Chapter 9 #2
“Insulting the one being who could help you?” I said, dryly. “That’s a bold strategy.”
He continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “I thought it would be enough to steal your sword, and then to open all the sealed compartments within the Aetherstone’s chamber.
I thought the pieces that witch ripped away from me would all have gathered there over time, drawn in by the magic resting in that space.
I’d seen signs pointing to this, I believed. But...”
“You were mistaken.”
“So it would seem.”
Of all the things I could have felt in that moment, what overcame me was a strange, tingling sense of…power.
He couldn’t even find his scattered pieces without my help.
But what was I supposed to do with this power?
I circled the room, thinking. Plotting. Glancing back at him, I said, “And you summoned me here because you actually think I’ll help you after all you’ve done?”
“What happens if you won’t help, I wonder?” Lorien smiled. “Tell me: How are things in Noctaris now that you’re embracing all of your Vaeloran power? How many times have you been to the Aetherstone’s chamber, trying to squeeze more magic into your dead world?”
I had a sick feeling he already knew the answer to that question.
“It won’t yield to you alone, will it?” he asked.
“I’ll find a way to make it.”
“And if you don’t?”
I glared at him.
“If you’ll recall, I’ve wanted to work together from the beginning.
” He moved closer, but paused once he stood over the symbol in the middle of the floor.
“It seems powers greater than us both want the same thing,” he said, using his boot to brush aside some of the dust covering that symbol.
Frowning down at it, he said, “We can keep up this violent dance between us, leaving everything beneath us unstable. Or we could finally work together and…who knows?”
“Together.” I clenched Grimnor more tightly. “As though I would ever trust you.”
“You shouldn’t trust me.” The words were easy and smooth—an unsettling contradiction to the predatory sharpness that gleamed in the gaze he fixed on me. “But you must realize the more immediate consequences of not doing what I ask.”
I had so many more questions.
So many more doubts.
But then his eyes flashed briefly to Aleksander’s gold, and all my words died in my throat.
“I will destroy him,” he said, his voice still chillingly smooth and casual.
“And when I am finished with him, there will be other hosts to carry on with—and as long as I am forced to suffer, I will make sure your precious realm of Noctaris continues to suffer, too. I don’t need my true body and my full power to do that.
You’ve probably realized by now that I’m perfectly capable of destroying things with others’ hands. ”
“And what if Soltaris suffers as well?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice steady. “If the instability between us continues to grow?”
“Then so be it.”
“An entire world held hostage for your sake? Really?”
“I think very highly of my own existence.”
“Monster.”
He chuckled darkly. “Survivor. Monster. The line between the two often blurs, I’ve found.”
I couldn’t find the words to dispute this, so I stayed silent.
“Well? Do we have an understanding?”
No, I thought, dully. This is foolish.
But instead of telling him to fuck off, as I knew I should, I heard myself say: “I have a demand of my own, first.”
He regarded me curiously for a moment before answering. “Of course.”
I didn’t hesitate. “Give him back to me.”
“I will, once—”
“No. Not eventually. Now.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then we go back to dancing that violent dance between us.”
“Even if it means the entire world suffers?”
“Even then.”
His brows lifted. “You would risk the whole world for him?”
“I think very highly of his existence.”
His smile was almost…proud. “You drive a hard bargain, Little Shadow.”
I bristled at the nickname but kept my head held high, refusing to show anything but determination in that moment.
He rolled the tension from his shoulders and said, “We have a deal, then. Of course, the world will need proof of our agreement.”
“…Proof?”
“Give me your hand.”
Hesitantly, I offered it.
His smile turned sly. His eyes met mine, and a hundred lifetimes seemed to flash within their dark crimson depths. I saw—no, experienced—centuries’ worth of powerful, painful emotions in the span of only breaths.
When he finally let go, I watched, dizzily, as the mark of the Light Vaelora appeared on my wrist: The two crescents, each curving away from either side of a centered sun…except all of it was faint and shimmering, like a scar that had been there for years.
Above the symbol, a darker, x-shaped sigil pulsed faintly.
The heat radiating from the x and shooting up my arm was immense, but I forgot it an instant later as I watched Aleksander’s body go alarmingly still.
His head bowed. Light bled from every inch of him, outlining his frame with searing brilliance.
The air all around us turned strangely heavy with magic, blurring all but his figure; it was like watching the sun trying to fight its way through a thick fog.
That light eventually shuddered and collapsed to a single point in front of Aleksander’s chest, hovering there for a moment…
And then it dove straight into Grimnor, colliding with it so violently that I nearly dropped the sword.
The blade flashed, briefly covered with blinding bolts of bluish-white, before settling back to its usual velvety black shade. I stared at it, breathless. The faintest whisper had hissed from the metal as the light diminished, so quiet and distant that I wanted to believe I’d imagined it.
Yet, somehow, I knew I hadn’t.
Had Lorien…bound himself to my sword?
Would he be able to shatter it, as he’d done to Luminor all those weeks ago?
I quickly sheathed Grimnor so I could catch Aleks as he stumbled forward. The weight of both of them settled against me, and with them came the heavy realization of what I’d just done. The risk I’d just taken.
A thousand questions about what came next exploded in my mind, but I couldn’t focus on any of them.
Aleks was finally back in my arms, so I thought of nothing else in that moment beyond my shadows, wrapping them carefully around us both, and willing them to take us home.