Baran and Breandan hung back, their faces set as Arlan moved forward to kneel at my side. The illusion he was weaving ensuring the vampires and Brin didn’t notice.
“This is the second time you’ve offered me a realm,” he said.
Better take it then. I don’t think there’ll be a third.
“You’re a strange vampire.”
That wasn’t the first time I’d been told that.
Arlan grasped my hand in his. “If you’re willing to bestow it, I will accept this time.”
Good enough for me.
Sinking into the heart of my power, I once again found myself outside my physical body.
This time the meadow was no longer blackened and charred, but I wouldn’t describe it as healthy either. It was covered in darkness. The only spot free of the shadows was directly in front of the tree.
Kneeling before the oak, I pressed my palm against its trunk.
Arlan joined me, the illusions that cloaked him cast aside, leaving him standing there in all his glory.
“You’re magnificent,” I told him, withdrawing my hand from the tree.
A sphere of pure magic rested on my palm like an offering.
Arlan looked at it uncertainly for a second.
“Afraid?” I asked.
“I’ve worked my entire life to take my throne back from that usurper. Now that I’m here, it feels like a dream that I might wake up from at any moment.”
“I hope not.”
I needed him to bleed away some of this power. That was kind of hard to do if he was dreaming.
With a look of determination, Arlan reached for the sphere.
It broke into a million tiny lights, wrapping around him before sinking below his skin. His mouth tightened in pain before he shrugged it off.
The meadow we stood in vanished, and I found myself back in my own body, Liam hovering over me.
I smiled up at him. “Hey, there.”
Relief replaced some of the strain in his features. “You’re okay.”
“For now,” I corrected.
My becoming had been delayed but not banished. The abyss still existed inside of me. Sleeping once again.
But I’d bought myself a few decades, centuries if I was lucky. Time enough to grow and get strong enough to handle what was coming.
Liam stroked the hair back from my face. “You had me scared, wife.”
“We’re using words like wife now?”
“Your fate was sealed the moment you told me it was your turn to save me.”
The soft look in his eyes made me flush.
