Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
“Where are we going?” Kohen followed behind me, keeping up with my footing as I directed us to my impending funeral.
“Courtyard,” I muttered, my mind on one track.
I scanned our surroundings, keeping a constant eye out for enemy soldiers. Where did they all go? Beats me. They certainly had not retreated, but we’d only encountered one since Kohen found me. He took care of the Draemornian before I had even noticed the threat.
“What's in the courtyard?”
“The statues,” I said.
“Oh really? I had no idea.”
When I did not respond to his sarcasm, Kohen picked up his pace to walk by my side. “And why does that matter? Fancy doing a little tourism while we are in the middle of a war?”
I rolled my eyes. “That was such a Sawyer thing to say. Speaking of Sawyer, have you seen him?” I hoped he had caught up with the others.
Kohen shook his head. “No. Pia and I were guarding the wards at the main gate. I haven't seen him for a few hours.”
“I hope he's okay.” Worry fueled my voice cracks.
“I'm sure he is. Sawyer is one of the most powerful soldiers we have. You could argue he is the same, if not stronger than Seb.”
He wasn't wrong. Sawyer showed me that side of him plenty of times in combat training. Stronger than Sebastian, though?
“It's quiet,” I said, pausing in my tracks. “Weirdly quiet for a battle. Isn’t it?”
Kohen nodded, his head darting side to side.
As if on cue, a horrendous crash came from somewhere near the main gate—where Pia and Sebastian were, according to Kohen.
Eyes rising towards the sound, we stood silent viewers as a portion of the castle crumbled in on itself, pieces of the tower and the entryway collapsing. The whole area blew up in smoke as flame encapsulated it.
As I watched the destruction, my pulse quickened to a speed that threatened to make my veins burst. They made it out. They made it out. They have to have made it out.
A good portion of the Draemornian army ran along the other side of the castle, making for the back entrance.
“They're trying to destroy the castle,” Kohen said under his breath.
“They're going to leave us without a kingdom to even rule,” I replied under mine, and picked up my speed.
I knew it killed Kohen not to turn back for Pia, but he stayed with me. If he was anything, Kohen was loyal.
We trudged along through the grass, wet with dew and blood. The haze was still heavy, but cleared up the closer we inched to the courtyard. We were almost there, just a few more yards.
I stepped onto the cobblestone patio and took a quick inventory of my surroundings, making sure there was no one waiting for us. There were plenty of bodies around, but the dead were not a threat.
“Come to me.”
I marched straight for the statue of Blythe, stopping in front of her and taking my rucksack off, tossing it to the side.
The blue and opalescent hues of her statue glistened despite the smoke dancing around it.
I took in the beauty of her figure one last time before Kohen and I broke her into smithereens.
I sucked in a few deep breaths—very well the last few I’d ever take. Once we did this, there was no going back. But by the scene we just witnessed at the castle, it seemed that Caelestis was losing this battle. It was my life or theirs, and I chose them…I chose him.
Finalizing my decision, I accepted my fate and turned to Kohen. “We need to break this statue.”
He raised an eyebrow, crossing his steel-coated arms as he glared at me. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“You're joking, right? People are dying, Maeve.”
“Yeah, and more will die if we don’t break the statue of Blythe.”
He scoffed. “Alright. I’ve always thought you were a little crazy, but now I'm sure of it.”
I stared at him, my gaze unfaltering as I waited for him to break.
“Fine. But you need to tell me why.”
“There's no time, my star. Soon the castle will fall. You can stop this.”
“I’ll tell you after, now please!” I pleaded, reaching out for the statue. I used all of my strength to try and push it down, but it was too heavy. Constellastone was not a light mineral.
“King Hawthorne is going to kill me,” Kohen groaned, stepping forward. “Back up.”
He closed his eyes, tapping into his power and forcing the wind surrounding us to increase.
Granted to him by the God of Weather, Zenith, Kohen's onyx jewel flashed as he created a damn tornado right before him.
The force of the gust threatened to knock me down.
I backed up further to avoid toppling over as his power built the windstorm up higher and higher, until it was taller than the statue itself.
Kohen looked back at me, his arms shaking from the extent of the power he held onto. “Are you sure about this?”
I nodded, brushing my hair out of my eyes.
