Chapter 17
Ryder
No! I’m too late.
The last of my father’s smoke fades as the ashes of what used to be Reign Calloway fall to the ground.
She’s dead, and it’s all my fault.
I did this. I was supposed to protect her. I was supposed to save her from my father, but instead I led her right back to him. I never should’ve let her come. I should’ve kept her as far away from him as possible.
My knees give out, and I drop down beside the pile of ashes.
I failed her. Just like I failed my mother and unborn brother.
Just like I failed the realms. I don’t deserve to feel her loss.
I don’t deserve to mourn the girl with dark, cherry hair and lethal banter.
She was never mine to care for, and she’s not mine to miss, yet the tightness in my chest grows with each passing second.
Usually, I’m able to push it down, but right now it’s all-consuming.
The gravel and snow around me begin to float into the air as the leash on my power loosens with rage.
Casualties come with war. I know this. I expected this.
So why does her death affect me so? She was just another one of my father’s playthings.
A girl from the Sector who turned into a soldier. Soldiers die. That’s what happens.
I close my eyes and try to push her from my mind, but I swear I can smell the lingering scent of her. The intoxicating scent of jasmine that stays long after she’s gone. The scent that has entranced me more times than I would like to admit.
Imagining a world without her witty remarks and playful jabs feels wrong.
A world where she’s not violently throwing daggers at a target, or insisting she be a part of every plan.
A world where she’s not bothering me with insufferable demands.
Where she’s not burning holes through the icy walls I’ve built up.
I shake my head, trying to rid myself of the images of her now haunting my mind.
Instead, I cling to the anger, avoiding all other feelings.
He’s going to pay for what he’s done. Whether it takes a year or five-hundred years, my father is going to die for this. I hear the avalanches fall in the distance as I let my power take over. Wherever he is now, I want him to know I’m coming for him.
Every inch of my body prickles with power.
As I take off my jacket, giving myself over to the shadows, something catches my eye.
I watch as the small, glimmering object rolls along the mountain’s cliff until it comes to a stop.
Suddenly, it feels like my heart is going to burst from my chest. I walk over and pick up the pyramid-shaped stone encased in golden rings.
The Verenite Stone.
I stole it back from the Serenities with my shadows right before they vanished in the Dread Woods.
I was so caught up in everything the Oracle had told us that I must’ve forgotten to take it out of my pocket the night we returned.
I had been meaning to give it to Reign, but we weren’t exactly on good terms when we got back, and it never felt like the right time.
Hope begins to build inside me, looking down at the small relic in my palm. This could work. It has to work. The stone is said to undo any magic. That has to include dragon fire, right?
My head is telling me it’s a long shot, but I don’t care. It’s hope and right now that’s all I need. I remove the leather glove from my right hand and unsheathe a dagger from my side. Carefully, I set the stone on top of the pile of ashes.
Just one drop of blood and she’ll be alive again.
It’s going to work. It has to.
Though only a single drop of blood is needed to activate the stone’s magic, I’m not taking any chances. I run the blade along the inside of my hand, drawing a long line of blood. There’s a moment of hesitation when I look down at the black seeping from the cut.
What if my blood is immune? What if it doesn’t work?
No. I can’t think like that. I squeeze my hand into a fist, letting the blood fall. Just as the first drop is about to land on the stone, a gust of wind sends the pile of ashes over the edge of the mountain.
“NO!”
A stabbing pain pierces my heart watching the ashes disappear into the wind.
It feels like I’ve lost her all over again, but this time I can’t push down the feelings growing in my chest. Shadows rip through me, covering the sky in darkness as the mountain shakes beneath my feet.
I drop to my knees, digging my hands into the snow as if it will help calm me, but it does no such thing.
Birds flying by burst into nothingness as the mountain across from me disintegrates, leaving a valley in its place.
Death and destruction. That is who I am.
That is what follows me, and Reign was collateral damage.
I could’ve taken her to the Shadow Lands.
I could have set her free, but I was selfish.
I didn’t want to be like my father. I wanted to prove to her that I was different.
