Lavinia reappears alongside a mirror image of himself with black eyes.
He stands, wrapping an arm around Aura, who cannot see his finalfear.
“I am terrified of being the cause of someone I love’s death. Again.”
The words likeseidrswirl the clearing until he returns to the starting point with the twirling twigs around the trees. Only this time, pinecones light a path toward a gate towering toward the tree tops.
Aura launches into his arms, and they hold one another as a breeze whispers by.
She finally breaks the moment to grin at him. “Our children, huh?”
He laughs yet doesn’t respond as the realness of the moment still has its tendrils into his soul. Instead, he ushers her onward toward the Inner Sanctum.
I will never tell her the manifestation of my fear. Not the fictitious twins or their names crafted in my mind.
She deserves the freshest start I can offer.
35
AURA
October 10th, Year 21, 10th Era
Forest of Fear, Skalor
Asolitary standing stone, weathered over the eras, greets Aura and Calder as they pass through the gate formed by towering evergreens. The wrought-iron fencing seamlessly connects the trees from the ground to the treetops, creating a vast circle around the stone.
Edmund and Argnier are nowhere to be seen.
“What do you think?” She defers to his judgment, still trusting in this man more than anyone else.
He takes her hand, stroking her skin in a focused way as he studies the stone. “My nerves seek to break me.”
His honesty is refreshing and surprising, considering whatever trauma the Norn forced him to relive.
She squeezes his hand. “I am with you, no matter what.”
Calder ducks, even though his head has enough clearance beneath the stone for him to grow another and still walk under it.
She rolls her shoulders back, recalling her mother’s words of wisdom: to appear strong in the face of the unknown.
“Always know your worth, Aurie. No matter what happens, keepyour chin up and trust inyourself.”Avina’s words resonate in her mind as she squeezes Calder’s hand and steps through the standing stone with him.
The forest shimmers until the scene shifts to a hamlet encircling a vast clearing. Dwellings crafted from brick and earth with sloping roofs surround the lushest grass she has ever seen, despite the snowy pines around them. Vibrant patches of flowers energize the space, sending a tingling sensation along her skin. Straight ahead, she can see a lake shimmering in the sunlight.
“Where are Argnier and Edmund?” Calder asks.
Before she can consider where their friends have ended up, a man and a woman in flowing robes, the color of the forest, approach them, armed with crossbows.
“CALDER AVARDSSON!” A booming voice shakes the ground beneath their feet, forcing them to brace against one another for support. “YOU TRESPASS UPON MY DOMAIN?”
The ground trembles as a larger-than-life creature, straight from the pages of the myths her mother read to her as a child, stomps into view over the ridge leading to a lake beyond.
The Wicked Wyvern of Skalor! Makt’s ex-wife.
She is more beautiful and terrifying than any depiction of a wyvern Aura has ever seen, featuring ivory scales that glisten like snowflakes in the sunlight and wings that could span the entire expanse of Blackwood.
“I completed my trial through the Forest of Fear and was granted permission to enter.” He stands firm.
