Page 104

Please. Please, no.

A shadow overlaps in my vision, flickers of the Weave’s stars appearing. Then the monstrous queen is there with her too-many eyes glowing. One of her long, thin limbs is stretching towards me, towards Jinx beneath me. I shake my head, uncertain if she can see it. Don’t touch her. Leave her alone. I scream, spasming as Valen fights to save my life. Then I beg. Please, don’t hurt her.

My chest is stitching together, Valen huffing a relieved breath, but the beginning of a smile fades away. Lucas is yelling louder, and Valen’s eyes fill with tears. Hot and cold flood my body.

My Dual Threads. There’s no more Archweaver line, which means I’m no longer Heir. My Creation and Entropy Threads rage, my flames cracking along me, the Creation blistering my flesh, and I exhale a wisp of smoke. My soul screams, cracking without the Archweaver line stitching it together. Agony floods me, and I begin seizing, my body shaking so hard my teeth rattle. Valen holds my hand, tears slipping down his face, and I slowly slide my gaze to Lucas. His warm honey eyes meet mine, wide and terrified, his hands blistered from his rings.

I swallow, my lips moving soundlessly. “I love you.”

His eyes fill with tears, and he shakes his head. He takes my other hand, bowing over it until his forehead presses into my neck. I blink slowly, turning my attention back to the queen. The point of her long, thin limb has tiny pincers the size of a thimble. It dips into my chest.

I bow, mouth stretching wide as my chest arches up. Pain I’ve never felt before explodes through me, and she pulls forward my Entropy Thread. An oily sheen of corruption glistens and drips. Another one of her limbs touches the thread, and she begins stroking it. The oil sizzles away, leaving behind a matte black, a darkness like the shadows of night. My Creation Thread is drawn next. Little flakes chip off of it as the queen works, stroking my threads until they glow brightly. A third and fourth limb joins and tucks the ends back into my chest, fusing my soul back together with little fast movements. The other two limbs continue their rapid cleaning as she draws back, fading away the farther and farther she goes.

I was wrong. She didn’t want vengeance. She was enraged by the corruption that mirrored Alasdair.

I suck in a trembling breath as my healed, aching soul settles completely in my barely healed body. Sound returns to me, Lucas’ sobbing nearly cracking me back open. I blink, meeting Valen’s shocked gaze. I wet my lips, but I can’t bring words forth. I pant, a pain akin to discovering Viola’s body rocking me.

“Jinx. She’s… she’s not coming back.” I weep, my tears running down the sides of my face to soak my hair. My protector. My mother when I had none. My life’s companion. I can’t… I can’t…

I squeeze my eyes shut and scream within my soul, screaming and screaming as I shatter apart. I call and call, reaching for our bond, begging for a response. Anything. I’ll take anything. Please. Please. Don’t leave me.

Footsteps sound, and Emilia Bauer appears in my vision. She offers me a small smile, but I’m too numb to feel anything towards her sudden arrival.

Lucas drags me into his lap, enfolding me in his large body. Valen curls around him on my other side, his head resting against Lucas’ shoulder as he gazes down at me. He keeps one hand on my sternum, a raised scar red hot and puckered under it.

Valen’s low, soothing voice sinks deep into me to touch my pained heart in a way I wasn’t sure was possible any longer. “She was a good familiar, and she loved you so much. She only left because she knew you wouldn’t be alone.”

I sob harder and grip Valen’s hand in mine. It breaks something in me, something that needed to be cracked open so that the tears can pour their healing pain into me. I gasp for breath, sniffling loudly, and say brokenly, “Even though she hated you?”

Lucas laughs, and Valen smiles. He kisses the back of my hand. “Yes, even though she hated me.”

Lucas wipes his own eyes. “She was a good cat. Slept all day and hated everyone but me.”

A broken laugh bubbles out of me. “She really did. She didn’t eat you when you tried to steal from me.”

Valen quips, “The magician stole from you, but I’m the one she didn’t like.”

“Tried,” I correct. My tears lessen. I gaze upon my two men, their playfulness easing my deep pain. Valen’s words sing truer and truer, mixing with the warning Jinx tried to tell me, but I didn’t want to listen. She was weakening in this world. She had stayed too long because of her love for me. There were signs that I dismissed as other things. She would sleep for days. She was hard for me to summon. She didn’t sense when I fell into corruption when facing my father. She didn’t sense Alasdair when he was in the shop. But I didn’t want to piece the puzzle together.

Perhaps I don’t need her, but I want her. I don’t think my soul will ever fully heal without her.

I wipe my eyes. I’ll cry all the tears I want once we’re out of this gods forsaken place. For now, I need to ensure one last loose end is tied before we go. “We need to find Viola’s body and burn it before we can leave.”

“Already ahead of you,” Emilia chimes in as she draws a Transformation circle around where we’re curled up together.

Valen doesn’t lift his head when he asks, “Was that what you were doing while I was getting captured?”

“Most definitely. I had to make sure I found all her parts to burn. Well, that and raid the Archweaver archive. Stealing all the good stuff before this place burns to the ground was extremely important.”

Lucas looks up sharply. “Burn?”

“Hm?” Emilia hums innocently. “Let’s go before we get caught up in the explosion.”

Valen lifts his head as well. “Explosion?”

“Oh yes. Can’t let the humans get their hands on this place once they figure out what happened. Now let’s go. We have maybe a minute or two,” she says before wrapping her arms tightly around us and whispering the ancient word for “travel.”

We teleport out of there, leaving the Astrum Forest, Havenport, and the resulting fallout far behind us.