The runes beneath me flicker with sudden force, glowing a deep, pulsing red. The air warps around me, making my skin pebble. Aran shifts, ready to step in, but Korithax raises a hand, stopping him.
“When you stepped into the Soul Chamber, the truth in your blood couldn’t be hidden any longer. The runes… they recognised their queen.” Elyistria murmurs.
“I’m not a queen,” I sob. “I’m not a goddess. I’m not some ancient being who created worlds. I’m just a fucking girl who’s had enough of being broken.”
Korithax stares at me like I’ve become someone else entirely. And maybe I have.
“I don’t understand,” he says again, softer this time. Almost like he’s pleading with the universe to figure out what’s going on. “What did they do to you? What did you see?”
I try to climb down from the altar, but my legs give out the moment I touch the floor. Korithax catches me, kneeling beside me as I collapse against his chest, his arms wrapping around me like a shield. His heartbeat is like thunder beneath my cheek. I don’t know how to answer him. I don’t know how to tell him what I saw. Who I saw.
“I don’t want this,” I sob into him. “I don’t want to be anyone else. I just want to be me. I just want to be with you.”
His voice is low, broken. “You are. You are mine. Nothing changes that, Daisy.”
“But it has. Everything has changed now,” I cry.
“You saw it, didn’t you?” Elyistria asks gently. “The past. You saw the truth.”
I nod, trembling. “They killed her.”
“Yes.”
“They erased her.” I grit out.
“Yes.”
“And you let them,” I say, a little harsher than intended.
It lands like a slap. Elyistria flinches, her eyes shimmering. “I tried to stop them. But I was too late. And then… I stayed quiet. Because I thought it was the only way to survive long enough to bring you back.”
I stare at her. “You left her. You left me!”
The pain in her face answers for her. I turn my face into Korithax’s chest, tears soaking his shirt. I feel like I’m cracking down the centre, like every piece of me is being ripped open, and I’m being forced to look at something I wasn’t built to understand.
“I’m scared,” I whisper.
He pulls me tighter. “I know, little flower. But I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
Elyistria approaches slowly, kneeling in front of us. “Daisy, you don’t have to become her. Not yet.”
“She keeps saying that name,” Korithax says hoarsely. “Dasmyrin. Why does that name sound like it’s splitting her in two?”
“She is both,” Elyistria replies. “She always was.”
Korithax’s expression turns unreadable as I glance up at him. He holds me like I’m glass, like he’s terrified he already lost me to the broken pieces, and he doesn’t know how to put me back together.
“You’re still you, Daisy. This is just the truth of where you came from, of what was stolen from you. But you choose who you become.” Elyistria whispers, trying to offer me a reassuring smile.
My eyes sting. “And what if I don’t want to become anyone but me?”
“Then we fight for that,” Korithax says, his voice firm and reassuring. “We fight for your future, not your past.”
The air settles around me, the runes dimming once more. Korithax’s words settle in my chest. Maybe I have a choice. But to have a choice, I need to know it all.
I lift my head and look to Elyistria, my mind unsteady, unsure. “Tell me everything,” I whisper. “Every lie. Every truth. I want to know it all.”
She nods. “Then it is time you learn what it means to be born from ash.”
