I glanced around the field of tulips. Garrick and Syleris lay on their sides now, face to face and murmuring to each other. Garrick stroked Syleris’ chest. The Dark God’s hand drifted lower.
They were still mine, I told myself. There was nowhere that seemed to be an exit from the Unknown Gate. So I simply closed my eyes and said, “I am ready.”
CHAPTER 58
GARRICK
I staredat the yellow-brown blade of grass for a long time. Just its existence was a miracle. It had pushed up through the snow, seeking the weak winter sun. No matter the time of year, that sun remained the same. Watery and washed out.
Isanara paced beside me. She circled the tree with its carved markings. Then she finally sat down at my side. We waited for Koryn together.
Every now and then a breeze whipped between the trees. The blade of grass was insulated from it by the snow on the ground. Only its little tip stuck out, and it was barely enough to catch the wind.
Whether it was the Lifebind or the fact that we had entered the final gate together, I was not surprised to find Velora still entrenched in snow even after I emerged successful from the gate. From the very first time that Maura had explained the bargain in the back room of the tavern in Canmar, it had been about getting Koryn through all Seven Gates. Bound together as we were by the Lifebind, it made sense. If Koryn died—I would die. What would happen to Velora? Would the curse be broken? Or did it hinge on her fate?
I refused to consider the possibility of a world without Koryn in it.
I looked upward, trying to calculate the time. It seemed like Koryn had been inside the Unknown Gate longer than me, but time was amorphous here. I did not even know if the sun overhead was the same one that had hidden behind the clouds when we emerged from the temple that morning.
What if Koryn chose to stay in her imagined future forever? That was the trap. The Unknown Gate did not need to kill its supplicants, only fool them.
Another breeze shook the trees, stronger than before. Thick piles of snow hit the ground, shaken free from the limbs. The green blade of grass bowed over to it, the narrow blade powerless against the force of the wind.
Green.
The grass was no longer brown. It was a rich, verdant green, and it was not buried in snow. It stood out proudly against a thin layer of white, less than an inch thick. I turned around in wonder. I did not even remember standing.
The huge dollops of snow falling from the trees were not shaken loose by the wind. They were melting.
Koryn had done it. We had done it. Together.
She appeared a heartbeat later in the middle of the path where we’d stood while Syleris gave us instructions before the Gate.
Her eyes roved over her dragon, then me, then her dragon again. I could tell from the glazed look in her eyes that they exchanged some words. But it was me she reached for. I was already there.
“Garrick,” she breathed as I caught her in my arms. I buried my face in her hair, breathing her in. She was better than any potential future. I knew without looking that she still bore the marks of all of her bargains. She was whole, therefore so was I.
“Well done, witch,” I said as I pressed my forehead against hers.
“You are here, too. We… we did it. We both passed through together.” Her words were giddy, too fast, all in one breath.
She leaned back her head and closed her eyes as a full, unfiltered golden sun shone down on her for the first time.
“I was born the year of the curse,” she said in awe. “I have never felt warmth like this.”
The bright golden light brought out shades in her dark brown hair that I’d never seen before. There was a reddish tint to her eyelashes.
“I have not seen anything so beautiful since I came to Velora,” I said with complete honesty.
Koryn pursed her lips but accepted the compliment. Isanara had apparently had enough of our reunion. She appeared at Koryn’s side, shoving her head into her shoulder. Around us, Velora was already changing. We no longer stood on barren dirt. The blade of grass I’d stared at before was lost in a sea of thousands of its fellows.
“What now?” Koryn said, whipping her head from side to side, as if she could not take in every detail fast enough.
I threaded my fingers between hers. “Now we go see what this new world looks like.”
We walked along the same long path we’d taken before as Velora shook itself free from the curse that had held it in thrall for four hundred years.
It would take time for life to return fully. But with the plants came food for the animals. The small creatures first, then the bigger predators. We would all begin again.
