In slow motion, so that each moment seemed to last a lifetime, Ellysetta saw a red Fey’cha plunge into Rain’s back, saw Rain’s eyes widen in surprise and pain. He fell dead at her feet, his limbs shaking with tremors as the lethal venom from the blade raced through his body. She saw herself standing over his body. Her eyes were black as night, sparkling with malevolent red stars, as she raised the bloody Fey’cha over her head and laughed.
“No!” Ellysetta shrieked the denial and tried to pull her hands from the mirror, but something held them in place. She could not free herself, and the visions continued to flash in the bright light of the pool, each more awful than the previous. The worst visions from every nightmare she’d ever harbored. A future so grim she could not bear it.
The world in flames. Millions slaughtered. Celierians, Fey, and Elves in chains. Fey’Bahren a scorched boneyard baking in a merciless sun, while overhead winged monsters that once had been tairen dominated the sky, their hides as bare and scabrous as those of the fouldarrokken. Acid dripped from their fangs, leaving smoldering pits in the monsters’ wakes.
Lillis and Lorelle not dead, but worse: dark-eyed imps of evil, laughing and dancing in showers of blood while they played Stones with the skulls of slaughtered children. And watching them fondly, from a diseased throne of death: herself, the Queen of Darkness.
“Stop!” Ellysetta cried. “Did you bring me here only to torture me? You said there was still hope! Where is the hope in this?” She writhed and yanked at her hands, fighting the unseen power that kept her chained to the mirror pool, but she could not free herself. «Rain! Help me!» she called on the bond threads that tied part of his soul to hers.
He didn’t answer.
Fear hollowed her out and left her shaking. “Where’s Rain? What have you done with him?” She tried to see him but both her Fey vision and her physical sight were now completely blinded by the blazing magic that filled the chamber. All she could see was burning, blinding, dazzling white light.
Calm yourself, Ellysetta Erimea,Hawksheart chided.Your fears are groundless. Your mate is safe, and exactly where you left him. Be calm.
Calm? She was blind and trapped and couldn’t reach Rain, and this stranger whom Rain didn’t trust wanted her to be calm?
“Then why can’t I hear him? Why can’t I see him? Why are you holding me against my will?”
She heard something that sounded like a sigh.You cannot leave because our bargain was Elf-struck. Your own magic binds you until the price you agreed to is paid. The harder you struggle, the more powerful the bonds become. You cannot see because the magic that blinds you is a reflection of your own power. The more magic you expend trying to free yourself, the more blinding the light becomes. If you calm yourself and cease your struggle, the light will begin to fade.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before I touched the mirror?”
I had not believed it necessary, but you are much stronger than I Saw.He sounded slightly embarrassed and not quite as sure of himself as he had seemed at their meeting.And much brighter.
Ellysetta wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth, but as she stopped fighting to free herself, the blinding whiteness around her began to dim. Not much, but once again she could make out the faint shadows of her truemate and her quintet standing nearby.
Her head drooped in relief. Her hands remained touching the cool, motionless surface of the pool, but she was afraid to look again, afraid of what else it would show. “You told us there was still hope, yet every future the mirror has shown me so far is evil. I saw Rain murdered—and I was the one wielding the blade.”
Bayas, but you looked into the mirror with fear, and so the mirror reflected the thing you fear most. I looked with a different heart, and I saw other paths…several not so bleak.The Elf’s voice softened with compassion.Hope remains, faint though it may be. Look again, child. But this time, let love, not fear, guide your Song.
If only it were so easy. “I don’t think I know how to stop being afraid. It’s been such a part of me my whole life.”
There are some fears, young Ellysetta, that can never be conquered. Sometimes, all you can do is acknowledge your fear, then act in spite of it. Look again, Ellysetta, but fill your mind with hope.
Hope. The word made her want to weep. When had she ever truly known hope? Her nightmares, her seizures, the fears of demon possession: Evil had haunted her all her life, tainted every happiness with shadow. Most of the few people she’d allowed herself to love had died or been lost because of her: Selianne, Mama, Papa, and the twins. She loved Rain, but all she’d brought him was banishment from the Fading Lands and the threat of certain death.
Somewhere deep inside, some part of her knew their truemate bond would never be complete. Rain would die because of her. Whether battling the Eld or from bond madness, it made no difference. In the end, she would kill him as surely as she killed him in her nightmares. As surely as she had caused the death of Mama and Selianne.
“He’ll die because of me,” she wept.
He will most certainly die if you do nothing. But more than that, all the Light of this world will die as well. Is that what you want, Ellysetta?
“No, of course not!”
Then look in the mirror, child. The gods sent you to fight the Dark, Ellysetta Erimea. Do not fear what you were born to do.
If it were only her life at stake, she could not have made herself look in the mirror again to see what other horrors would be revealed. But hers wasnotthe only life at risk.
She knew the face of evil. She’d seen it in her dreams, and too often, lately, it had worn her own features. It must be stopped. There was no other option. Because, as Rain had once told her, when evil came calling, you couldn’t reason with it. You couldn’t bargain with it or strike terms of peace. You couldn’t hide behind a locked door and hope that it would go away. Evil had no mercy. Evil didn’t value life. It nursed its children on blood and hate. It celebrated death and hailed murder in the name of its Dark God.
She could not fail. No matter the cost to herself. For reasons she would never understand, the gods had apparently chosen her, Ellysetta Baristani, to be the hinge on which the fate of the world turned. And if there was anything in Hawksheart’s mirror that would help her defeat the Shadow threatening all she held dear, she needed to find it.
Ellysetta lifted her head and looked back into the mirror.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
My love, my mate, myshei’tani
