gave me the sweetest smile. I'd made a friend, and how wonderful that felt.
With a shared nod, we thrust our bloodied hands into the water, speaking in unison. “What was broken, I choose with my full heart to mend.”
The water leapt. A glowing arc roared upward and washed over us, searing joy through my chest. My lungs froze and finally... finally...
I felt the change start.
The talismans rose and spun, twirling faster and faster, shadow and light chasing each other around the shapes. They throbbed like heartbeats until, with a flash of light, they melted into each other, becoming one.
Not Essence. Not Devotion. Not Dominion. All of them and something more.
Iskar Cor.
The cavern shook. Stone rattled beneath my knees. I reached both hands up, and the gleaming magical object floated down to land in my palm.
Warmth soaked my hands. The pull of truth and power hummed across my skin.
The light faded.
The Iskar Cor wasn't just three pieces reformed, it was love given physical form. I understood now why Aricor's corruption had been so devastating. He'd turned willing devotion into a tool of force.
The Iskar Cor resembled a blooming flower carved from living light, three petals that had once been the separate talismans now formed into one.
Each petal gleamed in a different way, one with the pearly essence of truth, another the warm amber of devotion, and the third flickered with the deep ruby fire of strength.
Silence settled over the cavern, but it felt different now—peaceful instead of oppressive. The weight that had pressed against my chest for months was gone.
“We did it.” Wonder filled Lore's voice. He pulled me close, spinning me around as laughter bubbled up from deep inside me. “Wildfire, we actually did it.”
Dorion whooped, his voice echoing off the walls. Laphira clapped her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks. Even Farris bounded in a circle, his movements light and free.
“The curse is broken,” I breathed against Lore's neck. “You're safe. We're all safe.”
For the first time in so long, hope felt real instead of desperate.
“Is it really over?” Laphira asked.
Lore and I exchanged a glance. Shouldn’t lightning be blasting across the sky or stars falling to show the curse had been broken?
Wind shot through the cave, and we spun toward the entrance.
The queen dragon stepped inside, her scales as black as night. Her wings glistened with starlight.
When she spoke, her voice echoed in my bones. My mind. The elder scales, the crown’s first claim, together bled, bound flame to name. Through kin of sky and earth combined, a kingdom renewed. A fate aligned. She bowed her massive head. The bond is restored.
Lore stepped forward, awe on his face. “You're free.”
The Dragon Queen's ancient eyes fixed on him. As are you, descendant of the one who bound me. The curse that tethered your soul to Aricor's sin has been severed.
My heart lurched. “The curse is truly broken?”
The elder scales, she said again, her voice gentler now, the crown's first claim.
Your bloodlines, dragon, fae, and human, have restored what was torn apart.
She turned toward me. The Iskar Cor chose you because you understood what love truly means.
Not possession, but the freedom to give everything with a willing heart.
With a spin, her wings unfurled, so wide they nearly touched both sides of the cavern. She leapt, her scaled body cutting the wind as she soared out through the entrance and into the sky.
Silence filled the cavern. Then Lore grabbed my shoulders, his eyes full of disbelief and hope.
“It's over,” he whispered. “Wildfire, it's actually over.”
It felt like a huge weight had slid off my back and the world had shifted back into proper alignment.
Dorion laughed, the sound echoing off the walls. “We did it. We—”
A shriek ripped through the cavern.
Lore moved in front of me. Dorion reached for Laphira. Farris’s ears flattened.
The cavern floor cracked as something enormous struck the stone. Fire and shadow exploded outward, and from the biting wave, Prager emerged.
Prager had transformed into something beyond fae. Her elongated limbs and wax-stretched skin revealed what magic had once concealed, veins glowing bronze red beneath the surface.
She tipped her head back and roared, the sound echoing within the cavern. “What was broken was not meant to break.”
“What was sealed cannot hold forever,” I shouted. “Our love has restored the bond and the world.”
“But what of your pretty little king? Have you restored him as well?”
“We fused the talisman. The curse has ended.”
“Has it?” Her slick grin grew. “Only I get to decide that.”
Lore growled, his body bracing to leap at her, but I held the talisman and pure love in my heart. Whatever was going to happen, I would face it.