I gave her the choice to fight back and now she’s dead because of it.
Guilt eats away at me as flashes of her olive skin and loose curls run wild in my mind.
I’m so lost in her memory that I barely register the floating orange embers starting to form in front of me.
A cluster of them appear just off the mountain’s edge.
I quickly get to my feet, preparing for a fight.
A surge of excitement shoots through my veins at the thought of killing someone.
The illuminating embers begin to swirl around, creating a tornado of red and orange.
I hate that the image of it reminds me of the one person I want to forget.
It’s as if the universe wants me to suffer.
I start to conjure my sword of shadows but pull it back, deciding my fists are the only weapon I want to use right now.
As the tornado grows in front of me, I think about reaching my shadows out to whoever is hiding behind it but instead, decide to wait for them to come to me.
All of a sudden, a burst of flames forces me to shield myself.
The heat coming off of them trail along the outside of my shadows as if to stroke them.
I almost pity whoever it is they belong to for picking a fight with me.
Their death won’t be quick and painless today.
Violence is the only release from the chaos threatening to suffocate me and unfortunately for them, killing is in my nature.
I wait another moment before slowly starting to drop my veil of shadows, but the second my eyes see her they immediately fall away.
Impossible.
I take a step forward as if doing so will somehow make everything make sense.
“Reign!”
Her eyes remain closed like she’s in a deep sleep, but I can’t take my eyes off of her.
How can this be? Did the Verenite Stone somehow work?
I look up at her floating in the space just off the mountain’s edge. Flames mold to her body, hugging every curve of her as if it were her skin. They dance around her like she’s a candle in the wind. Sweat crawls down the back of my neck and the sides of my face as intense heat radiates from her.
The sight of her fiery hair blowing wildly makes the corner of my mouth curve slightly. Wild and free is how she was meant to be. Not caged like an animal, forced to live a life at the control of another.
When her eyes fly open, I instinctively retreat a step.
They aren’t the green eyes that make me want to fall to my knees, but the fiery ones that resemble the sun.
The ones that warn everyone around her to run the other way.
But something about them looks void. It’s as if she’s looking right through me.
She lifts her arms away from her sides and waves of flames flare out around her.
Another burst of fire erupts from her core, and she slowly leans her head back, surrendering herself to the power.
Minutes pass by as she levitates in the air.
The flames continue to whip around her as she remains in some sort of unconscious state.
With each passing second I can feel myself growing more and more impatient.
She’s right there. She’s only feet away from me. Alive.
Fuck it.
I reach my shadows out for her, ignoring the burning sensation clinging to them. I won’t let her slip away this time. She can burn every inch of me until there is nothing left if she must. Death is a price I will gladly pay if it means she gets to live.
My ribbons of shadow, which are now set ablaze, are just about to wrap around her when a blast sends me flying back into the side of the mountain.
Snow falls from the impact, putting out the flames that had claimed my shadows as their own.
The feeling of relief it brings almost stops me from noticing the intense throbbing coming from the back of my head.
When I reach back to assess the damage, my hand is instantly coated in thick blood.
I grip the side of the mountain, which now bears a Ryder-sized imprint, and wait for the dizziness to ease before I try to stand. The throbbing only intensifies, but I welcome the pain it brings. Once I feel like I have my bearings again, I turn back around.
For a moment I think the head injury has me imagining things, but there’s no denying the image before me.
Flames flicker along the edges of her bird-like wings as they flap against the cold mountain air.
I can’t stop the smile from spreading across my face seeing her like this.
My mind knows it’s impossible, but my heart knows it’s true. Everything about her makes sense now.
She was born from The Mother. Her power knows no bounds. She didn’t receive her gifts her tenth year like every other witch. She destroyed the ERV like it was nothing more than a fragile vase.
The Oracle had said immortality is one hell of a loophole for death. It knew this would happen. It knew her fate. It has been written in the stars this whole time. She never needed the Verenite Stone to save her because she was never a witch. She was never ordinary.
She was a gift from The Mother. An immortal.
A phoenix.