86. Chapter 86
CHAPTER 86
D ynalya
Dyna sobbed over Cassiel, pressing her face to his as she sank all of her power into his body. She wove her Essence into his bones, into his flesh, into the cells that made his blood. He was so broken. So many holes and tears, so many shattered bones. But she was losing him, so she opened all of her Essence Channels and poured her raw life-force into him. The light of the Heaven’s faded as she fought to keep his heart pumping, it worked, but only for the time being.
In his last moments, Cassiel had looked at her like he knew he would never see her again. She grew weaker and knew she couldn’t keep him alive this way for long.
“Don’t take him,” she begged Elyōn . “Please don’t take him.”
But her abilities couldn’t reverse the damage because the power that created him was beyond her skill to heal.
This would require powerful magic to heal powerful magic.
Dyna took a shaky breath when she realized what she needed to do.
Once she filled Cassiel’s wounds with enough Essence to stop the bleeding, if only for a few minutes, she quickly gathered stones and formed a circle and tossed the key pieces inside.
“Leoake!” she cried out into the cavern of stone, choking on a sob. “I need your help!”
“No need to shout, clever mortal.”
Gasping, she looked up at the hole above them. Leoake sat on the edge of it, arm rested on his propped knee. She didn’t bother wasting time to ask how or when he got there.
He hummed and tutted his tongue at Cassiel. “Oh, dear. He stands at Death’s Door. Healing him yourself would take all your Essence and you would surely die.”
“I know that. I need to use your Door to take Cassiel to Melodyam Falls. It’s the only way I can save his life. Please, he is succumbing to his wounds and my Essence is not enough to stop it.”
“Hmm.” The Druid curled his fingers and examined his gold rings with a pout. “It may have escaped your attention, Dyna, but our deal ends here. You know I do not work for free. Unless …” His gold eyes glowed as they fixed on her, a mischievous smile curving his lips. “You intend to make another deal with me.”
Dyna clenched her jaw, shaking with anger and desperation. “What do you want?”
Leoake chuckled and looked up, tapping chin as if in pensive thought but she knew he had already decided. It only infuriated her more as precious seconds passed. “Your greatest wish perhaps? A precious treasure.”
“What treasure? I don’t have any treasure.”
He only smiled at her. “But you will.”
Because she had begun this journey in search of one. The Sol Medallion. The only thing that could save North Star from the Shadow Demon.
Dyna took a shaky breath. “But I need it.”
“And you need him. You must decide which you want more.”
She shook with indecision and anguish. Arguing with the Druid would only delay more time and Dyna could feel Cassiel slipping.
“Fine, the treasure is yours!” she blurted, “but only after I have saved my village.”
Leoake’s quiet chuckle floated to her. “Agreed.”
He reached out his hand and Dyna took it before she could change her mind. She winced as a new geas marked her once more. It took the shape of a leaf on the inside of her wrist.
Not an oak leaf, but of sage.
A twin symbol marked Leoake in the same spot.
She ignored the shaking in her chest and turned back to her mate. Out of sight of Leoake, she slipped the key pieces back into her pocket. “Take us there.”
Dyna carefully rose Cassiel in a mist of her Essence and climbed out of the hole. She quickly made her way through the debris with him and the Druid.
Zev waited for her by the opening with Keena and he helped her climb through the hole outside. Leif and the remaining survivors had Altham any red elves that remained kneeling in the sand. Von waited for her on the other end of the chasm with Elon. Klyde kneeled on the sand, holding unconscious Lucenna in his arms. Raiden too, sat beside Rawn’s still body. Dyna’s heart jumped with worry.
“They are all right,” Zev murmured.
“Make haste,” Eldred called out. He had built a bridge of floating stone over the chasm for them.
Dyna and Zev ran across it, Cassiel pulled closely along on her Essence.
Leoake strolled along without a care to hurry. Once he was on solid ground, the stones crumbled away. He walked past them and the bodies, and all stares to the charred stumps where the Elder Tree used to be.
“It’s gone,” Dyna said, devastated.
Leoake crouched down and placed his hands on the remains. “The roots are still there, clever mortal. They only need … time .”
His eyes glowed and gold light spiraled into the air from his hands and sank into the stumps. Then the tree began to grow.
