I wrapped my hand around Aleks’s grip on the knife.
“Your only hope now bound to shadow’s forfeit…” I recited those words from the curse that had shattered Lorien so long ago, my voice steady despitethe emotion welling up in my throat. “Mind carved into one realm, heart into the next…” Shadowsrose from my arms, snaking around the knife, binding our hands together.
Into the next Shadow Vaelora.
That was what she’d meant.
That was the real reason why Lorien hadn’t been able to kill me as a child—because destroying me would have meant destroying a piece of himself. And it was why I’d been able to revive him when I shattered the other two shards.
Because I had the third one.
I’dalwayshad it.
My brother called my name again, and this time I met his horrified gaze. Saw him silently begging me to escape, to run, to do anything except pull that knifecloser.
But I’d already made up my mind.
“It’s in me,” I said, holding his stare for a moment, trying to make him understand even though I knew he was too far away to hear the words.
I looked back to Aleks. He was so close, but I didn’t know if he could hear me, either. If he ever would again. My lips still moved, one last whisper among the wreckage.
“I love you,” I told him. “No matter how the light and shadows shift.”
And then I jerked his hand toward me, plunging his knife into my chest.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Nova
At first, all I felt waspower.
It was awakening inside of me, unraveling the shadows coiled around the knife, drawing them deep into my chest.
And it was gathering outside of me, too, darkness rising all over the gravesite, as if whatever remained of Calista had stirred at my sacrifice, and now she was reaching up through the soil, grasping for my shivering body.
Everything converged toward the blade buried in my chest. Toward the shard it had pierced—a fragment that had been hidden there for twenty-five years. As the shadows sank in, that pierced fragment began to beat like a second heart.
Then it was moving, twisting and turning, trying to break free.
I sank into the ocean of ancient power surrounding me, trusting the shadows to guide the fragment out.
Seconds later, they managed it.
My vision flickered as I watched its extraction. Pain quickly followed, white-hot and all-consuming. I tried to scream, but no sound came out. Blood filled my mouth, warm and coppery; I’d convulsed, I thought, and bitten my tongue. I dug my fingers into the cold dirt, trying to keep still.
Tremors continued to shake my body, but eventually, I managed to lift my head and see what was happening.
Aleks had gotten to his feet and taken several steps back. No longer attacking. Just watching me with a mixture of horror and confusion.
The shard floated in the air between us.
It took excruciating effort, but I fought my way up into a kneeling position, preparing to reach for it, to hand it over to Lorien as we’d agreed.
But something was wrong.
It didn’t look like it should have.
The shape was different—like an actual human heart, grotesque and beautiful, and somehow still beating. And its light…it wasn’t glowing with pure, radiant white like the other shards.
