Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
SACHA
“What was severed seeks reunion. What was silenced seeks voice.”
The Nature of Veinblood Rebirth
The room beneath Nyassa’s house is cramped with the three of us inside.
Walls press close around us, and the air smells of earth and damp.
There are wooden crates stacked against one of the walls wrapped in something that reminds me of parchment, only thicker, and white devices with flashing lights against another wall that I can’t even guess the function of.
There is only one way in and out. A narrow staircase that leads up to the main house.
If something goes wrong, we could be trapped in here forever.
“I spent last night and most of today going through everything I remember about the original ritual, my Lord. Before we try this, if you’ll forgive me, I need to understand how your summoning worked.
The crossing was sealed when the other Veinblood masters died.
No magic should have been able to reach through that barrier.
Yet somehow, yours reached across dimensions and pulled Elowen through. ”
Ellie shifts beside me. “Please, it’s Ellie. Just Ellie.”
“I’m sorry. Ellie, then.” Nyassa gives her a small smile, then turns back to me. “I need to know what made your casting different.”
I know what she isn’t voicing. She needs to know if there’s a way to send us back without one or more of us dying.
I think back to those final moments in the tower before Sereven sealed me inside. The desperation. The rage. The absolute certainty that I was running out of time, that everything I’d fought for would die with me.
“Before they imprisoned me, Sereven had me tortured for weeks, trying to break my will. By the time they were ready to seal me away permanently, I was barely conscious, barely able to think clearly, but in those final moments of freedom, I knew I had to do something. I was desperate, exhausted, and dying. I combined shadows with Voidcraft in a way I’d never tried before. ”
“What did you do?” Ellie’s voice is hushed.
“I cast the spell with my blood.” Nyassa’s intake of breath tells me she understands the kind of risk that was. “It anchored shadows to Voidcraft, and allowed me to reach beyond what was left of my strength. I instructed it to find someone who could break the binding.”
Nyassa taps one finger against her lips as she thinks.
“The Voidcraft. That’s what was different.
We had to force our way through with pure Veinblood magic, but Voidcraft doesn’t work the same way.
It slips between spaces instead of through them.
Combining that with your blood will have strengthened it.
If your Voidcraft can follow the energy trail that threw you to Earth—”
“There shouldn’t be any backlash,” I finish her thought.
“What if something goes wrong?” Ellie’s voice is small.
“Then we all die,” Nyassa says. “This requires perfect timing and absolute commitment. Once we begin, we can’t hesitate or second guess.
My Tidevein magic will stabilize the path Lord Torran creates with Voidcraft and shadows.
Ellie, your power will be what drives us through.
Your bracelet is our focus. Direct all your power into that. Lord Torran and I will do the rest.”
Ellie’s face is pale in the dim light of the cellar. She stares down at the bracelet on her wrist, plucking at it with her fingers. Then she lifts her head, and looks at me.
“I need to talk to you before we start. In case we don’t survive.” She glances at Nyassa. “Alone, if that’s okay?”
“Of course.” The other woman moves to the far side of the small space, and turns away, giving us a small appearance of privacy.
“It’s all right if you have changed your mind, Mel’shira. This is—”
“No! That’s not what I want to tell you.
” She reaches for my hand. “I’m sure you already know, but I need to say it out loud.
Before we risk everything, and maybe even die trying to get back to Meridian.
” Her grip tightens. “I love you. And I don’t regret anything!
” Her voice is fierce. “Not coming to Meridian. Not helping you escape from the tower. And not choosing to go back, even though it terrifies me that we won’t make it.
Because it doesn’t matter, as long as I’m with you. ”
I’ve seen the way she looks at me, felt the connection between us, but hearing her speak the words aloud affects me in ways I didn’t expect. For once, I’m at a loss for words. I use our linked hands to tug her toward me, and cup her face with my other hand.
“Mel’shira.” I dip my head to press my lips to hers, trying to put everything I can’t say into the kiss. When we pull apart, I rest my forehead against hers. “You’re my choice too. In this world and Meridian.” I straighten, and turn to Nyassa. “We’re ready.”
