Page 57 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

The woman pressed her hand firmly against the queen‘s belly, crying out as the baby kicked. Lea searched for the baby's heartbeat again, her shoulders lowering a bit when she found it still beating steadily. But she wasn’t sure how much more time the baby had. Exhaustion pulled at Lea’s skin, sweat breaking out on her back and neck as she continued to funnel healing energy into the baby. The woman cursed before brushing the queen’s hair away from her face.

"I’ll be right back. I need to get help. I will save her," the maid promised Emmaline before standing and bolting toward the castle. Tears pricked the back of Lea’s eyes, a hard lump forming in her throat. She’d known that the queen was beloved, that the kingdom had missed her dearly after her death, but to see the grief so potent on her lady’s maid’s face…

Lea hung her head and allowed the storms to settle, focusing only on keeping the baby alive. It was taking more and more magic to keep its heart beat rhythmic and strong. She counted her own breaths, steadying herself and forcing her magic to obey, using just enough to help the baby, but she could feel the chamber of power inside her beginning to empty. She was growing weak.

"Hurry," Lea whispered toward the door, as if the woman could hear her. "Come on, baby," she whispered. "You’re a fighter." Lea closed her eyes and waited, praying that the woman would get back in time, praying that her magic was stronger than she believed it to be. Praying for any help she could get. Lea’s shoulders began to shake, her hands cramping. There was only a kernel of light left inside her, and she streamed it into a razor-sharp point, directly into the baby’s heart.

The heartbeat stuttered, and Lea bit down on her lip, searching the very bottom of her soul, trying to find any ounce of magic left inside her. There had to be more. She was the Queen of Flame and Shadows. Blessed with magic of both the day and night. This couldn’t be all she had to offer this child.

Her healing magic disappeared, every last bit of light retreating from her body and funneling into the baby. The chamber that held her day magic felt like an empty husk, aching and pulsing in an unnatural way. All that was left was darkness.

"Dammit! Hurry! Help!" Lea begged. "Someone save her!"

"You save her." A gentle, commanding voice broke through Lea’s panic. Standing only a few feet away was a woman, but… Lea looked from her waist length, cascading silver blonde hair to the woman’s eyes, a blue so vibrant it was almost startling. She was glowing faintly, and wore a silver crown around her forehead, embellished with hundreds of tiny stars. No, this woman was not of this earth, and this was not a dream.

The goddess of the moon stood before her, ethereal and beautiful in a way thatalmosthurt her eyes.

"What do you mean? I can’t save her. I’ve tried." Lea’s voice shook with frustration.

"You do not bow this time?" The goddess cocked her head to the side, and Lea felt a tug deep inside her chest, pulling at her shadows as if coaxing them to return to their master.

"Can you help her?" Lea ignored her question, her reference to the dream in which the goddess had told her to fight, that Gray would save her.No. Ithadbeen a dream. Hadn’t it?Lea rubbed at the discomfort beneath her breastbone.

"I can no more interfere here than you can in my realm. Follow the darkness," the goddess urged.

"I don’t understand. I don’t need darkness. I tried to chase away death with my shadows, but it did nothing. I need healing magic. I need light. Please," Lea begged.

"Follow the darkness…" she said again, placing a hand over her heart and pressing her lips into a grim line.

A bolt of searing pain shot through Lea’s chest, and she doubled over as stars dotted her vision. "I have followed the darkness! I followed Gray to the rebellion. I fought to stay with him when I had the Lonely Death! What more can I do!?"

"The darkness ismanythings, daughter. Follow where it leads. It is the key to all."

"I can’t," Lea sobbed. "I have nothing more to give."

The goddess floated toward her, grace embodied as she knelt before Lea. She placed a hand against her sternum, the pain burning inside intensifying as her shadows fought to break free. No, not just shadows… Something evil.

"It is only evil, if you use it for evil," the goddess said, reading her thoughts. "You must be strong enough to not allow that wicked urge to conquer you. Follow the darkness," she said again, her hand remaining against Lea’s breastbone.

Lea screamed again in agony, her body feeling as if it might explode. Power fought to escape from somewhere deep in her chest, pushing at her bones and skin, making her eyes water and her back arch.

The pain faded as quickly as it had come, and when Lea opened her eyes again, she was once again alone in the garden, her palms pressing down on Queen Emmaline’s belly. But there, somewhere deep inside her, a rift had formed. Dark, foreign energy trickled into her chest, like drops of water through a hole in the windowsill. Lea reached toward the tiny crack in the floor of the cavern where her magic lived, prodding it and testing its strength. The sharp pain returned below her sternum as she pushed down, trying to find more of that black power. Lea’s light fought to withdraw, the pain so intense Lea retched.

The baby’s heart stopped again, and Lea felt its little body writhing as it searched for oxygen.

"I will not let you die." Lea wiped her mouth with her sleeve before returning her hands to the baby’s small body and summoning that wicked darkness, pushing down again and tearing into that pain in her chest, crying out in agony as she ripped at the walls that had held her magic neatly contained inside her. A tiny piece of the rift chipped away, and Lea felt dark power rock through her. It felt nothing like the power she had wielded before. It was raw, like she could bend any element to her will, create life or destroy the world, if only she could find more.

She dove deeper, digging and tunneling behind her ribs. Latching on to the darkness, Lea broke out in a cold sweat. It felt like death—all encompassing blackness. In her mind, she grabbed the edges of the fissure with her hands, pulling and pulling until her fingernails broke and her hands bled. With a cry of determination, she forced her way inside the cavern. Energy crackling through her, she pulled every ounce of power she could muster, pushing her arms out to her sides as the hole in the barrier widened, just enough to allow more of the strange energy to escape.

She was night. She was darkness embodied. She was death herself.

Chapter 38

Lea

Withouthesitation,Leasoughtout the baby, grasping the reaper’s cold fingers that were trying to pry the baby’s soul from its body. She combined the raw, dangerous magic with her darkness, forcing death to release its hold on the infant. Lightning cracked and thunder roared, black clouds eclipsing the moon, the night so dark Lea shouldn’t have been able to see her hands in front of her. And yet, somehow, she could.

Someone approached, but Lea kept her eyes closed as she focused only on keeping the baby alive. That unfamiliar power seeped through her fingertips, the baby’s heartbeat jolting to attention, beating harder and faster than Lea had felt it before. Keep the baby alive. Make death wait. Do not allow it to win again. Focus. That was all she could do.

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