Page 146 of Fate and Flame
“Why didn’t he ever destroy the stone? Why not just destroy that one, or the one on the beast?”
“Without magic of his own, he had to rely on only the power within the blade. The stone in the human world is the only one weak enough for him to destroy, and he didn’t find it in time.”
“And that one?” I asked, pointing to her hand.
“This one will take all three of us.” She handed the sword to me.
The moment the cold metal touched my skin, I came alive. The power pulsed like the beat of a hollowed drum.
“Finally.” Aibell stood.
“You will call your magic forward and strike the stone at the same time. We will try to contain what comes from within.”
Aibell shared a withered look with me, something like regret filling her eyes. “Tell her the cost if she is not able to control her magic.”
Nealla leaned in, that dangerous glare stealing my breath. “This will take a great mass of power. You must strike the stone, and then each of us has to feed our magic to destroy it. If there is not enough power, if the power is erratic or unstable, one of you will die and the other may be stuck between the worlds forever.”
“Not you?”
She chuckled. “I cannot die.”
I’d never seen such a level of excitement on Aibell’s ancient face as she rubbed her hands together. Nealla placed the black stone down on the table once more. I considered telling Fen that I might die in the next moment. But I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Aibell’s words rang through my mind.
Do not let it destroy you. You do not succumb to it. You do not forget who raised you. You do not back down.
I held the heavy sword above my head, and in one swoop, I released my magic and brought it down with a crack. The table split in two.
“Now,” Nealla screamed as the cottage faded away and we were falling through a dark expanse of nothing. As if the stone had broken open and we were soaring through the tear between worlds.
A wicked smile crossed Aibell’s face. My racing heart thundered in my chest as I finally put the puzzle together, seconds too late. She had done it. Had finally left our world behind. Wherever we would land, it would not be Alewyn. Nealla cursed in the distance as she too realized that Aibell would not use her magic to destroy the stone. She would choose death or desertion before returning to Alewyn.
Everything Aibell had done was to get us to this single point. She had moved all the pieces together so carefully, helping only when she needed to. Had held my father’s sword for this moment. Had been denied the ability to leave our world for so long, and now it was here. I wanted to hate her. I wanted to destroy her. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t even blame her. There was still kindness in that old hag. I still didn’t think she wanted me to die. Why else would she have forced me to control my magic?
A great mass of emptiness surrounded me and Aibell, like falling through the heavens, I imagined. Occasionally it felt as if something solid would approach and then we would jerk sideways, continuing to fall through the veil of worlds. And I had no idea if this was going to be my eternity or if I’d die soon. Nealla was gone. She’d not taken the journey with us, but Aibell’s face held peace as her eyes shut and she held her arms out beside her as if she were a child seconds from landing in a softened pile of autumn leaves.
But that wouldn’t work for me. I couldn’t accept this. I had been ripped from my home with no idea what world or what state of in-between I was suspended in. But like Aibell, I would do anything to go home.
Anything.
I shattered that iron wall in my mind. I let the magic rip through me with a singular purpose. Destroy the obsidian stone. That was the ultimate goal.
Yes,Nealla said into my mind.More, child. Find my magic.
As I fell through the obsidian, night rushing past me as if it were tangible, I pushed magic forward until I found the black poisonous magic that was Nealla’s. The moment I touched it, I felt the wrongness. The instinct to turn and run nearly overpowered me. Nealla’s magic was far vaster than my own. Still, I pushed and pushed forward with precision. Aibell had abandoned us, but I felt the world coming back to me, and then I felt the rip in my soul. That familiar tear that threatened to overtake me as Alewyn slipped away again.
I pushed back, shielding myself from the magic. I tossed and tumbled through nothingness. Nealla and Aibell were gone completely. Panic began to set in. Was this the plan? Had I somehow missed a clue.
“Did you want me to destroy the world? Was this what you wanted?” I screamed.
Open your mind, girl. Come back.
I fell blindly into endless depths of nothingness. And then I remembered my own anchor. Fen. I scrambled for him. I dug my claws in and scraped my way back to him and that flame. Until the world began to reappear and the blackness faded. Until I was once again in Nealla’s cottage and Aibell’s still body lay spread on the floor.
I could hardly string two thoughts together to realize what had happened. I stared at her for a long time, my father’s sword still in my hand, the power still thrumming through me.
“You refused her, didn’t you? She wanted to die and you wouldn’t let her. Wouldn’t or couldn’t send her away and yet selfishly forced her to live. You took away her choice.”
Nealla didn’t respond. Didn’t acknowledge I had spoken. The hood she wore, the Soul Repository, the gift of the Wild Hunt, The Mists, the bone graveyard. I stumbled backwards. I was such an idiot. So caught up in everything else, I couldn’t see what was right in front of me.
