Chapter 51
The darkness around me fades.
I expect to become surrounded by the shiny, black realm I imagined for myself, but instead…
A wash of blue spreads across the air above me, the most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen.
White clouds blossom within it and a bird soars beneath them.
The ground I’m kneeling on becomes soft with grass, a thick field of foliage spreading out all around me.
To my right, the ground splits open and a tree trunk pushes up through it, sprouting strong branches and emerald-green leaves and bursting with flowers. Within seconds, the tree is fully grown, white petals floating toward me on the breeze.
I’m frozen, my breath stilling because I’m… not…
I’m not in the dark realm I’m certain I created.
I am still in the valley, the vast plain where, only moments ago, the darkness raged and dust storms whirled.
My hands fly up to my head, reaching for the dark crown, only to find?—
It’s gone.
The dark keeper’s crown is gone!
My hands snap back down, but my medallion is still there, wrapped around my left palm. So, too, is my hammer, strapped to my back.
But while my surroundings have healed, I have not.
The strands of hair falling at my sides are blackened and my arms remain charred. The dark magic I took into my soul still whispers within my mind, a chilling cruelty that doesn’t belong in this renewed environment.
Panic fills me, a horrible, overwhelming, terrifying panic.
I am not the dark magic keeper.
But my magic worked. The land around me is restored. The air is clear, and the darkness is gone.
If I’m not the dark magic keeper, then… who is?
Who was taken instead of me?
I stumble to my feet, whirling to my surroundings, a deep dread filling me as I seek an answer in the tree, the flowers, and then higher, my focus rising to the bird that was soaring across the sky and is now diving toward me.
A crack of thunder sounds as it rages at me, a shriek emitting from its beak.
I don’t recognize this thunderbird. It certainly isn’t Blackbird or Concord.
I leap backward and crouch to the ground, my left hand extended, ready to defend myself.
A single figure somersaults from the bird’s back, landing lightly on the ground while the bird itself soars away.
I may not know the bird, but I recognize this woman.
She is beautiful, her skin dusted with gold and her long, blonde hair falling in waves around her shoulders. Her eyes are a glistening yellow, like the color of sunflowers, but they’re also filled with hatred.
“Witch!” Queen Karasi snarls at me, her right hand rising and heat building around it. “You ruined everything.”
I once watched her light a flame with a mere flick of her fingers. The fire she could pour at me may not be able to match that of a fire dragon, but she could burn me to ash just the same.
