Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

Ophelia

The muscles along my back burned. My ribs were molten lava, and distantly, so very far away, I thought someone screamed my name.

There was a second voice trying to smother it, though. One that boomed like thunder and washed over my senses like rain.

Now…fly , it commanded.

Another wave of fire rippled down my muscles, and then, it was my agonized screams drowning out the voices. My pain spearing through my body, sizzling away the calming cool rain.

No one came to help at my cries—no cool hands along my brow or whispered assurances. Nothing to remind me that I was okay or tether me to consciousness.

But there was… something pushing past the pain. A breeze dancing along my burning flesh, carrying a hint of fresh?—

Wildflowers .

Like those decorating Damenal and splashed across the Mystique Mountains, tangling on a crisp breeze, but these were stronger. Headier and dreamy. I clung to that scent, and with impossible force, I wrenched my eyes open, shooting upright to a pain rocking through my body.

“Where in the Angels?” I muttered, even that slight movement aching.

A land of abundant, verdant mountains surrounded me, but these were not my mountains. No, these were far grander than anything Gallantia bore—grander than any range I’d ever heard of on Ambrisk.

These peaks stretched to the clouds, disappearing among fluffy white masses well before they tapered to their points. It felt as if I wasn’t even halfway up this range, but puffs of those clouds danced along the tips of the wild grasses, as if cleaved off by an almighty sword and left to drift down to earth.

As if even this valley was high enough in the mountains to tangle with the heavens.

Gritting my teeth against the pain, I stretched a feverish hand out to one. The misty residue cooled my skin, licking away the burn in my muscles, and a relieved gasp slipped from me. The cloud sliver coiled around my arm, alleviating the soreness until it evaporated into nothing but shimmering, magic-filled air.

Groaning at the aches ricocheting down my spine and abs as if I’d been through a rigorous training, I forced myself to my feet and stepped fully into the nearest wafting clouds. With the world fading in their fog, I forgot where I was and let the magic lick away my pain.

“Wherever I am,” I muttered, “this is glorious.”

As the clouds drifted apart, scattering through the valley, I took in my surroundings. Between sweeping peaks, tall lush grasses curled up around my knees. Vibrant greens were awash with tiny pink, white, and yellow buds bursting in clumps between the stalks?—

A golden light flashed across the valley, and when it cleared, I gasped. “ Damien ?”

“Hello, Ophelia,” the Angel said with a familiar smirk. His voice was warm with affection. “Welcome.”

“Welcome where ?” I asked.

The Prime Mystique blinked at me. “It is your dream, child.”

“But I—” I looked around at the abundant trees—not a cypher in sight—and the clear blue sky. “These aren’t the Mystique Mountains.”

Damien surveyed the land. “No, it appears we aren’t at home.” Wistfulness dripped through his words, but before I could inquire, his purple eyes pulled mine again. “You have accessed the light.”

His lips were tight, wings beating softly as they held him gently aloft—or perhaps it was the magic he thrived off of here. He glowed brighter than when he visited me, those wings casting an effervescent shimmer around the earth. Where it touched my skin, my own Angellight purred in recognition. Damien’s feathers ruffled at the sight.

“Yes,” I answered honestly, ignoring his shrewd stare.

“And?”

“ And ?” I blurted, lurching forward. Pain bolted down my shoulder, and I hissed, massaging my arm. Where was that remedy cloud now? The fire was quickly returning to my muscles. I went on, though, because I needed answers. “It terrifies me. Have you seen what it’s done? How it’s destroyed and consumed?”

Did he know how it had slayed the dead and choked my sister?

“I— ” His word cut off, only silence coming from his open mouth. The Angel collected himself quickly. “I have observed the powers lurking within you, and they are not what you think.” His brows pulled together, and he looked…pained?

“What does it do? Why do I have it? Is this Angellight something I need to use to absolve the Angelcurse?”

Why? I wanted to shout to the heavens.

“Learn the light, Ophelia. Reach into the depths of your heart and spirit and let it beam, but do not be fooled by its might or presume what it means.”

“Fooled how?”

“Magic—like any form of power—is as tempting as a voracious lover. It will eat at you, steal you away.” Damien’s eyes were serious. “Become its master, but stay true to yourself. Stay true to your task.”

