Page 88 of A Court of Darkness and Dragons

Thirty-Six

The cave mouth sealed behind me without a sound. One moment I could feel the dying light at my back—the next, it was gone. Utter darkness surrounded me, a silence so complete it clawed at my chest.

I lifted my hand before my face and saw nothing. Not even the slightest outline of fingers. But then a breath of wind brushed across my skin, cool and damp, winding like unseen fingers through my hair. My heart hammered, and I swiped at the air, expecting claws, a blade—something. But there was nothing. Nothing except the chill wind and the echo of my own uneven breaths.

Kaelith? I reached through the bond.

I am here. You walk in the Hollow now. Trust your instincts.

The air thickened, as dense as water, and shapes began to flicker at the edges of my vision. Shadows at first, formless and quick. Then sparks of light, scattering like embers on the wind. They shifted, merged, until images swam into place around me, one bleeding into another in quick succession.

A battlefield littered with broken blades. A line of black dragons chained to stone. The silhouette of Veralin’s twisted throne.

Illusions, I thought, though doubt gnawed at the word.

The images spun faster, flashing like pieces of memory torn from another life—half real, half dream. My stomach turned, vertigo clawing through me, until suddenly they stilled.

And before me stood a woman.

Her face was my own, softer around the edges but hauntingly familiar. Her hair fell in white waves over her shoulders, catching the shimmer of unseen light. Her eyes—gods, her eyes—lavender, as luminous as twilight, so piercing they nearly stole my breath. My knees wavered, threatening to buckle.

“Mother…” My voice cracked, splintering into the silence.

She was draped in pale silks, their edges tattered as if they’d been pulled from both wedding altar and battlefield. But it was not the gown that stole my attention. It was the necklace.

A strange pendant hung heavy against her breast, its chain wrought of a metal I couldn’t name. At its center lay a shard of crystal that pulsed, as if lit from within by her own heartbeat. The stone gleamed black at first glance, but when it caught the Hollow’s dim glow, streaks of violet and silver rippled across its surface—like trapped lightning caged within.

I couldn’t breathe. That necklace—that was what I had come for. My mother’s defiance made flesh. Her final act of rebellion forged into something Veralin himself had never been able to use or destroy.

Her lavender gaze locked on mine. And though I knew—gods, I knew—this was only an illusion, my heart lurched painfully in my chest.

“Why have you forsaken me?” she whispered.

I closed my eyes, shutting her out for just a heartbeat, steadying the ragged beat of my chest. When I opened them again, she was still there—standing with her lavender gaze pinning me like a blade through silk.

“You aren’t real,” I whispered, my voice trembling but firming with each word. “Tell me what you want in exchange for the necklace.”

Her hand lifted, fingers pale and elegant, brushing against the pendant that pulsed at her chest. A caress, as though even she feared the power it contained.

“It will restore the balance,” she said, her voice like wind sweeping through hollow stone. “But you must have the trust of your dragon if you wish to restore what is lost.”

“My dragon trusts me,” I shot back without hesitation. She does. She has to.

Her smile was wistful, edged in sorrow and knowing. “Are you willing to bet both your lives on that?”

“Yes.” I didn’t even blink. The word tore free from my throat with the sharp edge of conviction. My bond with Kaelith wasn’t something to wager. It was the truth of my soul.

For a heartbeat, silence pressed in again. Then her lips curved into the slightest smile—proud, sad, and endless. “Then proceed.”

Her form unraveled like mist on the morning air, dissolving into threads of silver and violet that swirled upward into the cavern’s unseen heights.

And then the world changed.

The dark that had pressed like a living weight against my skin split apart as if a thousand cracks had torn through the stone itself. Light poured in—not sunlight, not firelight, but something purer. It was blinding, cascading in every direction, filling the Hollow until it felt as though I stood within the heart of a star.

I staggered back, throwing my arm over my eyes, the radiance searing and holy. The air itself thrummed with power, vibrating through my bones, echoing in the deepest part of me where Kaelith’s soul twined with mine. The cavern shuddered, walls glittering like crystal veins awakened from a centuries-long sleep.

I lowered my arm, squinting through the brilliance, and there it was.