He had killed her.
Even though I was stepping more and more fully into my power, the Vaeloran Cycle still felt damaged in ways I couldn’t understand, and I was afraid I was only beginning to grasp howruined our world and its magictrulywere.
I gave my head a little shake, trying to rid it of a creeping sense of despair. There had to be some way to salvage things. Some spot of hope, however tiny.
Hope.
“She mentioned a hopebound to Shadow’s forfeit,” I said. “What did she mean by that?”
Lorien tilted his face toward me expectantly, as if waiting for me to answer my own question.
Realization slowly dawned. “Shadow…magic? Like mine? That’s the only thing that could restore what she took from you?”
He looked back to the sky. “Of course, you pale in comparison to Calista. But one assumes even a weak little Shadow such as yourself could manage to figure outsomething.”
“Insulting the one being who could help you?” I said, dryly. “That’s a bold strategy.”
He continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “I thought it would be enough to steal your sword, and then to open all the sealed compartments within the Aetherstone’s chamber. Ithoughtthe pieces that witch ripped away from me would all have gathered there over time, drawn in by the magic resting in that space. I’d seen signs pointing to this, I believed. But...”
“You were mistaken.”
“So it would seem.”
Of all the things I could have felt in that moment, what overcame me was a strange, tingling sense of…power.
He couldn’t even find his scattered pieces without my help.
But what was I supposed to do with this power?
I circled the room, thinking. Plotting. Glancing back at him, I said, “And you summoned me here because you actually think I’ll help you after all you’ve done?”
“What happens if youwon’thelp, I wonder?” Lorien smiled. “Tell me: How arethings in Noctaris now that you’re embracing all of your Vaeloran power? How many times have you been to the Aetherstone’s chamber, trying to squeeze more magic into your dead world?”
I had a sick feeling he already knew the answer to that question.
“It won’t yield to you alone, will it?” he asked.
“I’ll find a way to make it.”
“And if you don’t?”
I glared at him.
“If you’ll recall, I’ve wanted to work together from the beginning.” He moved closer, but paused once he stood over the symbol in the middle of the floor. “It seems powers greater than us both want the same thing,” he said, using his boot to brush aside some of the dust covering that symbol. Frowning down at it, he said, “We can keep up this violent dance between us, leaving everything beneath us unstable.Orwe could finally work together and…who knows?”
“Together.” I clenched Grimnor more tightly. “As though I would ever trust you.”
“You shouldn’t trust me.” The words were easy and smooth—an unsettling contradiction to the predatory sharpness that gleamed in the gaze he fixed on me. “But you must realize the more immediate consequences ofnotdoing what I ask.”
I had so many more questions.
So many more doubts.
But then his eyes flashed briefly to Aleksander’s gold, and all my words died in my throat.
“I will destroy him,” he said, his voice still chillingly smooth and casual. “And when I am finished with him, there will be other hosts to carry on with—and as long asIam forced to suffer, I will make sure your precious realm of Noctaris continues to suffer, too. I don’t need my true body and my full power to do that. You’ve probably realized by now that I’m perfectly capable of destroying things with others’ hands.”
“And what if Soltaris suffers as well?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice steady. “If the instability between us continues to grow?”
