“Aether?” the breathy word leaves my lips.
The sophont’s greeting… itknew.
“Are you telling me—are you saying—We’re—I’m—”
“Aether.” Her distant stare pierces through me. “Albeit, a particularly bastardized and warped form.” Her lips curl in a small, almost sad smile. “Part of me does wish this could be different. But you’re a threat to the stability of the realms. Two forms of Aether cannotexist. You must return.”
In an amorphous blur of incredible speed, she rushes me, knocking the dagger aside. It flies into the grass as she plunges a hand into the center of my chest.
White hot pain and ice cold panic rip through my being as her fingers curl around my essence. A deafening scream—mydeafening scream—rings through the night, leaving my throat bloodied. White wings unfurl behind her, stretching to their fullest.
Unforgiving eyes lock against mine as I struggle to keep the hand from pulling the very core of who I am from my chest. The way she stares—she doesn’t see me. She seesNetharisand everything he’s done.
And he… every time he looked at me… I was never truly seen. He sawher.Her and her terrifying and ancient power—the kind of power capable ofcreating realms.
“Please,” I manage through gritted teeth, my shoulder burning like absolutehellfire. “Do not do this.”
I’m about to bereapedby Aether.
My grip around her wrist tightens.
It cannot end this way. I will not simply bereclaimedand lost—not after everything I’ve endured. Not after everything I’ve done to get here. She cannot have Ryc, nor Eve, nor Cyran…
She cannot have my life.
A low, rumbling vibration ripples through my chest and I bear down on my grip witheverything. Every ounce of desperate and pain-coated strength I have, I pour into my want,my need, to survive.
Bones crack and splinter and snap, and her scream replaces mine.
The ironclad grip on my essence releases, and I yank both her hand and myself away. She lifts a hand and vines shoot through the dirt, aimed for the center of my chest.
A vibrationscreamsaround my heart, and I grab hold, demanding obedience.
And the innate… itlistens.
Bright blue veilflowers erupt along the same vines and they pitch away seconds before plunging through my breastplate. Theyinstead find a different mark, the flesh of her arms. Sinking through her shoulders, her wings, and chest, they hoist her into the air as I fall to my knees in the dirt.
As I clutch at my chest with trembling fingers, silver streaks of her blood race toward the hells, tracing the vines into the ground. Veilflower buds appear, following the same path. They unfurl, bloom, and stretch to their fullest.
“You would damn the realms,” she breathes and my head snaps up.
Pinned and bound by vines, she’s rendered captive.
I stare for a moment. Her white wings splayed, thronged with green and stained with silver… the bold universe hangs behind her.
I was willing tomend. To assimilate. To heal.
I’m not willing to die.
To be lost.
“I… wouldlive,” I groan the words as I force myself to my feet, snatching the bloodstone dagger from the grass.
“Youare alesserpiece ofme,” she hisses, writhing against her bindings and baring her fangs. “Lesser cannot kill the greater.”
I turn the dagger over in my hands, inspecting the void-like blade, and give a slow nod.
“If you’ve been truly watching me throughout these lifetimes,” I scoff a dry laugh, lifting my chin to meet her stare, “then you know you are not the first piece of myself I’ve killed to survive.”
