Page 220 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Right—because Asa was Ben, and Ben was the Essence wielder who had control over the Gates. Maybe they should’ve figured out a way around the guards and brought him down there, or at least a few drops of his blood. Probably would’ve been the smarter thing to do.
But going back would take too long, and while they were here, they might as well figure out a few things before enlisting Ben’s help, if he was even capable of offering it…or allowed to do so. Hallie shook her head as she sat down against the wall. The golden haze had nearly occluded her vision entirely by now. “It would take too long to explain. Just stay here, and I’ll be back soon.”
“Stay here?”
Hallie didn’t respond, only pressed her bleeding palm to the messy page. Fely would hopefully understand well enough soon.
She kept her palm pressed to the parchment.
Nothing happened. No suffocating darkness. Nothing.
“I am unsure how ruining your journal is meant to help locate the Gate,” Fely said crossly, like she thought Hallie might be wasting her time or pulling some kind of prank.
Hallie stared at the page, her blood marring the words and staining the pages.
She pressed her hand to the parchment again and again, but there was no reaction, no memory. Had she imagined the earlier ones after all? Was Navara so far gone at the end that she’d forgotten to mix the ink with Zuprium dust?
She sliced her other palm and flipped to the page with the sketch. She barely registered it was an ornate sword before she pressed her hand to it, even though she knew it wouldn’t work.
Nothing.
In a fit of madness, Hallie slammed the book shut and hurled it away from her. She had never done that to a book in her life, but she wasn’t thinking straight. She’d spent the entire time since Achilles studying those stupid journals, thinking they held some secret that could help her understand her Essence power. But they were only ramblings of a mad woman fueled by grief, and the visions she’d had were simply her own mind trying to offer answers after being pushed to the brink of sanity.
Hallie was out of options. Without the second Gate, could she even restore it by combining the Essence powers into the swords? Or would she need to go all the way to Myrrai to reset that one? Would she be forced to follow Saldr’s plan, after all?
Maybe Jagamot would win. Maybe every plan they had was always doomed to fail.
Shehad failed.
The book landed with a softthunkand slid across the uneven floor, lost in the weird golden light that haloed her eyes. Another trick of a desperate mind, nothing more.
“Well, I’m not sure if that’s what I was expecting, but—”
Fely was interrupted by an explosion of golden light streaming from the book.
Hallie’s jaw dropped to the floor as she scrambled to her feet. Where the book lay, a long strand of fire grew like a vine from the center of the spine where the page lay open. It snaked its way into the air and into the ceiling above. The light was so bright, both Hallie and Fely shielded their eyes.
“Holy fates in heaven,” Fely gasped.
Hallie scrambled toward it, grabbing the book. As soon as she pulled it toward her, the fire winked out.
“What?” Hallie breathed, inspecting the book for a clue as to what had happened. But the pages were unscathed except for her blood. She held it out again, closer to where the golden haze was in her vision.
Fire exploded again. Hallie dropped the book.
The book wasn’t the Gate, but it revealed it. Whether it was because Hallie had put her own blood on it or the book was simply the key, she didn’t know. Stars, she needed to sketch this.
“That has to be it!” Hallie exclaimed, fumbling through her satchel with shaking hands for her sketchbook and pencil. “Navara found it, and somehow…somehow the book is what triggers it. My guess is my blood on the pages, because I had the book last time I was down here, but that’s probably why I lost control of my power. I stumbled into it with the book, but it didn’t reveal itself until now because of that. Maybe. It’s just a working theory.”
Her fingers clasped around the stubby pencil as she flipped to the next blank page in her book. She hurriedly jotted down a few notes before making a quick sketch. “Do you think that this is only a part of it? Because it goes up toward the ceiling and…and…Fely?”
Fely didn’t answer. Hallie looked up to see her staring awestruck at the Gate. It looked vastly different from the one in Myrrai, more akin to the Passage she and Kase had used on theEudoramission to make it back to Kyvena.
Hallie stood, clutching her sketchpad to her chest. She walked over to the woman, careful not to look directly at the fiery archway. Inside it lay a flowering meadow, a little cottage in the background at the edge of a fairytale forest.
“Stars, what is that?” Hallie asked, leaning closer. Fely grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.
“Careful.”
