34. Chapter Thirty-Four
Autumn Blood.
I’d come to accept that as fact sometime between those words seeping into my skin and the stars expelling from every pore. Flashes of time washed across my mind at impossible speed—time before man. It was the creation of humankind, crafted of ash that flaked off an impossible sun. It breathed within our world—existed inside of Celestrium and birthed the first known mortal.
Then I saw the creation of fae, kissed by the mouth of stardust. Creatures larger than life danced amongst the night sky, their laughter bleeding across the realm. When it settled, ash and silvery stars alike, beating hearts encased by fragile flesh joined in celebration. Skin to skin, sun to sun, star to star, they converged.
With my gasp, time sped ahead. I saw centuries pass in seconds and watched light turn to night. Only, this was permanent darkness—the sort I’d once seen ebbing off the monstrous form that haunted me in intimate spaces. It was not human or fae or even living—it was a darkness that dared me to fail.
Just as the darkness of the realm settled into my lungs and choked me from the inside, time flashed forward once more to bodies upon bodies, littered across dirt paths. It was not just war—it was a massacre. Their black veins were not of ordinary death. They were of magic that lifted from their skin, as if their essence was lifting the shell and turning to shadow. To nothing but pitch-black nothingness.
And over them was their queen—one who bled evil into the world and reaped upon their lost, bleeding souls. She was unfamiliar, but as she lifted a taloned finger right at me, I felt as if I’d seen her one thousand times before. One thousand lives before. I wasn’t sure how or why, but I wanted to shrink inside myself and weep.
I tried to find reality so I could pull my hand back, but the woman with silver hair and sickly pale skin flitted towards me. Her bones cracked, and her charcoal eyes enveloped me, darker than the infinite night that surrounded us.
Once is an accident, twice is a sacrifice. Reap his soul, bestow him as sustenance unto me.
I gasped. That cryptic command echoed for a second time in my head—this woman, now in a physical form, was a thing of nightmares. She was scarier than the mist and shadow that had haunted me previously. In body, in mind, she was terrifying.
Something so evil could not be real.
My head shook wildly as I stumbled back, further away from this reverie. When I spun, I was whirled into the vision of that dank basement near the moldy tunnels. Visions of the truth the Elder desired appeared, but I wondered if she saw the rest, too. Again, before me was Myrthana, skin saggy, shards of bone piercing through the wrinkled flesh. Tears of starlight were carving down her cheeks.
This time, her voice was separate from my mind. She almost sounded human. “With sustenance, halfling, I shall awaken anew. With sustenance, I shall break free of my prison. Find me, find me, find me, find me, find me—”
I screamed when her claws ripped into my neck. When I jolted back, I tore free of Elder Fayne’s hands and stumbled onto the ground. Above me, starlight fluttered down onto my skin. It burned like the tip of a torch’s flame, but I didn’t wince—no, it reminded me I was human enough, whole and free.
Eero and Sapphire had lunged onto all fours, situated on either side as they swatted the silvery burning embers from my skin. Only when my breathing mellowed, and the ringing in my ears subsided, did I meet Eero’s stare first, then Sapphire…then Elder Fayne.
She’d ridded herself of her cloak, her head bald and inked with tattoos that glistened in the light. They were not black or white—instead, they were silver. Shimmering silver, as if her skin was inlaid with metal.
Then there were her eyes, gray and hollow like a sky full of stars, like Julius’—
I wanted to scream and rub my eyes to rid them of the burning sensation left behind when I captured her gaze.
“Myrthana.”
The name forced the room into the stillest silence I’d ever heard. Nobody breathed, gasped, moved—they were frozen. I yanked myself from Eero and Sapphire’s hold as I stood, rubbing at my eyes again before looking at Elder Fayne once more.
I squinted, and it burned, but I looked.
Elder Sage, too, removed their hood and stood slowly. “This meeting is adjourned,” she rasped. “Now.”
“What—” I choked. Air whooshed around us, all doorways and windows opening. “No, no. You have to help us. You…Elder Fayne, you saw it. We cannot do this alone.”
Elder Fayne hadn’t so much as breathed—if Elders even breathed to begin with. I wasn’t sure. Eventually, she turned her head to Elder Sage and nodded once. Her counterpart was seething, with reddened cheeks that resembled the fire burning around her pupils.
“The Elders cannot interfere with the fate of your maker, halfling of Autumn blood.”
“If what she says is true,” King Elpheme said with deathly cold fear riddled beneath his tone, “then we are all in danger.”
