Chapter 30
101 YEARS AGO
MALICINE WAS SUPPOSED to die alone by their own father’s hands. Sacrificed to make some impossible wish come true, all so that Oleander could create a new world from his own flesh and blood. He didn’t care if that meant killing his own child. The dagger would slash Malicine’s throat open, the blade already pressed into their neck.
Instead, the knife retracted, and the pain was gone.
There was the sound of something piercing flesh, but it wasn’t Malicine’s. They opened their eyes and saw a glass dagger punctured through Oleander’s chest. The blade looked hastily carved, yet sharp enough to wound him. A shudder of breath, and Malicine noticed it came from a new person, one whose silhouette was made of glass.
Amelia pulled out the dagger and stumbled backward. Her body toppled to the ground, slicked in blood and stone. There was a crack in her ribs, translucent bones protruding from paper-thin skin. She struggled to push herself up, and Malicine realized it hadn’t been a dagger she carried, but the sharp end of a broken hand.
Questions spun in Malicine’s mind. How long had Amelia been wandering to find Malicine? How could she break so easily and still be here?
And why, why didn’t she leave Malicine behind?
The stab wasn’t enough to kill Oleander. If anything, it only resulted in a minor wound. A temporary distraction that would result in another death, one that didn’t even need to happen if Amelia hadn’t been foolish enough to return. She backed away as he turned around, trembling under his shadow. Sharp talons flashed. A blur of claws swiped the air. A guttural scream ripped from Malicine’s throat before they could make sense of why they cared.
“Amelia—!”
She shattered before them, a burst of glass and silent cries. She didn’t even make a sound as she broke apart. The shards split in different directions across the floor, pieces of her scattering near Malicine’s feet.
They stared at the fragments of the only person who looked for them. In their reflection, they shed tears. Amelia had been falling apart, and she still came back for Malicine.
The world turned still, only the sound of their shaky breaths betraying their body to tremble. Outside, the sky rumbled through the smoke. If there were stars, they’d bleed the world red. The black rocks looked like expressionless figures, but if Malicine concentrated hard enough, their pulse beat alongside the trees beyond. There used to be life in this world, and perhaps it still existed, something innate and covered. Like lava that once flowed through the forest, incinerating tree trunks to form the hollow cylinders around Malicine. A flame that broiled inside them, as well.
Oleander turned to them with a wicked smile, assuming they trembled from fear, not anger. He had said that Malicine was broken. He was wrong. Broken people didn’t feel the sort of rage that made them alive. Broken people didn’t have ravens who followed their side or lost princesses who chose them over anywhere else.
If anyone was broken and alone, it was him. It was why he sought them. Because the core of Malicine’s existence, their blood, their soul, held more multitudes than he could ever dream.
Popping noises rang from the sky. Cracks appeared in the fortress, running down the invisible barrier in the jagged shape of veins. It allowed for black smoke to trickle inside the tower, the red sky to bleed through the fissures. Oleander spun around, watching his world fall apart. But it wasn’t breaking down at all. It was only becoming alive for Malicine.
Rage exploded from within. Their mouth expelled a whorl of fire and blasted Oleander to the other side of the tower. He broke through the window, a ball of flames that barely had time to react. Chains broke from Malicine’s limbs as they grew bigger, taller, crashing through the vaulted ceiling and rising higher than any spire. Walls crumbled, and from the debris and ash, they rose as a dragon.
Their tail swung at the columns in Oleander’s direction. He moved quickly, arms raised to block the rocks. Black scales crackled across his skin as his horns spiraled into the sky. Laughter rumbled from his extending throat, his neck twisting around the trees, sharp teeth gleaming between the branches. The amulet glowed from his scales, and in his reddened eyes, Malicine saw blood.
“You are too inept to be acting stubborn.” When he spoke as a dragon, his voice was toneless, guttural. It echoed through every tree and shook the ground. “Don’t you understand, child? In every world, you are the same.”
