“For magic knows no bounds, but journeys anew. A cycleunbound forever true,” I say, a new cadence to my voice. My words echo over one another. Caspian gives a shaky smile, then clutches harder against my chest.
My fingers grip into the stone. “Your reign in this world now wanes. A peaceful sap as nature gains.”
Silence haunts the chamber. Caspian and I look at each other, blinking. I stand, pulling him with me.
“Is it working?” he breathes.
The mushrooms stir, then straighten, their black domes growing in size. Dark tendrils of mycelium snake under the earth, crisscrossing the emerald rivers that flow into the pool.
The ground begins to shake, and I clutch Caspian closer to steady myself. Rocks fall from the ceiling, and the crystals tremble. Their glowing light flickers. I hold my breath.
With a deafening roar, the crystals shatter into a myriad of sparkling shards. They scatter across the floor, falling like poison rain. We duck down, sheltering our heads from the blows. A cacophony of screams fills the chamber, the sound of a woman crying over and over again.
The chamber falls into complete darkness.
“W-we did it,” Caspian whispers. “We did it!”
But I can’t respond. I can only stare into the darkness.
There’s something coming out of the pool.
Someone.
“Welcome, Farron, Autumn-blood,” the entity says, a choir of whispers and screams forged into one voice. “I have been looking forward to meeting you.”
CHAPTER 96
Caspian
Iwas born in the shadows. I am no stranger to the darkness.
But here, the shadows look back.
I will not break, I whisper in my mind.I will not shatter. I will not—
You will break. You will shatter. Then you will rise.
Even my thoughts are not safe. His voice courses through me, his whispers coming from within my mind. Though as much as I have longed to escape it, I know the truth.
He made me.
Heisme.
I need something to break this paralyzing hold. I bite the inside of my cheek hard, drawing blood. The pain brings me back to myself. I stagger through the darkness, away from the pool.
Farron’s spell worked; his mushrooms destroyed the magic within the crystals. I can only pray to the gods I don’t believe in that the chain reaction we theorized worked, and that all the crystals connected to this magic have shattered as well.
But there’s still magic in the pool. Enough Queen’s essence within the reservoir to hold this connection to the worlds beyond. To where he lies in wait.
I must not give him what he seeks.
Finding my footing, I stand and stare into the darkness. “Hello, Father.”
So jealous was Sira of Aurelia’s ability to create life, she sought out powers from beyond our world. The Baron of the Green Flame answered. I don’t know what one would call him. A god, a prophet, a phantom, a demon. He wears a cloak of ashes fromthe worlds he’s ended. And if my mother succeeds, he’ll be able to step through this gateway into our world and claim another.
Without the crystals, the chamber is pitch-black, except for a phantasmal glow radiating from the reservoir. My father floats atop the water. When I’ve been brought to him before, he appeared as a fae made giant, his hand twice the size of mine, his eyes like milky portals. I know there is another form, as well. One I have seen in my dreams: a calamity of green flame with the maws of a monstrous beast and gaping holes for eyes.
He takes the form of a fae of normal proportions now. His skin is bone white, waist-length hair, the pallid sheen of lichen adorning forgotten tombstones. His ears, longer than those of the fae of the Vale, taper to sharp points. Emerald-green clothing adorns his body, the draping and patterns unknown to me. A creature from a world away.
