I’m relieved when she nestles into me as I stand.
I’ve left my toolbox on the floor, so I use my foot to close its lid. I won’t take it with me. This dark metal stays here. I’m saddened to leave my grandmother’s pin behind, too, but it also touched the dark metal, and I can’t risk that it’s been contaminated.
I would have chosen to leave the device Malak used on Erik, but it seems Galeia has other ideas.
Now that she’s safely tucked into my arms, I don’t delay, striding from the room and along the tunnel, past the Einherjar runes to where Tamra and Thaden are waiting for me.
What I didn’t see the first time I passed through this tunnel was another opening opposite Thaden’s forge.
It leads into a chamber that’s only a little higher than Thaden is tall and barely wide enough for three people to step inside.
The walls have been carved with the same sequence of symbols that Thaden formed with his medallion before he brought me here.
The woman who was watching over Galeia—a woman who has evaded every effort I’ve made to find out her name—stands at the entrance. During the day, Thaden explained that it was she who told him how to carve the symbols, tapping into the dark magic needed to transport him instantly to the wasteland.
With a grimace, he told me how it didn’t work to plan the first time. He had intended to take his tools with him. With them, he could have snatched me up and brought me back here right away.
It explains why he had looked at his hands and cursed so loudly when he first appeared to me in that blast of lightning.
Everything he did after that was improvised.
Now, his relief when he sees Galeia in my arms is palpable. “She came with you.”
I wait for him to reach for Galeia, to kiss or hug her, but he doesn’t.
“I can’t hug her,” he says, his eyes filling with tears. “I took on the soul of the dragon that tried to kill her. If I step near her, it triggers her fear.”
“I’m sorry for your pain,” I whisper.
He shakes his head rapidly. “I’m grateful, Asha. You can protect her in ways that I can’t. Sending her away is hard, but knowing she has the chance of a life free from the past means everything to me.”
I blink away my own tears, turning to my sister, but she, too, is crying.
I can read her decision in the way she presses her lips together.
“You’ve decided to stay,” I say softly to her.
“I’m needed here,” she replies. “I may not be able to use my power, but I can help these people.” She bites her lip. “If I go back out there, I’ll only be used as leverage against you.”
Just as Gallium will be.
“I’m safe here,” she says. “The blight is growing so much that even the dragons will think twice about coming here, and if they do… well… we’ll be ready.”
I thought I was prepared for her decision, but it turns out that I’m not.
I try to keep my voice steady, fighting the burn behind my eyes. “I’m going to miss you.”
She purses her lips, softly blowing out a breath as tears trickle down her face. “I miss you already.”
She leans into me, pressing her cheek to mine.
I’m certain she would hug me, but for the little girl I’m already holding. As Tamra stays beside me, Galeia reaches up with her free hand, brushing her fingertips through the tears trickling to my chin.
The corners of her mouth turn down, and she makes a sad, growling sound in the back of her throat.
I close my eyes, trying to hold on to this moment. “I promise you, Tamra, I will find Gallium. I’m fighting on my own terms now, nobody else’s.”
“I know you will,” she says. “You have always kept us safe.”
