Chapter 29 #2
The second Ancient Master intercepts it.
He tears through her magic with one gesture.
The backlash throws my mother across the courtyard.
Professor Vale screams and runs toward her.
The first Master turns Thorne toward me. "Aurelia remembers this one."
The sovereign heart opens. My body moves. Valerius restrains me with both arms. Aurelia speaks through my mouth. "The ward keeper."
Thorne looks up. He sees my face. The smile that is not mine. Horror enters his eyes. "Valentina."
Aurelia raises my hand. White-gold fire forms around my fingers. Valerius grabs my wrist. "Stop."
I try. The locked girl behind the sovereign heart throws herself against the door. The fire continues building. Thorne understands. He stops fighting the old-law bind. "Do not let her use your guilt," he says.
Aurelia laughs through me. "He thinks she can hear him."
"I can," I whisper. The word is mine.
Valerius turns my face toward his. "There."
Aurelia slams me backward inside my own mind. The world flickers. One moment I am standing beside Valerius. The next, I am across the courtyard. Space folds without my permission. My hand is pressed against Professor Thorne's chest. His eyes widen. White-gold fire enters him. He screams.
No. I try to pull away but my body doesn't obey.
Thorne's wards burn through his skin, glowing blue-white beneath the surface as Aurelia tears them apart from inside him. Valerius reaches us in a burst of Shadowflame. He grabs my shoulders. "Valentina!"
My hand remains on Thorne. His knees buckle. Blood pours from his mouth. "I can't stop her!" I scream with all the power I have left, the confession tears from me.
Thorne hears it. His face softens through agony. "I know. It is okay Valentina."
Valerius wraps both hands around my wrist, trying to break Aurelia's hold without breaking me. "Let him go."
Aurelia smiles with my mouth. "He taught my vessel resistance."
Thorne's eyes remain on mine. "Then resist." Aurelia's fire surges. Thorne stops screaming. His body goes limp. My hand falls from his chest. He collapses.
The locked door inside me cracks open. Grief hits, hot and immediate. I drop to my knees beside him. "No."
Thorne's eyes are closed. His chest doesn't rise. Professor Vale reaches us and shoves me aside. "Move!"
Green-red healing light pours from her hands into him. His body jerks once. My mother crawls toward us, one arm hanging wrong at her side. "Thorne?"
Professor Vale presses harder. Her magic begins burning her skin. No response.
"I hurt him." The words leave me. The courtyard slows around them.
Valerius kneels in front of me. His face is covered in blood and ash. One eye is swelling. The wound over his heart glows through his torn shirt. "You didn't."
"My hand—" I start.
He cuts me off and grabs my face into his bloody hands. "She used you."
"I felt it." I shake my head.
"That doesn't make it yours." Valerius rubs his thumb on my cheek.
"I am hurting everyone." The words crack the sovereign heart wider.
Emotion rushes through. My father. Seren. Thorne. Students screaming. My mother broken on the stone. Valerius bleeding because he refuses to stand anywhere except beside me. I can't hold all of it. Aurelia reaches for the pain.
Valerius grips my face. "Then hurt me." I stare at him. The courtyard disappears around the words. His thumbs press against my cheeks. His eyes hold mine. "Just don't leave me."
My breath breaks. "I might kill you."
"No you won't." he shakes his head.
"You don't know that." I sob.
"I know you! I know that I love you and trust you." He wipes my tears away.
My voice cracks. "Aurelia—"
He cuts me off. "Is not you."
"She is inside me." I remind him.
"So am I." The bond opens.
Valerius tears down every wall, his pain floods me, broken ribs, burned chest, exhaustion, anger. Love, so much love it feels like standing inside a fire. The sovereign heart drinks. Cold power surges but beneath it, the locked girl reaches. I reach. For him. Valerius.
His forehead touches mine. "Come home."
Aurelia screams inside me. White-gold fire explodes between us. Valerius is thrown backward. He flies across the courtyard and crashes into the remains of the fountain. Stone shatters beneath him. He doesn't move. The bond goes silent.
"No." I stand. Aurelia stands with me.
The world tilts. The Eternal Flame descends.
A column of white-gold fire wraps around my body, lifting me above the courtyard.
My cloak burns away, not to ash, but to light.
White fire winds around my arms. A crown forms above my head.
The same crown from the mirrors. The same crown Aurelia wore. My eyes turn silver-gold.
Below, the Ancient Masters kneel. Voss emerges from the shattered west corridor.
Alive. She lowers herself beside them. Every Remnant in Arcana kneels.
The academy answers. Stone groans. Towers bend.
The remaining branch flames extinguish. White-gold fire replaces them in every hall.
Students fall to their knees as the old law presses through the wards. Some resist but most can't.
My mother tries to stand, the pressure forces her down.
Professor Vale collapses beside Thorne, still pouring the last of her magic into him.
Eli braces both hands against the ruined balcony.
Lightning covers his body as he fights the command, one knee hits stone, then the other.
Luc stands near the eastern arch, Veil spirits wrapped around him like chains, he falls.
The entire academy kneels. I float above them. Aurelia controls my mouth. "Arcana remembers."
The Eternal Flame roars behind me. The central tower splits open. Inside it, the ancient basin rises through stone, carried by white fire. The symbols of Tempest, Veil, and Aether crack along its rim. A fourth symbol appears. Star inside flame.