Stay true. The words of the Mystique Warriors rang through my blood, straight from our founder himself. The leader meant to guard us as we did the magic of the mountains.

But it had been months of this journey without a lick of help.

And I was so tired of being a toy to the Angels.

“Where have you been, Damien?” I asked. “I—I haven’t known what to do. I’ve had so many questions.”

“I have heard them all,” he swore. “But alas, I do not hold the answers.”

From the bob of his throat, it was clear that was a lie. He held the answers, he simply could not divulge them. Like the fae queen’s magic commanding Lancaster and Mora, it obstructed his speech.

“What—”

“Look to the stars,” a voice cracked like a whip behind me. And from the grove of pink-blossomed trees, a second Angel emerged.

A sparkling, lilac light that resembled the sky right after dawn ebbed at the edges of her wings, and silver hair as silky as a flowing river cascaded around her tan shoulders.

“Valyrie?” I gasped.

Her delicate lips tipped up into a smile, but it was somber.

My voice was small. “Did you see?”

A shallow nod.

“I’m so sorry,” I swore, guilt heavy in my chest. “I—I didn’t know the power at my hands.” I looked between her and Damien. “I didn’t know it would destroy the dead.”

That it would ruin those corpses, the ones I suspected were the victors of her races. Confidants who had rested in that chamber since she ascended. I hadn’t known it would obliterate the warriors that were her friends.

I wanted to cast the Angellight from my body at the memory. I’d killed before but not like that—not uncontrollably and on the whim of another. I wished I could expel the ability, as Bant had shed his Spirit into Kakias. This power was not meant to be contained by a mortal body, and I couldn’t stand another being trying to use me.

But Valyrie said, “It did not kill them, child. It only returned them to where they belonged.”

Her face tipped to the sky, eyes falling closed for a moment. The mourning in her words was offset with an apparent understanding, a satisfaction perhaps.

It ripped at my heart, my confusion, my uncertainty. Did I dive into this power or shun it? Which would benefit my family and my people more?

Which would solve this Angelcurse? That was what I was here for wasn’t it? To be the answer for these immortal beings. For whatever it was this mission was after. Whatever Annellius had been greedy and failed at.

Annellius…

Had he been greedy? Or had he…had he felt the power thrumming through his veins as I did and resented it? Perhaps it had hurt someone he loved, as Tolek suggested?

Was that his fatal flaw, loving too much that he ripped the power from his body to atone for it?

As if reading the thoughts flooding my mind, Damien and Valyrie stiffened. The Prime Mystique warned, “Do not follow his path.”

“What was his path, though? What was the mistake that ended his life? At least tell me how to avoid it.”

“You must rely on faith, child,” Damien commanded. “It is the doctrine of all we do. Of all we are.”

I’d carried faith in the Angels my entire life. Faith in their causes, their guidance, their rituals. But…my eyes dropped to the tattoo beneath my elbow. The faith that I was always doing the right thing had led me down painful paths. The Undertaking and the Bind were fallible. Were the Angels, as well?

I was nothing but a puppet to them. How did faith play into that? Was faith the agent of the strings they pulled, or was it another misguided attempt?

“Trust fate to guide you,” Damien emphasized. “Do not stray from this path, but do not dig too deeply into the whims of the stars.”

The stars?

Were they talking about Vale? Her sessions?

“Why?” I asked, voice shredded and so out of place among this haven. “Why shouldn’t we arm ourselves with whatever knowledge the stars can provide?”

Valyrie’s eyes softened. “Because it might show more than warriors are meant to know.”

“What does that mean?” Irritation bubbled beneath my skin, the feverish heat mounting.

As if in response, the soothing clouds drifted closer, wrapping tighter around us. They slipped between the everlasting Angels and me. And as they formed that wall, fire mounted in my body.

“Spread your wings, Child Kissed by Angels,” Valyrie said, voice as light as the mist. “Spread your wings and learn. Go to the ones who recount the histories in the land of your ancestors and find out the truth.”

“What does that mean ?” I cried.

But it was fruitless.

The clouds swallowed the Angels, and at their disappearance, my body faded in a burst of golden light, heat scorching to my bones.