My nightmares occasionally brought back the old memory now and then, reminding me of the day when everything had ended.
And my new life had begun.
Flames encased me, transforming me into a ball of fire as my Source reveled in my power. I had created it like this, once, long ago.
Now, it had somehow returned to its full glory, but it wasn’t pleased.
It was angry.
Camillia,I thought wistfully as I pieced together what she had actually done.
I hadn’t reclaimed my Source.
She’dreturnedit.
Little temptress, I was so wrong about you.
She hadn’t even realized how powerful her release had been when she’d dismantled the icy energy of her dress. It’d been cementing us together, forcing her to siphon my power into a void inside her soul.
I’d felt it happening,knewshe wasn’t in control.
“Hold on,”I’d told her as I’d opened the pathway back home.
Then I’d tried to bring her with me.
But she’d severed that connection and thrown all of my power back at me, sending a blast radiating through my domain.
I had not been prepared to receive the return of my power, and as a result, it had ricocheted.
And now I’m falling all over again.
Bracing myself, I closed my eyes and accepted what would happen next.
After the fall would be the landing.
And it was going to hurt.
My ears popped as I broke through the barrier of the Hell Fae Realm, and the inferno of my Source roared to life.
The sound that echoed across my territory would be heard for thousands of miles—a roar of the Hell Fae King’s fall.
And then all I knew was pain.
Stone and rock burst around me as my body slammed against the unforgiving ground.
Or was it a building?
Oh, my palace,I realized, catching a glimpse of the skyline as the walls crumbled around me.
So, I’d be landing in the same place as my very first fall.
That was somehow fitting.
I smashed through walls and stone as my Source sought the familiar hollow. I’d constructed my palace here on purpose, the location serving as a memorial to remember how far I’d once fallen.
My capital was built on top of this sacred crater, all height and grandeur. But in reality, my original fall had carved out an entire cavern beneath the fiery ambience of the Hell Fae Kingdom.
Fortunately, I didn’t appear to be revisiting that secret cavern today, my fall impactful, but notthatimpactful.
