“Do not threaten her,” Damion said, still leaning heavily upon the doorway.
“I am not the one who has put her in danger,” Python said. “I have only warned her of the imminent danger which you have brought upon her. And all I’ve asked in return is one... small... glimpse.”
Her heart jumped into her throat, pounding. “How imminent?”
“Give me what I ask, and I will answer your question.”
Sweat had broken out between her shoulder blades. Her hands pulsed and protested the grip she had around the bundle. But finally, she relaxed her hold and untied the rope cinching the cloth. As it fell away, the cloudy gray surface appeared—an elongated, three-sided prism with two pyramids at each end, little longer than her hand from heel to tip. Though she was not actually touching the surface, energy emanated from it through the cloth. The weakness inspired by the iron and the blood and the fear faded away, replaced by a clear and undeniable sense of strength and purpose.
“What is that?” Riker asked.
“The Fourth Enneahedron,” Python said softly, “one of the splintered rays of the Last God’s Crown.”
Her fingers trembled, mouth dry, mind blank except for the desire to seize the Enneahedron and all it symbolized. Energy flowed off of it, even though it should have been inert. And yet the glossy surface of the stone seemed to shine and brighten.
“Does that mean that you can go home now?” Riker asked. “That you are the Radiant?”
“No,” she murmured.
“But you could be,” Damion said more strongly. “All you have to do is take the Enneahedron to the Spire, present it to the Crown. You have a rightful claim and a Prince. She will not deny you. You don’t even have to fight for it, Magdalena, only reach the Spire before Lavana can intercept you. With a Prince and the Enneahedron, the family will have little ability to deny you. Then you will be the Radiant. You will be able to go home again, to rule the family and the Eastern Cliffs.”
To go home... her chest clenched. For a brief moment, she allowed the thought to play out in her mind. Returning to the Lands, journeying to the Spire, kneeling before the Crown, presenting the Enneahedron, claiming the power of Radiant, and then returning to Stonehigh—the exiled become ruler. The defeated, finally triumphant.
But she tore herself away from the siren’s call.
She was no dreamer, and she was no longer the arrogant young girl who had challenged her cousin all those years ago. The Lands may have been her home, but she was not the creature that it bred her to be, not anymore. All she wanted was peace, to live her poor life by the ocean, eating grocery-store muffins and greasy pizza. A safe, quiet life free of bloodshed and death and war.
She wrapped the Enneahedron back in the cloth and thrust it out to Damion. “You have to take it and go.”
“Alanna gave it to me to bring to you,” he said.
“Why would she do that? She exiled me—”
“You do not know what Lavana has become,” Damion said. “Alanna believed that Lavana had parleyed with the Elf King himself.”
“I don’t care.” She pushed the Enneahedron back into his hands. “The rumors and the scheming and the backstabbing, that’s not who I am anymore. You have to leave and you’re going to take that with you.”
He held the bundle loosely, his shoulder pressing hard against the door jamb, the scars on his face all the whiter for his pasty complexion. “Take it to whom?”
“Oriana or Delphine, I don’t care.”
“They’re both dead. You are the only other Rae of age left in the family. You and Lavana. And I will never give this to her.”
“You don’t have a choice. I don’t want it anymore.”
“You cannot turn your back on the family—”
“Why not? They turned their backs on me,” she said.
“You fought and lost—”
“And was exiled—”
“Would you have rather been killed?”
She threw her hands up in the air, backing away from him. “I’m sorry, Damion, but I can’t.” She turned, intending to march straight through to the adjoining breezeway, where more doors sat open to the back of the house.
Kirk appeared in the doorway before her, tiny hands wringing. She halted, directly under the iron pot rack, which sent a fresh wave of enervation through her.
