Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
EIRA
Eira walked through the temple one last time before they left with the entourage for Farren Castle.
With the security around Amelia, they needed to travel on foot instead of flying on Aytigin’s back which could take days, maybe even weeks.
They had to bring Charis too, which required another group of guards.
Even the dragon wasn’t large enough for all of them to ride on his back.
Then Eira would have to face the council and if they would accept her as the queen or not. Who knew how long that would take. And then what? Even if she got her crown, she needed to return to the mountains.
She rubbed her temples. Even though she was so closed to being done, the castle was still in disrepair and cursed.
It didn’t matter how much progress she’d made if the curse wasn’t broken.
How could she be queen in Farren when she and Aytigin wouldn’t be able to be apart from one another or the castle for long periods of time?
In her free arm she carried the book Malle had given them.
It was going back to the Golden Palace with Alvis and Myra since she would be able to use it the best and there were more scholars in Oxare who would wish to study and learn than in Cresin.
They would be leaving soon after Eira with Nell and Xaneth because they’d agreed to take the baby with them to keep as their ward, feeling as though Nell and her brother shouldn’t be separated.
But Eira wanted to look through it one last time for any clues as to what to do about the curse on Luana’s Castle.
She sat on the stone table and combed through the book.
A cool breeze swept through the room, and Eira looked up to see Malle floating before her.
The spirit didn’t appear angry or disturbed today.
She hovered her translucent hands over the book, and the pages flipped at her will until they landed on one Eira hadn’t looked at yet.
Images of the Shadow Slayers were sketched onto the page, and they encircled a heart with a crown wrapped around it.
She traced the image with her fingers. It looked so familiar. Maybe because she’d seen the Shadow Slayers so many times now. But there was more to what she was seeing. She could feel it. “There’s no way this is that simple.”
Eira slid over to examine the stone table as she had so many other times before.
The etchings and words she hadn’t understood.
It was all here. There in the center of the table was the same symbol.
A small cry escaped her lips. It was so easy, but yet…
something in Eira’s stomach turned and twisted. “Are they the answer?”
She looked up to see Malle hovering over her.
The ghost didn’t smile and only stared back and raised her brows as if to ask Eira if she really was ready.
Eira stood to look at the table again and took in all the engravings.
She rested her palm against the image of the heart and weapons and the stone almost seemed to warm against her skin.
It now all made sense and she knew what she had to do.
Eira took a step back and released a shuddering breath. The resolution was so simple, but it was so much.
“Did you get frustrated that I hadn’t figured it out yet so you shoved it in front of me?”
Malle didn’t respond but nudged Eira with her shoulder and it almost felt like a human shoulder, not a ghost’s. “I suppose I should go get the others and the weapons. Do I need Rose, Myra, and Finley?”
The spirit shook her head.
“Can I have you, Aytigin, and Cadeyrn there?”
Malle nodded.
Eira breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I know it’s my task, but it’s felt like all of ours. I feel like we should be the ones here to finish it.”
The four of them gathered in Luana’s temple with the Shadow Slayers and stood around the stone table. Eira gripped Cadeyrn’s hand and held on as tight as possible. He raised her hand to his lips and placed a small kiss on her knuckles that had turned white from the grip.
“Are you sure about this?” Aytigin asked. “You’re confident you know how to break this curse?”
Eira locked eyes with him, and the worry in his face was obvious. He’d been here so long and suffered, and caused other people’s suffering, she didn’t blame him for having doubts. “Yes, I’m sure. You’ll be free soon. I promise. We all will be.”
She wrapped her arms around Cadeyrn and let herself enjoy the feel being so close to him. “I love you.”
Then, she kissed her finance. Her love. The man who helped her be the person she always wanted.
“Is there anything I can do? How can I help?” he asked.
Eira only shook her head and buried her face in his chest. She breathed him in and tried to memorize the way he smelled. “You’ve done everything.”
