Chapter 36 #2
“I told you before, Eidra,” Rìan snarled above me. “When I tell you to do something, you listen. If I have to, I'll tie you up and drag you out of here myself.”
His voice faded into background noise. My gaze had locked onto the floor.
I brushed away a layer of dust. Yes—the mosaic was darker here. A different color. I followed the line of tiles as they stretched across the chamber in a long, narrow triangle, its point aimed directly at the outer wall of the temple.
“Get up.”
I followed the shape back the other way. Back toward the well. Something nagged at the edges of my memory. Slowly I pushed myself up to standing, my attention fixed on the floor as I turned in a slow circle.
The triangle wasn't alone. More shapes emerged from the mosaic as I looked. Another. Then another. Their points reached in different directions, their broad bases joined around the circular wall of the well itself.
“What are you doing?”
I took another step. And another.
“Eidra.”
I was counting.
One point.
Two.
Three.
Four…
I stopped dead. The pieces clicked together so suddenly it stole the breath from my lungs. I slowly raised my eyes to Rìan's.
“We're standing on an eight-pointed star.”
He paused—then his eyes dropped to the floor. I watched his gaze follow the lines cutting through the mosaic, mapping the shape they formed around the well.
The same symbol carved into the hilt of my bone knife.
The same symbol from the book.
Another eight-pointed star.
My pulse was galloping. I bent for the discarded prophecy and smoothed it against my leg, the movement pulling at the fresh slice across my palm. I barely noticed the smear of blood left behind as my eyes raced across the familiar words.
The answer was close enough to taste. I could feel it lurking at the edge of my thoughts, waiting for me to make the final connection.
“Eidra,” Rìan demanded again.
I barely heard him. I read the words again. Then again.
A strange excitement began to blossom in my chest.
“What if...” I murmured.
Rìan started speaking, but I thrust a hand out to silence him. To my astonishment, his mouth snapped shut.
My eyes skimmed over the page one more time. “What if we misheard? What if there's a mistake?”
Rìan was at my side in an instant. He snatched the prophecy from my hands before I could stop him, earning an irritated hiss from me.
“There's no mistake.”
“I think there is.”
His eyes narrowed. “Where?”
I pointed to the text, his eyes following my finger.
“What of it?”
“The missing bone will break the gate—Riven by Seven, carved of fate.”
He huffed. “And?”
“What if it isn't supposed to say fate?” I whispered. “What if it's supposed to say eight?”
His gaze flew back to the page. “Riven by Seven,” he read slowly. “Carved of eight.” He shook his head. “That makes no sense.”
“The missing bone will break the gate… Carved of eight.” I could barely contain myself now. I was right. I had to be. “What do we have in our possession that's carved with an eight-pointed star?”
Rìan froze.
For a heartbeat, he only stared at me. Then, slowly, his hand drifted to the bone knife. He slid it free and turned it over in his palm. The engraved star gleamed in the fading light.
“How could this be?” he murmured. “How is this possible?”
My thoughts drifted to Levinica.
To her earnest brown eyes.
To the way sunlight had caught in her ebony hair that day, turning it to gold and crowning her in a halo of light.
To the certainty in her voice when she'd asked that one question that had seemed entirely unrelated to anything we’d been discussing. A question I hadn't truly understood, or even paused to properly think about.
But now the answer was staring me in the face. From the hilt of the bone knife my father had given me all those months ago, in a dying realm cut off from magic.
Levinica’s voice echoed in my ears.
Do you believe in—
“Fate,” I whispered.
Rìan looked up, and a strange expression crossed his face—something I'd never seen before and couldn't quite name. It was gone almost as quickly as it appeared, hardening into resolve.
He seized my wrist and pulled me toward the well. Before I could react, the bone knife slid across his palm, reopening the cut he'd made earlier. Blood welled instantly.
He caught my other hand. The rippled steel flashed. I gasped at the pain as he sliced across my palm. For the briefest instant, I could’ve sworn I felt the blade hum against my skin.
His fingers laced with mine, tight and unyielding, as he extended our joined hands over the mouth of the well.
I knew before our blood ever struck the water that something was about to happen.
I could see the same certainty reflected in Rìan's eyes.
The ancient magic saturating the temple thickened until it became difficult to breathe.
The well waited beneath us, no longer stone and water, but alive.
Like the gaping maw of some enormous beast, hungry beneath the earth.
Time stretched into an eternity as our blood fell together toward the darkness below. I could see every line etched into Rìan's face, every strand of dark hair falling across his brow, every fleck of silver glinting in his gaze.
Then the well exhaled.
A violent wind erupted from its depths. Darkness surged upward and spilled over the stone rim like smoke, consuming the chamber in seconds.
The walls disappeared. The crumbling roof vanished.
Even the last traces of daylight dissolved until there was nothing left but me and Rìan, facing one another across a tumultuous black void.
My fingers tightened around his.
For the briefest moment, his grip tightened in return.
A low whine filled the air. No—not the air. My head. My bones. The sound climbed higher and higher until it became a shriek, scraping through my skull like rusted metal dragged across glass.
And then the darkness swallowed us whole.
Cold wind lashed suddenly at my face. The scent of salt filled my lungs. Waves crashed against the shore.
Noctharis.
Someone stood at the water's edge. My heart lurched into my throat.
Then I realized… it was me.
Tears streamed down my face as I pointed toward the water. “Levinica!”
No. Not this. Please, not this.
I didn't want to see it again.
I couldn't—
But as I sprinted toward the shoreline, I realized the terror flooding through me wasn't mine.
It was Rìan's.
This was his memory.
I was seeing Levinica's death through his eyes.
The realization had barely formed before the panic slammed into me.
His. Not fear for himself. Fear for her.
A desperate, choking certainty that there was still time.
That if he reached her quickly enough, if he got to her before the current carried her too far, before she disappeared beneath the waves—
She was already far out in the water. The sea tossed her about like driftwood, dark hair dragging behind her as the current tore relentlessly at her body.
“LEVINICA!” I felt the scream tear from him. Felt it shred his throat raw. “LEVINICA!” Felt the icy water around his legs. Felt the desperate violence of his need to reach her. To save her. To stop her.
I watched through his eyes as Levinica was pulled farther out.
He would go after her, throw himself into the waves and fight the sea for her if he had to.
Shadows erupted from nowhere. They wrapped around his body just as he leaped forward, locking around his arms and chest, holding him fast.
“LEVINICA!” The scream ripped from his chest as he fought against Veylan's hold. Veylan shouted something, but the wind snatched the words away.
Far out in the water, a swell broke over her and Levinica disappeared beneath the surface. His heart stopped as the seconds crawled by, each one more unbearable than the last. When she finally emerged again, coughing and sputtering, relief hit him so hard it was almost painful.
But she didn't turn back. She kept going, farther and farther out.
She wasn't going to stop.
The truth hit him then with brutal finality. He wasn't going to be able to save her.