Chapter 24
Elowyn
Ihadn’t gone back to the river in days. After my date with Philip, I’d felt off—drained, like he’d taken something from me without touching me. I spent the next day sleeping, too tired to move. I was only just starting to feel like myself again.
I sat on the porch, staring at nothing in particular. There was something going on that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Some part of me whispered that I should run, get as far away from this place as I could.
But I didn’t move. Another feeling, stronger, told me to wait. For what, I had no idea.
A noise caught my attention. Something blue flickered in the corner of my vision. Abram?
I sat up straighter, only to freeze when I noticed Farris standing there instead, staring at me.
“Farris.” I stood quickly.
Her lip was busted and bleeding, and she was looking at me like I was a stranger. My eyes traced over her injuries, something sharp twisting in my chest.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I didn’t know where else to go, where he wouldn’t find me.”
She broke down crying, and I rushed to her, wrapping my arms around her.
“You don’t need to apologize. Come inside. I’ll spellbind the house so he can’t get to you.”
We hurried in. Farris collapsed onto the couch, staring into the fire as if it were the only thing tethering her to the room. I moved on instinct, laying wards along the walls, sealing the windows, locking the doors with old magic I hadn’t used in years.
When the last barrier settled into place, the house went quiet. Too quiet.
I sat beside her, close enough to feel the tremor still shaking through her body. Neither of us spoke. The fire crackled softly, filling the space where words refused to go.
After a long moment, she whispered, almost to herself,
“Have you ever been in love?”
She swallowed, her voice barely holding together.
“Like… really in love.”
What an odd question. Clearly, she was in shock.
“Yes.” I frowned.
“Me too,” she said softly. “With a man who thinks I am cruel.”
“Your husband?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, I have only loved one man. I think about him every day. I wonder what he is doing. Is he happy? Do I cross his mind often? Have I been replaced by a woman he deserves?”
Her tears came faster then, spilling freely as her shoulders curled inward.
“I broke his fucking heart,” she whispered. “And sometimes it feels like the heavens are punishing me for hurting someone so good. Like this is what I deserve.”
The words sat heavy between us. The fire cracked softly, indifferent.
I waited until she could breathe again before I asked, quietly,
“Why did you break his heart?”
“Because I didn’t have a choice, and he would’ve never let me go otherwise.” She leaned back against the couch. “Now I will never know what it feels like to be loved again.”
I leaned back next to her, the couch creaking under the slight weight of shared grief.
“Gods, we are in a very similar situation,” I sighed, letting the heaviness of it settle between us.
“I will leave tomorrow. I’m sorry I inconvenienced you.” Farris looked around the space, fingers brushing absentmindedly over the edge of the table.
“Honestly, it is nice to have someone here. These past few weeks have been difficult. You can stay for as long as you’d like.” My voice softened, almost reluctant to let her go.
“Really?” She looked at me, eyes wide, as if unsure she deserved the offer.
“Yes.” I smiled, and for a brief second, it felt like warmth could exist in the room. “Maybe fate wanted us to find each other—two lost souls.”
Farris’ eyebrows pinched together before she smiled softly, tentative but genuine. My chest ached when I saw her lip cut. She nodded, but her eyes didn’t leave mine.
“Do you believe in fate?” she asked.
My breath caught. “I don’t know anymore. I used to.”
She gave a sad laugh. “Same. I used to think the stars gave us what we needed. Now I think they just watch us suffer for sport. I used to think I would be rewarded for doing what was asked of me, for following my duty. But all it has brought is heart break and endless thoughts of how different my life would be if I could’ve stayed with the man I loved. ”
The fire crackled, the silence between us growing heavier. I studied her—sharp cheekbones, the bruises beneath her eyes, the way she curled into herself like she didn’t want to take up space. Something about her was familiar, though I couldn’t place it.
“Do you want to sleep?” I asked. “There’s a spare room down the hallway. It’s not much, but the bed is comfortable.”
Her nod was slow, hesitant. “Thank you. For everything.”
I helped her up and led her to the room, lighting a candle with a flick of magic and showing her where the extra blankets were. She paused at the doorway, staring at me.
“There’s something about you,” she murmured. “Something I can’t name. Like maybe the fates had whispered it to me long ago.”
I stilled, the candlelight flickering between us like it, too, was holding its breath.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She shook her head, brow furrowed like she was trying to solve a riddle with no pieces.
“I don’t know. Just… When I saw you the other day, something clicked.
Not like recognition. More like… resonance.
” Her fingers ghosted over the doorframe.
“Like I was meant to end up here, in this house, with you.”
My skin prickled. “Maybe you just needed somewhere safe.”
“Maybe,” she said. But her voice was too soft, too unsure. She glanced at me again, eyes glassy but steady. “But it doesn’t feel like coincidence. It feels like a thread pulled tight, like I followed it here without knowing why.”
My mouth went dry. I should’ve said something. Something comforting. Reassuring.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was right.
Something about her had stirred something familiar in me, something older than memory. It wasn’t fear. It was... recognition without name.
“I’m sorry,” she added quickly, like she’d gone too far. “I’m just tired. Ignore me.”
“I’m not ignoring you,” I said. “I felt it too.”
That made her pause. Really pause. Her lips parted like she wanted to say something else, but she only nodded.
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Farris.”
I watched her close the door behind her. The lock clicked into place a second later, not from fear, I didn’t think, but from habit. I returned to the sitting room, let the fire burn low, and sat there in the quiet, every nerve on edge.
