Chapter 17
I wept. Great, heaving sobs that shook my entire frame as I curled inward. I bowed my head, tears streaming down my dirt-stained cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out, grip tightening around the stone’s jagged edges until they threatened to pierce my skin. The words were empty—pathetic against the magnitude of my betrayal. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Each repetition grew more broken, until they were nothing but fragmented sounds torn from my lips.
Darkness crept in from the edges of my vision. I swayed, the world tilting beneath me.
Theo’s arms shot out to catch me before I could collapse. He pulled me against him as I broke apart.
My body convulsed with cries torn from the deepest part of my soul.
Theo smoothed a hand over my hair. “Shh. It’s okay, Elira.”
Nothing about this was okay. It would never be okay again.
Rage surged through me, burning away the sorrow. With a sharp, strangled cry, I tore away from Theo’s embrace, stumbling backward.
“I’m leaving,” I rasped, my voice so ravaged by emotion it was barely recognisable. I pressed the stone against my chest like a shield, its pulse synchronizing with my racing heart. “I’m taking the stone. I’m going back to the mortal realm.”
Theo and Tavrik exchanged a wary glance, tensing, as if preparing to restrain me. I kept talking, the words tumbling out in a frantic cascade.
“I’ll destroy it.” I began moving restlessly, cutting a frenzied path through the disturbed earth. “I’ll protect my mother. I’ll—” My voice splintered. “I’ll trade my life for hers, if I have to.”
I was coming apart at the seams.
My thoughts were spinning too fast—a hurricane of desperation and fury that was about to sweep away whatever remained of my sanity. I dug my nails into my scalp, breaking skin as if I could physically tear the madness from my mind.
Tavrik’s large hands clamped onto my shoulders. “Elira, stop.”
I snapped my head up, eyes wild and unfocused. Snarling as I tried to wrench free from his grip.
His steady gaze locked onto mine, pulling me from the edges of hysteria.
“Zaheera will know,” he said carefully. “She can enter your mind whenever she wants. If you try to deceive her, she’ll see right through you.”
I froze.
Zaheera could hear my thoughts. My intentions. Nothing in my mind was truly my own as long as she held the other end of the cursed bargain.
I exploded.
“FUCK!”
I paced like a caged animal before stopping abruptly.
A thought struck me. Hope blooming in my chest as I clutched stone tighter.
I drew in a deep breath and called her name.
“Zaheera.”
Silence stretched around me, unbroken save for the soft whistling of wind in the tress.
I called to her again, louder.
“Zaheera!”
Nothing.
No phantom fingers wrapping around my consciousness like a vice. No cold brush of ancient bitterness against my thoughts.
The world remained still.
I spun to Theo, triumph blazing in my features, and thrust the stone into his hands. My fingers resisted, reluctant to part with it, but I forced myself to let go.
He hesitated, uncertainty flickering across his face before he took it.
I called her name again. This time she answered instantly.
“Tell me.”
I forced a plea into my tone, carefully constructing the right mix of desperation and determination.
“I think I might be getting close,” I lied. “The feeling is stronger now.”
She purred in satisfaction, the sound reverberating through my head like rolling waves.
“Good girl. Seems you only needed a little motivation.”
I wanted to tear her from my mind with my bare hands—to destroy the connection that bound us.
I wanted to kill her.
“I think it’ll take a few more days… and then, I will bind his soul.”
The promise tasted like poison.
“Please, Zaheera…” I whispered, my voice cracking. “Don’t hurt her.”
“So long as you hold up your end of the bargain, no harm will come to her, or anyone else for that matter. You forget, sweet girl, I am doing this to save your world.”
I clenched my jaw, pain bursting along my temples. “Yes, Zaheera.”
She revelled in my obedience—fed on my submission like a parasite drawing sustenance from its host.
Theo was frozen, the stone firm in his grip. I snatched it back, needing its power. Its shield.
“She can’t sense me,” I whispered. “As long as I hold the stone, I’m invisible.”
Tavrik’s brow furrowed. Fear crept into both his and Theo’s expressions.
I knew what they were thinking. What if she peered into their minds instead?
“The only reason she can hear me is because of the bargain. She can’t enter your mind unless you willingly invite her in.”
“What about the mortal realm, Elira?” Tavrik asked. “Will you really let the Jinn descend upon them?”
My own anguish was reflected in his gaze.
“Could you do it, Tavrik?” I whispered. “If it were you instead of me, could you kill Jasila based on a vision of a war that might never come?” I stepped closer, imploring him to understand. “We don’t even know if they will tear the Veil.”
