It claimed me, and I screamed in agony until I broke. I was no longer my own; I was something bigger.
I thrust my arms to the sky. Pure energy soared before it arched back down to Earth, trapping the super conjuring inside a giant dome of my magic. No one else had to die with me.
I took my last breath and pulled the tainted energy away from the conjuring. It pooled in my gut like a cancer.
I willed myself to take more.
The pressure spread to my lungs and grew spikes. I raised my arms and commanded it to obey my call. The magic squeezed my brain, and I staggered under the weight. My vision went dark around the edges, but the Transference still pulled against my magic. Sweat soaked my back as I strained to absorb the tainted super conjuring.
Desperate fear flashed through me. I wasn’t strong enough.
“Maeve!” Silas pushed through the chaos on the field until he reached my shield. His leather armor was covered in blood, and his sword gleamed more crimson than silver.
We locked gazes through the shimmering wall of magic separating us. There was so much left unfinished between us. Even filled with the agony of the source’s full power, my heart found room for the pain of losing him. There was no going back, and there wasn’t time to say goodbye.
Silas’s face drained of color. “Maeve! Don’t do this alone!”
“The Chosen join as one, united.” I didn’t know if the voice coming from me was mine or that of the Fate.
Silas’s eyes were dilated. He dropped his sword on the ground and pressed his palms against the barrier between us.
A renewed sense of destiny hit me. The prophecy wasn’t just about me; we were supposed to do this together. The tiniest flicker of hope sparked as I realized that together, we had a chance.
I reached for him. My shield parted around my arm like falling water. Silas and I had been heading for this moment from the beginning. The inevitability should have bothered me, but it was strangely comforting. We grasped forearms. The overlapping triangle sigil of my House met the interlocking circles of his, and I pulled him through the barrier and into our fate.
Through the Aegis bond, I could feel his presence more clearly than ever before. For once, I wasn’t confused about his emotions. The bloodlust of battle pounded through his veins, and so did the fear of losing me. His love for me surrounded it all.
I sent him back all the love in my heart.
If we continued down this path, we might both die. Maybe it was our destiny from the beginning—like stars going supernova. A collision course set by fate a million years before the explosion. There was no going back after this. We would burn brightest together.
“Do it,” he said.
I reached through him and channeled the legendary power of House of Valeron. His source, although distant, was a well of power that sizzled in my mind—cool, crisp, and strong. Careful not to deplete his already reduced magic, I dragged the energy through him. It rushed to me like a waterfall, purifying the taint of the dark magic I had already absorbed.
Every muscle in his body strained against the force of my draw against his source. His teeth gritted, and his fingers tightened around my arm, digging into my already bloody flesh. The marks of power on his skin glowed just as they had in the Fate’s temple, turning his aura back to a brilliant gold.
I wrapped my magic around him, forming the same conjuring as our Aegis bond. He flinched when the energy sank into him. He was now branded with my sigil. I could feel it. We were united, joined as one, just as the prophecy said we would be.
Death’s Fury will fight with force, together they reclaim the Earthen Source.
Death’s Fate is set that hour, burning bright with a balance of power.”
Our magics were perfectly complemented. Where my power absorbed, his acted. Where his was frenzied, mine was harmonious. I was no longer buried under the compulsive need for more. I was balanced with the super conjuring above us, Silas, the Guardians, my people, and the core of energy within the Earth.
I released the combined energy into the air above us, pouring the strength of our powers into the sky. Our magic slammed into Titus’s conjuring. A brilliant explosion lit the space above us. Like water pulled backward into the ocean, the spell collapsed on itself. The threads of the Transference spell reversed, and an inferno of magic power shot from the center and slammed outward.
Silas and I braced each other against the backlash of crushing magic. I funneled everything I could back into the source, but the flare of power that burst from us tore down the shield I’d constructed and splashed onto the battlefield.
People were tossed backward from the physical force as the magic backlashed over everything.
“Death’s Fate is set this hour.”
Silas pulled me into his arms, and we sank to our knees, leaning on each other, too exhausted to stand on our own. We’d survived.
Dark smoke billowed in the air from the burning town, obscuring the sunrise and the destruction around us. Behind the town’s shield, demons prowled the streets. On the field, the wounded cried out for help. The dead covered the ground, shrouded in gray ash. The air was thick with it.
Silas pulled back and scanned my face. “Are you hurt?”
Death and magic saturated my skin. “I’m alive,” I whispered. “And so are you.”
He flashed his cheeky, boyish grin. “I told you I’m hard to kill.”
“You’re too stubborn to die.”
He laughed. “I like that.”
“Me too,” I said. Then I kissed him. Our lips connected, and for one blissful moment, the world’s problems didn’t matter.
BY THE TIME SILAS AND I returned to the center of the battlefield, the remaining Brotherhood were gathered in a small knot, watched by exhausted Guardians. The last firebird had been killed, and even though the insect horde had burned everything to the ground, our people had finally managed to contain them.
