Page 50 of A Crown of Darkness

The sword was mounted on blocks. It reminded her of Nightbreaker, of Roland. She lifted it, finding it strangely light and easy to wield, and passed it to Finn, who took it from her hesitantly. Better in his hands, hands trained to wield a weapon for years, than in hers. But nothing happened. The sky didn’t fall, and his eyes retained their own colour and the same confused caution.

You may take whatever you need, the Nox told them.I offer it to you freely and without conditions. My gift to you, my children. Your inheritance. All but the crown.

‘Inheritance,’ Wren murmured. She couldn’t stop staring at the crown – an elaborate thing with spikes like knives on top of it, made of shadow-wrought steel as well, inlaid with gold and jewels, the chill power coming off it in waves.

It unnerved her. And yet, she couldn’t take her eyes off it. Someone had made that thing and left it here, the crown of a goddess, a thing of nightmares. Other items, especially the older ones, were beautiful, practical. But that…

Her skin crawled with the thought of wearing it. No, never, she couldn’t.

‘Clothes first,’ said Finn, ever the pragmatist. ‘Weapons and armour. We don’t need anything else.’ He hesitated. ‘Unless, Wren…’ He’d seen her staring at the crown. Wren cursed and turned away. She didn’t want it. She had never wanted a crown.

And something instinctive told her that she especially didn’t want that one, even if the Nox would have allowed it. Hestia had warned her. Even Oriole had said it would control the Nox. Which made her pause. She’d said the Nox was ungovernable, wild. She’d said it as if the Nox needed to be controlled.

‘Is this a test?’ she asked, half of him, half of herself. Not that it mattered. The Nox was the one to answer.

It calls to you, said the Nox.It called to me once. Such power. The ability to rule. It promises the absolute submission of an entire world if you but have the nerve…The words came like a song again, swirling around her and pressing in on her body and mind. Her own heartbeat sounded too loud in her ears and Wren felt a force far stronger than she was wrap itself around her like a suffocating blanket.But it lies. It will bring you no joy, no peace. Only pain.

‘No…’ she whispered, but she knew it was more through habit than anything else. And the Nox knew it too. It saw into her heart, recognised her desires, dark and determined. She could seize power here. Take control. She could become the goddess they wanted her to be and the sisterhood would obey her without question. She could stop Leander, take away the throne he had seized, and put an end to this war before it ever began. She could use that power to wake Elodie, to set her free of the Aurum.

Forever.

Let me show you…

She tried to take a step back, but she came up against a hard body, unyielding, as if it had been carved from the rock of the caverns around them. Finn didn’t move, didn’t help her. Perhaps he couldn’t or perhaps he didn’t want to.

He wanted her to trust him, she reminded herself, but was that really possible here?

He was born for the Nox, that was what everyone had always said. To die for his goddess, to serve her in all things. Even now.

But his hand on her shoulder was gentle, a comfort, a strength.

Darkness rose in a wave and this time there was nothing Wren could do to stop it. It crashed over the two of them, a tsunami which swept them away.

Into the darkness, into the void, into another place and time.

CHAPTER 29

WREN

There was a world of magic. Everywhere, all around them. Wren could feel it like her own body, like her heartbeat, her skin, the blood in her veins. There was freedom and joy and a vast intertwining of powers forever ancient and eternally new. In that kaleidoscope of energies, she found herself filled with power. Old magic, she realised. This was the chaos and joy of old magic. There was no dark and no light, just everything, all tangled together. Freedom.

Two children ran through the forest, eyes bright as the leaves, alive with light. She heard their laughter and remembered it. Powers, ancient and terrible, but so filled with joy. She knew them, somehow, remembered them. Echoes of them anyway. Once they had wandered wherever they would, danced in starlight. Afterwards, they were just dreams. In Cellandre, she thought, she had heard them calling her, when she was younger than they appeared. They had protected her, she thought. They had kept her safe. She had never told anyone that. When she had walked out into the storm of shadows, they had taken her hands and led her back to safety until Elodie could find her. She had danced with them so long ago, and sung along with their songs. She had known them.

But the greed of humankind tore it all apart, leaving those children like echoes in the land, just like Elodie’s old stories had always said, when they tried to control magic and make it conform to their rules. Old magic could not be contained. And when humans tried to use it, it tended to use them in return, drain them, kill them. It would take back what it had granted them on a whim. They died in swathes.

Perhaps it was always meant to happen, because that much chaos couldn’t continue without destroying the world.

When the cataclysm struck it felt like she was ripped apart. Her scream was silent, or drowned out in the screams of the old magic. She was torn away from it, the darkness dragged out into the light, and then pulled apart again, two things that should have been in balance separated for eternity. Nothing would ever put them back together.

The agony running through her almost made her lose her mind.

Finn held her close, cradled her. ‘I’m here,’ he whispered and his voice was lost in the disaster. But he still held her in his shaking arms. Was he seeing this too? Could he feel it? He couldn’t. Not and still hold her. The Nox was relentless. She would see its creation, she would see and understand even if it killed her.

And then there was just darkness. After the destruction, it was peaceful and safe, a comfort. The quiet of the dark, the calm after the storm.

Like his embrace.

She was safe, for a time. She rested there and while the light raged through the land she offered safety to the other beings tossed in this tempest of destruction. She welcomed them, protected them. They thanked her, and that thanks turned to worship and she became their goddess and their only hope.

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