It closed its eyes, breathing out another cold wave of energy. The entire room was abruptly overtaken by dense fog. All sound disappeared.
Everythingdisappeared for a long, tense moment.
Then I felt a vibration rumbling toward me, spreading like a ring out from a drop in still water. I blinked.
The room changed.
Before me was the sentier as it must have been when it was still alive: A powerful creature pacing restlessly, like a lion in a too-small cage. Less emaciated, more muscular. Eyes like starlight rather than tarnished silver. Still monstrous looking…yet with an unmistakably divine glow around its entire body.
The sound of voices rose from somewhere. Visions of bodies, swirls of magic, and a storm of different emotions rushed around us—a sampling of all the many things this creature had seen and survived, I realized.
A ghostly apparition of the present, corpse-like sentier appeared alongside the memory version. I fixed my gaze on it, my mind focused only on what I had commanded it to show me.
As my thoughts honed in, I felt its gaze do the same. Its silver eyes bored into mine, and more pressure grabbed at the reservoir of magic inside me. This time, I didn’t resist it; I let this beast born of my same shadows tangle itself fully with me.
It crept forward and laid its forehead against my palm.
And, suddenly, I couldsee.
The chaos rushing around us stilled, and I saw a brief, but clear, memory of Calista standing tall before the sentier,looking down at it with an anguished expression as she gave her command.
Keep them safe.
Then I saw what she was referring to: The same fragments of light I’d witnessed in the vision Lorien had guided me to. But, this time, the scene didn’t end with them shattering their way through glass; instead, I saw a world rushing beneath them as they flew, the fragments dipping and diving for miles before twisting back into one piece…
Only to divide once more into three shards that raced off in different directions, curving and falling like shooting stars to the earth.
One landed in a grove of trees with trunks that looked like brittle, sun-bleached bones.
Another fell into a pool of silver-blue water surrounded by polished, gleaming walls etched with words I couldn’t make out.
I was holding my breath, anticipating the landing of the third, when I felt the sentier’s head jerk away from my touch.
I blinked, and it disappeared.
“No,” I said, voice echoing in the space that had gone abruptly silent. “No, there must be something else! There’s a third piece, another resting place you aren’t showing me?—”
The fog rolled in again, then away just as quickly, carrying me back to the present. The reanimated sentier was before me, solid once more, arching its neck like a snake preparing to strike.
But it seemed to have lost whatever fury had been driving it—or maybe my magic reallyhadrevived it, and now the spell had reached its limit. Whatever the reason, it seemed near-death once more. Its voice was quiet, almost mournful as it slipped into my thoughts.
You should have let me keep my secrets.
I couldn’t catch my breath.
The weight of my knowledge is too much for this world.
As if to drive its point home,weightwas all I was aware of, suddenly—a heaviness on my chest that made it even harder to breathe. It sank deep into my stomach, pulling me down to my knees. The thought of ever standing again, of carrying this weight with me, dragging it back into the world outside of this room…
It is too much for you,the sentier said, breathing out another frigid breath.
As the cold overtook me, I decided it was right: This allwastoo much.
Darkness edged my vision. I was sinking fast into a mire I likely wouldn’t be able to rise from, and I didn’t care; I wanted to rest in it. I wanted to die and take all the knowledge of Calista’s curse—all its awful weight—with me.
I looked over my shoulder. Saw the wall of dark, tumbling energy still separating me from the others. Maybe they would be safe on the other side of it, at least.
Stay on the other side, I thought, dully.
