Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,150
wobbled, unable to hold up her weight, and then her father was there, enveloping her in his large arms.
“I… What did I…”
“We didn’t know,” her father said, on the verge of tears. “Annelisse told me of that doom once, a long time ago, but I never thought…”
“I don’t want to be chosen.” She tried hard not to be sick. She’d never killed anything in her life, but more terrifying than the Snow Queen’s death was the inexorable calm that came over her the instant Tala took the sword. A calm completely devoid of all emotions and feelings, of everything that felt remotely human, and it frightened her more than ice wolves and shades and the Snow Queen combined.
“Tala, it chose ye. I don’t know if y’could—”
“I can’t!” Tala sobbed. “I can’t do it. I don’t want to do it.” The sword gleamed, invitingly, seductively, at her, and she shut her eyes.
“Tala,” her father said quietly. “Others’d kill for the chance tae have it. Wars were fought to possess it. You’d be the most important person in the world after Alex.”
“But I don’t want it!” Tala gasped out. “I don’t want to be powerful. I don’t want to be important! When I touched it, it was like I was someone else. Someone crueler. I wanted to kill her. I didn’t care that I killed her. And it felt like I could go on killing. Everything in my way, I could kill. I don’t want it. I want things back the way they used to be.” Just her and her father and her mother, still living in Invierno, hiding their curse from everyone else.
“Tala. You could do a lot of good with—”
“I don’t want to be like you!”
Her father reeled back like she’d slapped him, and Tala regretted the words immediately. “No! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! I don’t want this. I don’t want to be some stupid hero. I don’t care that I’m selfish. I don’t want to be like her. I don’t want to take that sword and feel so empty, like nothing matters but the thrill of using it. Please don’t make me do it, Dad. Please.”
After a moment’s pause, she felt her father’s arms around her again, holding her tighter.
“Aye,” he said. “I won’t.”
The firebird hobbled closer. It settled itself by their feet, blew out the last puff of fire from its tail feathers, and sighed.
* * *
They patched up her father’s leg as best as they could. The mirror teleported them back into the room, the Nine Maidens silent and dim. Alex was gone. So were the ice maiden and the shades.
In the throne room, Ken was chipping away at one of the large blocks, trying to get at the imprisoned man inside. “They’re still alive!” he shouted back at them, sounding stunned.
He let General Luna take over, to embrace Tala with a loud, happy whoop. Suddenly they were surrounded by people and voices, more people than they had started out with, elated and relieved.
“Tala!” It was her mother, rushing to meet them. With a low sob, Tala met her halfway and hugged her fiercely. They were immediately swamped, as her titos and titas swooped in to join.
“The Gallagher boy deduced you’d found your way into Avalon somehow, hija,” Lola Urduja said sternly, stepping forward. “We’d been monitoring the barriers for months, hoping you would show us any chink in its defenses. Fortunate that we were already watching when the frost disappeared, and we wasted no time rerouting to the nearest looking glass within Maidenkeep so we could—”
Tala flung herself at the old woman. After a startled pause, Lola Urduja laughed, gathering her close.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Ken said. “Hold on a minute. You’ve been monitoring the barrier for months? How long do you think we’ve been away?”
“It’s been nearly six months since you disappeared from the sanctuary.”
“Six months?” Zoe shouted. “Did they keep my acceptance into Princeton?”
“We saved Avalon and that’s the first thing you concern yourself with, Zo? Stick all this in your college essay.”
Then West was with them, still naked and grinning from ear to ear, and Loki, slapping him on the back. Zoe laughed, hugging him once Ken was done, and Nya didn’t bother to wait her turn, pouncing on them both. Even Cole was smiling.
“We were so worried, we spent ages wondering where you were and if you were all right.”
“They’re not gonna expect me to pay for the doors, are they? I mean, I couldn’t help it. I was an elephant.”