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Breathe.
Those little prickles of healing magic she’d once held in her hands gave her the strength needed to push up on her feet. There was no hesitation as she entered the temple. Shadows had bared their hearts to her. Had protected her. Shown her love and compassion and hope.
Forging through the bottomless, pitch-black depths of the temple, black clouds of smoke coalesced around her. The tang of copper filled her nose and mouth. The air thickened as if she was trudging through Bogland swamps. Curls of magic snagged around her wrists and ankles.
Futile efforts to hold her back.
But it was easy to see how shadows became lost in this. How they could give up on ever glimpsing the sunlight again. Give in to the ravings of a thousand maddening voices determined to cut them down and weaponize them.
Chaos plucked at that taut thread of fear.
She forged on, knowing she had to keep moving.It was me all along. You wanted me from the start, and everyone else has been sucked in because of my fear.
Radiant, golden light sliced through the darkness. She cringed away from the purity of it until her eyes adjusted. Then she drank in the beautiful sight of Rama within her reach.
She dipped a hand into the slash of raw energy. A blissful warmth greeted her, the texture almost fluid as it ebbed and flowed over her skin. Laughter bubbled up in her throat, but it felt like a dishonor to unleash it. A slap in the face to everyone that had pushed her toward this. It had been soeasyall along.
Rama coiled up her arm, and she permitted a sad smile.
Yes, you belong to me, she said. I’m sorry I lost you.
The spikes and scales along her arms vanished, revealing smooth, glowing skin. Vision returned with sharp clarity in her damaged eye. Warmth kissed her mind, and she was blessed with the loveliest memories. Ames chasing her around the courtyard gardens on summer days, the light scent of flowers and fruit in the air. His awkward grins as if he’d never known happiness before and wasn’t worthy of it. How he’d looked at her mother with unwavering love.
Her father before Corruption. How she’d loved napping in his office chairs as he worked on correspondences for the king. How passionate he’d been about life. How he’d told her she was brilliant every day, even when she’d thought her casting lackluster. How he’d made her feel important and loved. How she was his whole world and he would do anything to protect her.
Golden tendrils of magic burst from Tenah’s hands, whipping out to eat away at the temple’s dark magic. When the stone chamber was purified, the strands settled overhead like a glittering spiderweb holding up hundreds of tiny little dew drops.
Tenah didn’t fight her curiosity to touch one. It drew her into a vision of a child—a boy with fiery red hair and tattered clothes—writhing in a cloud of dark magic.
Realization dawned on her. She knew what they were. Rama was showing her troubled souls in need of purification.
And in the center of the spiderweb, there were two large concentrations of pulsing, gold light. She touched the smaller of the two and glimpsed her father. He had worked so hard to keep all of this Corruption to himself after he’d absorbed it from her.
Her smile dropped as another shadow came into view, chained and smeared with blood.
From the crown of her head to her toes curled in her boots, horror trickled through her veins.
Renton.
ACT III
THE GIFT OF FORGIVENESS
Chapter44
Tenah
Blistered skin pulled and split as Tenah jerked awake under a Ruzgorn tent. Curses tumbled from her cracked, bloody lips. She lurched upright. Small hands caught her shoulders and steadied her. The nails were painted in what looked like the essence of the galaxy—black with flecks of gold and silver and white.
“Renix above, you’re alive,” Vesara said. “And don’t you look like hell.”
“How did I get here?” she demanded. The last thing she recalled was tearing a hole in the Void and racing across scorching desert.
Reaching out to push Vesara away, Tenah’s gaze skimmed over the camp in search of Renton. The scenery curdled her blood. Curls of dark smoke climbed the silky, blue sky. Empty tents dotted the thirsty ground. Tattered flags billowed in the dusty wind. What was left of her cousin’s armies had moved into the inner ring of tents surrounding the air where Tenah’s rift had finally shut.
She couldn’t find relief though. Not after glimpsing the pile of burning bodies, both Corrupt and enemy alike, far out from camp, warbled by the heat.
“Cousin.” Hakkan knelt in front of her view of the flames. “We found you unconscious and badly burned about a half mile outside of camp.”
