Page 107 of Night of Death and Flowers

Memories shatter into me with every step, the pain from the dagger still lingering by the time I reach the temple.

Trepidation threads in each step as I watch the remnants of silver magic shred into ribbons, falling around Tenenocti in a dome. My domain is gone, and my siblings are awake.

I have to get Calista out of here before they find her.

Her heartache echoes with each sob sounding from within the temple, and my eyes close for a moment.

Fuck!

I walk to the entrance and then pause mid-step when a familiar tingle waltzes down my spine. I grimace upon sensing Essentria’s magic—a vibrancy, filled with life, suffocating me.

“Miss me, Az?” Her deadly, lullaby of a voice reaches me.

My jaw clenches as I turn to face my sister, standing in an ombre of brown and gold. Shimmering dust covers her arms and shoulders, the rest of her body wrapped in a dress forged from vines and dead leaves.

I push my tongue against the inside of my cheek, then laugh sardonically. “You look rested, Sister. Good sleep?”

She nods rapidly, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. “I hear Astraea helped return your memories. Now that the prophecy is fulfilled, you can live with every painful detail.” Her eyes are alight with revenge, fingers wiggling at her side as gold magic swirls around her hands. “But do you want to know a secret?”

I block the temple’s entrance, ready to die if it means stopping the bitch from going inside, to Calista. “What is it?”

She waves a hand in the air casually, noting my stance. “Don’t worry. I have no desire to go inside and take the girl. See, while the rest of our family is awakening in the cavern, I wanted to come and find you before they could.” She steps forward, the thorn of berries and flowers around her tight, dark curls withering. My eyes narrow when I realize she’s not at full power yet. None of them will be.

“Why come see me?” I ask, tilting my head. “I hope you’re not here to admonish me, because I regret nothing.”

“I know, Az.” Her nostrils flare. “You stole her from me,” she says. “The girls were mine.”

Fists ball at my side. “Now one of them is dead because you lied. Arabella believed you’d resurrect her.”

Her lip trembles, the movement so fleeting, but I caught it. “I had no choice. She will rejoin this world, eventually.”

“Yes, but she won’t remember a damn thing!” I retort. “Calista has lost her sister. You wish to punish me, yet you only hurt them.”

“No! I hurt you through them,” she hisses, growing closer. “It was never your magic that drove Calista mad,” she says, her eyes sparkling, while my stomach knots. “You know there is no removing an ethereal magic once gifted. Why do you think she can still touch others when you cannot? Because my power still lives within her.” The muscles below her brow twitch, insanity lacing every word. “She had everything, yet she chose you and you tainted her with your decay and rot.”

“I loved her!”

“I did, too,” she shouts, and arrows of gold and green shoot from her fingers. Vines rise around us, quaking the ground until they stop, forming a wall of knotted overgrowth encasing us. She rolls her shoulders, commanding her magic to settle when she looks at me, desperate to hide her rage. After a tense breath, she whispers, “It does not matter now. We are awake and will take our revenge. While they think you are the villain,” she says, her laugh tinkering in my mind, and I grimace. “We will know the truth, and they’ll never believe you over me, their loyal sister.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” A growl rumbles in my chest. “They know what happened.”

“Fool! It was me,” she divulges, then smiles sweetly as if she’s not evil fucking incarnate. “A bloom of my magic still resided in her, and I used it to heighten yours, driving her to madness.” Her whispers become breathy, uneven, her pupils growing so tiny. “Sending you to the Darklands was not punishment enough. I knew you were watching her slowly turn as dark as you would destroy you, and it did.”

My breaths deepen, my muscles tensing until the fabric of my tunic strains. “You did that to her? When you supposedly cared for her? Loved her?”

“She picked you!”

“Love does not simply evaporate after one wrongdoing, you selfish bitch.”

She walks back, her long lashes flickering as her eyes twitch. “You know nothing of my heart, but I know yours. That is why I asked Nyxara to take your memories. Our dear sister thought it was for our benefit, to aid the prophecy, but I needed you to forget so you wouldn’t find her again in her next life. If I couldn’t have her, then neither would you.”

“You tore out her heart!” I shout.

“Yes, and now you know,” she whispers, “to never take what is mine again.”

I shake my head. “It was you who did it again. Her powers only started acting up when she was on Tenenocti.”

“Hmm.” She smiles. “She was close, finally. I could taste my magic in her from where I slept. Then the elders came, so easy to manipulate. And that boy, the new Harvest winner.”

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