He handed her the weapons and she lay on the stone table with them grasped in her palms. She prayed for Luana to give her strength, and for no one to notice her shaking hands, and summoned the magic inside of her.
It spread through the table and she felt the cold ice and shining stardust beneath her body.
Cadeyrn cleared his throat. “So, what is it exactly you need to do?”
Eira didn’t look at him. If she did, she knew she would change her mind. Instead, she remained silent and plunged the tips of the weapons into her heart through her crescent moon tattoo.
The yells and cries of Cadeyrn and Aytigin sounded far away as though they were in another world.
She gasped at the shock of how easily they sliced through her body.
Nothing happened at first. Not even pain as though she’d been frozen in time.
But then, stars began to form around her, and she was surrounded by darkness and stars.
Then, a pillar of light shone out from where the weapons pierced her.
She screamed at the ice-cold burn that soared through her body as though she was a star exploding in the night sky.
Cadeyrn’s screams echoed and bounced off the temple walls.
Everything grew dark and out of the corner of her eye she could see him trying to lunge toward her, but Aytigin held him back.
Eira tried to turn her head to her love.
Tell him it was all right. But it would be a lie.
She had no idea if it was going to be all right.
Even if she could say the words through her screams, her body couldn’t move.
The moon and stars spun around the room until everything went dark.
When Eira opened her eyes, she lay on snow-covered ground with stars shining above her.
The burning light had ceased and the pain vanished.
Her throat didn’t even feel hoarse from screaming.
The Shadow Slayers lay at her side, and she relaxed her body into the snow.
She wasn’t cold.
Eira took in a few shuddering breaths to calm herself after the brief ordeal. This place was so familiar. She’d been here before. Then, Eira remembered. This was where she’d met Luana all those months ago when she’d bitten into a poisoned apple.
Eira pushed herself up into a seat and looked around. As predicted, Luana stood before her and extended her arms “Rise, my child.”
Eira rose to her feet and found there wasn’t a single drop of blood on her pristine white gown. “Am I dead?”
The goddess smiled and walked toward her. The silver dress she wore floated across the snow like a shimmering cloud. “Somewhere in between life and death. That was how all of it started isn’t it? Come sit with me.”
The two of them walked side by side to the resting place Luana had brought her to before when she gave Eira her magic and gestured for her to recline on the piles of blue and silver pillows.
But Eira didn’t want to relax and eat fruit like a goddess who loomed over and watched the world form above.
Over it but never fully in it. Instead, she took a step back.
Luana didn’t respond or try to beckon Eira to join her and simply stood before her.
“I don’t understand. All of this just for me to die?
I worked for so long. You gave me this power.
And you wanted me to sacrifice myself?” Heat and anger bubbled up in Eira’s chest, something she never thought would happen in regard to the goddess.
The deity she’d loved and worshipped her whole life.
Everything she’d ever done had been for Luana.
“What about Aytigin? What about my people and kingdom? What about Cadeyrn?”
Her voice finally broke at his name and hot tears rolled down her cheeks. The gravity of what she’d done finally set in and it felt as though her chest was being pulled and broken apart. “I didn’t even say goodbye.”
Luana’s face was unreadable. A perfect marble statue in her magnificent night sky and winter world. Eira wanted to smash it to bits. “No, you didn’t say goodbye, did you? Why is that Eira?”
Eira paused at the question and opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before answering. “I didn’t want to change my mind. And I trusted you.”
Was my trust misplaced? She wanted to add the question but couldn’t bring herself to.
Luana nodded. But said nothing.
Anger welled up within Eira once again. “I don’t understand,” she said through clenched teeth.
“I never said you had to. Ray and I broke the balance when we created this castle. Aytigin broke the balance with his experiments. Balance had to be restored.”
“So, all of this just to destroy it again? Destroy myself because Aytigin and those priests did that to themselves?” Eira tried to keep her voice neutral and calm, but there was an edge of irritation to her words.
“It is complete.”
“What?”