My gaze traveled over the bodies, and my heart clenched. I walked numbly to my father and knelt at his side. Memories of a happy childhood flooded me. They pushed uncomfortably against the false memories of growing up alone on the streets. Silas placed his hand on my shoulder, and I laid my hand on top of his. The pain was too much to bear alone.
“The last of the Brotherhood is broken,” Acting Commander Corin announced behind us in a solemn baritone. “Victory is ours.”
The lump in my throat made it too difficult to speak. Titus was dead. The Brotherhood was gone. But at what cost?
Tears fell onto my father’s face and streaked through the ash on his skin. I remembered the man I had known as Father Mike. My father. He died because of me.
I needed to remember him as he had been, not as the broken body before me with his hands bound behind his back. I tried to loosen the rope with numb fingers that were slick with blood, sweat, and ash. Silas eased my hands away and cut through the rope. Black and purple bruises ringed my father’s wrists. I positioned his arms over his chest and forced myself to look away. I closed Deanna’s eyes with my fingertips. Her auburn hair, flecked with ash, fanned around her like a halo.
She died because of me.
A few feet away lay the battered, scarred body of Atticus, my friend. Because of me.
I had convinced the entire Sect to stay and fight. So many had died. It was all because of me.
“The price was too high,” I said.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The battlefield was slick with mud and blood. Conjured rain put out the burning buildings and forced the remaining ashes to the earth. The town was a complete loss. The Guardians spent the final hours of sunlight hunting down the last of the Rakken and scorching the insects. My people gathered our dead.
Each body was shrouded and carried to one of five funeral pyres, placed side by side in their final resting places. Two hundred of my people had stood and fought, and almost half had lost their lives. The Circle had lost Deanna, Thomas, and Leah. Families had been torn apart. Our physical wounds were treat
ed by Aeterna’s Healers, but no one would leave without scars.
The Blood Moon rose, a faded version of the night before, while the living stood in the trampled fields to honor and release the dead. Casius recited their names as the sun set behind the pyres. When it touched the horizon, a flare set the bodies alight. The heat burned against my skin.
Silas stood with his head bowed and hands clasped in front of him, flanked by his commanders, including Tessa and Corin. Their bloody armor was gone, replaced by black fatigues. With dark hair and clothing, Silas was indistinguishable against the night, just like the first time I’d seen him.
The Guardians hadn’t been without casualties. Out of three hundred who had fought, sixteen bodies had been returned to Aeterna along with the members of the Brotherhood who’d surrendered. The Brotherhood’s dead were burned on the field, and Atticus’s body would be given to his family.
Silas and I locked gazes across the flames. Fire flickered over his features, casting shadows. I didn’t know how he could stand to see so much death all the time. The Fate had called him Death’s Fury. I didn’t know how he could deal with the pain of it.
We stood until the last pyre burned out. As the sky darkened, everyone drifted off one by one to the field of tents set up by the Guardians. I watched the embers until it became too dark to see anything else. The smell of fire and death overwhelmed my senses, while the names of the dead looped through my mind. I recognized too many of them.
“Maeve.”
I blinked away unshed tears and glanced over my shoulder. Silas stood behind me, his face cloaked in shadow. Silently, he moved closer, and we stood together for a long time.
“It doesn’t feel like we won,” I finally whispered. A lot of people had died because of me. Nausea twisted in my stomach again. “How can you handle this... this—” My voice broke.
“Leading people into battle is easy.” He moved toward me, and I could finally see his face. His eyes were kind but tight with his own memories. “Regardless if you win or lose, it’s what comes afterward that haunts you.”
“So many people died because of me,” I said.
He pushed up the sleeve of his left arm and showed me the three raised scars running parallel across his forearm. They were thin and long, like deep slices from a knife. “Commanders receive a mark for every loss. We bear the consequences of our actions for the rest of our lives.”
Slowly, I ran the tip of my finger over the scars. It seemed fitting to have a physical reminder of the loss.
“You never forget,” he said. “But just like cuts from a blade, the pain fades with time.”
Once again, my life had spun out of control, and he was the only person on the planet who understood what I was going through. “Thank you,” I whispered. It was hard for him to show vulnerability. He was letting me see a side of himself he kept private.
He rolled the sleeve of his shirt down and rubbed the back of his neck. “I owe you an apology. There’s so much to say; I’m not sure where to start.”
A knot tightened in my stomach. I was exhausted and numb, and I wasn’t ready for this conversation.
“What happened with Elias?” I interrupted.
Silas ran his hand over his face, and the weight of responsibility showed in his expression. “Walk with me?”
We walked away from the ashes and into a field of young grain that stretched out to the horizon, untouched by the destruction around us. The Blood Moon hovered above, so large and full that it seemed I could reach out and touch it. The red color seemed fitting. Blood. So much blood.
The heat from the fire seeped away, and I wrapped my arms around myself in the chilly night air.
“Are you cold?” Silas’s magic flared around us, and I froze, my temporary chill forgotten. The strength of his magic had grown even more brilliant than before. His aura had been pure gold, but now his flare bled white at the edges—just like my powers and the combined powers of the Council.
