Page 114 of Where Shadows Bloom

I remembered—she’d given up her strength to open the door to me.

“Sire?” I murmured.

“Yes, child?” asked the Shadow King, kneeling so he could look me in the eyes. His were brilliant white, like snowflakes suspended against a dark sky.

“I don’t have anything to give you,” I said, “but I ask most humbly that, when you send my Lope back into the world above, you give her back her strength, so that she can protect herself from unkind people. And the Shadows that are still above—I don’t want them in the world, bothering her or anyone else.”

“I will call on them to return through Lope’s door. I no longer need Shadows in your world,” he said, his thumb brushing my cheek. “I have you here, to tell me a thousand stories. There are so many things I want you to teach me.”

Another good thing to come of this. How swiftly, how easily, he could rid the world of his monsters. The world would become bright again, like everyone was waking from the same nightmare.

“Of course,” I told him. “I have so many stories for you.”

His eyes sparkled with his smile. “Then I will return Lope’s strength to her, as well as this gift.” He pinched his fingers together and drew them in a line. Out of the darkness, a thin, shining sword appeared, reflective from tip to hilt, as though it had been made of melted mirrors. He offered the sword to Lope. “To my favorite poet. A god’s blessing.”

Lope knelt in the grass before us and accepted the blade. She curled her hands around it gently and looked up at the Shadow King.

“Thank you, sire,” she said. She admired the shining sword. “It is a treasure. But I pray I will never have to wield it.”

The Shadow King’s eyes glinted. “You can use it as... what’s the word? Decoration? For memories and beauty.”

There was not quite forgiveness in her gaze but something settled. She gave him a nod and a small smile, and then turned to me.

She lifted her head, beaming up at me, and in her fond, warm gaze, I felt like I was standing in a sunbeam.

“I love you.” Her gray eyes shone with tears, brimming with an adoration that I wanted to fall into forever. “Athousand cities, a thousand mountains, a thousand kingdoms won’t change that. I’ll come back. I’ll come back with a thousand new poems for you.”

My own tears began to fall as I dropped onto the grass in front of her, and Lope took the chance to anchor herself to my sleeve, pull me close, and press her lips to mine. I tangled my fingers into her braid as I held her to me. If I kissed her long enough, kissed her deeply enough, perhaps this moment would never end.

The ones the king had sacrificed ascended the slow, spiraling staircase back to the door Lope and Eglantine had made. Mother stayed behind with me, her arm around my shoulders.

Lope was the last one, finally rising from the grass only when I gently pulled her to her feet. She gave me one last kiss, and then our hands slowly slipped from each other’s grasp.

She climbed the winding staircase, up onto the landing far, far above. She stood in the doorway, a rectangle of beautiful, amber light—what was now the last place through which Shadows could enter our world. As she gazed at me from above, hundreds of monsters scurried past her, pouring down the stairs like someone had spilled a giant inkwell. Just as the Shadow King had promised. Finally, they became fewer and fewer, drop by drop, scampering through the tall grasses or disappearing into the hills of this vast world below.

Lope and I looked at each other through the doorway, so, so far away.

I imagined her running carefree through a sunlit world. Her smile when she’d see a mountain for the very first time. Her hands slipping gently through sand or the turquoise waters of the ocean.

I didn’t regret my choice. Not for an instant.

The door between worlds shut like the cover of a book.

Epilogue

Lope

I opened a door to darkness,

Wherein I’d find

My sweet, sunlit heart.

When I opened the door to the Underworld, the air that greeted me was warm and gentle. No Shadows slid past my ankles, just as the Shadow King had promised. I could see nothing through the doorway but a black abyss, yet the faintest smell of orange blossoms made my heart feel at home again.

I wished farewell to Sagesse and to Eglantine. I took one last glance about the library, at the bright colors, at the glow of the sunshine,realsunshine against the books.

A light waited for me below.

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