Luana leaned forward and kissed Eira on the forehead. Her chest warmed and her crescent moon tattoo began to glow. Heat radiated through her until the light was so bright she had to close her eyes. Then the world went black once again.
Eira opened her eyes and she was lying on the stone table. The pillar glowing from her body grew more and more powerful and bright like a bonfire igniting on a beach.
“Eira!” Cadeyrn broke free from Aytigin’s tight grip and bolted toward her. He burst through the pillar of light and knelt on the table at her side. His cheeks gleamed with tears and they shone in the light. “But you… how…. You’re alive.”
His voice pulled her back to reality beyond what was happening to her. He would always pull her back.
“Cade…” Eira tried to speak, but her body shook again and it felt like ice was being sucked out of her and the light shot out around the temple. The castle shook and pieces of the walls crashed to the ground. Then, all at once, everything stopped.
Eira gasped and took in what felt like the first breath in hours.
She looked down at her chest and her crescent moon tattoo.
It was pale and faded now, and there was an empty feeling inside her body.
She placed her fingers over the tattoo. She felt the bump of a small scar there, but when she’d normally feel Luana’s power running through her, there was only faint darkness and stardust. The gifts Luana had given her were gone. She choked on a sob.
“Eira, it’s done,” Cadeyrn gasped.
“What?” Eira asked then looked around her.
The castle was whole. There was no more rubble or ruin.
The paintings were whole and the cracks along the walls had vanished.
Sunlight shone through the stained-glass windows and made tiny rainbows glimmer across the floor.
But there was something different about it. The castle felt normal.
No magic or glimmer or ice or stars floating through the air. It was an average castle.
Eira choked on another sob and covered her mouth. “I can’t believe it. It… it’s done. After all this time…” But there was something else that was different.
Cadeyrn pulled Eira into a crushing hug and buried his face in her shoulder as more tears flowed from his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going to happen? I thought I’d lost you.”
Eira leaned against Cadeyrn and squeezed him as tight as she could.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this happy, even with the loss of her gifts.
“I knew you’d talk me out of it. We should all go celebrate.
Aytigin, do you think you can catch something for us to eat?
” She looked around and didn’t see Aytigin’s face towering over them. “Aytigin?”
In all the commotion, they hadn’t noticed that Aytigin now was on the ground leaning against the corner, Malle’s spirit at his side. Eira’s breath left her at the sight.
“Aytigin!” Eira called out and pushed her way over to them. An odd stillness came upon the temple as though everything froze in the wake of the restoration.
Up close, Malle appeared more human than she ever had before. There was still the shimmer of translucence to her, but Eira couldn’t see all the way through her to the wall any longer. She knelt next to the dragon and held his hand. A lump came to her throat. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
His breathing was labored and slow, but he still gave her that sly smile Eira had grown so used to all these months. “I’m free.”
“No. No!” Eira clasped his hand even tighter. “You’re supposed to be free to live your life. Don’t leave! You can’t leave. I didn’t know…”
She crumpled and something inside of her broke. Eira didn’t think she would lose anything else. That she couldn’t break anymore. Apparently, her capacity for grief didn’t have a limit. There was always something or someone more to lose. “Please don’t go,” she whispered. “I’m not ready.”
Aytigin reached over and stroked her hair. “My little Luana.”
The tears flowed freely from Eira’s eyes. “You were supposed to have a second chance.”
Malle knelt at Aytigin’s side and pulled his hand away from Eira. “He will. With me.”
Malle leaned over and kissed Aytigin, and little by little, their bodies faded away and the two of them vanished into eternity.
And as though nothing had happened at all, Eira and Cadeyrn were alone.
He slid to the ground next to her and Eira collapsed her head onto his chest unable to hold herself up any longer.
Tiny rainbows from the sunshine and windows danced across the stone floor and up to the table, making it seem as though the temple was might of color and light.
Cadeyrn held Eira close and rubbed her back as she sobbed.
“It’s over,” Eira said. “It’s all over.”