Fae that hold great power…
The elves exclaimed in awe as the trunk rose up and curved to form a new Elder Tree. Then the center glowed with light. Not white but gold.
“Come,” she told the others. “Hurry!”
Leoake shook his head. “Our agreement is only for you and your mate, Dyna.”
“Go. We have enough Tanzanite to make it to Avandia,” King Leif said as Princess Graeae came forward with a handful of blue stones in her hands.
“Why are you helping them?” Altham shouted at her, enraged. Leif’s men held him back. “You traitor!”
His daughter flinched but she wouldn’t look at him.
At that moment, Yelrakel flew down. “My queen, Gadriel’s forces have retreated…” Her wide eyes fixed on Cassiel, and she yanked off her helmet. “Sire!”
“I am taking him to Melodyam Falls,” Dyna told her. “I will save him, General. I leave my friends in your care. Please escort them home.”
Leoake turned away for the gateway and stepped through. Dyna followed with Cassiel. She looked back at the boulder where his wing was still pinned, blood soaking the sand. Zev met her gaze and nodded.
Then Dyna slipped into the Elder Tree.
Leaving the hot sands of Red Highland for the misty forests of Greenwood felt like stepping into another world.
The woodland at the ruins was quiet. The evidence of the flashflood was still apparent, but the air was cool and fresh with the last fall of rain. The sound of water crashed within the waterfalls, the scent of dynalya flowers strong in the air. Dyna ran for it.
The cold water splashed as she wadded inside and brought Cassiel with her. She released her hold on him, and he sank into the water. Leaning him against her chest, Dyna staggered under his weight. She could feel the very gaping hole where his wing used to be.
What he did for her ... that was undying sacrifice she could never repay.
A sob caught in Dyna’s throat. She sat in the shallow end and wrapped her arms around Cassiel, bringing him too rest on her lap. Red petals in the water lapped around them.
“This will work, won’t it?”
Leoake stood by the bank, surveying the area with disinterest. “These waters will aid you in healing what remains of his body but not his mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“Not only is his body broken,” the Druid looked back at her. “But also his spirit. He doesn’t wish to stay in a world where he has lost everything. If you want to save him, you must show him he still has something to live for, dream walker.”
With that, Leoake strode away for the trees, still singing that same tune that tugged at somewhere deep in her soul.
Dyna shut her eyes, following the sound into her mind and into Cassiel’s. The whistle turned into a gentle hum as the dream smoke took her away. There were no flashes of memories or muddled voices.
The next blink of her eyes opened to a scene of a little boy with black wings. Perhaps three or four, standing on a terrace with a beautiful woman. Her black hair was pinned up, her gray eyes glittering as she chased her son. Cassiel’s small wings flapped excitedly as he laughed.
“I’ve got you!” Elia caught up in her arms. He squealed with laughter as she nuzzled his cheek with kisses.
He tried to wiggle out of her arms, but she tickled him, and he gasped with laughter. “No fair!”
“Well, if you wish to escape me then I suppose that means you will have to learn how to fly, won’t you?”
Cassiel’s giggles faded.
Setting him down, Elia kneeled in front of him. “You can do it, Cassiel.”
“Papa said he would be with me my first time.”
She sighed and smiled at him sadly. “You father is a little busy now. But I am here, and I think you’re ready.”
He looked up at the sky anxiously, his eyes welling up. “What if I fall?”
“Oh, darling.” She hugged him tight. “Then I promise I will catch you.”
Dyna then stood with Elia as Cassiel drew the courage to climb onto the terrace and leap. His mother cried tears of joy as he soared across the sky painted with a sunset, and yet, they were tears of sadness too.
Elia watched him grow in that sky and every year he flew further and further out every day. She took a seat by the window with a book on her lap with the image of a volcanic island and Dyna sensed she was dreading the day she had to say goodbye.
When night came, Cassiel cuddled with her in bed, his head on her lap. He was only nine years old. His little fingers clutched her dress as if afraid she would disappear.
“Mama…” Cassiel mumbled as his sleepy eyes began to close. “Don’t go.”
Her lip quivered but her voice was steady. “It will only be for a little while, darling.”
“Don’t leave me behind. I want to be where you are.”
Elia’s face crumbled and she took him into in her arms, rocking him to sleep as she hummed. Dyna went still at the sound. She recognized it.
