Chapter 20 #2
The shadow surges. His attention breaks for half a breath. The Remnant tears one arm free and slashes across his side. Valerius grunts. Blood darkens his shirt. Everything inside me goes silent.
Then the world turns gold. "No." The word leaves me like a command.
Starfire bursts from my hand. It doesn't strike like flame. It opens. A circle of white-gold light spins beneath the Remnant, filled with symbols I don't know but somehow understand. Star points. Flame curves. Old marks that aren't Tempest, not Veil, not Aether.
The fourth branch. The erased language of my own magic. My mother whispers something broken. Valerius looks at the circle beneath the shadow and then at me. Awe flashes through his pain.
The Remnant shrieks. Its body begins to unravel. Threads of darkness peel away, revealing something pale and rotten beneath. Not a body. Not a soul. A spell made from old hate, held together by borrowed death.
Seren gags. Professor Vale lifts a hand to shield her.
Professor Thorne moves toward me. "Valentina, slowly. Do not force it."
"I'm not." The truth terrifies me.
I'm not forcing anything. The Starfire knows what to do. It remembers what no one taught me. Valerius's Shadowflame tightens around the Remnant, holding it over the circle. His blood drips onto my floor, and every drop makes the gold light flare.
My eyes lock on the wound. "Valerius."
"I'm fine." He says.
"You're bleeding." I look at the blood around him.
"I"ve bleed before, I don't mind it.." He tries to reassure me.
"Not for me." I shake my head still looking at the blood on him in disbelief.
His gaze holds mine. "Especially for you."
The words crack through me. The Starfire surges. The Remnant screams, its pale mouth stretching wider and wider until I see symbols burned inside it. Black marks carved into the fire like chains.
Professor Thorne swears.
My mother gasps, "No."
Valerius's eyes sharpen. "What?"
Professor Thorne steps closer, face grim. "It carries a command mark."
The Remnant thrashes. My Starfire tightens. The mark inside its mouth flashes. A symbol forms. Three circles around a black star. My mother goes utterly still.
Professor Thorne whispers, "Ancient Masters."
The room freezes. Ancient Masters. The old power behind the council. The buried law. The ones who erased Starfire from history. The ones my mother feared enough to seal her own child.
The Remnant opens its mouth one final time. "Returned," it whispers.
Then the Starfire tears the command mark apart. White-gold light floods the room. The Remnant unravels in a burst of ash and pale sparks. Silence follows. The gold circle beneath my feet fades. The light under my skin goes with it.
My knees buckle. Valerius catches me before I hit the floor. Even bleeding, even shaking, even with half the room destroyed around us, he reaches me before anyone else can.
His arms close around me. "Valentina."
I press my hand to his side. Blood warms my fingers. Panic rises. "You're really hurt."
"It's nothing." He brushes it off.
"Stop saying stupid things, it's not nothing." I say. His mouth twitches despite the pain.
Seren rushes to us, pale and shaking. "That was not nothing. None of this is nothing. I vote we all scream immediately."
Professor Vale is already at Valerius's side, green and red healing light blooming around her fingers. "Move your hand, Miss Starling."
I don't. Valerius looks down at me. "Let her heal it."
"I can heal it." The words leave my mouth before I understand them.
Everyone goes still. Even me. Professor Vale's magic flickers.
My mother whispers, "Valentina..."
I stare at the blood on my hand. Valerius's blood.
Something inside me reaches. Not like when I destroyed the vines.
Not like when I unraveled the Remnant. This is softer.
Warmer. Terrifying in a different way. Life.
I can feel his life, enough to know where the wound interrupts the pattern.
Enough to feel torn flesh, bleeding heat, pain he has shoved so far down he barely lets himself acknowledge it.
I press my trembling hand against his side. Valerius inhales sharply.
"Does it hurt?" I whisper.
His voice is strained. "No."
Liar.
His eyes darken. I almost smile, but my hand is covered in his blood and nothing about this is funny.
White-gold light seeps from my palm. Professor Vale takes one step back.
My mother makes a small sound. The wound under Valerius's shirt warms beneath my hand.
I feel the torn edges. I feel blood slowing.
I feel skin knitting, not by force, but by remembering itself whole.
Valerius's grip on my waist tightens. His forehead drops toward mine. His breath shakes. The bond floods with him. Awe. Fear. Something so close to love I can't look directly at it.
The light fades. I pull my hand away. The blood remains on my palm, but his side has stopped bleeding.
Professor Vale stares at him. Then at me. "Healed," she whispers.
