Chapter 79 #3
The bloodshed still rages on back at the village.
We can’t see it down in this ditch, but I can hear the screams, the flames, the metal clashing.
Though the explosive fairy dust likely took out a devastating amount of their soldiers, they still fight.
The elves probably thought they were smart infiltrating the village, figuring the dragons were less likely to torch their entire town, but they don’t know what Daegan told me during my first tour here.
Every building is made of fireproof material.
They’re meant to withstand any blaze. There will be minimal damage down there, and the dragons will not hold back.
They’re tired. They’ve had enough. And they’re giving everything they have to fight back at long last. Anyone not fighting was quickly evacuated to the palace, as was discussed in the battle brief.
“Daegan?” Maethrel speaks once again. “Can you do the honors of lighting the deposit of stone?”
I watch Daegan intently, his lip twitching as he delays answering.
Then, finally, he leaves my side, steps forward, unleashes a small, tame flame into the bowl of stone, and steps back again, his arm brushing against mine.
The flame fills the bowl, then turns brilliant blue and purple.
The relics remain intact at the bottom and the flames dance all around them.
I stare into the blue blaze, mesmerized by the motion and the ancient power I feel emanating from it.
A steady, constant fire now crackles in the stone, with no sign of it burning out.
This wouldn’t have worked if Maethrel hadn’t shown up.
We thought we only had to reunite the relics in the stone and torch them, but we’ve done that now, and as I gaze around me, feeling the warm air, I know no curse has been broken.
Not yet, anyway. We need Maethrel to do whatever it is he needs to do.
“Wow,” I whisper. It’s truly a stunning sight to behold.
Across the fire, Maethrel watches it with a fierce intensity. Then his gaze flicks to Daegan through the flames, and then to me. “It is time.”
Daegan tenses, nodding his head at him.
“This is it. It’s going to work,” I say with awe.
He turns and faces me, looking down at me tenderly as he reaches for a strand of my hair and tucks it behind my ear.
It seems as if he’s studying every inch of my face, and though I sense Maethrel doing something across the fire, chanting something I can’t decipher, I can’t pull my eyes from Daegan’s right now.
“I’m so proud of you,” he says, holding the sides of my head with both of his hands now. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I pinch my eyebrows, but I can’t help a smile. It’s a big moment. The culmination of everything we’ve worked for, everything we’ve sacrificed to get here. I can’t hold the smile back.
“For everything. For helping me,” he answers as he places a kiss on my forehead. “And if what Maethrel said is true, I’ll find you in every lifetime. I promise.”
“Me too,” I answer with a chuckle. “But that won’t be for a long, long time.”
He nods once, giving me a tight-lipped smile. I think he’s nervous.
“Are you afraid… to fly?” I ask.
“No.”
I laugh, because that’s so typical of him.
Then my face falls as I say, “I hope we made them proud.” He knows I’m referring to Gaethri, Meela, and Rhydra, our comrades who gave their lives to help, but didn’t live to see it through.
“We did,” Daegan continues to watch me as if I’m going to disappear as soon as the curse breaks. As if I’d leave his side now.
I force myself to rip my eyes away and see what Maethrel is doing, though I still feel Daegan’s eyes on me.
His mouth finally stills, his quiet chants subsiding as he tilts his palms and face to the veil.
Everything is still for a moment, as if time has momentarily frozen, and then brilliant, bright, purple plumes of flames rise to the sky in a powerful burst, exploding against the veil and sending purple veins of magic throughout the deadly layer of haze.
For a moment, it shakes me, terrifies me to my core.
The entire world seems to be blanketed by veins of glowing purple amongst the dark gray veil that blankets our world.
And then it happens. Small at first, but growing at a steady pace. There’s a hole in the veil directly above us, right where Maethrel’s spell hit. Everything we know is going to change now.
Tears well in my eyes as they remained glued above, my neck craned back.
“Let’s get out of this damn pit so we can see what’s going on in the village,” I suggest.
We walk up the sandy incline hand in hand and get a view of the village that’s now incredibly calm. It’s jarring, considering the bloodshed that was just happening down there.
I feel Daegan’s eyes on me still, and I risk a glance his way.
“We did it,” I whisper with a bit of shock.
He nods.
“We survived together. We did it.” More tears threaten to spill, but I blink them away as I look up again. I see black through the hole in the veil at first, but then… a twinkling star.
I gasp, cupping my hands over my mouth.
And then another star reveals itself. And another.
“Daegan, why aren’t you looking?” I ask him without tearing my gaze from above. “Don’t you want to see the stars?”
“I’d rather spend these moments looking at you.”
Something in his tone makes me shift my gaze to him, eyebrows furrowed.
“Are you okay?”
He hesitates. “No.”
Sorrow touches his eyes, but he doesn’t look away. “What do you mean? We did it. We can live our lives in peace now. Together. Me, you, Raef, and Kezra… we survived.”
When he struggles to answer, I look him over, confused. “You’re fine.”
He takes a deep breath, anguish filling his expression, and my confusion grows. Maethrel has disappeared, and I don’t know where or when that happened, but I notice Kezra’s golden glow still nearby.
“I’m not.”
“Daegan, what are you talking about?” My voice is rising in a panic. I look him over wildly again. “We made it. The elves, what’s left of them, don’t stand a chance now.”
He reaches out, grabbing my hands, looking at me tenderly. My whole body fills with ice as the panic and confusion makes my heart beat violently against my chest.
“Raef was wrong. We’re not doomed. None of us are dying. We made it.” I choke up on the last words, because the look in his eyes is scaring me more than anything has through this entire journey.
He rubs a hand against his chest, looking down for only a flash before he locks eyes with me again.
“I already died.”