“I’m ridiculous? You’re the one that decided to camp out on the floor for the past two days.”
I cringed at that but refused to give him the upper hand. “Yeah, well, someone had to save your sorry ass.”
“True enough.”
My smile faded as I braced myself to ask the question I wasn’t sure I wanted an answer to, but needed it nonetheless. “Artton?”
“Spark.”
I shook my head at the ridiculous nickname, then forged on. “Do you know what happened?”
“Unvarnished truth?” he asked, brow raised.
“Yes.”
“Okay then. I’ll start from the beginning. Everything was fine,” he started, “until after the first vision finished. And know when I say fine, I mean relatively. Because by the stars, Spark, there’s nothing fine about what we witnessed.” Rage simmered in his eyes, and he forced in a calming breath before continuing. “Then, everything went black, and Myron explained that you’d offered up a second memory, only that’s not what came into focus next.”
“It looped,” I said.
He nodded. “It sure fucken did. Caius was the first to be pulled in. Luckily, as the one whose magic was at play, Myron didn’t have to endure it.”
“But he had to witness all of you go through it. Gods, watching Fiora…” I trailed off, her phantom screams already haunting me.
“I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t pretty. Myron was a wreck. Still is, according to Kaelun, though Myron hides it well.”
“Stars, that must chew Kaelun up inside knowing the truth.”
Artton nodded. “It does. It’s why no one else is here with you. The vision was hard on everyone—of course—but seeing you…” he swallowed the rest of the thought. “I’m capable of shielding Kaelun’s unara from reading my emotions.”
“Wait. That’s possible?”
“It is. Magic always has a balance.”
Gods above and Mother below, I hoped that was a misnomer, because it would mean the spark had a counterforce; and none of us would be prepared for that.
Refocusing, I said, “So, it started to loop. Then what?”
“Myron tried to pull us out, but it only made it worse.”
My brows pulled together. “How?”
“The memory began looping incrementally faster every time we tried to leave. Myron thinks it’s because there was a second memory, so instead of releasing us to the next vision, it tried to show what we’ve already witnessed faster to oblige him.”
“Oh,” I said, stomach dropping. “So, this was my fault?”
“No.” Artton said the word so forcefully it filled the massive ballroom and traveled out the archway, startling a few birds from their perch on the opulent railings keeping guests from falling off of the elevated veranda.
“No?” I said cautiously.
“No,” he said firmly. “This was no one’s fault. Because you didn’t enter the vision with us, we triggered some sort offailsafe. Like yourmagic knew there were intruders, but it couldn’t kick us out, so it held us in.”
“Oh,” I breathed.
“It’s a good thing, Spark. Hopefully it means no one can steal your memories.”
I scoffed. Until that moment, I hadn’t even worried about that. I guess it was another thing I could add to my growing list ofhell nos.
“Then what happened once I arrived and finally kicked us out of the first vision and into the second?” I asked.
