“My magic is going to kill an entire realm.”
“And save the other.”
It’s not fair, I think. Not daring to say it out loud because fate is never fair.
Still, it feels too soon—too heavy a decision.
Which is why, when my magic stirs, I swallow it down. I bury the urge to let it out. For so long, I told myself it was unreachable. Only now do I see it isn’t. I am a realm’s salvation as much as I am another realm’s destruction. To wield my magic is to accept that.
To wield my magic is to kill an entire realm.
“Do you know how magic came to the realms, Elorie?” Lady Reah steps away from the dais, walking to the painted wall.
I follow her gaze to a figure seated atop a lion. “WithEvaline’s blessing of wisdom. It allowed the Fae the sense to wield what was within them.”
“That is how it woke, not how it arrived.” She clicks her tongue, pausing at a swoop of the moon on the wall. “When the realms were woken, there was no magic making a mess of the creatures that wandered among them. There was only peace. Only quiet. But the gods…” she continues, walking. “As all immortal things, they grew bored. Especially Voilene.”
Lady Reah stops at a portrait of Voilene sitting on a star, her hands reach out on either side of her, raining something on the creatures below. “Voilene, the goddess of creation, illumination… curiosity. She wondered what more could be, and so she gave just a drop of magic to the constellation of realms. Each one grabbed a kernel, taking a different form. In some places, the magic seeped deeper, grew stronger, and in others, it was but a flicker. Over time, the creatures became different depending on the potency of the magic their realm contained.”
“Different like the humans and Fae?”
“In its simplest form, yes,” she agrees. “When Evaline gifted the creatures with the ability to understand what was within, the Fae were able to harness the magic in their hearts. Until they grew stronger, drawing the attention of the unspeakable gods, who learned what Voilene had done and became angry. By granting their magic to lesser creatures, it diminished what they were. So Voilene was banished, and the Fae were cursed in a way that would ensure that their magic could never grow beyond that of the gods.”
“How so?”
“Some believe the unspeakable gods’ punishment was the sickness of the Beating, the mortal limit on an immortal heart. Some believe they asked the Luminess to weave the Collision and other forms of destruction into the threads, ensuring our eventualend. There are more limits to the Fae than we wish to admit; Wilder’s scar being proof of it.”
My eyebrows pinch. I’ve wondered about his scar but never dared to ask. “What do you think?”
“That curiosity is a dangerous thing.” Lady Reah glances at me. “But without it, this would not be possible.”
Her fingers twitch, and small white threads weave through the temple. She tugs one, and they all snap, crumbling to ash.
“When you found him in that prison, you made a choice much like the one you will make in the Rite.”
“That was an accident. And it was one life,” I remind her.
“It is never that simple when toying with fate. It is never one life when we are all woven together. Besides, the magic you wield is no accident, Elorie.” She walks over to me, resting two fingers at my temple. “There you are. You cannot break what binds you when the stars do not wish it. Unless…” Lady Reah steps back, releasing me. “The king does not know what is within you, and I am sorry for that.”
My eyebrows pinch. “What’s within me?”
Lady Reah frowns, returning to the bowl. Once more, she rests her finger on the edge and starts to twirl. The echo fills the silence of the temple. She’s quiet for so long, it’s clear she doesn’t intend to answer my question.
Finally, I give up and turn to leave. But as I reach the doorway to the temple, Lady Reah’s voice stops me.
“Every gift is a curse, Elorie; the gods made sure of it. Oftentimes, the curse we bear is not our own.”
I pause, glancing back at Lady Reah when silence overwhelms the room.
“Always remember, you are a piece, but your heart is whole.” Lady Reah clasps her hands in front of her, her expression cold. “Inside you is the power to remake this realm, but to makeanything, you must unmake something else. And if you are not careful, Elorie Vale, the price you pay may be yourself.”
Chapter 34
Elorie
Meeting with Lady Reahleaves me with more questions than answers and one solemn realization: both realms are dying, and only one can be saved. Half of all living creatures that were bound together by the Collision are going to die.
Maybe I should have accepted that from the start, but hearing it confirmed leaves a heavy weight upon my chest.