Kohen clenched his jaw, then turned from me and released the full magnitude of his power.
The tornado collided with the statue, knocking it to the ground, where it shattered into a million glittering pieces of crystal.
I had doubted the statue's integrity, but as the shards spread out over the courtyard, it was clear that the sparkling pieces were in fact the most sought after jewel in the world.
The final blow of wind shoved us both to the ground. We stayed down, watching the timeless figurine be destroyed right in front of us, and for the first time in hours, the voice that'd been filling my mind, quieted.
Once the dust had settled, Kohen rose to his feet. “Sooo…What was the purpose of that?”
Ignoring him, I stayed down, waiting for something to happen. Shouldn't something have happened? My hand found my neck, checking my pulse just to be sure. It was still there, pounding away.
“What the fuck?”
Kohen looked down at me, his eyes tired and heavy. “Care to explain why I just put myself on Hawthorne’s shit list?”
My lips turned down and I gave him a half shrug as I attempted to pull myself to my feet. “I thought for sure that was the answer—” My knees broke down from the pressure, and I collapsed, my head throbbing with the familiar ache granted to me when I overused my power.
“Woah,” I hummed, holding a hand to my head and trying to recenter my sense of gravity.
Kohen crouched down before me. “What's wrong? You good?”
“Yeah. I don't know what happened.”
He grabbed my arm, pulling me to my feet. He held me steady for a moment, but when he let go, the same thing happened. My vision faltered and my knees hit the ground with such force that it sent a shock through my nervous system. I rolled back, sitting on my behind and blinking my vision back.
I hardly used my magic, so why did I feel like I just compelled an entire army?
“My star…”
My head snapped up. I looked in every direction, searching for the goddess who should have no longer been able to contact me. My eyes caught on Kohen, whose face clearly conveyed his concern.
“Did you hear that?” he asked, and I nodded a yes.
The wind picked back up, and this time it was not Kohen's doing.
As the speed intensified, the shards of crystal covering the courtyard danced along the ground.
They shimmered in the glare of the starlight and pulled to each other like magnets, sticking together and building up off of the patio into a mass.
My mouth went slack as a body manifested from the grains of scattered gemstones. They glued themselves together with magic, first creating two legs, then a torso, continuing until the courtyard was cleared of debris, and a glimmering goddess stood tall before us.
We were so small and fragile compared to her magnificent figure.
Her skin twinkled with light, so bright and sparkling that she looked as though she had pure starlight emitting from her skin.
Her hair was the color of ice and swirled down past her waist, ending in a soft curl.
She looked just as her statue did, except real. Exquisite.
Blythe’s silver eyes locked onto me. “So nice to finally meet you in the flesh.” Her voice hummed as she addressed me and offered me a dazzling grin.
I couldn't speak.
The goddess turned to Kohen, whose blank expression proved him to be just as dumbfounded as me. “Thank you for your help in freeing me. Go collect your loved ones—anyone who you don’t wish death upon—then return here with them.”
Kohen's mouth snapped shut. He gave me a quick glance before making his exit to follow orders.
Anxiety swelled within my core, mixing with my shock and creating an undeniable sense of trepidation as Blythe crouched in front of where I sat.
“Am I about to die?” I felt so weak right now that I must have been edging the veil of life and death.
She blessed me with a comforting smile. Her glass arm reached out to me, brushing the tangles of my hair over my shoulder. “No, my star.”
My head rocked side to side. “But…the sacrifice. The prophecy…I thought if I set you free, that it would be fulfilled. I don't understand.”
“I told you not to fear the sacrifice, did I not?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“You let your mistrust of yourself and others get in the way of your excellence. I hope that with what’s to come, you are able to relieve yourself of that agony.” Her voice strummed something in my brain, creating a sense of tranquility within the layers of my soul.
“The fable I guided you to is correct, but you already knew that. I was banished centuries ago by my siblings—locked into that figurine for being too powerful. There is some truth to that claim, but they were destroying everything. I had no choice but to undo the horror they were creating. They had gotten lazy. With each mortal they gifted to work for them, more havoc overtook the beauty of the world we had worked so hard at building. The balance of nature was unwinding beneath our very feet.” She paused to place a finger under my chin, tipping my gaze to meet hers. “I could not allow that.”