Laphira watched it with equal parts sadness and acceptance, and I was grateful that she was willing to sacrifice such a precious thing to save a life.
I glanced up at Lore. “What should I wish for?”
“Look in your heart.”
“What if I ask for the wrong thing?”
“You won’t, because whatever you ask will be guided by love.”
Love couldn’t fix everything. That was what the curse wanted me to believe. But as I stared at the pendant, feeling the weight of everyone's faith in me, I realized the curse was wrong.
Love had brought us this far.
Love would always be enough.
Chapter 49
Reyla
The pendant warmed in my palm, and I still didn’t know what to wish for.
Lore watched me, his eyes full of unwavering trust. The other talismans lay on the table between us. They were so small, so deceptively ordinary appearing. A blue-stoned key, a gold pendant with a red gem, and this featherdorn no bigger than my thumb. One wrong move, one wrong word?—
I could lose him.
I clutched the chain tighter, the wings of the featherdorn trembling against my skin like they, too, feared what might come next. The room held its breath. Dorion and Laphira didn’t speak. Even the fire quieted. I sensed we stood on the edge of something monumental.
My thoughts churned. I could ask the featherdorn how to fuse the talismans. I could ask where to go, what to do, how to fight. But none of those questions touched the root of this curse.
Lore kissed my temple, tightened his arm around my shoulders. “I’m here. Whatever happens next, I’m with you.” His wordslatched onto my mind and dragged me away from the spiral. My breath stilled. And?—
Of course. Why hadn’t I realized this earlier? The answer had been there all along, hiding in plain sight. Not how to break the curse or where to go, but where everything truly began. I needed to understand the foundation before I could build anything on top of it.
This was the only question I could ask.
I lifted the pendant and the featherdorn’s wings beat in a furious rhythm. Did it know I was about to ask for a wish?
After closing my eyes and begging fates to make this go as it should, I opened my eyes and met those of the featherdorn. It wasn’t a living thing. At least, I didn’t think it was. But it must be sentient in some way. And I sensed it was listening. Waiting.
I laid the pendant on my palm, and the tiny bird perched on its claws, its wings tucking in close to its sides.
My swallow took a long time to go down, but I spoke into the quiet. “I wish I knew where to begin.”
The symbols weren't just clues, they were a sequence. The ripple meant water, the sea. The blade meant the ritual. The crown meant the final binding. I needed to begin at the water's edge, where everything started.
From the corner of my eye, a shadow darted across the mirror’s surface, gone before I could blink. My heart stuttered.
The fire hissed, a pop of smoke curling toward the hearth like a breath sucked in too fast.
Light spilled from the tiny creature as it lifted from my palm, hovering with fluttering wings. Across the room, the mirror above the fireplace rippled, a pond disturbed by unseen wind. We all stood.
Four courts, four elements, four directions. Dorion's grandmother was right about the old magic working in sets of four.Each piece represented something essential, and together they could chart a course.
An image shimmered into focus.
An enormous black dragon surrounded a darkened star. Beneath it, three symbols came into view: a ripple, a small blade I recognized well, and a winged crown. They glowed once before fading. The mirror smoothed, the images gone, and the pendant dropped back onto my palm, lifeless again.
I stared at the featherdorn, understanding flooding through me. “The pendant didn’t just show us random images. They read my deepest need and responded with the beginning I asked for.”
