Page 142 of Wraithwound

Lena knew this to be true and saw it plainly. The only reason Malnik had been able to capture her was because she’d been in her Goddess form, and he’d only been able to do it with her own power. A vessel of her own making. Even so, she’d used the majority of her remaining magic to keep the planets from collapsing into themselves and poured the last of her power into Reimar to protect the lands, the most obvious being what became known as the OverGrown Forest. Despite what everyone believed, Quintessa had never abandoned them. But no one would ever learn the truth.

Lena thought of those who’d sacrificed so much to help her. Her friends, even Jessa who must have been so desperate for a cure that she betrayed Lena thinking she wasn’t likely to live long before she turned. She thought of the elders who had defended Reimar from the darkness using ancestral magic, and the group of healers who’d worked to protect them. She thought about Henry. Her mother and grandfather. She thought of Ada and Eduard and the sacrifice they’d made for their daughter and help they’d offered Lena. She thought about Runa and Draven and the bond they shared, something so deep and sacred that it had shattered her understanding of love when she’d learned of it.

And she thought of Cross.

The man who had seen through her façade, who had sat by her as she worked through her grief and clung to hope. The man who had helped her make peace with her past and encouraged her to dream of a future. The man who had believed in her.

A deep sorrow burrowed into her chest, but Lena pushed it out. There were so many good people in Reimar. Despite the corruption and rot that had settled into the land, there was still so much good. She suspected the same of SecaTerr and Oscurra.

“You would kill them all for the actions of one man?” Lena challenged.

A few stars in her periphery winked out, and the rest quickly followed. Lena plummeted through the dark until she arrived back in the Tower of Two Worlds suspended only mere inches from the stone floor. The force keeping her from smashing into the stone gave out, and she dropped the rest of the way, landing on her side. Lena blinked, taking stock of her body before she pushed herself up.

The stones of the temple no longer appeared aged. Instead, gleaming white stone and a full pool of calm, turquoise-gold water reflected the light inside. Upon a throne on a dais sat the most beautiful being she had ever seen. A tall, slender woman twice her height stared down at her. She looked to be made of white porcelain with stars winking in and out of her skin. Her hair flowed unnaturally, as if caught on a phantom wind. Lena could see the universe—no, universes through her hair. Planets of all shapes and sizes, billions of stars, and swirling galaxies shone through the celestial strands. It was her eyes, though, like twin black holes that unsettled her the most. So black, in fact, that they ate up the light.

She seemed to gaze right through Lena, seeing the shame of her darkest moments and the joy in her brightest ones. From the mornings she’d spent in her mother’s lap listening to old stories or gazing wide-eyed at the God’s Eye flower her grandfather had brought, to her and Henry sharing wildberry pastries as children. She paused at Lena’s decision to become a healer and noted the losses she experienced and then skipped to the grief and hopelessness Lena fell into, which was followed by acts of selfishness and disregard for others. The Goddess witnessed the moments on her journey that broke her and the ones that slowly put her back together, including the kiss she shared with Cross. But her gaze lingered most on the final transformation where she’d chosen to become something else.

Lena bowed her head, unable to gaze upon the Goddess any longer.

“One man?” Quintessa asked.

The Goddess’s voice slashed through her, no longer the echoing whispers of before.

Lena braced her hands on the floor and coughed. The pristine white floors splattered with black-red blood.

“Please,” Lena begged. “It’s true there is evil here. Corruption, depravity, and wickedness. But there is also goodness. Kindness and love. You intervened once. You sought to right a wrong. Please, let us try to fix this.”

The air around her stilled. Wyn’s bite mark on her arm flared, soft white light illuminating the lines and dots present on her flesh. Lena felt the Goddess’s gaze linger on Wyn’s mark; eternity held in those twin black holes.

Then, the Goddess spoke, her voice devoid of that cutting wrath. Instead, she sounded curious. “If you live, Alina Morwen Elisande, you’ll have only as long as it takes me to restore my power. If you haven’t cleansed this world of darkness by then, you will know my wrath. None will be spared, not on this planet or the next. This universe will cease to exist.”

Relief pulsed only in the periphery as the magnitude of what Lena promised the Goddess settled on her shoulders. But she would focus on that later. Lena nodded once, making sure to keep her head bowed and eyes trained on the floor. A pulse of power rippled through the temple as if locking in their agreement.

“Thank you,” Lena choked out, the words a wet rasp in her lungs.

“If you live...” The words echoed around her and then the Goddess and the Tower disappeared.

Chapter

Seventy-Nine

Lena couldn’t escape the pain. She knew she was dying and yet, her knowledge as a healer failed her. What could she do against the powers of the temple that wrecked her so thoroughly. The Goddess hadn’t seemed to care what became of her, and Lena couldn’t blame her. A small weight settled on her chest. When she opened her eyes, she saw a pair of bright orange eyes blinking at her from above. Wyn nuzzled her arm, right where the pale tattoo was inked. Overwhelming sadness settled deep in her gut. The Goddess had been right; she likely wouldn’t survive.

Was that the reason she’d agreed to Lena’s proposal? To appease the human who’d set her free?

Two more sets of eyes appeared behind the eleuth. Taryk’s and Laney’s. She wanted to ask about Taya and Riley, but her voice wouldn’t come. She hoped Cross was safe like Runa and Draven promised. She could feel them, intertwined within her, small and weak.

And then Taya’s face came into view, contorted with grief. She yanked Lena upwards onto her lap, displacing Wyn.

“You don’t get to die today,” Taya said. An order. “Riley is sitting over there; she is dying from a wraithwound. You healed Laney, and you will heal her! Get up!”

Lena wanted to get up; she wanted to help Riley, the others. She wanted to keep her word to the Goddess, but her body was no longer responding to her commands.

“It’s the least you can do. Please!” Taya’s voice broke.

Tears gathered at the corners of Lena’s eyes and spilled out. No doubt carving paths through the filth that clung to her skin.

“Taya,” Laney said softly from where she stood next to Taryk.