Nyassa walks toward the center of the space, and holds her arms out to either side of her. “Ellie, place your bracelet in the center, then the three of us must join hands. The physical connection will help link our powers. Once we start, we cannot stop until we have crossed.”
Ellie crouches and removes the silver band, placing it carefully onto the floor, then stands and reaches for my hand again.
The moment she touches me, light brightens her skin.
I summon my shadows, while Nyassa draws water from the damp air.
The link between our powers snaps into place with an almost audible click.
“Aim it at the bracelet, Ellie,” Nyassa instructs.
Silver power snakes down Ellie’s arms, racing over our joined hands and pouring into the bracelet. The metal begins to rise, spinning slowly as energy floods through it. The air around it shimmers with heat.
“Lord Torran,” Nyassa murmurs.
Shadows lift from my skin, and move around the outside of our circle, growing and expanding until they surround us.
“Ther’van nul.” I send the words out into the void. But this time, I’m not casting blind, searching for an unknown target. This time I know exactly what I’m hunting for.
Voidcraft sinks through layers of reality, slipping between the spaces where normal magic can’t reach. When it finds the damaged barrier, the connection that forms feels like touching a raw nerve.
I bite down on my tongue, until blood fills my mouth.
“Kaelen vash mor.”
The shadows around us spin faster, streaks of silver flashing through them, creating patterns of light and dark that pulse with shared purpose.
Water erupts from every surface, moving in spirals, while lightning cracks through it.
The cellar’s walls begin to vibrate. The bracelet blazes with the same glow that surrounds Ellie, and then light explodes outward.
“I can feel it,” Ellie gasps, her voice strained with pain and effort. “Something is pulling at me.”
“Hold on,” Nyassa shouts over the roar of magical forces clashing in front of us. “Don’t try to control it. Just let your power flow where it wants to go.”
The cellar walls turn translucent, then transparent, and then they shatter. The void between worlds writhes with chaotic energy, churning and surging like an incoming tide.
“It’s working.” Nyassa’s voice is barely audible over the noise. “Whatever happens, hold on to each other.”
Energy tears through the air, static making our hair stand on end as electrical charges race across our skin. The light becomes unbearable, forcing me to close my eyes or risk going blind. My grip on Ellie’s hand tightens.
Then reality fractures completely.
One moment, Ellie is clinging to me, the taste of blood is sharp on my tongue, and the next …
I’m being hurled through the chaos that exists beyond space, beyond time, beyond any concept of existence my mind can process fully. My consciousness tears apart and scatters, while my body is crushed, stretched, and reformed.
Just as quickly as it began, the chaos stops.
My knees slam into stone as I crash down hard, pain shooting through my body as I struggle to orient myself. My vision blurs, the world still spinning around me. Every muscle screams in protest. My head pounds like it’s been split open.
Where am I?
The question comes through a haze of agony. I try to push myself upright and nearly collapse again as my arms give out beneath me. Shadows coil around me, as disoriented as I am, their usual smooth movements jerky and unstable.
Light streams in from somewhere. But it’s too bright, making my eyes water. Each ray feels like a knife slicing into my skull. I force myself to keep my eyes open despite the pain and slowly my surroundings start to make sense.
I’m back in Thornspire Keep. The same room where we faced Sereven, where our combined power struck his crystal and threw us across worlds.
But the room is wrong. Devastatingly wrong.
Half the northern wall has collapsed. Rubble lies scattered across the floor.
Blocks of stone that once formed the ceiling and support beams have been reduced to broken pieces.
Some are larger than a man, others ground to dust. The gap where the wall should be opens onto empty sky, pale morning light streaming through and highlighting destruction so complete it steals my breath.
The pattern of the damage tells a story I can read like a map.
The force that did this originated from a single point—the exact spot where Sereven stood when our power struck the crystal.
From there, the destruction radiates outward in waves, each successive ring of damage less severe but just as devastating.
The stone itself bears scorch marks, as though it’s been exposed to a heat beyond anything a normal fire could produce.
I look around the room, expecting to find Ellie picking herself up nearby. But the space is empty, except for rubble and debris.
“Ellie?” I call her name softly, then louder when I get no response. “Ellie?” My voice echoes off the stone and returns to me.