Chapter 50
ROOKE
Silence.
The light faded.
The voices quieted.
I came back into my own body alone in the blood circle, breathing air that tasted of ozone and ancient magic.
The staff was nearly as tall as I was, black obsidian shot through with veins of gold and silver, topped with a circular setting of meteor-gold where the Mirror's surface gleamed like a dark globe, swirling with depths that seemed to stretch into infinity.
Somewhere within those depths, my ancestors watched like vultures.
Their power waiting for me, and me alone.
The Crown had reformed on my head, and I reached up and touched each sharp spike, the bloodstones still warm, the gold around them cooling to the touch. The storm inside my head was quiet, I felt hollow, like I might float away.
But I also felt right. Complete.
The Triune was bound. I was its keeper.
Gravelock was going to die.
I stepped out of the blood circle, over the runes burned into the stone of the floor, magic coating around me like stardust, while outside, dawn broke over the black sands as I closed my eyes and pulled up the magic, crafting it into a perfect image of my memories.