Oleander’s mouth gaped open, a large void with teeth sharp enough to tear Malicine to shreds. Gusts of violent wind blew as he charged forward. Malicine didn’t retreat. Instead, they faced their father directly, green eyes locked onto the amulet at his throat. The gem radiated light through the void, as if sensing Malicine’s blood and ready to consume them.
They soared toward Oleander and swung for the gem. Their claws pierced his scales, digging into flesh until they could rip the amulet from his body. They let out a guttural snarl as his teeth clamped over their limbs. Blood spurted from both dragons as they tore into each other. Pain blossomed through Malicine’s body with each scratch. A blinding light split the sky open. The amulet pulsed like a beating heart, slicked with both their blood. Oleander’s laugh was monstrous as he grabbed the gem, keen to take the newfound power. But it burned under his touch, and he let out a howl as holes burned into his scales.
“You’re wrong, Oleander.” Malicine spat his name like they were cleansing themselves from poison. Their voice boomed through the black smoke that surrounded them. The amulet floated toward their body like it was returning not to its past, but a new home. Their scales latched onto the gem and felt their heart beating as one with it.
For centuries, Oleander thought magic meant taking power from others. But Malicine was the one who could open worlds and change the tides of time. They only needed power from themselves, for they were not a curse, but a miracle.
Energy roiled inside them like a flame. Blood pulsed against their skin, pounding to the breath of every generation that came before them, every source of life merging for a new future in Malicine’s hands.
“I am neither human nor Fae, man nor woman, good nor evil.”
Malicine leapt to the sky, covering the red moon until they shaded the entire land into darkness.
“I am Malicine, and I cannot be contained.”
They let out a deafening screech that shook the world. The fire was electric blue, spreading across the land like lightning. The ground crumbled into molten rock and erupted where Oleander stood. Magma swallowed him whole, the flow of lava drowning him until his blackened bones withered to dust. The fortress surrounding them shattered. Black clouds tore apart like a rip in the seams of the sky.
Pure white light washed across the atmosphere. The moon waxed into a pearl, reflecting the remnants of fire and oceans into an iridescent hue.
For the first time, the sky turned clear.
? ? ?
DRAFTS OF WIND cooled down the fires like a whisper. In the dead woods, an amulet sat still in Malicine’s palm. The root of a broken tree stretched toward them, curling around their fingers like a serpent finding its home. Malicine let the root grow in their hands until it was thick enough to hold as a staff. At the top of the scepter, they stared at their own reflection, mirrored within the scarlet clouds that swirled inside the amulet.
Magic coursed through their veins and radiated to the staff. They waved the stick over the pile of debris where the tower had fallen. Rocks dispersed in the air, shifting like puzzle pieces until the rubble revealed Talon’s body. The feathers on his tail had burnt to crisps, uncovering part of his raw, pink flesh. Gingerly, Malicine placed a hand on his wound. The warmth of their palm pieced his feathers back together. His eyes opened once more.
As he took in the scene, he let out a mournful croak. “We should have never come here. I . . . am deeply sorry.”
Malicine shook their head. “You wanted to remember what he was like. I wanted to know the truth. We got what we came here for.”
They scanned their surroundings, where clear skies shed light across indistinct columns and barren caves. Rocks contracted back into basalt pillars, cooling down from lava. Stones froze in the shape of jagged teeth like a silent scream that already passed.
Malicine looked at the ground where glass shards scattered over the dirt. Under the light, the glass glinted like teardrops. They dug the end of the staff into the debris. Power pulsed from the wooden stick, trickled down to the root, and crept through the rubble. Shards of glass floated to the same spot until they coalesced, forming the silhouette of a woman. The last pieces of an eyelash stuck together before Amelia fluttered her eyes open.
She sat up with a gasp, readjusting to the air around them, the bright sky, and the fact that moments ago, she had been smashed into pieces. Translucent hair fell over her shoulders like a waterfall, and she stared at the palms of her transparent hands wondering how she’d come to life again.
