Chapter 46

Karys

A bird was singing somewhere nearby.

I was dreaming of a morning long ago. Back when I was a child. Long before I knew much of wars or blood or betrayal and surviving, or of rising above these things. I'd been very sick. My fever made me delirious, and for five days I didn't wake.

I didn't remember much about those days, aside from the sound of a sparrow singing outside my window—and a voice.

Wake up, Karys. Please wake up .

My sister's voice, on the verge of tears.

She told me later that it was the most frightened she'd ever been. She stayed by my bedside for all five days, and she ended up needing a doctor herself because she refused to eat or drink if I couldn't do either of those things.

She would have followed me to the grave if I hadn't woken up, I think.

But I'd heard her voice, and somehow, I'd decided I was going to answer it. That I was going to keep fighting. Rise into something new. Something better.

Wake up, Karys.

It was not only my sister speaking to me this time. It was Dravyn. Mairu. Valas.

So many were calling out to me.

Waiting on me.

So I again made the decision to rise.

To wake.

I was not in my room when I did. There were no birds singing. No doctors, no family, no allies. There was only me, a lush shoreline of grass, and a shallow stream.

I strode toward that stream and peered into the water.

I was still myself, only brighter. Cleaner. My dirty, battle-worn clothes were gone, replaced by robes of silver and white. My dark hair fell in loose, wild waves, tamed only by a silver circlet resting on my head—one with diamonds that matched the ring Dravyn had given me, which was still securely fixed on my finger.

The scars on my face and neck were very faint, impressions that only revealed themselves when I turned in precisely the right way, looking for them.

I finally lifted my gaze away from my reflection.

Across from the stream, something was resting in the grass.

Antaeum .

But it wasn't alone. A second dagger accompanied it, this one with a blade that was stunningly white, etched with golden symbols that shone brighter as I approached and knelt beside it.

One light, one dark.

Balanced.

As I picked up the daggers, the scenery whirled around me. Faster and faster. The spinning would have made me panic, once upon a time. But I knew where I needed to go. Who I needed to see. I knew I could find my way.

So I merely reached out with both hands, a dagger in each— balancing me—and I brought myself to a stop.

Everything stilled. I blinked, and as my eyes opened, I found myself once more on the top of the cliff overlooking the battlefield.

Except it was no longer a battlefield. It was changed—and still changing. The landscape was blooming into something wild, something with a beauty almost beyond description.

I sheathed my daggers and walked to the edge for a closer look.

Grass took root where there had been only dry stone. Little rivers had started to appear, forming crystal clear waterfalls that pooled in places where blood had once stained. Both the smoke and the poisonous clouds filling the air were disappearing, and in the clearer air, a scent of jasmine and honey was rising.

Elves and humans alike stood among the shifting land, their expressions a mixture of confusion and awe. But there was no animosity to be seen; at least for the moment, a feeling of strange, otherworldly calmness permeated all.

"Karys?"

I turned to meet Mairu's shocked gaze. She raced toward me but drew up just short of embracing me, curiosity overtaking her features. "Your energy, it's…changed."

I breathed in deep, a smile warming my face. "Yes. It's a bit of a long story."

She contemplated asking about that story for only a moment before deciding it was more important to finish embracing me.

"How is Valas?" I asked as she pulled away.

She fixed me with another close look, considering my strange new energy for another moment. "The light that washed over this battlefield…it seemed to cleanse the poison from his body as well, and he's…" Her voice grew thick with emotion. "He's okay, I think."

She led me to the same spot where I'd last seen him, where he was now propped up against a tall, skinny tree.

I crouched before him, giving him my best impersonation of his chaotic grin. "You look absolutely terrible."

He grinned back. "Haven't had much time for all the beauty sleep I require, here lately."

I laughed, tears springing to my eyes, and threw my arms around him.

"Easy," he groaned, "the gaping hole in my chest is still a bit tender, if you couldn't tell."

I eased up but didn't let go completely. After a moment, he was the one squeezing tighter, all while laughing softly despite whatever pain I might have been causing him.

I drew away when I heard footsteps, followed by a soft little gasp—my sister.

We stared at one another for several beats, both at a loss for words.

It seemed impossible that we were both standing here in one piece. That we had somehow ended in the same way we began—together. Despite all the mess and uncertainty between us.

The right words to capture these feelings never did occur to either of us. So we merely drew together and took each other's hands, pressing our foreheads against one another's and breathing in the same air, sighing in the same relieved way.

The only thing that could have pulled me from my sister just then was a warmth that suddenly radiated from the ring around my finger—a reminder that I still hadn't seen Dravyn since my return.

I clutched that ring to my chest and went to peer over the edge of the cliff once more, searching for him.

It was easy enough to know where to look. Though the magic coursing through me had changed—shifted into something that was more my own before anyone else's—the impression he'd left on it was still there.

