by Isla Frost
“I believe Lirielle and her grandmother might be right. Can’t you see the balance? The two sides of the coin? Our life magic has wrought so much death. Perhaps your death magic will bring life back to our worlds.”
I shook my head in mute negation.
A part of me instinctively rejected the idea that the world would ever make that much sense. But within another part of me, something seemed to resonate, and that was almost as scary as the earnest conviction on Theus’s face.
Scrabbling, confused, desperate without grasping the cause, I flung the only thing I could think of back at him.
“If that’s true, why are you only telling me this now?”
Theus lifted his chin, like here was one secret he wasn’t ashamed of. “You were already under too much pressure for anyone’s sanity. We didn’t want to add to it. Besides, knowing wouldn’t have altered what you needed to focus on.”
He had a point there. Several actually.
“It’s as I said before, we walkers are not the heroes of this story. Nor are we the villains, not really. At best, we’re the sidekick to both. But, Nova”—his eyes roamed over my face with terrifying hope—“I believe the hero will be you.”
More disbelief. Denial. And a tiny tendril of my own awakening hope.
Because standing in this chamber surrounded by the magnitude of life force beyond my prior imaginings, I was beginning to understand just how powerful my wildcard gift could be.
Probably only once. Probably in a way that would result in my body going into shock and death at the withdrawal of that power. But perhaps once was all that would be needed to end the Malus’s rampage of destruction.
Despite everything, the vastness of the Malus, the vagueness of the prophecy, the bloody history between humans and walkers that could never truly be put to rights… I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, my magic could be the key to defeating the Malus.
That perhaps the darkness in the circlet had recognized me not because I was unwittingly under its influence, but because in my wildcard power was an enemy worth noticing.
Lirielle’s grandmother had predicted someone like me would come. Had believed they would end the nightmare of the Malus. Lirielle believed that person was me. And Theus’s own conviction was staring me in the face.
Maybe it was time for me to believe too.
I swallowed, noticing my mouth had gone dry.
Theus, still studying me, seemed to realize I was drawing close to a conclusion.
“There is one more thing you should know before you choose what you do within this chamber.” He paused.
I waited.
“You have good reason to hate our kind, but if we left now, even if we managed to take the Malus with us, your world would self-destruct. The balance of the atmosphere, oceans, and ecosystems has been pushed far beyond what it can naturally recover from, and it is only our magic maintaining conditions compatible with life. Without walkers, mass extinction would occur across the planet.”
That final stunning revelation made all my half-formed plans to one day extract justice from the walkers collapse like a house of cards.
And in its place, I found… acceptance.
Not that what they’d done was okay. It wasn’t. It never would be.
And yet I understood why they’d done it. Understood that in some ways, their intentions had been both nobler and more considered than mine.
And that understanding, combined with my relationship with Theus, allowed me to let go of my long-accumulated anger and the prejudices and presumptions that had been caused by it.
I was starting to grasp that while the walkers were not kind, their cruelty came from a difference in the way they saw the world rather than evil intent.
Sure, a lot of them were condescending jerks, but plenty of humans were too. And the walker students I knew were no more responsible for their parents’ and grandparents’ actions than I was.
Regardless of the past, they were now concerned with saving the species of two worlds. Most humans throughout history were concerned only with saving themselves.
Who really had the higher moral ground?
No. The walkers were not evil. They were not the enemy.
Not anymore.
Maybe they never had been. Not really.
Clinging to anger over past wrongs helped no one. In fact, it might just doom the world.
I stood up, mind made up at last, and a conviction of rightness settled over me like a second cloak.
I had walked into this ice cavern with the weight of fear and desperation, of vengeance and death, of being driven to protect but knowing I was unable to win true freedom or life or safety, pressing heavy on my shoulders.
I would walk out with the weight of the world in their place.
But it was a brighter world. A better world. One with more peace, more liberty, more possibilities than I’d ever dared dream of before.
Because our real enemy was the Malus.
And I’d do everything in my worlds-shaking wildcard power to defeat it.
After that, if I was still alive, I would fight for peace.
Chapter Thirty-Six
For the first time in a long time, I knew what I had to do.
But before I could do it, the sound of footsteps in the tunnel echoed around the ice chamber.
Theus swallowed and stood, placing himself between me and whoever was coming.
Someone who was about to catch us in the forbidden cache. Where Theus could be killed by his own kind for bringing me.
I stepped past him.
“No,” he said. “The world needs you. Let the wrath fall on me.”
“According to Lirielle and her grandmother, the world needs you too.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps I’ve already played my part.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “I just resisted the temptation to rid our planet of pesky walkers, so I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anyone get rid of the only pesky walker I’m fond of.”
My humor fell away.
“Besides, it’s far past time someone stood up for you and recognized your worth. Your family might be blind to it, but I’m not.”
He opened his mouth to protest.
“You said you trust me,” I reminded him. “So trust me.”
The footsteps grew louder.
But I wasn’t afraid. A smile tugged at my lips.
