Page 62 of Queen of Stars and Shadows

“I know,” I say. “But it’s the same premise, just much, much larger. I need to widen all the rifts until there’s no wall left between Valaron and the rest of Aureon. We have death magic—Valaron itself is dying.” I pause and look up at him. “I’ll create myownspell.”

“Will this work?” Zyren asks Owyn.

“I don’t know,” Owyn says. “But if anyone can do it, the Queen of Valaron can.”

“I’m going to help,” Zyren says, grasping hands with me.

“Our magic is here, too,” Lilette says, and Owyn nods.

The rumble in the earth beneath us intensifies, and in the distance, I see several mountains crumble into nothing. The sky flickers from night to day, and then back to night again.

“You’re almost out of time,” Owyn says.

Holding the book before me, the fingers of my other hand intertwined with Zyren’s, I summon my magic. All of it. The light, the dark, and everything in between. My inner nightmare surges upward, and I feel Zyren’s join her. Fully this time, like I’ve never felt his nightmare before. Shadows swirl up and around us, and in the distance, the other nightmares begin an urgent cry like a chant, answering the call of their queen.

I close my eyes and focus my magic on the rifts, starting with the one closest to us. I let my senses move outward, my nightmare guiding me, as I find all the others. Dozens, then hundreds. Some large, some tiny fractures. I push outward with my magic until IbecomeValaron, until my body is the realm, and the realm is my body.

And then I push more.

I begin to shake as the swell of magic within me intensifies. I’ve never felt this much power in my life, nor have I ever felt this much drain. My hair flies out behind me and my bones feel as if they’re liquifying. My skin feels as if it’s stretched too far, the vessel that if my body expanding outward. It feels as if I’ve devoured the sun and the moon and an entire ocean.

Just when I feel like I’m going to tear apart at the seams, I scream the words of my spell.

“Join together that which was once one

“Reunite earth and dreams

“Reunite light and dark

“Reforge that which was broken!”

I feel Zyren’s magic along with my own, and I feel Lilette’s and Owyn’s. I also feel the power of the book, of all my ancestors, join with mine. I feel Valaron in my own heartbeat. I feel the wall between realms begin to crack, and as it does, agony shootsthrough my body. Zyren holds me up as my legs buckle. It feels like I am being undone, just as Valaron is being undone.

But in the darkness of death there is light.

The wall shatters and I feel a rush of power as Valaron merges with Aureon once more.

And then it is done.

Night switches back to day, naturally this time, and Zyren pulls me against him. “You did it, my love. You saved Valaron.”

“Wesaved Valaron,” I whisper.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Zyren

The sunset castsgolden streaks of light across the courtyard of what once used to be the Court of Nightmares. I gaze across the open space, which just two weeks before had been littered with rubble, bodies, and blood. With the help of the nightmares and the survivors of Selaye, we’d finally gotten everything cleared, and the fallen had been given proper burials.

The palace is still in ruins, of course, but that will take much longer to rebuild.

I return the wave of one of the townsmen and watch as everyone returns to their homes. Most of the damage had been to the palace and those buildings closest to it, so the citizens of Selaye for the most part had not been displaced. A funnyfeeling moves through me as I watch the glowing lights from the windows of all the houses down the valley. I’ve been a nomad for so long that staying in one place for this long feels strange.

Strange, but right.

As darkness begins to fall, there’s a stir in the air as the nightmares begin to arrive. They prefer nighttime, naturally, so they do their work after the fae go within their houses. Sarielle had not forced any of them to help, her only edict being that they couldn’t prey on people. But of all released from the prison of their magical territory, a couple hundred had stayed near Selaye to help clear the destruction.

A much larger shadow falls over me, and Astherius lands in the courtyard, a largewhooshof air sending up a cloud of dust. Sarielle sits astride her back.

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