I warned you, did I not, when you united me? Together... or not at all?
“They separated us!” The memory seared through her. “I tried, Itried!”
And now you would turn back the flow of time itself. Change what has been Written. Do you understand what you ask?
“I don’t care,” Kara breathed. “If it gives him back – if it spares him–”
Time is not commanded lightly. It is sacred, fragile. There will be a cost, Healer of Vallenna. You will be marked. Carry it with you forever.
“I’ll pay it, whatever it is,” she said, without hesitation.
Even if the cost is your magic? Your soul?
“Even then. Especially then. I’m already destroyed without him. Take what’s left – just let me save him.”
Kara knew it was madness. Knew she should be afraid. But whatever the cost, she would pay it a hundred times over to see him again.
Such love. Such beautiful, terrible love.
Silence followed the Arcanth’s words. For one terrible moment she thought it had decided to deny her. Then – warmth.
There is a path you may take that brings the Warrior back to us.
She gasped, gratitude so fierce it stole her breath. “Please let me walk it.”
I will send you back. One chance, Healer. That is all.
Do not waste it.
The gold on her arms turned silver, then darkened into inky black. Smoke rose upward, choking, cold, its shadows binding her limbs. Like the Draken’s magic.
Pain filled every part of her body.
And the world around her was ripped away.
CHAPTER 47
A SECOND CHANCE
Time – the threads of fate – will remain untouched.
–Vallenna’s oath to Occarlia
Kara landed hard. Her breath came fast, like she’d been running for hours. She staggered to her feet – the ground beneath her trembled with the echo of the Arcanth’s magic.
Wait, no, not magic.
It was the sounds of war that shook the earth. She spun around, disorientated. She was back.
The battlefield.
Everything stopped. She couldn’t breathe. There he was.
Sebastian.Alive.Fighting.
No... it can’t be.
Had the Arcanth truly brought her back? Or was this another dream? Her mind refused it, didn’t believe it. But her heart already did. It had to.
