Page 31 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

She nods, though her eyes hold doubt.

I lead the way, moving the direction I’d been headed before the darkness caught up to me. I can still feel my inner nightmare scratching around in the core of me, restless and dying to be let out again. Each time I summon that darker side of my magic, that beast inside of me grows stronger. She’d never lingered quite so persistently before. I can feel her at the back of my mind each moment, an ever-present companion.

Turn this way, she whispers when we reach the next intersection in the path.No. Straight, she purrs at the next one. Somehow, though I don’t know how, she can sense the path to the heart of the labyrinth, the route to what we seek. The way out of this place.

And then, I turn a corner, Lilette on my heels, and we stumble into a large, open space, perfectly circular. The hedge wall borders it on all sides, no other openings but this one. Purplish-colored fog creeps like fingers along the ground. In the center of the circle stands a huge pillar made of marble, pale white veined with gold. It’s wide enough that I could only wrap my arms around half of it, like a huge oak trunk. It appears to be a simple monument, but the power that emanates from the thing takes my breath away. It’s clearly what my nightmare could sense, from much farther away than I could.

“We found it,” Lilette says breathlessly. She can clearly feel it, too.

I walk toward the pillar, each step feeling heavy as if I’m dragging boulders behind me. I don’t know how long we’ve been in this place now… five hours? Twelve? A day? I can’t tell, I just know that I’m completely tapped out of any physical strength, and probably what tiny bit of magic I had to begin with.

But we haven’t come this far to fail now.

The thing shimmers as we approach it, the mist swirling faster around the base of it, as if in anticipation. I can feel the magic thrumming in my heart. The magic that has been kept from Eldare for so long, harnessed like a wild horse, tamed when it should be free. Rage roils in my stomach and the nightmare spins.I want to be free, too.I shove back against her.I am not losing myself to you.

Right before I reach the pillar, something steps out of the shadows behind it.

“I knew you would come,” the High Priest growls. “I will not let you ruin everything I’ve built.”

He looks half-mad, a deranged glint in his eyes. His normally clean-shaven face is stubbled, his purple robe tattered as if he’d run through brambles. I’d only just seen him the night before,and the drastic change in appearance is unsettling. But I do not pity him.

“I’ve already won,” I say. “The king and queen no longer trust you. What use is this magic, trapped here, if you cannot leave this place?”

“It ismine!” he snarls, clawing his hands down the sides of the pillar. “You cannot have it.”

“I don’t want it.” My eyes meet his unflinchingly. “It’s for all of Eldare. Not one person.”

The priest’s eyes flit to Lilette, standing next to me. “You are my High Priestess. You must obey me. You arenothingwithout me.”

“You are the one who is nothing without us,” Lilette says. Her voice is firm, even though her lips wobble slightly as she speaks. “You lied to all of us. You used us—me, and every other High Priestess before me.”

His eyes grow wild. “I taught you to use what little magic you had! You would have been nothing but ordinary women without me!”

“Nowoman is ordinary,” I snap. “And the women of the Amethyst Palace were more extraordinary than most. They are the ones who somehow heard the call of magic even though you trapped it here. The ones who defied all odds, who found the tiniest remnants of it that you left behind when you stole it.”

“I should have left you to die,” the High Priest says coldly, his gaze landing back on mine. “That morning when you were left as a baby on our doorstep.”

“You’re right,” I say. “You should have let me die. But you were power hungry, and you felt the strange magic within me, and you wanted it. And now that magic will be your undoing.”

“I will not let you!” he gasps, clinging to the pillar desperately.

I reach for Lilette’s hand. Her gaze meets mine and I nod. We call our magic. The answering call is weak and fluttering. Minewas already barely present since I arrived in Eldare, and now I am exhausted after the ordeal in the labyrinth. I feel only the slightest glimmer of power, barely enough to light a candle if I wished. I stare down at the faintest of golden glows surrounding my fingers, and my heart drops.

But Lilette’s is stronger, and she squeezes my hand tightly as she stares at the pillar and the High Priest. A yellow glow surrounds her body, a building warmth carrying the scent of crushed flowers. With a high-pitched cry, the High Priest flings himself toward us.

“You are my High Priestess! You cannot defy me!”

Lilette’s eyes flash, and her power pulses off her, knocking him off his feet. “I am not yours any longer!”

Our combined magic continues past his prone body and hits the pillar. At first, nothing happens. The bright light merely moves around the marble, spiraling upward and over the top of it.

But then the stone ripples as if melting, and after several moments, a blinding light bursts forth and a wave of energy like a hurricane blasts into us. Lilette and I fall backward, landing hard on the ground. I can feel the magic rushing off, moving with lightning speed out of this place and out into the land.

It is done. We did it.

I climb to my feet, helping Lilette, too. The labyrinth disappears around us, the magic that had created it gone now. A few feet away, I see the outline of a door behind us.

“Look,” she whispers, pointing.

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