Seren sits abruptly on the edge of the ruined bed. "I'm going to faint."
"No, you're not," Professor Thorne says automatically.
"I might out of spite." She snarls.
Valerius ignores everyone. His hand comes up to my face. "You used too much."
"I healed you." I smile.
"You used too much. I feel it." He repeats.
"You were bleeding." I look at him.
"I can survive bleeding." He says.
"I don't care." I tell him.
His eyes flash. The bond opens. There it is. Everything. His terror when the Remnant touched him. My panic when he bled. His rage at my exhaustion. My refusal to apologize. The room is full of people, but for one second, there is only us.
Then my mother says, "We have to move her."
Valerius's head snaps up. "No."
"Valerius," Professor Thorne says, "council bells are ringing. Guards will be here any moment. Voss will demand entry."
"She doesn't get near her." Valerius says.
"Agreed," Thorne says. "Which is why we move now."
My mother lifts both hands, forming a warded doorway in the air. Silver light bends open, revealing a dark corridor I do not recognize. "A protected passage," she says. "Old dean's route."
Valerius narrows his eyes. "Where does it lead?"
"The lower observatory." She answers.
Professor Thorne nods sharply. "Warded older than the council's authority."
Seren stands. "I'm coming."
Professor Thorne says, "No."
Seren's eyes blaze green. "With all due disrespect, professor, I just watched a purge ghost try to eat my best friend. I'm done waiting in corridors."
No one speaks. Professor Thorne sighs. "Fine. Stay behind me."
Seren looks surprised, then satisfied. Professor Vale moves to the shattered doorway. "I will delay the guards."
My mother looks at her. "Vale—"
"I know what I'm doing." She nods. Professor Vale's eyes flick to me, and for the first time, I see something like fear and loyalty tangled together. "Get her out."
Valerius lifts me.
I protest instantly. "I can walk."
"You can barely stand." He argues.
"I healed you." I shoot him a look.
"And nearly dropped." He says.
"I hate when you're right." I roll my eyes.
"I enjoy it." He gives the faintest smile.
Even now, even with blood on his shirt and broken glass under his boots, he manages to sound like himself.
I cling to that. He carries me through the warded doorway.
The moment we pass through, the noise from my room cuts off.
We enter a narrow stone passage lit by old blue flames.
The air smells of dust, cold iron, and forgotten magic.
My mother steps in after us. Professor Thorne follows with Seren, then seals the passage behind him.
For a second, no one moves. Then the walls tremble. Far away, someone pounds against the sealed room. Magistra Voss's voice echoes faintly through stone and ward. "Open this door by council order!"
Valerius's arms tighten around me. My mother's face hardens. Professor Thorne looks at the passage ahead. "Move."
We do.
The passage slopes downward, spiraling beneath the academy.
Valerius carries me like I weigh nothing, though I can feel the strain in him.
Not from my weight. From his wound, healed but not forgotten.
From the battle. From the rage still clawing inside him because Voss's order kept him away long enough for the Remnant to reach me.
"You came," I whisper.
His eyes flick down to mine. "I told you I would."
"They blocked the bond."
His face turns deadly. "They tried."
"Did it hurt?" He is silent too long. "That means yes."
"It felt like dying quietly." He admits.
My heart breaks. I press my face against his chest. "I'm sorry."
"No." His voice hardens. "Don't apologize for what they did."
The passage opens into a circular chamber beneath the observatory.
It's not like the upper observatory where the Eternal Flame chose us.
This one is older, rougher, carved directly into black stone.
The ceiling is low and arched, painted with faded stars.
At the center of the floor sits an empty basin made of dark iron.
Not the Eternal Flame basin. But similar. Older, maybe. My Starfire stirs. Valerius feels it and stops. My mother sees the basin and closes her eyes as if the sight hurts her. Professor Thorne seals the chamber behind us. For a moment, only the blue flames crackle.
Then Seren says, very quietly, "Someone needs to explain what just tried to kill her before I start biting people."
No one laughs. My mother steps toward the old basin.
Her hand trembles as she touches its rim.
"The Remnants were created during the purge," she says.
"They were not alive. Not exactly. They were spells made from the remains of Starfire hunters and the dead magic left behind after the ancient executions."
Executions. The word hits my bones. Valerius lowers me carefully onto a stone bench but doesn't step away. I don't let go of his sleeve.
My mother continues, voice hollow. "They were made to find surviving Starfire blood."
My mouth goes dry. "Surviving," I whisper. She looks at me. "There were others?"
Her silence is the answer. Not anymore. Valerius's Shadowflame flickers.