Rubi sucks in a sharp breath, leaning closer still.
Saana kneels next to her, desperate to see.
Vren’s blood slowly, but certainly, covers the powder, like tiny grains trapped in a sphere, and dissolves them into nothing.
“Fucking Stars,” Rubi breathes.
Teddy shoves her in irritation. “Explain, Rubes.”
She nods slowly.
“It doesn’t usually do this. It usually stays separate. Repelled,” she murmurs.
“You said dragonblood holds The Barrier,” she rushes out, looking to Ronyn.
He nods, mind still catching up to whatever Rubi is realizing.
“Which means it forces magic to behave in ways it shouldn’t,” she says, words tumbling out faster now. “Magic is meant to move. To be used. To flow. But dragonblood is powerful enough to hold it in place. To make it defy its own nature.” Her eyes dart back to the bowls. “So I thought... maybe it could do the same thing to biology. Maybe it could force the compound to behave differently. Bind it together. Draw it out of the body instead of letting it stay.” Her gaze drops to the dragonblood, wonder stealing her breath. “And it just absorbed the entire fucking thing.”
Saana’s eyes blow wide.
“You just found the cure for memory erasure,” she whispers.
Rubi looks at Saana. “Healer,” Saana explains, and Rubi nods to her like she realizes Saana might be the only other person here who understands the weight of this.
And realization hits the room.
Dragonblood returns memory to Dravara.
Not magic. Not prophecy.Blood.
Hope cracks through the room for the first time. Elyssara’s heart beats like a war drum in her chest.
“You did it,” breathes Teddy, squeezing Rubi’s shoulder.
An exhale leaves her that sounds like relief and redemption all at once. Like this discovery heals her in a way that nothing else could.
“Finally, people are understanding why we’re so important,” Vren grouses, throwing his hands in the air.
“We still need the Orbs,” Teddy says.
Fuck.
The Orbs.
“They’re in Nymeris,” Marin admits. “Ilyra pays my mother to say they’re in our vaults. She knows no one is reckless enough to risk coming to Caeloria uninvited, let alone breaking into Azhareth’s vaults. Except her and Kael.”
Reckless.Yes, she’s always been reckless. That, she knows.
“We can’t go back to Nymeris now. We have to leave them until we’ve won this thing,” Teddy decides, his voice brooking no argument. “The castle itself is impenetrable with wards. And now that we’ve left, we’ve shown our hand. Revealed ourselves. There’s no going back. Not until we take her out.”
Until we take her out.
The words claw at her mind. To take out a queen is one thing, but to take out a goddess with power beyond anything in this realm? It feels impossible.
Her heart beats out of her chest, hammering against her ribcage like a caged beast. But Elyssara ignores it. She knows what needs to be done.
She spins on Lara. “Free the dragons from the spell. We need them. We need to bring down The Barrier so their blood isn’t being used, and bring the fight to us,” she commands icily.
