And I’d known then that everything would be okay. I’d watched Kyr until he’d disappeared into Ny’am with the elder. I missed him…I was proud of him…but I also knew there was much more work to be done. He would be one of many that I would watch take flight over Grymia.
At least I hoped.
Feeling that love for Kyr helped my own determination when it came to Samryn, the Elthika that Alaryk loved and respected. And now that I knew the depth of a bonded pairing and how much it would hurt Alaryk to lose him, I knew that I would do anything to break the Vyrin from the curse.
And so, on that night, I was determined to do just that.
Alaryk felt it within me. We’d been strangely quiet as we rode on Elthika-back to the lakeside. We didn’t know what we’d find at the center of the curse, so we got as far away from Grymia as possible.
Alaryk pulled me to him, pressing his forehead against mine, before we started. I felt everything roiling within him: his fear for me, his uncertainty over the curse, but also his love, his support. He’d be the pillar that I needed, and he would pick me up when I, inevitably, fell.
And as the night drew on, I needed to lean on him more and more.
The curse grew in power the closer I got to its core, a tangled ball of rot and muck and dark magic. Being near it, strangely, made me feel like I was in the forest again with Ryak. My feetgetting weighed down by mud, my body aching, cold from the icy sheets of rain and fear.
Stop this,Alaryk told me across the bond. I could feel his own rising panic. The more I hacked away at the curse, the more it took from me.
Once theKarathof Grym would’ve used up every fragment of my heartstone magic if it meant saving Samryn’s life.
Now I could feel the choice looming in his mind. My safety…or Samryn’s life.
Irefusedto make him choose…though I knew which he’d pick. He’d told me so himself a few nights prior. That if worse came to worst…it would be me. It had been a terrible thing, hearing that confession fall from his lips, whispered in the reprieve and quiet of our bed after lovemaking, because I knew how much he loved Samryn. Yet he would choose me.
But I couldn’t allow that to happen. It would tear him in two. I could do this.I woulddo this. Not just for Samryn, but for theKarathI’d come to love.
Trust in me,I told Alaryk, feeling the wiggle of Samryn’s own heartstone magic, inherent and wild in all Elthika. It had been so diminished, so weakened by the curse that when I brushed my own against it, I wasamazedat the raw power I felt. It was breaking through, becoming stronger as I held the curse down.
I do,mariss,Alaryk told me, frustration lining the bond. Then determination.Let’s finish this. So you’ll never be in danger again.
With the tendrils of Samryn’s magic, with Alaryk, strong and stable and certain at my back, I imagined a blade, sharp as slivered glass, feeling the last of the curse wiggle in my grasp. I was stronger than it now. Once it had seemed insurmountable. Overwhelming. A forest of violence and betrayal and cold vengeance meant to kill.
But with Alaryk, with Samryn, its death and demise was acertain thing. We had worked hard for this moment. Weeks of pain, of struggle, of grief…and it would all end tonight.
And so, with the peaceful lake glittering with starlight nearby, not even the hint of a breeze threatening to disrupt its calm, I plunged the last of the magic I’d built, spearing the curse straight through. Like a beating heart, I felt it spasm. I felt it wiggle like an animal, a wild beast against me, trying to escape, trying tosurvive.
I twisted. Just as Alaryk had twisted the blade in Ryak.
A deafening sound exploded in my ears, but I thought to an onlooker it might’ve been silent. My eardrums popped and crackled, pressure rising in my temples.
An unseen force rippled out from the heart of the curse, physically knocking me back, sending me straight into Alaryk as my magic overflowed from me like a flooding river, glowing and seeping.
“I have you,” he growled into my ear as the sounds grew louder and louder, all around us. A violent wind was rushing, twining my hair up around my head like it was caught in a tornado, whipping against my cheeks, harsh enough to sting. Alaryk huddled me closer, protecting me, his hand cupping the back of my head, pushing me into his chest.
A roar, booming and ground-shaking, cracked open my very soul, filling it with hope.
No, not a roar. An assuredvictory.
And with Samryn’s final attack on the curse, banishing it with his own unearthed and undiminished heartstone magic…the world went silent. The wind died. The quiet of the night returned as if it had never been interrupted.
I sucked in a breath, my ears sounding stuffed with cloth, but I hesitantly looked up at Alaryk. Immediately, I felt him drifting over my skin, feeding me his own strength, letting it fill all the places that the curse had eaten away.
I closed my eyes as he healed me, my hand winding down towrap around his wrist, holding him tight. When it was done, I nearly sagged in appreciative relief.
“Did we…?” I whispered.
Alaryk’s gaze was bright and warm. I felt the answer reverberate across the bond.
That was when I heard something different. A whispering sound.Familiar.At first I thought it was a heartstone, the energy near like it’d been in Ny’am.
