Chapter 28 #4
The Hall splits between white-gold and colourless flame. Half the spirits rise. Half turn toward the river.
Seren grabs my father's hand. "Go!"
He looks at me one last time. Not as a frightened man. As my father. "I love you."
The words reach the open crack. This time, I feel them. "I know," I sob.
His face softens. Then he turns toward the Crossing River. Seren stays. My father notices. "Come."
She shakes her head. "I can't."
"Why?" Her eyes find mine. "Because I have one more betrayal to correct."
Before I can ask, she releases his hand.
My father steps into the river. The dark water turns white beneath his feet.
His spirit begins dissolving into light.
He looks back once, then he is gone. My father crosses.
The grief nearly destroys me. Valerius holds me upright.
Aurelia feeds on the pain, clawing for control.
The dead continue rising around us. Remnants spill through the shattered walls. Luc's barrier collapses.
Seren turns toward the army of spirits. Then toward me. "I'm sorry, Val." She lifts both hands. Green Veil magic ignites around her ghostly body. The severance pattern.
Valerius snarls. "Don't."
But this time, the spell doesn't wrap around our bond. It wraps around the sovereign heart. My breath stops. Seren looks at me through tears. "I couldn't sever you from him." The black mark around her throat burns. "But I can sever her from the dead."
Aurelia screams inside me. The spirits convulse. Seren's magic tightens. The old-law mark on her throat spreads over her entire body, punishing her even in death. Luc shouts her name. Professor Thorne isn't here to see his student make her final choice. Perhaps that's mercy.
Seren smiles at me. The smile she used before everything became war. "You were my first safe place too." Her Veil magic explodes.
The connection between Aurelia and the kneeling spirits snaps. Every dead soul in the Hall turns toward the Crossing River. Aurelia's scream tears through my mouth. Remnants recoil. Seren's spirit begins breaking apart.
"No," I whisper. Emotion surges through the crack. I reach for her.
Seren shakes her head. "Let me do one thing right."
Her body becomes green-white light. The spirits rush past her into the river.
Hundreds. Thousands. The Hall fills with stars as every soul crosses at once.
The Remnants shriek, losing the dead they came to silence.
Luc raises both hands and drives the crossing light into them.
Pale bodies unravel beneath the flood. Seren is the last spirit standing. Half of her is already gone.
I step toward her. Valerius's hand remains around mine. "Was any of it real?" I ask again. This time, I can feel the question. It tears me open.
Seren's smile trembles. "All of it." Then she crosses.
The river turns black again. The Hall empties. The last of the Remnants collapse into ash. Silence remains, true silence.
No dead, no whispers, no father, no Seren.
Only me, Valerius, Luc and Aurelia inside the sovereign heart.
We have learned the truth. The first Starborne survived.
The Ancient Masters serve her. The purge was hers.
My emotionless state was never protection.
It was possession beginning and Valerius can remove her... By dying.
I turn toward him. He has already hidden the decision behind his eyes. I grip the front of his shirt. "You will not take the heart."
He covers my hands with his. "Not now."
"Never." I correct him, water forming in my eyes blur my vision. His silence answers. I shake him. "Say it."
"Valentina." He whispers.
"Promise me." I sob.
His face breaks because he will lie if I need him to and I will know. The bond makes lying useless. So he gives me the only truth he has. "I won't let her have you."
Aurelia laughs inside me. The sovereign mark burns.
From somewhere deep beneath Arcana, another fire answers, not Starfire.
The Eternal Flame. The academy trembles.
The Hall's ceiling turns gold. An image appears above us.
The upper observatory. The ancient basin.
The Eternal Flame rising higher than the towers.
Inside it, a woman opens silver-gold eyes.
Aurelia, not only inside me, inside the Flame.
The first queen divided more than her heart.
She placed her spirit in the academy's most sacred fire.
Every Eternal Flame Gathering. Every bond chosen.
Every partner paired is her design, her preparation.
The Flame didn't choose Valerius and me to save Arcana.
It chose us because Aurelia needed a Starborne vessel, and a Shadowbound sacrifice.
Valerius looks up at the image. Horror crosses his face.
The Eternal Flame speaks through every ward in the academy. "Bring me my heart."
The floor splits beneath us. White-gold fire erupts from the crack. Not mine, hers. Valerius pulls me against him as the Hall begins collapsing. Luc screams for us to move. The Eternal Flame reaches upward like a hand. Toward my chest. Toward the sovereign heart.
Aurelia's voice whispers from inside me, triumphant and ancient. "You were never my heir, little flame." My body locks. My mouth smiles against my will. "You are my door."