squinted at him through a white wall of pain. His lined face, his bright sharp eyes.
“You do seem to insist upon the theatrical,” he observed wryly, and with Evyline’s help, both of them straining, he managed to lift Rielle back to her feet. She felt the gentle press of a worn hand against her forehead.
“Wherever you go, child,” he said softly, “I hope you find peace there.”
Peace. She laughed, baffled at the thought. Would she be allowed such a thing, even in death?
not death
The empirium scolded her, a bewildered correction. Why would she think anything was as simple as a single human death?
Then what? she asked, gasping for air.
It replied with a feeling, the thin bones of a single word: more
They reached the great wall standing battered and charred around the city. Zahra hid them from the guards as they hurried through the freshly built gate. Once, Âme de la Terre had not needed such a wall. Once, none of them had thought any of this could happen, no matter the prayers they muttered by their beds.
And then they were across the lake bridge and in the Flats, stumbling across the ruined ground. Furrows from beastly claws, craters still steaming from elemental magic. The temple acolytes hadn’t yet made the necessary repairs to the battlefield, focusing instead on retrieving bodies, cleaning the city, offering counsel to the bereaved. And now, whenever the people of Âme de la Terre looked out their windows, they would see the remnants of war. They would think of the Blood Queen and how she stole their magic from them. Some of them would be grateful for it, find comfort in the new quiet of the air. Some would be wild with grief, but without magic to aid their fury, and with the castle guarded by an army of wraiths, Audric and Eliana would be safe, at least for a few years.
Thunder rolled across the Flats, drawn by the stumbling fall of Rielle’s feet. As they neared the pass, the air crackled gold. Evyline looked up, her expression caught between awe and fear.
“Zahra, you may allow Audric to wake now,” Rielle choked out, her bare feet slapping through the cold mud. “Go to him. Tell him everything I have said, once he is ready to hear it.”
Zahra said nothing, but a cold stream of air kissed the back of Rielle’s neck, and then the wraith was gone.
“Tell me what you see, Evyline,” Rielle breathed.
“I see golden light streaming across the sky,” Evyline replied. “Instead of jagged bolts, like lightning, it is petals, vast and pulsing. They meet, they break apart, they meet again.”
“And I see Audric,” said Rielle, her voice catching on each word. The empirium was a canvas vast and unending, shapes swirling from ground to sky. She read everything written upon it. “He has awoken. He is running through our rooms, looking for me. He’s calling my name over and over. Eliana…” She burst into tears. In her life, she had loved fiercely, but never so perfectly as this. “Eliana is awake and crying. Audric is… He’s calling for the guards. He’s holding Eliana against his chest, shouting my name again. She’s screaming in his ear, and he’s going out onto the terrace. He sees my light. He knows what I’ve done.”
“Please don’t, child,” said Garver. “Don’t look. It will only hurt you to watch them.”
Rielle fell to her knees into a soft rise of mud. Above her towered trees golden with the last flush of autumn, and above them, the pine-dark foothills of Mount Taléa.
“Get back,” she cried out, pushing at Garver’s chest. She grabbed Evyline’s hand, squeezed once, then shoved her away as well. She waited until they had shrunk back into the trees, both of them standing on a ridge piled high with rocks. Below them in the mud, she shook on her hands and knees. Gulping airlessly, swallowing against the storm rising within her. It was time, and yet she knew not where to begin.
breathe
let go
Rielle stared at her hands in the mud. Pale and small, surrounded by shadows.
we rise
The girl crouched before her—her child self, bright-eyed and smiling. Barefoot, white gown fluttering at her ankles, skinny wrists and wild dark hair.
“Come with me now,” the girl said, entirely kind, her voice tender. “There is so much more for us to do.”
The world glittered with diamonds. Blistering pain knocked at Rielle’s temples, but when she reached for the girl’s hand, some of the terrified knots in her shoulders unwound, and