Page 205 of What Blooms from Death

The word settled warmly over me, and for a moment, all we’d done actually started to feel like a victory. Because whatever happened next, I had created a path home.

And Aleks and I were going to be able to walk it together.

“Though that makeshift portal has gotten fainter just over the past few minutes,” Thalia said. “So we should hurry.”

I looked to the Aetherstone’s chambers. The pull ofhomewas fierce, but the pull of duty proved stronger. “I need to see the Stone and the orbs again, first—a moment to study it all in peace before we head back.”

Bastian hesitated, his gaze darting briefly to our fickle route out of this realm, but he nodded. “We need to more fully secure Luminor, too. Though I’m not sure how—maybe something within that chamber can help.”

Despite my aching body, I jogged for that chamber, determined to gather as much knowledge as I could, as quickly as I could. The war for our world wasn’t over, but I was confident I could make my way to the next step, now. I just had to keep going.

That confidence faded abruptly as I made my way deeper into the room, and I realized…something was wrong.

Luminor wasn’t where we’d left it.

Instead, it was floating high above the Aetherstone’s pedestal. Its blade was black once more—but now there were fissures of red light spreading from its center. The sound of metal expanding and beginning to crack echoed in the stillness.

I managed only a single, breathless cry before itshattered.

The blackened shards flew in all directions, but with controlled, deadly aim—as if they were arrows loosed from a skilled archer. At least one of them landed upon the dais, striking the groove where Luminor had once stood as a proud conduit of magic and life. Another struck the Noctaris orb. Both triggered a violent crackling of energy, and I was still staring at it all in frozen horror when I realized there were more shards hovering in the air, taking aim.

In the next breath, they were hurtling toward me.

Aleks moved faster than I could.

He knocked me to the ground, shielding my body with his.

They missed us.

Gods, theyshould havemissed us.

Except, it was clear, now, that the remains of Luminor were being controlled by the very demon we’d tried to trap within it.

And one after the other, those shards turned in mid-air and struck again, impaling Aleksander’s body, each strike sending a current of magic rippling through it until we were both swallowed up in a raging sea of cold light.

Chapter Fifty-One

Aleks

I didn’t regretany of it.

Not for a second.

We were not a tragedy.

And as darkness slid over my vision, a thought struck—that even if wewere, I would have lived that tragedy over and over and over, in a thousand different lifetimes, if it meant I had a chance to meet her again.

Chapter Fifty-Two

Nova

Little by little,Aleks lost the battle to stay upright. His body slowly collapsed against mine, and I did my best to support it with my numb arms, to at least keep his head off the ground.

Light continued to flare around us, creating a dome that cut us off from the rest of the room. Through the veil of its energy, I saw the vague figures of our soldiers rushing frantically about. I heard my brother’s voice, equally frantic, commanding them to secure the space, to find a way to get to me, to seek out any more of Luminor’s pieces.

But something told me there were no more of those sharp fragments to be found. The ones that had pierced Aleksander’s body were the last—the final, desperate strike.

Six of those shards. And something was happening around the puncture wounds they’d created...something strange: A soft glow of reddish-gold light pooling, a trembling radiating out across his body and pulling that light with it, sweeping an unnatural pallor across his skin.

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