Malicine reached a hand out to the girl. She stared back at the demon, stunned, before taking Malicine’s palm and pulling herself up.
“Why did you come back for me?” Malicine stilled the anger from seeping into their voice. Part of them wanted to yell at the girl for her stupidity, her willingness to turn back and run into danger, even if that meant getting killed. But the demon was tired of anger, how it clung onto them like a mask, hiding something sadder beneath.
Amelia looked at them as if she had already taken off that mask.
“I saw a portal with a hidden world on the other side. It was magical, and beautiful, and perfect,” she said. “It looked just like a dollhouse I once had. There was a maze of sunflowers, a cottage with a balcony, and green fields that stretched for miles. When I saw it, I thought this must be the closest thing to happiness. Something close to perfection, yet it could never be real. My secret, imaginary world.”
A hopeful look washed over her sea glass eyes, an endless ocean that feared no limits.
“I realized that if I crossed over, you needed to come with me, too.”
“Why would I go with you?”
“Because you wouldn’t have agreed to leave our world,” she said, “if you weren’t unhappy living in it.”
The revelation hit Malicine like a strike in the gut. It was a different type of affliction, one that bit beneath their skin and chewed them raw. For all the snarled lips and cruel words they could utter, Amelia still saw past their skin, staring at the deep unhappiness they harbored inside. They turned away from the girl, as if their back could shield the rest of their vulnerability she hadn’t already seen.
“You should go home,” they said.
Amelia stepped closer to them. “Malicine, what if we—”
They spun around and placed a hand in front of her face. Magic glowed from their palm, silencing the words from Amelia’s lips. Her glass eyes turned blank as shadows spewed from her open mouth, floating into the air and disappearing like mist. A few seconds passed before she blinked herself back to recognition.
“We’re even,” Malicine said. “I revoked the curse. You will no longer sleep for eternity when you turn eighteen.”
Amelia gaped at the demon, mouth hung open as she processed what this meant. “Why would you do that?”
They ignored her question and focused on the amulet encrusted in their staff. The gem sensed the magic pulsing in their veins and reacted with light. The air shifted, the smell of iron and magic swirling with the wind as a portal gaped open behind Amelia. She stared at the entrance, surprised by how quickly it opened, while Malicine knew they no longer needed to cast magic circles or even spill blood. With the amulet forged from different lives across different times, they could open portals with magic alone.
“You belong in your world, Amelia.” Malicine knew that humans could not exist any other way. Lore would claim Gyldan was prosperous because of gold. People would fight wars and kill each other over it, refusing to see that such trivial minerals would never save them. These were the stories the victors would tell, a romanticized history to mask their own greed as they destroyed the world for it.
Malicine flicked their staff and sent a gust of wind, knocking Amelia on her heels. She reached a hand toward the demon, mouth open to protest, before the portal swallowed her whole and she disappeared.
In the human world, she would return to her regular body. But when Malicine returned, they would remain the same.
They stepped away from the portal and stared at the rest of the Otherworld. A deafening silence hung across empty land, where only death and ash existed. Malicine spent the next few minutes wandering across rubble, searching for the charred remains of their father, but he was truly gone. They walked until they reached the black sea, where thick waves slowly rolled to shore, and their wet footprints left soot wherever they went.
Talon hopped on a boulder overlooking the water. There was nothing beyond the darkness.
“We will have to return eventually,” he croaked. “There is nothing left for us here.”
Malicine sat next to him on the boulder. If they strained hard enough, they could make out their reflection in the sludge from the ocean, the way even tar could arrange together their features that they tried so hard to escape.
They had refused to hear what Amelia had to say, because it didn’t matter if she wanted to seek another world with Malicine. No matter where they went, there would never be a place where Malicine would find home. They would return to the human world, and the two of them would lead separate lives: Amelia becoming the next queen of Gyldan, and Malicine remaining in shadows.
Behind them, the portal was still open, waiting for their entrance.
“We will return,” they told Talon. “I just couldn’t say goodbye to her.”