We were still connected, and I would recognize his magic anywhere, I was certain.

I leapt from the cliff, soaring down and landing close to where I felt the strongest pulse of that magic. My wings were no longer made of fire; they were sleek and tapered, made up of bird-like feathers.

Like a sparrow's, I thought, only with bolder, more fiery coloring.

Dravyn stood with his brother at the edge of the encampment that was slowly disbanding. The two were deep in conversation—a serious talk, from the looks of it, but not an angry one. If anything, they seemed to be consoling one another.

It healed a part of my heart to see it.

As I walked toward him, all the lingering soldiers turned to watch me pass. Walking through the mist-like energy still floating over the area made me feel bolder, brighter. That silvery energy gathered toward my body without any effort from me, settling on my skin and making it glow softly.

Heads turned my direction. Eyes lowered. Voices called out to me.

I didn't answer.

I just kept walking.

It was Fallon who saw me first. Shock registered slowly in his eyes. Then his face softened in a way I'd never witnessed from him. He placed a hand on Dravyn's shoulder. Nodded in my direction. Took several steps back, out of my sight, and I forgot he existed at all.

I forgot everything else as the God of Fire turned toward me.

Our eyes met, and my breath caught exactly as it had the very first time I'd seen him in his divine form.

I recalled the first words I'd said to him that day: This is a dream .

It felt like a dream again. Except better. Because now I knew I was actually awake—and now he was walking toward me, swooping me into his arms, crushing his lips against mine.

It was a brief kiss; he quickly drew back so he could study me closer.

I smiled. "Do you remember when you asked me if I would ever stop surprising you?"

He laughed, shaking his head in disbelief, his fingers trembling slightly as they brushed across my cheek.

"And I told you I didn't plan to?"

His hand stilled against my face. "I hope you never stop," he said, lips tilting closer to mine.

I don't know who moved first. Who started the kiss. Who wrapped their arms more tightly around the other. Who fell more fully, more completely into the other.

I only knew I never wanted it to end.

When that ending inevitably came, I breathed in deep, fully at peace for the first time in as long as I could remember.

Yet I knew there was more to do.

The world around us teemed with unsettled energy. Beautiful, but messy. Still in need of more of my magic. My guidance.

I knew what came next. A bittersweet part that I wasn't looking forward to, but one that couldn't be put off for much longer. There was too much work to be done.

We rejoined the others, and once we were all together, I did my best to explain the things I hadn't been able to before—the meeting with Malaphar, and why I'd made the sacrifice I had, and what that meant for the future of all of us.

"Where will you go now?" Savna asked.

"I am the being now responsible for maintaining balance and peace between the realms," I said, "so I'll go wherever I'm needed. In this realm or otherwise."

Her brow furrowed in thought, a tiny frown starting to form on her lips.

I cupped her chin, lifting it up the way she used to do to me whenever I was sad about something. "I'll need you to help me put things back together where the elves are concerned. So you should be expecting me soon, once I've mastered my new magic a little better."

She nodded, the corners of her mouth turning slightly upward.

We hugged goodbye, and for once it didn't feel like an ending—merely an I'll see you later .

Valas caught my eye as I turned away from her, wearing his usual sly grin. "It's going to be boring without you in the middle-heavens constantly setting fire to things."

"You'll have plenty of time to nap, at least."

"Which is good," he said, yawning, "because it's going to take a lot of beauty sleep to recover from today."

Mairu scoffed. "Something tells me it won't be that boring with your chaotic ass still around, causing trouble." She turned her golden eyes toward me. They were shining with tears that she hastily blinked away. "But all the same, you'll stop by soon, I hope? Keep things interesting for us."

I agreed with a hug. My shoulder was damp with her tears by the time I stopped squeezing her and stepped back.

And at last, I turned once more to Dravyn.

The others drifted away, granting us a moment of privacy.

A moment that stretched into several more, until he eventually took my hand, and we walked to the edge of the cliff together. The air was fully cleared now, no trace of smoke or anything else shading it, and the world seemed to stretch endlessly out below us.

"I will never be far from you," he promised, "no matter the realm you find yourself in. And you can always come home to me."

"I know," I said—and it was that knowledge that encouraged my heart to beat more courageously, making me less afraid of the waiting world and its vastness.

Because he was right: No matter where my new magic took me, whatever endings or beginnings or in between places it led to, I loved him, and he loved me, and there was no amount of change or distance that could undo that.

There was work to be done, now. Lots of it. But I could see the roads I needed to take. Like bright, shining trails unfolding across a map of the peaceful future I would help guide into existence.

I kissed Dravyn one last time—for now—letting his warmth wash over me.

Then I leapt from the edge, wings unfurling, and I soared boldly into whatever trials awaited me next.