it’s empty.
I’m alone.
For the first time in my life, I’m completely alone.
And it’s the sword’s fault. It did this…and the sword will fucking pay for it.
The sword screams in my mind as I slowly pry one finger at a time off from the sword, every movement hurting deep within my heart. Hurting my soul, cracking it into a million pieces. I grit my teeth and think of my mates. The sword hurt them. It took them and it won’t win against me.
Izora’s hand covers mine and she smiles at me for a long moment, both of us glowing as we float high in the air, a mixture of light and dark magic, covered in shadows. Time stands still as tears fall down my cheeks and I embrace my power. The magic I was born with. As my last finger rests on the sword, nearly letting Izora take it from me, I whisper one last message to the sword as a goodbye, it screams at me.
“You might be powerful beyond comparison but you are not us. We are the children of gods and shadowborns, and you will rot back in the sea you came from and never, ever rise again!”
The second I let go of the sword, the magic booms so loud that I can’t see anything but light and flickers of darkness as I fall down in tremendous pain. My body crashes onto the hard ground below and the darkness I know so well takes me under, soothing me before I have to face reality.
“It’s time to wake up, sleepyhead.”
“Dad?” I open my eyes to a room full of darkness. “Where are you? I can’t see anything.”
A silver flame drifts towards me, growing brighter and larger until it forms the shape of my father. “Hello, Button.”
“Dad!” I jump into his arms, inhaling his familiar peppermint scent with the tinge of tobacco. His beard scratches my cheek as I hold him close. He’s exactly as I remember him, tall and young, with his blonde hair swept back and his blue eyes weary but kind. His arms wrap around me and he runs a hand through my hair, just like he used to do when I was little. “I can’t believe it’s you,” I say. “Where are we?”
He holds me back, a pained smile on his face. “We are in a place you’ve got to leave.”
“Leave?” My throat tightens. “But I don’t want to leave you. Is Mum here, too?”
I barely finished speaking when a warm breeze drifts over me.
“Darling,” my mum says, and I turn to see her beautiful smile.
The tears in my eyes fall down my cheeks. “I’ve missed you both so much!”
My dad hugs me to his cold chest and I feel my mum’s similarly cold arms wrap around me. The three of us embrace for a moment that I never want to end.
I commit the weight of their arms around me to my memory, desperate this time to not forget. For so long, I have wanted to hug my human parents. I wanted to hear their voices and breathe in their scents, and now that I’m finally able to, I don’t want to let go.
“But you need to,” my dad whispers.
“We love you so very much, Corvina.” My mum smoothes a hand over my face, brushing my hair away from my eyes. “But you don’t belong here. You belong with the fae. You always did.”
More flames flutter down around us—five in total. They each flicker around me, but their glow is dim and quickly fading. It makes my heart clench in my chest and the air constrict in my lungs, though I can’t tell why. It’s not like the flames are people.
“Am I dead?” I croak out, looking back at my parents. “I let go of the sword.”
“You are not dead, but yes, you dropped the sword,” Dad says with a proud smile. “Your mother and I knew you were destined for greatness from the moment we first held you.”
I let my tears roll down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry for what I did. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“Oh, my darling, no!” Mum turns me around and forces me to look at her. “Everything happens for a reason. Just like these flames, we can’t burn forever. There will come a time when the flame is blown out, but that doesn’t mean it is gone for good. It simply gets ignited elsewhere.”
“But I—” I choke on the words, a sob tearing from my throat. “I’m