Theo stepped forward, placing himself between us. “But we do know,” he said. “You heard him. It may not be today, but it will happen. And if it’s his power that runs through the Veil…” His voice carried painful honesty. “It’ll be Dalkhan who brings it down.”
The truth of his words crushed my desperate rationalisations.
“I’m so sorry, El.”
Laughing bitterly, I hurled the stone at Theo.
He caught it easily.
I stalked closer, my whole body shaking uncontrollably.
“Then you do it!” I shoved against his chest. He had to step back to maintain his balance. “You kill him!” I jabbed a finger against his sternum, emphasising each word with a sharp prod. “You bear this burden, and I will sit back while you make the call.”
I shoved him even harder, putting the full force of my body behind it. I wanted to hurt him—to force him to feel even a fraction of the unbearable torment suffocating me. I wanted him to break. To admit that he couldn’t do it either.
Theo absorbed each impact, standing solid while I broke against him. Slowly, he extended the stone back to me, placing it gently in my palm.
I grasped it like a lifeline, my vision blurring with burning, unshed tears. The stone pulsed against my skin.
“Tell me what to do,” Theo said quietly, determination hardening his features. “I’m in, no matter what you choose.”
Tavrik nodded. “So am I.”
“This is what we do.”
Theo and Tavrik leaned in as I laid out the plan, their faces etched with shadows and eyes dark with resignation.
My stomach was in knots.
They didn’t argue. What was there to say? What I intended to do was nothing short of a death sentence if we were caught.
But I had to do it. I had to go back. I had to protect my mother.
Dalkhan’s name alone made my chest constrict. He would soon realise I was gone. If Mira was waiting for me, she would notice my absence even sooner.
There was no time to even gather supplies. We ran.
We didn’t know where the Veil was. Only that we had to move in the opposite direction of Dalkhan’s kingdom and pray to the Heavens that we’d find it before he found us.
When we’d first arrived, we had been thrust into a deep, unnatural sleep, and transported without knowledge of where we were or how to retrace our steps.
We kept running anyway.
The sky bled to black, the moon’s cold fire breaking past branches, painting our path in silver streaks. The world was silent save for our pounding footsteps and the frantic hammering of my heart.
Hours blurred into a nightmare of pain. My muscles screamed, exhaustion turning my limbs to lead.
I staggered to a halt, nearly crashing face-first into the earth as my knees buckled. I braced my hands on my thighs, sucking in deep, painful gasps like I was drowning in reverse.
Theo and Tavrik slowed, their chests heaving like wounded animals. Sweat poured down their faces, dripping onto the ground.
Around us stretched nothing but endless trees and an open field rolling toward the horizon. No Jinn. No soldiers.
Then the world ruptured.
A deafening sound like a star being torn from the sky split the night, vibrating through my teeth and rattling my bones.
Not just a roar, but a wrathful, soul-rending bellow shook the trees until leaves rained down on us.
The ground beneath us trembled, pebbles skittering across the forest floor like scattered bones. Birds erupted in a chaos of wings and terrified cries, their silhouettes cutting across the pale moon.
I locked eyes with Theo. The colour had drained from his face, and his pupils had blown wide with terror.
“Shit.”
He was coming.
Dalkhan’s fury burned in the air like wildfire. It was everywhere—in the sky that darkened even further. In the cowering branches.
Power crackled across my skin like static, the taste of metal flooding my mouth.
Even the moon seemed to dim in fear.
“Run.”
We bolted. Propelled by pure terror, my feet barely kissed the ground.
I had known he would come for me.
I had betrayed him. After everything—after he had let me in. Let me see parts of him no one else had.
After he trusted me.
Torment twisted in my veins like poison. My soul screamed for me to turn back, to abandon this madness and throw myself into his arms where I belonged.
I bit down on my knuckles to keep from crying out his name.
I had to go home. I had to protect her. And by leaving, I was protecting him too, though he would never know.
“He will come for us.” Theo’s voice cracked. “And he will kill us.”
My legs moved blindly, beyond exhaustion.
Then the world ahead began to shimmer.
Reality rippled, distorting as the light of the moon cascaded against an invisible wall stretching across the land.
The Veil.
We had made it. We only had to cross.
I hesitated, just for one stolen moment, and looked back.
Thick and writhing shadows erupted from the darkness, clawing their way into existence. Flames burned within them, hungry tongues of fire licking at the air.
The Veil pulsed behind me, its magic pulling at my back.
The shadows solidified, and there he was.