I would fucking gut her husband if he came anywhere near us.
Farris’ words repeated in my mind. She seemed familiar to me too, but I wasn’t sure why she would. And why would fate want two sad souls to find each other?
I didn’t understand it, but her pain lived in a shape I recognized. Not just like mine but adjacent to it. Like we'd bled into the same ground, at different times.
The next morning, I woke up on the couch, having fallen asleep while keeping guard. My eyes fluttered open at the sound of Farris calling out to someone. I stood up thinking she was in danger. But the sound was… happy.
I walked toward her door and listened carefully to see if she’d say anything but it was silent. All of the sudden her bedroom door ripped open.
“Farris,” I said, startled.
“Elowyn?”
“You were talking in your sleep. I wanted to make sure you were alright.”
I stepped aside when she nodded. Her gaze found mine, and she stared at me oddly before walking out into the living room. She didn’t sit down, instead, she stared more intently at me.
“I knew I recognized you.” She looked up when I stopped moving. “My mother once told me that a woman cloaked in death and fate would find me. That she was the beginning of my fate. I dreamt of her story last night, which feels like a sign.”
“You think I’m the woman cloaked in death and fate?”
She nodded. “Deathweaver Coven who specializes in fucking with fate. That is who you are, correct—the queen?”
I glanced around and wondered for a moment if I was sleeping.
“I’m no longer the queen.”
“I know.” She smiled. “I saw it in my dream.”
“I’m sorry. What the fuck is going on?”
She sighed as she finally sat down. Her hands tangled in her lap. Something heavy filled the air making my skin prickle.
“We all have a duty. All of us protect that duty until it is the very thing that kills us. You had a duty to your coven. Your mother had a duty to you. Abram had a duty to the heavens and realm.”
“You know Abram?”
“No.” Farris’ eyes widened when she looked up at me. “But I saw him a few nights ago. He was in Falgon.”
My heart slammed against my ribs as I watched her.
“For what?”
“Loma.” Farris watched me curiously as pain contorted my face. “His mate.”
“I know who she is. How do you know her?” I asked.
Farris seemed to become nervous. Her hands were shaking slightly. I stood up and backed away from Farris as if she were Loma herself. She stood up with her hands out to show she wasn’t a danger.
“Did Loma send you here to hurt me?”
“I hate Loma,” she assured me. “But she is part of the reason we were brought together.”
“I don’t understand.” I felt the tears sting my eyes. “And I don’t want to hear about Abram and Loma.”
Farris smiled, and it upset me so much that I was about to tell her to leave.
“Vyrak.” Farris looked at me. “Do you know what that is?”
“No.”
“A creature that has no true magic unless it is connected to a powerful source. Loma is vyrak. Abram the God of Fates thought he wiped them all out—per the heavens request. Loma’s family hid away though, and now they are part of a bigger problem. They are helping Gilyx try to take over the realm.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
“Abram must get rid of vyrak before they kill everything.”
Farris looked over at me with a look of discomfort. Her eyes stayed toward the floor as if she was ashamed. But then she looked up, and I saw her crying silently.
“You have to help me. That is why we were brought together—why my mother warned me of you when I was a child. You have a duty to me.”
I shook my head, trying to understand what was happening.
“So what is my duty?”
“I am in love with a god,” she confessed.
“I’m sorry, but if you tell me it’s Abram, I will lose my fucking mind.” I stared at her intently.
Her lips titled into an amused smirk.
“No, Ezra, God of Souls.” She looked me dead in my eyes.
Her name finally clicked into place.
“You’re the woman who broke Ezra’s heart?”
“Yes.” Her face contorted with grief. “And that is the problem. Ezra loves me so much that he is going to stop Abram from doing what he needs to, but we can't let that happen. That is where you come in.”
I had so many questions, but she didn’t let me ask any of them as she kept talking.
“Abram is going to try and change fate, but to do so, he is risking everything. In order for everything to work out, he must kill the last vyrak family in the realm.”
I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around all of this.
“You are destined to kill them, you and the storm that lives within you.”
“Nyxthra?”
She nodded. “Ezra will try and stop it because a vyrak is attached to me, using my magic to feed himself… my husband. Killing him will have unknown consequences. Your duty is to make sure Ezra doesn’t interfere. When the time comes, you will use that storm inside of you to end the vyrak bloodline.”
“Ezra will be destroyed if something happens to you,” I argued.
“I know.” She swallowed. “But this is bigger than me. They are a big part of Gilyx gaining control over the other realms, and if that happens we all die.”
“How do you know all of this? What are you?”
“Thomas,” she said with a small smile, sweeping her hair back to reveal pointed fae ears. “I am fae.”
“One other thing, Elowyn.” Her shaky fingertips brushed mine, and for the briefest second, the air shimmered—like the veil between this realm and something older had thinned. “If it comes down to saving me or Ezra, you must save him. Promise me.”
I shook my head.
“Promise me. It is why we have the matching marks. You and I are tied together, because you will do what needs to be done. You will save him over me if it is needed.”
I glanced at her. That is what the tattoos meant?
“I promise.”
She sighed heavily as she nodded.
She grinned. “Thomas said you and I will be best friends, like Abram and Ezra.”
I stared at her. Words failed me.
"Now, we just have to figure out what we are going to do." Then she added brightly, “But first, I’m starving. Let me make us some food.”
Like she hadn’t just broken my universe in half.