Because in this chamber, I held the power. And I would use that position of power to broker a deal with whoever was coming. A deal that would keep Theus safe.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The dining hall was almost empty when I stepped inside. Incredibly, we’d arrived early for breakfast.
Well, I’d arrived early. Theus—who was still distressed at the debt I’d committed myself to in order to protect him—had gone to his dorm room so we weren’t seen walking in together.
It felt like a week had passed.
But instead of the breakfast spread laid out and waiting, I kept seeing the disconcerting memory of my and Ellbereth’s life forces converging. Entwining together in an intricate weaving that could never be undone.
I hoped I had not made a terrible mistake.
The bang of a chair crashing to the floor brought me back to the present. The chair must have belonged to Ellbereth because she was storming over with an expression like a thundercloud. There was no sign of the mask of languid civility she usually wore.
The last time I’d seen her had been at the bottom of the arena, politely apologizing about it having to “end this way,” just before she’d drowned me.
Now she halted inches from my face and snarled, “What have you done?”
She was so angry that spittle sprayed from her mouth.
No doubt she expected me to fear her, to flinch back.
I stood my ground. And allowed a saccharine smile to spread across my own mouth.
“You might prefer it if we have this conversation in private.”
She eyeballed m
e anew, taking in my relaxed stance, the smile curving my lips, and nodded stiffly. “Fine.”
Her minions had risen in her wake, but she waved them back to their seats, and Ellbereth and I found a nice unused room to talk in.
She slammed the door shut and whirled. “What have you done?” she repeated.
I lifted my hand and conjured a bunch of especially thorny roses out of thin air.
Ellbereth’s eyes widened as she felt the corresponding drain on her magic. Because it had been her magic I’d used.
I smiled apologetically. “I suppose I should’ve brought you flowers before I bound our life forces together the way lovers do. But here.” I pushed them into her hands.
She was so shocked she took them.
After the binding had been completed, I’d sensed Ellbereth’s life force curled around me. Still separate from my own but ready to draw on if needed.
I’d experimented to see if I could draw not just on her life force, but her magic too. After all, my wildcard gift allowed me to use the magic of snails to ooze slime and the magic of stoneboars to shield myself.
And to my scheming delight, it had worked.
The spellcasting I’d tested my theory with back in the cache had been the smallest tasks I could think of. Lighting the end of my finger. Melting a sliver of ice and then refreezing it.
But here, in front of Ellbereth, I wanted her to feel it. To feel the drain as I wielded her power. And because making something from nothing was one of the costliest magics around, the flowers were the perfect illustration of my new ability.
She dropped them to the floor, horror spreading over her angelic face. “How dare you?”
I shrugged. “The same way you dared to kill me, I suppose. But you might want to call off your minions now. Because if I die, so do you.”
Her face blanched. She must have already guessed, but hearing it confirmed aloud shook her anyway.
I didn’t give her time to recover.
“I hear you’re descended from a political prodigy, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide who else to tell about this. Just remember that your longevity depends on mine. Which I guess makes us kind of allies, if you think about it…”
Ellbereth was shaking her head. “They’ll lock you up!”
“Will they? Not everyone fears my magic like you do. Though perhaps they should.” I allowed my lips to curve again in a half smile. “But I’d suggest you use your political power to avoid that fate for me too, because if I’m stuck in some cell, I’ll have nothing to do but play with your magic.”
To drive my point home, I called up the petals strewn over the floor and flung them into the air to float down around us.
“Wouldn’t it be a shame if you went from being Ellbereth of Neryndrith, one of the strongest walkers of your year, to a nobody too weak to be remembered?”
If she got any paler, she’d be mistaken for dead.
“What do you want?” she hissed.
“For you to call off your minions, refrain from taking your anger out on any of my friends, and protect my back from any other walkers who think killing me might be a good idea. In return, I’ll avoid using your magic except in dire need.”
She ground her teeth before answering, searching for a way out. But her only options were to play my game, or go to the authorities and live with the consequences that were liable to be just as painful for her as they were for me. (At least until she’d had time to regroup and devise a new ploy.)
“Fine.”
“Glad we could come to an understanding.”
I turned my back on her in a deliberate gesture—one that demonstrated my complete lack of fear—and walked out the door.
To the halls I could once again traverse alone. To my friends who would no longer be kidnapped or attacked in their beds. And to breakfast.
Soon we would be divided into our fighting units and sent to the frontline. Where we would meet the nightmare in the light of day.
Soon we would learn the real cost of what I’d done to save my life and then Theus’s.
And soon we would find out if the new hope awakened in my chest was based on ramblings or reality. If I was the firstborn destined to defeat the Malus. Or just one of countless others who would die trying.
But for today my friends and I would celebrate the certainty that we’d survive until then.
And for the first time in weeks, I had my appetite back.
Hell, I might even eat more than Griff…
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About the Author
Isla Frost is the pen name of a bestselling mystery author whose first love has always been fantasy. She loves to write about strong heroines in fast-paced stories full of danger, magic, and adventure that leave you feeling warm and satisfied.
She also loves apple pie.
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