“Nothing can fix what was destroyed.” Lifting her arms, she blasted bolts of power our way.
I whipped up my hand and crafted the fastest nullification spell I could squeeze from the threads swirling around me. The bolts slammed against the invisible wall that shimmered into place with my spell, and her magic fizzled.
Together, Wildfire, Lore said as he called the elements to obey his command.
Always.
Prager snarled and hissed. Her power flared.
Farris howled.
His body convulsed, his paws scraping on the stone. Black tendrils erupted from beneath his fur, not his natural shadow, but the corruption Prager had forced into him. She was calling it back to her, trying to reclaim what she'd planted during his torture.
The darkness stretched toward Prager. She wanted to finish forging their bond, to turn him into the creature who would steal shadows and feed them to her insatiable hunger.
“No—” I raced forward.
Lore shouted and sent wind and rain and a wall of ice at Prager, but it slid around her without causing harm. Damn shield. I'd given everything to destroy this woman. Dorion launched a blast of fire, and Laphira used a siren's call to try to lure Prager into lowering her shield.
Our magic peeled off her as if we wielded nothing.
The Iskar Cor burned hot in my hand.
Desperation clawed at my throat. Everything we'd worked for, everything we'd sacrificed, and still she stood untouchable. But when the Iskar Cor grew hotter and whiter, I finally understood.
“She's drawing power from the old wound,” I cried out. “The same break in the world that scattered the talismans is feeding her strength.”
Farris’s guttural groan of pain rang out. His shadow wrenched toward her, dragging his body along with it. He fought, his claws scrambling for purchase, his muscles trembling.
The corruption fought against his will, trying to override the forgiveness he'd just found.
“Farris!”
His gaze met mine. And by the fates, he didn’t beg. He showed me complete trust.
Laphira’s voice rang out, her hands cupped over her heart as her siren song swelled.
Dorion let loose another arc of fire, this one blue and solid and beautiful. It struck Prager’s shield and a crack fissured across it.
Lore hit her left side with a cyclone carrying water and flame in its teeth.
I threw lightning at her. Pulled in shadows and begged them to help, but I wasn't sure what I should ask them to do.
Despite the crack, everything we threw her way still slid off her.
The fused talisman screamed in my hand. A buzz climbed up my arm.
Sacrifice.
That’s what it had been built with. Not blood or pain, but the willingness to give everything for love. The Iskar Cor had been waiting for someone who understood the difference.
Blood mattered. Truth mattered. But love, real love, never came free.
“I see now,” I whispered. “Everything comes at a cost.” I stepped toward the pool. “Kinart loved me without condition, and I never honored what that meant.”
Churning wind and rocks and dirt into a tornado in front of him, Lore turned to me, panic in his eyes. “Reyla? What are you doing?”
Every bit of me had been worn thin, but I was burning just the same. “What I should have done before.”
He reached toward me, but I stepped away.
Farris’s front half had already started to fade. His legs, his muzzle. All of him was being sucked into her evil.
She'd tortured him until he nearly broke, nearly agreed to become her shadow collector. Now she was trying to drag him back to that moment of weakness, to complete the corruption she'd started.
“Never,” I hissed.
My hand throbbed from holding the Cor, but I did not let it go.
“I love you,” I said, staring into Lore’s horrified eyes. “And if this world says that’s a curse, then let every single part of it burn.”
Laphira pressed her hands together and whispered a prayer to the fates.
Dorion moved closer to her, shielding her with his body.
Lore's wind whipped around Prager, tearing a scream from her throat. Her cloak snapping outward like raven wings.
“Love is death,” she shouted. Magic spun from her, lashing out at us. “Love is what shattered me. Tortured me. Turned me into this beastly thing. I won’t let you use it to bind the world again.”
Her arms swung up, and she thrust burning power my way.
The blast struck me full in the chest, but instead of pain, the Iskar Cor flared with brilliant light. Prager's magic didn't bounce off, it fed into the Cor, making it flame brighter.
“No,” she whimpered, backing away. “That's not possible.”
I stepped toward her, holding up the Cor. “Love doesn't just heal. Sometimes it’s a weapon that destroys monsters.”