“That’s right. I’m not a descendant of Ethmarel. Well, technically I am. But I’m also Ethmarel reincarnated. And I’ve helped you along so that I can finally right what I wronged a thousand years ago.”
Beside me, Kezra gasps in surprise. “So… Are you Ethmarel or Maethrel? She? He?”
“Maethrel.” He replies simply.
“Reincarnated? That’s a thing?”
“Oh, it’s very common. What’s rare is remembering your past life. But I’m an oracle, after all. I know more than most.” His gaze dances between Daegan and me, unsettling me for many reasons.
This is the witch responsible for the ruination of so much of our world, standing directly before me. A female in a past life, I guess. I’d chastise him for all of the damage he’s caused, but there’s no time. He’s here now, righting his wrong, and he’s been helping us this whole time. We couldn’t have done it without him. Still, I can’t help but feel a little disgusted, looking at him now.
“So it’s going to work this time?” Daegan asks.
“It should.”
“I still don’t understand why you couldn’t do this yourself when you knew so much already. You literally lived it, apparently,” I say.
Daegan and Maethrel don’t break eye contact for an incredibly long, tense moment, and I’m sensing I’m not privy to all the information involved in this exchange.
I continue to glance between the two of them, then hold my gaze on Daegan. His jaw twitches with anger.
“I couldn’t,” Maethrel finally answers, calm as his forest when vicious spiders or wraiths aren’t attacking you. “It was prophesized to be you, not me. And your efforts have been valiant indeed. None should underestimate what you’ve accomplished in a such a short time.”
Daegan scoffs, keeping his hand on my waist, though he’s gripping it much tighter now.
“I cannot apologize for deceiving you,” he continues as he looks over a scroll he pulled out of his pocket. “It was necessary. Just as everything else was.”
The bloodshed still rages on back at the village. We can’t see it down in this ditch, but I can hear the screams, the flames, the metal clashing. Though the explosive fairy dust likely took out a devastating amount of their soldiers, they still fight. The elves probably thought they were smart infiltrating the village, figuring the dragons were less likely to torch their entire town, but they don’t know what Daegan told me during my first tour here. Every building is made of fireproof material. They’re meant to withstand any blaze. There will be minimal damage down there, and the dragons will not hold back. They’re tired. They’ve had enough. And they’re giving everything they have to fight back at long last. Anyone not fighting was quickly evacuated to the palace, as was discussed in the battle brief.
“Daegan?” Maethrel speaks once again. “Can you do the honors of lighting the deposit of stone?”
I watch Daegan intently, his lip twitching as he delays answering. Then, finally, he leaves my side, steps forward, unleashes a small, tame flame into the bowl of stone, and steps back again, his arm brushing against mine. The flame fills the bowl, then turns brilliant blue and purple. The relics remain intact at the bottom and the flames dance all around them. I stare into the blue blaze, mesmerized by the motion and the ancient power I feel emanating from it. A steady, constant fire now crackles in the stone, with no sign of it burning out.
This wouldn’t have worked if Maethrel hadn’t shown up. We thought we only had to reunite the relics in the stone and torch them, but we’ve done that now, and as I gaze around me, feeling the warm air, I know no curse has been broken. Not yet, anyway. We need Maethrel to do whatever it is he needs to do.
“Wow,” I whisper. It’s truly a stunning sight to behold.
Across the fire, Maethrel watches it with a fierce intensity. Then his gaze flicks to Daegan through the flames, and then to me. “It is time.”
Daegan tenses, nodding his head at him.
“This is it. It’s going to work,” I say with awe.
He turns and faces me, looking down at me tenderly as he reaches for a strand of my hair and tucks it behind my ear. It seems as if he’s studying every inch of my face, and though I sense Maethrel doing something across the fire, chanting something I can’t decipher, I can’t pull my eyes from Daegan’s right now.
“I’m so proud of you,” he says, holding the sides of my head with both of his hands now. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I pinch my eyebrows, but I can’t help a smile. It’s a big moment. The culmination of everything we’ve worked for, everything we’ve sacrificed to get here. I can’t hold the smile back.
“For everything. For helping me,” he answers as he places a kiss on my forehead. “And if what Maethrel said is true, I’ll find you in every lifetime. I promise.”
“Me too,” I answer with a chuckle. “But that won’t be for a long, long time.”
He nods once, giving me a tight-lipped smile. I think he’s nervous.
“Are you afraid… to fly?” I ask.
“No.”
