Her answer is astonishingly clear.
The moment I sayValkyrie, she bares her teeth with a sharp growl, but atwolf, her snarl fades, and she gives me such a wide grin that the bone falls from her mouth.
She purses her lips. “Wo… l… f.”
I have all the certainty I need.
“Then so you will be,” I say, pressing my left hand to the location of her heart.
Be a wolf.
The color of her eyes changes, amber flecks appearing while the emerald green darkens to the shade of the forest.
Thethump-thumpof her little heart calms beneath my palm, less frantic. Now stronger, steadier.
I sense the metal within her chest fully merging with the remaining parts of her natural heart, all of the intricate piecesbecoming whole. A part of her that belongs to her and that she can control.
Her entire body relaxes, every shred of tension vanishing.
The streams of cold fury I saw before—the tension that spoke of a Valkyrie nature—vanish, and so, too, do the stumps and the single feather on her back.
Her chest rises with a deeply inhaled breath, and her eyes grow wide.
For a moment, I’m afraid that I’ve hurt her, and my heart is in my throat.
Then she releases her breath with a slow whisper, “I am a wolf.”
She closes her eyes, her dark head sinking to my shoulder and her breathing deepening.
I check her heartbeat, making sure she’s okay while she snuggles into me.
Within seconds, she’s asleep.
A sense of peace fills me.
It’s the first peace I’ve felt for days.
The hush continues around me for long minutes while the fire crackles and the scent of wildflowers lingers.
My peace extends…
Until I break it.
“Malak wanted to be a god,” I say. “He wanted to create life and take it at a whim. He wanted to control the lightandthe dark. The heart within this child is both, and it made me realize…”
I meet Mother Solas’s eyes. Then Cailey’s. Then Dusana’s.
“The darkness began with Blacksmith magic, and it hungers for Blacksmith magic more than any other magic,” I say. “Only an object made from the most powerful Blacksmith magic could tether it. An object of pure darkness.”
I close my eyes for a moment before I continue. “Creating a prison will be an easier task. All I have to do is make a new home, but without any windows or doors, and I need to place it outside the boundaries of the natural world so it can’t be found.”
I try to breathe while none of them speaks.
“Creating the siphoning object will be harder. First, because it must be made from the very same tools that caused the darkness in the first place. And second, because I will have to forge it at the source. Only then can I be sure it will take hold of every shred of darkness. None can remain.”
I am suddenly cold but no less determined.
“But that isn’t all,” I whisper. “To keep the darkness from reviving and to ensure that this never happens again, all magic that dies in the future must be claimed and kept. The darkness must have a living keeper.”
