As more monstrous forms hurdled over the root wall, I continued to fight.
Chapter 67
Larkspur
Gilded light slipped through the window, as though gold poured over the sill. The glow mounted into a pair of broad shoulders before arms stretched wide.Astros.
The Sun Origin stood before us with a dissatisfied hum. “Who calls us?” he boomed, and the heat of his sunlight scorched my cheeks as it flared, causing my Shadows to retreat.
He’d married us, bound us… All while knowing Dritan was a pawn to be sacrificed. All while anticipating my husband’s demise would be necessary for my success—he’d condemned me to death whether I won or lost my battle with Caym. Anger mounted in my chest, and my Shadows sought something to tear apart.
Bile built in the back of my throat. We were so disposable to them all—flecks of dust, ants on a sand hill.
My aunt stood stone-still. She clutched the windowsill behind her and pressed herself back against the pane, focus bouncing between Emmerick and me warily.
I stood taller, desperately trying to cool my anger and settle the panic that threatened to unravel me.
“We have met before, Origin Astros—in the Temple of Light where you wed me and my husband,” I snapped, unable to mask my resentment. I motioned toward the table where my love lay before addressing the others.
“Yourkeyhas fallen into Caym’s grasp,” I seethed. “Your schemes have gone awry—was it all truly designed to be his end?”
The eerie stares of the higher powers seared me; it didn’t make me cower. My resolve would not crack under their divine judgment.
A gust paired with dazzling stars circled around me and then Dritan. “She speaks the truth,” a male voice whispered as a strand of my curls lifted on the wind—as though picked up by an invisible finger.
Dust glistened against the dim lamplight, revealing a cast of Siro, the Wind Origin.
A sparkling woman who, despite being her namesake, looked nothing like Aunt Asterie said, “The boy’s heart does not beat. The relic cannot be wielded.”
She was tall with long, inhuman fingers and waist-length blue vines of tangled starlight cascading from her head. “Do you see him, Atla? Look, child.”
My blood boiled more every moment they refused to regard my questions. The Sources peered at me and my husband like we were specimens in a jar.
I gritted my teeth. How could they be so calm? Did none of this world truly matter to them?
“Answer her,” Emmerick ground out. His presence at my side steadied me.
Astros’ glare landed on him. He sighed. “Yes, he was meant to die. When Isolde came to us and requested the final relic, wespent centuries searching for a way to deliver a new Origin into the world.
“Now, it is ruined. Caym will rise, and upon the black moon, be unstoppable. You are right—the third relicwasa key to help us reach Death’s domain. You failed us.”
I stiffened at his callous choice of words. He made my husband out to be nothing more than an inanimate object to be used. The room stilled, and all attention turned to Dritan.
“Why bind us, then?” I demanded. “If his destiny was to die, how would I have succeeded and accomplished Isolde’s prophecy with our lives bound?”
My head spun as I tried to understand the selfish nature of Sources we’d long put so much faith in.
Astros’ nostrils flared as though he was offended by my questioning him. “I did not bind your lives. You assumed so, but I only bound your powers, Princess. I made both of you stronger. Little good it did.”
My throat constricted.
Dritan could be dying. I ran to the window, gazing out to find a gray ring forming around the moon.
No… no it couldn’t be.
“War was to be fought with shadows and light,” a bright, amorphous female figure said. She shone as brightly as the rising moon.Elara.
“And yet the light has dimmed,” the Moon Origin continued with a frown and tsk-tsked.“You’re too late. He’s growing weaker against Caym.”
