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WILLOW
Fox’s hands drop from my head. The visceral memory of my worst moment has left me breathless, dizzy, and feeling nauseous. I look up at him, afraid he’ll see my worst parts. His eyes soften with affection as his thumb grazes my scarred cheek.
“You fought for us,” he whispers, brows lifting. “And she stole your magic.”
“You think it was her?”
He yanks me to his chest and hugs me. Tight. It takes me a moment to relax, but when I do, I’m sobbing silent tears and hugging him right back.
“Willow. . .” He strokes my braid in soothing, repetitive sweeps. “You woke her up. You woke everyone up.”
The blood drains from my cheeks. “This war. This tournament. All these deaths. . . are my fault?”
He holds me at arm’s length, disbelief on his face. “I just told you that you woke up entire civilizations, and the first thing you worry about is what they did to each other?”
“It wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t?—”
“Try to save us? Try to free us from Maebh?”
A helpless whimper slips out of me. “I don’t know.”
“Stop second-guessing your choices. Start listening to your heart. It will never steer you wrong.”
My mother said something like that the night before I left. “How can someone who’s eaten hearts for eons know more about them than me?”
He winces.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble. “I didn’t mean it as an insult.”
“I’m trying, Willow.”
“I know.”
I help Fox exit the temple but linger to speak with Styx.
“I don’t know if you can hear me,” I whisper into the cave. “But on the off chance that Fox is right, and you’re in there right now—” I bite my lip, wanting to yell so many things, but settle for a promise. “I’m coming back.”
I nab a jar of manabeeze and shuffle toward the exit, but kick something on the ground. The object rolls beneath a table. I put down the jar and get on my hands and knees to chase it. My fingers latch on and burn with the intensity of magic vibrating into me. I hiss at the sensation but back up as fast as possible, placing the disc before the jar to inspect it better. Runes are carved into the flat stone. This feels important, so I pick up the jar and disc and take them outside.
It’s stopped snowing again, but night has fallen. Fox’s pale, worried face is a beacon in the darkness two feet away. I head toward him, but the disc refuses to cross the wards, and my arm is yanked back at the socket. The surprise change in momentum almost has me dropping the jar from my right hand, so I let go of the disc in my left and catch the manabeeze.
“Phew. That was close.” I exhale a shaky laugh. “The last thing we want is a thousand manabeeze floating in the sky, announcing to the guards that I just raided the queen’s Cabinet of Curiosities.”
“What took you so long?” he grumbles.
“Relax. I found something.”
He lets me pull him back into the cave, and I show him the flat disc with carved runes.
“It burns with so much power, I almost can’t hold it.”
“A seal.” His eyes widen. “You found a seal.”
“It was under a table. Maybe the others are in here too.” I gasp with an idea. “Maybe we can break them!”
We attack the seal with everything we’ve got. I chop it with my sword. He tries to crush it, to obliterate it from the inside with his phantom, and to toss it around with shadow against the cave’s inner walls, but nothing we try makes a dent in it. And we’re getting perilously close to breaking jars.
“What the fuck is this made from?” I groan.
