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Cyrene held out her hand, and Kerrigan took it uncertainly. “Everything.”
“What?”
“You have to give everything. No one wants to. No one should have to have that burden. It’s not fair. It will never be fair.”
“But why me?”
“For girls like us, there isn’t another option.”
Cyrene smiled down at her sadly. Yet Kerrigan felt warmth all the way through. It didn’t make it easier. Nothing would make it easier. But Cyrene had succeeded where everyone else had failed. Kerrigan was tired of fighting, but she wasn’t doing it alone. And she wouldn’t stand by and let them win.
Gingerly, she rose to her feet. This time, they held her. The cold was gone. The signs of hypothermia eradicated. She was strong again.
“There you go,” Cyrene said with a smile. “Now, let’s see what we can do about your magic.”
Kerrigan’s eyes lit up. “I thought you didn’t know what to do about that.”
“I don’t, but someone else might. And we’re Doma,” she said with a proud tilt of her head. “None of us are ever alone in this. You did call for me after all.”
Cyrene tugged her in close, and they headed for the front door. But when they stepped across the threshold, the snow was gone. The lands of Domara were gone. In its place stood a great castle, built into a mountain. Tears filled Cyrene’s eyes as they strode toward it. Kerrigan had seen this place before. The Nit Decus castle from Cyrene’s own world. The proud stronghold of magic in her world before it had all been destroyed because of the love one man had for a woman he could never have.
“It’s just as I remember,” Cyrene said with a sigh.
They strode through the gray stone archway and down an elaborately decorated corridor. Cyrene took them in a circuitous route, as if she wanted to live here one more time, but eventually, she stopped before a blank stone wall. She gestured for Kerrigan to place her hand against it, and together, they moved the stone, revealing a hidden passageway. They stepped through it, hand in hand.
Kerrigan gaped when they reached the end of the tunnel. The room was the size of the council room within Draco Mountain. Big enough for hundreds of people to assemble and dragons to watch on from on high. The castle didn’t look capable of housing this many, let alone dragons. Yet the magic made perfect sense at the same time.
“What is this place?”
“A memory,” Cyrene said thoughtfully. “A world of magic that had once been and perhaps will be again.”
They stepped up to a small podium at the center of the room. A shimmering book lay on top of it.
Cyrene nodded her head at it. “Go ahead.”
Kerrigan bit her lip. “Here goes nothing.”
She opened the book. The words seemed to shift and slide together in iridescent shades. For a moment, she had no idea what was happening, and when she looked up again, the seats were all full. Women, hundreds of women, were dressed in various styles of white dresses. Even Cyrene’s red garment had been converted to white. She could see familiar features in so many of the women, and yet none were the same.
Her heart leaped when she saw Helly seated in the first row. Her black robes replaced with white ones. Her eyes glimmering with pride. Kerrigan wanted to go to her, but she was frozen in place with all these eyes on her.
“Descendant of He Who Reigns,” a woman said at the center of the mass. She was in a bone-white throne. Her hair the color of the chair. Her eyes blue and misted over. “Why have you called us?”
Cyrene nodded at her encouragingly.
“My magic was stolen from me. I want it returned.”
“Do you believe someone from his bloodline is deserving of such a thing?”
Kerrigan shuddered at the power in that voice. “I can’t help who I am descended from any more than anyone else. I never asked to be his descendant. I’ve seen the vile he has thrown across the world.”
“The universe,” the woman corrected.
“Yes.” Kerrigan swallowed. “He would not claim me if he even knew I existed. I am only half of his line and the other half of the Fae. But parentage is predetermined. How I respond to it is another. I didn’t even know who my mother was until recently. I didn’t know her father was a monster. I’ve dedicated my entire life to fighting against the monsters in my own world. And I can’t do it alone.”
“How do we know that if we return what was stolen that you will not turn into him?”
“You don’t,” Kerrigan said easily. “Just like I have no way of knowing if I will save my world, even with my magic. I only know that without it, you damn them all.”
The woman nodded once sagely. “You have heard from my great-granddaughter.” Kerrigan gaped at her. “I created the monster that was unleashed upon this world. I was not cast aside for what he became. She should not be judged for the same. The only one to be held responsible is He Who Reigns. If one of his descendants wants to right his wrongs, then we call that cleansing.”
