Page 48 of Crown of Wrath

Another earthquake rocks the world, and I don’t even bother to put up shadows to protect myself. Instead, I walk back toward the beach, hoping against hope that what I said will force Maeve to accept the only path forward. The world continues to shake. It’s something to do with Maeve’s mind and soul. I don’t know what’s happening any more than I understood what happened on the last island. I don’t feel like I know anything at this point.

All I am sure of is that I can’t give up on her, and this doesn’t feel like it’s working.

Chapter 23

I say it again. An Immortal soul is more fragile than an Immortal body. A body can be cut and cut and cut. It can lie bleeding out onto the stone, and there is still a chance for it to survive. A single word can destroy a soul. A single death, a single misplaced love, a single mistake, and a soul can be ended, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

~Erevan Morvyn, A History of Magic and Dragons

Maeve

Pain consumes everything. The forest below me, once vibrant and alive, is disintegrating. The ground trembles, and I watch as the trees—those beautiful, radiant trees—splinter into shards, collapsing into heaps of ruin. Now I understand why the obsidian tower in Cole’s mind cracked so deeply. The entire world is fracturing.

Even my effigy, my last tether to myself, is breaking apart. Piece by piece, it crumbles, leaving only the Shade standing on the edge of this disintegrating island.

Beyond him lies nothing but darkness. A void so vast and terrifying it feels alive. It pulls at me, relentless and hungry, whispering promises of peace if I’d just let go. But I can’t. I don’t know what happens if I do. If I surrender to it, will I vanish too?

The pain, though—it’s unbearable. The Shade’s words cut through me, sharper than any blade. Everyone knows what he is, how cruel and unyielding he can be, willing to twist the knife to get what he wants. Still, the island beneath me crumbles, fragments pulled into the void like a dying breath.

“I’m not a coward,” I whisper, the words trembling like a leaf clinging to a broken branch. “It just… hurts so much. Here was safe. It didn’t hurt while I was here.”

“No one dies from pain,” he says, his voice cold, unforgiving. “Embrace it. It’s not your fault people died, but running from it won’t save anyone, Maeve.”

His words hit like a tidal wave, crashing over the last fragile remnants of my haven. The darkness is relentless, and I feel them claim the final pieces of the island. His voice drags me under, and I fall, swallowed by the void.

The world is endless, inky blackness, stretching infinitely in every direction. I’ve been here before. It’s the same oppressive nothingness that tugs at me, whispering promises of release. This place came before the pain. Before the loss. Before… Before I shattered. That’s what happened, isn’t it? Or have I alwaysbeen here? Maybe all those memories—those faces, those voices—were never real. Maybe they were just cruel illusions.

Everything feels so far away now, like muffled echoes trapped behind layers of glass. Why was I afraid before? Why did I hurt? Or was that pain as unreal as the people it clung to?

A faint glimmer breaks through the void, piercing the darkness like a needle. It calls to me, urgent and unrelenting. A tether pulls me toward it, though every part of me resists. The light is sharp and searing. It’s agony after the calm embrace of the void, but I can’t stop. The pull is inexorable, dragging me closer until I cross the threshold—and then the pain slams into me.

It’s all there, all at once: the ache that bites at the edges of my soul, the heavy, suffocating wrongness that I can’t place a name on. The light amplifies everything I tried to leave behind. I don’t know why it hurts, only that it does, and I can’t escape it. The peace of the void beckons me, but now that I’ve touched the light, I’m trapped.

The void is coming for me, though. It will rescue me from this terrible light. The darkness presses closer, devouring the edges of this hateful, blinding place. One grain of black sand at a time, it creeps forward, relentless and inevitable. Soon, the light will be gone, and with it, the pain. Soon, the void will swallow this place whole.

And when it does, I’ll finally be free. No pain. No memories. Just quiet. Just nothing.

Chapter 24

What can the void devour? Anything. There are only a handful of beings that I have met who have no fear of losing themselves to the Unending Sea, and dragons are not one of them. Even Vyran would have been lost to it after a long enough time.

~Maeve Arden, The Future of Magic and Dragons

The Shade

The void is just as exhausting as before. When I’d first entered Maeve’s mind, it had been peaceful. It’d been soothing and soft and tempted me to stay longer. Now, it’s back to being the weight that I remember in the real world.

And there is no one to wrap me in shadows and protect me. I keep swimming because time is running out. How long have I been here? Hours? Days? Weeks? Time isn’t something thatmakes sense here, but I know Maeve doesn’t have long now. The faint bit of power I sense is getting weaker.

So, I do the only thing I can. I keep swimming. I keep pushing, even though every piece of me believes the void is going to win. Every piece but the one that promised that I’d doanythingto keep Maeve safe. I couldn’t keep her from bearing the weight of the Painted Crown. I couldn’t keep her family or friends safe. I couldn’t keep my curse from becoming hers, but I can keep her safe.

I have to.

My body is exhausted, and I pour my magic into the shadows surrounding my body, protecting me in a shell of darkness much like Maeve did. Inch by inch, foot by foot, I make my way through the darkness to the last island of power I can make out.

When I haul myself out onto another beach, I recognize just how different this island is. Unlike the previous ones, this one isn’t stable. Waves of the void roll over the black sand, and each wave takes some of the sand away when it rolls back into the void. Slowly but surely, this island is disappearing, and I know exactly what that means.

That’s my time limit. This is the last island. This is Maeve’s true mental landscape right now, and if it all goes into the void, she’ll be lost to me.

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