I needed them gone. I didn’t want the reminder, didn’t want to see a part of him still living in me every time I looked in the mirror.
“Nollie…” Hael was hesitant, cautious. His arms were out, almost reaching for me. “You’re close to the edge, be careful.”
I blinked at him. I didn’t care. Right now all I could think about was the fact that I was manipulated again. That I left my brother, that he never fell into the river and I so stupidly, foolishly was tricked into leaving him alone.
More sobs tore through me, but it was all anger. I wanted to pick up the dagger, only to kill Dahes over and over again.
“Hael, we don’t have time to coddle her right now. She needs to know.”
I wiped at my tears, trying to push all thoughts of my brother into the deepest part of my mind. I’d dig up that grave later. I’d deal with it all later…
“What do I need to know?” I asked, my voice still painfully ripped to shreds.
“Dammit, Jaxs. Give her a fucking minute,” Hael growled, nottaking his eyes off me, and I realized he was still worried about the edge, about how close I was hovering over it.
I looked to Jaxs, hoping he’d answer.
“You’re kinda the Queen of Moriann now,” he said, leveling a straight face with me. “I don’t know whatever this is you’re dealing with,” he gestured toward Dahes, “but you need to do something with the monsters.”
I followed his gaze and stared at the hundreds of punctures I repeatedly stabbed into Dahes’ body. He was covered in red blood. I watched as it seeped down him and onto the stone of the landing pad.
I was covered in it too, completely drenched that it looked like I bathed in it.
It was the start of the Viridis moon when I first stepped out here, and now the Ignis was in the sky, which meant another hour had to have passed from when I came outside.
An hour of me stabbing him, an hour of me sobbing as I put all my anger into slicing as much of his flesh apart as I possibly could.
I realized it would never be enough. I wanted to bring him back to life just so I could do it all over again. I wanted to cut him again and again until there was nothing left…
But Jaxs’ words.
‘Queen of Moriann’and‘do something with the monsters’.
“What do you mean?” I stuttered, looking up at him.
“I don’t know if it’s because you were the one who killed him,” Hael said gently, and I whipped my gaze to him, “or if it’s because you have some of him living in you.”
He was staring right at me—at the rings around my eyes. I didn’t get the chance to tell Hael about it. Most people just assumed it was part of my coloring, the blue blended in seamlessly with my natural gray. But somehow Hael knew. He always seemed to know even without me speaking.
He waited, waited for realization to dawn, for Jaxs’ words to fully sink in.
“Queen?” I breathed, falling backwards on my heels. Hael jumped, a shimmer erecting behind my back the second I moved.
“You have your magic now?” I asked. Maybe I should have been more concerned that if it wasn’t for his shield, I would have fallen to my death.
Hael nodded, but didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. His deal with Dahes ended the second I killed him.
And so did mine.
He slowly walked toward me like he was scared I would really jump. He didn’t drop his shield, and I realized, I must be even worse off than I felt.
“Look,” he said softly, pointing down past the edge of the pad.
I turned on my heel, taking a tiny step back so my feet were actually planted on the stone instead of his shield.
“I don’t know when the shift happened, but they all just stopped fighting a few minutes ago.”
I stared down at the cresting mountains, the stairwell was built high into the start of the swells of the Drakin Cascades, and my jaw was nearly on the ground.