It was the same tune the Druid whistled, and it was the roots of the song Cassiel played on his flute.
Silent tears rolled down Elia’s face as she sang. It was all she could do but hold him close to her heart. Dyna cried as she listened to a mother gently hum to her son. Elia held him, knowing it would be for the last time, and in that heartrending song was the sound of love and grief.
Cassiel’s memories grew darker after she left.
He wandered the cold halls of the Hilos castle searching for something he couldn’t find. Yoel wandered them too. But he was rendered a ghost by the absence of his wife, and he seemed to have forgotten about his son.
Dyna found Cassiel sitting on the terrace balcony staring at the horizon day after day, season after season. And the light in his eyes faded.
He had lost both parents.
Abandoned by one.
Ignored by the other.
Terrorized by the ones who did acknowledge his existence. She could feel his hurt left by the hollowness in heart.
I was so angry with them. Cassiel’s voice filtered around her. For so long. So resentful. I blamed him for my mother leaving. For the way I was treated. I blamed him for everything.
Memories flashed around her of Cassiel much older. Yoel had come to realize what he had done, but Cassiel gave his back to him time and again.
He tried to mend our relationship, but I wanted nothing to do with him.
She appeared in Hermon during the winter. Cassiel stood in the courtyard, watching Yoel fly away. Whenever he came to see me, I would avoid him until he left. Then I would stand here and blame him for abandoning me once again.
Then she was in Skelling Rise, in a room within the manor, Cassiel holding Yoel in his arms as he faded away into light. All that was left was the blood on his hands.
Everything darkened, leaving him alone on his knees, on that bloodied floor.
When I finally let go of my anger he was gone before I could say I was sorry. Before I could say goodbye. His body didn’t stay long enough to grow cold. To even accept that it happened. It didn’t it didn’t feel real. So I made it … not real. Because I still … I still needed him.
She nodded, her lip quivering as she tried not to cry. Yes, he had still needed his father. As she had still needed hers.
Dyna tried to approach him, but her foot went through the floor then she was falling among the stars. She landed in a dark corridor. Little Cassiel ran past her, and she followed, calling his name.
But she lost sight of him and the world seemed to stretch no matter how fast she ran.
Everyone I love leaves… They die because of me. My father. My mother. You.
I am still here! She called out. Cassiel, I am here!
Dyna at last reached the end and she found herself in a garden with an Azure tree. Hilos again.
She heard distant laughter and followed it. The scenery opened to Elia holding up a baby boy against the sun, laughing as she nuzzled his little face. Yoel sat with them, watching with a smile not yet burned by it all.
Of all people, she deserved happiness.
Cassiel, an older boy, now sat in the garden alone. He stared at the empty ground as the sky rumbled with thunder and rain beat down. His head lowered, wet hair curtaining his face.
There will never be a day when we would all be together like again. We would never be happy like that again … because of me. And I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t bear to remember what I had done to them. Then I was alone, and I didn’t know what I lived for anymore.
Dyna went to him and kneeled in front of the boy. She reached for his cheek, and it was solid against her palm. Tears rolled down his face as he looked up at her. “‘You are only a memory I wish to forget’… I said those words to him and then I killed him.”
“Oh, no. You didn’t, Cassiel. You didn’t.” Dyna pulled the boy into her arms. His entire body shook with sobs, and he clutched onto her with trembling arms.
“They’re gone.” The broken words tumbled out of him as he shook. “No one is home.”
As he cried in her arms like a lost child, Dyna finally understood why Cassiel left. Because he had the utter, mind-numbing fear she would die because of him, too. And no part of him could ever endure that. It tore at her heart and her tears joined his.
Closing her eyes, Dyna let her shield fall. She reached in through the bond and shoved aside all the darkness, all the blame, and guilt, and held the little boy who had no one. Who was rejected for being different. Who lost his mother and father. Who grew up into a young man too afraid to trust others or love until he found it. Then he loved so much that he gave up everything out of fear of losing it. Who killed to protect it even when it destroyed him.
The pieces of his soul were scattered on the ground like shards of glass. That very soul already died for her once before because they had promised to find each other again.
And they had.
“You’re not alone, Cassiel,” Dyna whispered to him, stroking his hair. “I’m home.”