As she did so, Kiara put a hand to her hip and barely suppressed a groan. I frowned. “It’s the brand, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Kiara said. She pulled down the corner of her pants, to expose the B and C that had been branded onto her skin by the Black Claw. The brand was red and raw, and looked painful. “I don’t think magic will ever get this off my skin. It’s stuck there for life.”
“Those bastards.” I didn’t feel a bit of remorse for burying the cult within the catacombs of Dolinska. They’d deserved it.
“Can’t be helped now.” Kiara yanked her jeans back up. “It’s there forever.”
I noticed Odette was shaking. “Odette, what’s wrong?”
Odette’s voice trembled. “During the battle… it was so loud… and there was so much going on everywhere— gods, I can’t handle it!”
Odette put her hands over her ears and buried her face in Kiara’s chest, like she could still hear it. Kiara stroked her hair, and my stomach flopped. Odette had gotten overstimulated during the fight. She’d fought through it, to help us, but now she was crumbling.
“We should all take a break,” Delmare suggested. “We haven’t gotten a spare moment to breathe.”
The four of us walked to the living room. We slumped onto the couches in front of the fireplace, and Odette curled up against Kiara. She blinked a few times before she shuddered and said, “I don’t think I can fight again, Emma. It goes against my nature as adryca. I’m supposed to be impartial in war, and I just can’t handle—”
“It’s okay, Odette,” I told her gently. “You don’t have to fight again if you don’t want to.”
Odette remained shaking, and I said, “Let’s make this a bit more cozy.”
I conjured hot chocolates on a tray, as well as giant blueberry muffins that were bigger than my head. They were illusions, so they’d provide no real sustenance, but at least they’d give some comfort. Everyone reached out to take a hot chocolate and a muffin as we pulled the knit blankets over ourselves and stared at the fire.
I took a bite of my muffin. It was amazing— buttery, flaky, and full of the most delicious blueberries that burst in my mouth. At least with illusion food, I didn’t have to worry about setting off my allergies, because it wasn’t real anyway.
Delmare nibbled on her muffin and said quietly, “We should probably talk about the dragon in the room.”
Everyone looked at me, and I sighed. I ran a hand through my hair. “I don’t know what I should do, guys.”
“You should follow your heart,” Kiara offered. “Wherever that may lead.”
“But what if I don’t know what my heart wants?” I said. “What if I don’t know what’s the right path?”
“Youdo,” Delmare insisted. “You’ve always known what you’ve wanted, inside. I think you’re just too afraid to go after it.”
I stayed quiet, and Kiara said, “I know it would be easier, continuing on in life as you always have. Change is scary, and this choice isn’t one you’ll be able to walk away from once you make it. But… Emma…”
Kiara took a deep breath. “You can’t walk away from everything you’ve always dreamed of because you’re scared. I know you’re frightened that you’ll lose it, like you lost skating. But at the very least, you have to try.”
I bit my lip. “This isn’t something I can decide on a whim. It’s going to change everything, for me and so many other people. I can’t turn back from this decision once the choice is made.”
“And you can’t keep looking back. You have to go forward,” Delmare insisted. “There’s nothing left for you in your past. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. And even if it turns out all wrong, I know you. You’d never forgive yourself if you didn’t go for it. Would you be okay, lying on your deathbed at the end of your life and knowing you let this go? Because I know you wouldn’t be.”
No, I wouldn’t. It would tear me up inside, knowing I hadn’t done everything I could for the good of Malovia. I’d regret.
And the one thing I couldn’t live with was regret. It was worse than pain, worse than sacrifice— even worse than making the wrong call.
I refused to live that way.
Odette lifted her head. She pushed a blonde strand out of her eyes, then crawled forward on the couch and grabbed my hand.
“Emma, this is your destiny,” Odette said. “I’ve foreseen it in visions, but that vision will never come true if you don’t have the courage to believe in yourself. I know you’ve had a rough road so far— we all have. None of this has been easy.”
Odette’s lip trembled. “But you areso closeto achieving what the gods desire of you. And if you quit now, all of that pain and sorrow will have been for nothing. The past has been preparing you for this moment. If you decided you didn’t want to go through with this, it’d be worse than doing it all for nothing. It’d be a betrayal of yourself.”
My throat got tight, and Odette let go of my hand. I knew every word she said was true, and yet, it still terrified me to think of doing this. Staying in one place would be so much more comfortable. I wanted to be the Worldweaver—justthe Worldweaver. I wanted to fulfill my prophecy, then, if I managed to survive, live the rest of my existence quietly with Ethan, avoiding pain and the rest of the world.
But it was a fantasy. I couldn’t stay here, in this spot I always had been, dreaming of past plans that would never come true. Life would push me onward. The only thing I had to decide now was which direction to go in.
