Page 136 of Wraithwound

The truth of it all speared Lena in a way that made it hard to breathe, hard to think, or even to function. But she did it. Even as her breath trembled, she listed them.

Henry: Soul given willingly

Member of the militia, Jarek: self defense

Ada: given willingly

Eduard: given willingly

The man in the field: accidental/unplanned

“I did not attack your village. The reason I came to your planet was to find Draven. The male trapped inside that man, Kol. He is my aenigma, a part of my being. Do you understand? Without him, I will die. I was already dying before I met you. In a desperate attempt to find him I ventured here and followed his scent. That’s how I came upon your village and found you. Because Draven’s essence was already inside you, I was able to meld with it. Become one with it. Your body allowed me to survive in your world, a place where I otherwise could not. I followed his scent all over your Goddess-forsaken planet and eventually realized it had been tainted, which is why I had such difficulty locating him. Now I know it’s because his essence was combined with that abomination,” Runa said, disgusted. “I don’t have much life left, and neither does he. If I die, that means you will die, and Draven will die. And if you die, so does Henry, because while I originally thought he’d burned out, a small part of his essence indeed continues to reside within you. But beyond that, beyond us, billions of lives will be lost. If we can get to Draven, we’ll have other options.”

No. It was too much. There was too much to process. Lena struggled to pull air into her lungs, to organize her thoughts. She thought back to the putrid scent that hung in the air in Virdeen. The time in Enora when she lost minutes of time as she watched the Aurynn ascend with the maidens. She thought of Runa’s interest in the skies above MountTier after Kol had flown away from the field of corpses buried in snow.

It all made sense.

“What will it be, Alina?” Runa asked.

“So, what will it be?” Malnik asked from behind her. “Save Henry and join me, Lena. Aren’t you tired of being left in the dark, of being alone?”

It was true. She was so tired. Tired of drowning in grief and shame. Tired of being alone, of having to figure everything out by herself. It wasn’t just that her family had kept her in the dark, Jessa—her oldest friend had betrayed her, the Healer’s Organization intended to experiment on her, and she had been chased and attacked, all while being infiltrated by a wraith that slowly turned her into a monster as she fought to retain a shred of her humanity. And then there was Cross⁠—

But joining Malnik wasn’t an option. Her brother had sacrificed himself so she could free the Goddess. Ada and Eduard had done the same. Even if Malnik could cleave Henry from her being, there was no guarantee he would keep his word, or that his soul would find its way to the after realm. No. He was death, promised. A mad man, clinging to the last vestiges of his sanity by logic that was faulty at best, catastrophic at worst.

She glanced back at the three women still shivering in the snow. Her friends. Because that’s what they were—would be—if she decided to let them in. Well, likely not Taya. But there was also Leonid, Dauen, and Jade. Wyn. And Cross. Her heart ached knowing he’d betrayed her, but he’d also tried to warn her. It’d all been there. The time he left his totem out in Lythara, his confession in The Whispers, and even the distance he’d kept between them. He cared about her; it was all there in the details. She couldn’t bring herself to hate him knowing he’d done it to save Kiara, especially when she’d done worse for Henry.

She couldn’t let Malnik have his way. But what options did she have? If she didn’t help him, he would undoubtedly make good on his promise.

Or.

She could accept help from the creature that had wrecked her world. That had taken her brother from her. Murdered her friends and turned her into something other. And yet, she knew the offer was genuine. She could sense it.

Not long ago she decided it was okay to accept help. Even from those she might have written off. Runa was a monster. She was ancient, ruthless, and cruel. But she, too, had been trying to save her family. Her partner. She’d been willing to risk it all for him, just as Lena had been willing to risk it all for Henry. And now, Runa was willing to lose it all, to give it all up to do the right thing.

At the end of it all, Lena was tired.

But more than anything, she was tired of being afraid. She’d never thought she would make it this far, and while she couldn’t trust Malnik to keep his word and free Henry, her brother had made his choice. Now, it was time to make hers.

“Together then, Runa,” she whispered.

Approval echoed in her mind.

“If you do this, it cannot be like it was before where you ripped my power, my magic, from me. You must accept me, for what I am. All of me. To do that, you must forfeit yourself. Do you understand? The consequences will be unforetold as nothing like this has ever been attempted before, but our compatibility—the reason I was able to inhabit you, makes it certain that we would succeed,” Runa said.

Lena was surprised by how calm she felt. “I can’t remember the last time I felt human anyway.”

“Do you accept?”

“I accept,” Lena said, “Do you accept?”

“You have proven to be strong. For a human. I accept,” Runa answered. “You know what you must do.”

Lena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There in the darkness of her mind, she saw Henry’s face, then her mother’s, and finally that of her grandfather’s, all seeming to smile at her. Then, she opened her heart and let go.

Chapter

Seventy-Six