I glance around in confusion as my vision settles. My palace rises around us, the shimmering obsidian walls and floors, the scent of florals and sulphur. The throne looms just ahead, the obnoxious seat sitting at the centre of the empty room. Zeriavoss… we’re home. But, we were heading to Luminaria… to Elyistria. I needed Elyistria to help me, she said so herself. How the fuck did I get here?
I blink rapidly, trying to figure out what just happened. I could see Luminaria. Maelkar opened the gate there for me,not Zeriavoss. Had I somehow managed to change the path accidentally?
I glance down, looking at her almost lifeless body in my arms.
“Daisy,” I choke, my voice raw and broken. “Stay with me. Don’t you fucking leave me now.”
I brush a hand over her face, pushing away her golden hair so I can see her properly. Her skin is too cold, too pale. Where’s her warmth? Where’s her bright smile, her ocean eyes? Where is my beautiful, radiant queen?
Elyistria appears beside me in a burst of golden mist, her hair whipping around her in the force of her arrival. I hear footsteps barrelling towards me and look up to see Aran stumbling through the throne room doors, heading straight toward me, a knowing look on his face.
“She’s slipping,” Elyistria whispers, placing her glowing hands above Daisy’s chest. “I don’t know how long she has. You were right to come to me.”
“I did?” I ask, confused.
“I felt you arriving and opened the gate straight to Zeriavoss. She needs to be here.”
“She’s not immortal,” I stammer out, “He didn’t make her immortal. He fucking rebuilt her. She… what is she?” I ask, hopelessly.
“She is something else entirely now,” Elyistria murmurs.
My head spins as everything slams into me at once. The ritual, the runes, the portal. Zeriavoss. Elyistria, Aran… Daisy. What the fuck is happening? I didn’t like this feeling. The lack of control, the lack of knowledge.
Aran looks to Elyistria and gives her a nod before turning his attention to the guards. “The Soul Chamber is opening. Guard the door, do not let anyone pass.”
They all scramble as the floor beneath us begins to shift. Ancient runes glow red-hot as the obsidian tiles before mythrone split open. A dark, spiralled stairwell unfurls, leading us down underneath the chair, right into the oldest part of Zeriavoss. A place I had heard whispers of, but had never seen. It was said the Soul Chamber was a place for the gods, a place of death, of rebirth.
I glance to Elyistria, confusion etched across my face. She knew something I didn’t, something that meant Daisy needed to be taken into one of the most sacred places ever created. I didn’t have time to question her; Daisy’s heartbeat was still stuttering, like a candle in the wind. I lift her tightly into my arms, rising as her hair falls like golden threads against my forearms. Her head lolls against my shoulder, and I don’t speak to anyone as I move. I can’t. My throat is constricted, bone dry with fear.
Bits of stone crumble under my boots and fall into the vast crater below. The deeper we go, the heavier the air surrounding us gets, the scent of sulphur so strong my nose stings.
The chamber comes into view as I descend. The vast space is circular, carved into the blackened roots of the earth itself. Sconces spark to life as we move further inside, fuelled by magic so old it has the hairs on the back of my neck prickling, my wings trembling. A stone altar awaits in the centre, looking eerily like the one she was just laid upon in Noxthrallia. Images of her lying screaming and writhing flash through my head, making me stumble a step as the pain of it all crashes through me all over again.
Faded runes flicker to life the moment I step into the circle with her. A shiver runs down my spine that feels like a welcoming caress from the ancient magic that coats the atmosphere.
Elyistria halts beside the altar. “Lay her down.”
I hesitate. My arms won’t let her go. Not when the last time they did, she screamed, she?—
“Korithax,” Elyistria says gently. “You must. This place… it was once hers. She must return to it to survive.”
I stare at her. “What do you mean, this was hers?”
She says nothing. She just places her hand onto mine, giving me a reassuring look. I inhale deeply, giving her a tight nod before lowering Daisy onto the stone, cradling the back of her head as I place her down, the runes flashing as her body connects with the altar.
I look down at her almost lifeless body, her radiance gone. Another flash of light pulses through the runes, and the presence in the room shifts entirely. The air grows still, humming with a power I’ve never felt before. Elyistria shudders, stepping back as the runes around the altar burn brighter, and I follow suit, stepping out of the circle.
A low, ancient chant begins to echo around the chamber, speaking in a tongue I don’t understand. I glance at Elyistria and Aran, but they either don’t hear the chants or they don’t care enough about them as their eyes stay glued to Daisy.
The runes continue to pulse, low and slow, like an ancient heartbeat. They cast a glow across Daisy’s skin, making her look even paler than she had moments ago. Still, she doesn’t stir. I take a step forward—every inch of me screaming to pull her back into the safety of my arms—but Aran shifts in front of me, his palm braced against my chest.
“Don’t,” he says quietly, but I don’t miss the firmness in his tone. “She needs to do this, Korithax. She’s okay.”
My jaw clenches. “She doesn’t look okay.”
“She is in between,” Elyistria whispers, her eyes unblinking, trained on my queen. “Between what was, and what will be. You must not interfere.”
I want to ignore them both. Gods, I want to. But something in Aran’s eyes, something unshakable, roots me to the spot. So I stand there, and I watch as I feel my heart slowly break. Thelonger we stand there, the heavier the air grows around us. I can feel magic weaving through the chamber, slithering across the runes, coiling around Daisy like a serpent.
