“If someone could, they would’ve done so by now. Remember, even nullification can’t end an Era’s Spell.”
Which Prager had cast.
“What good is a wish if we can’t ask for what we want?”
“I assume like all magic, we’ll have to find a way to manipulate this into it giving us what we need.” He frowned. “The sea and the shadow. I don’t know what that means.”
“I can call shadows and ask them to do things for me. Not sure what that has to do with the sea.” I lifted a small smile. “Except you, who took to the sea from the time you were small. So which of us asks and what should they wish for?”
“You should ask.”
I blinked at him.
He met my gaze without hesitation. “I was broken in ways I didn’t believe could be mended. Torn in two, and still you saw something worth saving. You didn’t just love the pieces, you called me back to myself. If I have any peace now, any wholeness, it’s because of you.”
I started to shake my head, but he leaned closer.
“You’ve seen all of me, and you didn’t look away. Not once. That’s why I trust you to ask. You won’t wish for something reckless or selfish. You’ll ask the question we most need the answer to.”
My throat tightened.
His voice dropped off. “If only one person should make the wish, I want it to be you.”
Alright. So what should I ask?
“As for fusing them, let’s pretend we know where to begin,” he said.
“And offer a choice,” I whispered. “I don’t think we want a magical binding without consent. Aricor stole Prager’s choice.”My eyes blurred. Leaning forward, I touched the talismans one by one, finding them warm.
My fingers drifted back toward the featherdorn, hovering above it.
“The riddles fromEmber’s Shadow,” I said, “have been gnawing at me. Each one feels separate, but they all point to something broken that wants mending. Something that needs us to choose carefully?—”
Lore’s gaze sharpened. “—andfeelcarefully.”
I nodded. “The first one warned of choices. Joy’s path. Sorrow’s gate. The danger of being ensnared by magic. Of hearts stolen before we even knew we wanted them.”
“Sounds familiar,” Lore muttered, but his voice held no humor.
“The second spoke of a golden ring. A cusp between dark and light.” I looked toward the pendant on the table, but my thoughts stayed with the featherdorn. “It said to unite earth and air, but the featherdorn feels like sky, not earth.”
“And the third,” Lore said, “was about twin-born hearts. A bond cast under moonlight, rivers, betrayal. That one’s about what we’re dealing with here, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “And something older. A binding done in blood and flame. With… dragons? Remember the drawings on the altar beneath the throne room. They all showed dragons.”
Lore exhaled. “The talismans could be connected in some way to the bond.”
“That’s what I think too. And then there’s whatEmber’s Shadowjust revealed. ‘Where dragon tears fell into the sea, the tide remembers.’ “
Lore sat back on the sofa. “It sounds like a place, but it also sounds like memory. Emotion. Water holds both.”
“So does blood,” I said. “So do the talismans. Maybe this isn’tabout unlocking doors with keys. Maybe it’s about unlockingus. Or what’s been lost in the lines of our blood.”
“You could be right.” He tapped the featherdorn pendant. “This may reveal the key to it all.”
If so, I needed to choose my wish wisely because I only had one. Messing it up… Well, I wasn’t going to think about that. I was going to do this, fix this, save him.
Or I was going to die along with him.