Queen Mary nodded. “I will not let Elkyn Kingdom fall back to such terror, Elders. I refuse.”
“So your answer is to ignore it?” I challenged, baring my teeth. “It is coming, Queen Mary. You cannot avoid this.”
“You cannot know that,” King Elpheme said, barking out a laugh. Despite this, sweat dripped off his brow and onto his hand. “For all we know, this is an elaborate ruse, meaning to divide the mortal kingdoms in terror to appease your male concubine.”
Something in me snapped as I twisted toward him and pointed a finger. Starry magic shot from it, swiping his cheek like a dagger. “Do not chastise me, old man.”
“Aurelie,” Eero whispered, grabbing my shoulder. I was breathing heavily, but I dropped my hand and watched him curse as he held his face. “Calm down.”
“I will not calm down,” I bit back and faced the Elders once more. “If we free Azalea, we can rid ourselves of this. She will know better than any of us—maybe even better than you.”
The two remaining Elders who had not chimed in hummed in unison before they both spoke, as if they were one. “We believe in our Arcane Mistress’ last light. Her second chance.” One turned their head, as if breaking this hive of agreement. “The time of the Black Regalia has arrived, has it not?”
King Elpheme grunted in discomfort and shifted in his seat. Those words…they’d been spoken to me in haste when Azalea was arrested. Chills raced down my spine. I wanted to inquire, but my head pounded. The slight victory was enough for now.
My shoulders slumped forward. I wanted to sob at the idea of even a minority approval—even if it was from the unnamed Elders who hadn’t so much as looked my way. “Thank you,” I breathed.
“I refuse.” My head snapped toward Queen Mary, whose glare was set on me with the tenacity of a tigress. “Azalea committed high treason and threatened my life.”
“You filthy liar,” I hissed. “She did not so much as lay a finger on you—”
“Do not dare defy me.”
“I will,” I whispered with rancid anger dripping from my tongue, like acid in a storm. I prowled close and let the magic zap between my fingers. “You are no longer my queen. You are no better than the dirt beneath my boot, Mary.”
“Enough,” the most unfamiliar voice boomed. To Queen Mary’s right sat King Orion, a young prince recently crowned. Despite his youth, his voice resounded like a man twice his age. He was beholding me like I was the enemy, but he nodded once. “As the reigning crown over Desyn Prison, we agree to your terms, halfling traitor, but she will not remain in the mortal kingdom.”
The sorceress behind him frowned, but as the rest, she didn’t break their silence.
My posture was somehow both stiff and lax as relief, agony, and terror washed over me.
“King Orion,” Mary hissed.
“Hush,” he buzzed right back and flourished his hand toward me. “She will either live her life a traitor to the mortal kingdom, or she will die by the hands of the fae devil out to end us. Either way, she’s out of our hair—and the wretched fae can go home.”
I was breathing heavily in both anger and anticipation. They treated me like I wasn’t raised in an Elkyn home, as if the symbol of the stag had not been burned into my brain from a young age, begging fidelity to a crown that would be my end.
The Venalian queen was seething, but she made no move to interject, and neither did King Elpheme.
That was three. Three to free her—three to bring my mother home.
“Elder Fayne,” Elder Sage said in a low tone. “It is your realm. It is your decision.”
Elder Fayne’s stare hadn’t followed me to my place in front of Queen Mary. It had remained where I once was, unwavering and even fearful. She nodded slowly, lips parting into an impossibly quiet gasp.
“Our Arcane Mistress shall be set free,” she said without another moment of hesitation. I could all but see the anger sinking into Sister Zayne’s stare, even if I hadn’t looked her way. “And she will remain in the fae realm while we determine the threat looming in the shadows.”
I could have fallen to my knees and sobbed. In joy, in relief, but I forced my posture upright, shoulders rolling back and chin tilting up.
“Then it is settled,” Elder Sage said before she turned her burning stare toward me once more. When I met it, my irises turned to spots, and water lined my eyes. Each of them hurt in a different way—but I refused to let it get to me. I refused to let their magic impact me—to make me weak. “We will deliver Azalea Cane to the tunnels in which you found the dead fae. Elder Fayne will call for you, halfling, to determine the status of such threats when the longest night kisses the fae realm.”
Wind whooshed around us once more.
When I blinked, we were back in those tunnels, away from the Circle of Sorceresses—away from the Elders who ruined my vision just by holding eye contact.
As reality settled around me, a body laid at my feet. Bruised. Beaten. Broken.