“That’s... new,” Silas said levelly.
When I’d first encountered the Aeternal Council, I had believed the white flare was a sign of the strength of a person’s powers. But with my memories restored and my experience with the source, I knew it was a sign of how balanced someone’s magic was. Perhaps the Council’s combined flare was white because they carefully balanced the purest types of magic between Human, Shifter, and Fae. My magic was white because I could directly access Earth’s Source, where all life was magically tied and balanced. “Burning bright with a balance of power,” I quoted. “I think I changed the balance of your power when I bonded you to my source.”
He stared at me with a completely blank expression.
“You’re freaked out.”
His face unfroze, and he barked out a laugh. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. You have completely turned my life inside out in every possible way.”
He started walking again, and I forced my feet to move after him. His energy felt like a warm blanket wrapped around my shoulders. The feel of it was different, more familiar, like an extension of my own power. I pushed the liquid, crystalline patterns of his conjuring with my mind. It danced in the air, shimmering as we walked.
“Elias is gone. His accomplices fled with him,” he said, answering my earlier question.
“How did you get out of Alaric’s chambers?”
“When my shield gave out, they captured me and took me to the Council.” He shrugged, dismissing the details. “Elias claimed I was the traitor and pushed for execution.”
Only Silas would sound so casual as he talked about being captured and almost executed. My heart clenched. He stood right in front of me, but I found it hard to breathe.
“I’m surprised Elias didn’t try to kill you.”
Silas’s feral smile slipped through. “He tried. But the Guardians were witnesses, and they wouldn’t attempt to kill me without the approval of the full Council, no matter what Elias ordered.”
“How did you convince the Council you were innocent?”
“Elias was overconfident,” he continued. “The Council was reluctant to take action with no more proof than his word against mine.” He released his magic, and the soft shimmer faded, replaced by moonlight. “Stephan and Aria worked behind the scenes. Unlike me, they’re both brilliant at learning secrets, making friends, understanding alliances. Stephan’s sodding brilliant at politics. He was able to convince the right people to wait for actual evidence of my supposed betrayal.”
We paused in the middle of the field, surrounded by thigh-high grain and blanketed in moonlight. I ran my fingers over the sprouted tops, shocked that something so fragile had survived the destruction.
“I gave the Council your list of missing persons from Lower Aeterna, and we found concrete evidence that connected Landas to the Brotherhood.”
“How? We didn’t have anything on him the whole time we had him followed!”
“He is the bonded child to House Crispin. But we had his father’s house searched as well, and Aria identified the room where Titus held you. We found blood.” He grimaced, and his gaze slid toward me, gauging my reaction.
I nodded, relieved that particular piece of the puzzle was resolved. After everything I’d been through, the kidnapping and beating I’d endured seemed like a long time ago.
“Your note was the final evidence,” Silas said.
“My note?”
“Atticus didn’t eat your note.” Silas snorted in amusement. “He sent it to our message box with his own information about the attack against your Sect. Stephan brought it to the Council, and with the evidence piling up, Elias ran.” He grimaced in distaste. “As did the Fae Councilors, Lord Nuada and Lady Treva.”
“That’s how Elias found us in Alaric’s office!” I suddenly remembered that we’d seen Lady Treva on our way there. “They’ve been working together.”
“We believe they’ve been working together for years, diverting Aeterna’s resources and blocking even the most basic functions within th
e Council. With the traitors revealed, Alaric’s name was cleared as well. We’re still piecing together the connections between all of them.”
“Thank God for Stephan,” I said.
Silas hummed in agreement. “He’s a good man.”
“He said the same thing about you.” Back when I tried to convince myself I didn’t have feelings for Silas.
He rubbed the back of his neck again. “I’m afraid I haven’t been living up to that reputation. Not with you at least.”
My heart skipped a beat.
The tips of his fingers grazed my arm. “I’m sorry I was such a jack’s ass to you.”
I shook my head at his ridiculous swearing, but my heart was beating too fast.
“I want you to understand why I hurt you, and to apologize. I was afraid you’d be in danger if anyone realized how I felt.” He sighed. “If I’m being fully honest, I didn’t want to have feelings for you.”
“That’s really...” I searched for the right word. “Stupid.”
One side of his mouth curled briefly. “It hurt you more than protected you, and for that, I’m sorry. You were in danger regardless of my feelings. On top of that, I did a piss-poor job of pretending I didn’t care. I don’t think I fooled anyone but myself.” Both of his hands stroked slowly along my arms, sending tingles across my flesh. “I was fine with my life as it was before you flipped the whole world upside down. Wanting more is torture.”
The moonlight glowed on his face, reflecting from his earnest gray eyes. His thumbs stroked my shoulders, and electricity fluttered low in my belly.
“What about your mating bond with Aria? You’re still stuck in a miserable situation because of the prophecy.”
“The prophecy was about you. Us. And that makes my whole fucking life finally make sense. Alaric can enact all the sanctions he wants. I don’t care.”
Fate Forged Page 36
