Chapter 61 Shadowborn
Shadowborn
Caramyn
The faint smell of smoke, ash, and burning wood filled her nostrils. The echo of flames crackled somewhere in the distance, as if on the other side of a wall. Asterious screamed her name, far away in a dream.
She was lying on the ground, surrounded by shattered pieces of black steel, looking up at the Veil.
Shadows danced at the Veil’s great tree and drew near to her, slithering up and around her arms, illuminating her Shadowblood veins.
And in the midst of them stood a tall, menacing figure, with void-black eyes and inky veins like hers crawling across every inch of visible skin beneath his black mage’s robe.
“Caramyn.”
He called her name, his voice a gentle, comforting contrast to his sinister appearance.
“Caramyn, my child.”
“Morveth?” She asked weakly, though the words weren’t coming from her mouth, but rather from somewhere in her thoughts.
“Yes, my daughter.” He inclined his head, dark eyes warm despite the shadows clinging to his form.
“Well done. The Blade is broken. It is the final proof that your power has awakened. It has released Shadows from their charge of protecting you, the last vessel of Shadow magic.” A faint smile touched his lips, pride softening his features. “And it has freed my bound form.”
Caramyn stared at him, unable to look away, unable to respond, her jaw hanging open in disbelief and overwhelm.
“It was the only way to save you in your mother’s womb,” Morveth continued, lifting a hand toward the towering presence of the Veil.
“Your life is bound to it, and its life to yours. I never knew if the binding would hold—if you would even survive. And if you did, whether you would one day seek the truth.” His voice lowered.
“But I hoped. And now my soul knows that hope was not misplaced.”
“How?” Caramyn gasped, a subtle sting of pain rising in her stomach. “How is any of this possible? What about what Mother did to save me—when she sought out the witch?”
“The witch did nothing more than attempt a spell many have tried for centuries—and failed. By the time your mother reached her, your heart had already stopped. Shadowbloods were never meant to bear offspring. Our immortal blood is incompatible with creating new life.” His expression darkened. “But I could not let you die.”
“I’d been summoned to Felhold to discuss the celebration and talks of unity.
” He drew a slow breath. “I fled Daemar’s court once I learned of his true plans for the Order.
I warned the Lightborn, abandoned the Shadowbloods and went into hiding—because I loved your mother, and I knew Daemar would use that against me.
And he did. Eventually, he found me, and he promised he’d spare her if I would help him rid the world of magic.
He didn’t know she carried another life within her.
And your mother never knew about the deal.
I let her believe terrible things to protect her. ”
Caramyn’s chest tightened. She’d always believed the same. Always thought her father was a coward who’d left them to fend for themselves. And now he was standing before her in this dream-like state, a High Shadowblood who gave up the last of his power—and his reputation—just to save her.
“At the very moment your mother crossed the witch’s threshold, I stood here before Daemar, raising the Veil and binding its power to the dying life within her womb—unbeknownst to all but me.”
“It made me a traitor to so many, but a savior to you. And when Daemar tried to kill me—as I knew he would once the Veil was formed—I denied him the satisfaction.” His gaze sharpened.
“I drove the sword through myself, trapping my soul within it so I could remain on this side of the Veil.
So that one day, only when someone worthy of shouldering the darkness alongside you freed me, I could ensure the transfer of the last of my power to you in its fullness, when I knew that you wouldn't have to bear it alone. And when I was sure that you were ready to receive it.”
“What…what does this mean?”
“It means, my child, that you are the first and only Shadowborn, and the sole heir of a power capable of commanding both Light and Shadow. That is why Sinevia seeks your magic. Because none has ever been strong enough to raise an immortal army—until you, Caramyn Shadowborn.”
The weight of it all pressed down on her. “What happens now?” she whispered through a lump in her throat, the pain beneath her ribs becoming more difficult to ignore. “What am I supposed to do? Will you help me learn what I am?”
A sadness touched his smile.
“I cannot. Not from here.” He glanced toward the Veil, its presence humming softly.
“The Blade—my anchor to this realm—is broken, as it was always meant to be. The Veil is but a bridge between the living and the dead. I will pass beyond it, to the Realm of Souls, where all of us eventually must find our rest.” He met her gaze one final time.
“My purpose here is fulfilled. And now yours has just begun.”
Morveth’s apparition vanished as quickly as it came, leaving each word to echo in her mind as she fought to understand it all.
And as her father’s voice fell away, and power flooded her, weaving itself through her veins until, for a heartbeat, she felt them, then glimpsed—for a mere fraction of a moment—the shadowed tips of wings unfolding from her back.
All at once, the world crashed back into her.
The snow and cold air bit into her skin. The smoke-filled air burned her lungs. Wild amber flames consumed the edge of the glade, roaring through the branches as they burned through the forest. Asterious—his terrified eyes on hers, looking down at her, holding her in his arms.
And then the pain hit. White-hot and nauseating, radiating from her abdomen in violent waves. She looked down, breath hitching, and saw the dark ruby stain soaked through her clothes. Her shaking hand, when she pressed it to her stomach, came away slick and red. Too much blood. Far too much.
And then she remembered, all at once, in brutal fragments—the way Sinevia had charged toward her just as she’d lifted the Shadowblood sword.
The way she’d plunged that cold dagger into Caramyn’s body just as she brought down the Blade onto her.
And the way she’d vanished when it shattered into pieces at her touch.
And now she lay here, bleeding out beneath a burning smog overtaking her Woods, her body slack across the Blackwynd Prince’s lap as he pleaded with her not to die.
But his voice was somewhere she could not answer. And she was already drifting away from the sound of him, falling into the void of the Veil, where darkness and light waited as one.