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Everyone but the Lightens, it seemed. Nothing in that story said the Lightens worshiped her. It was the sister they looked on with awe. It was her book they read, her temple that we traveled to.
But then, didn’t everyone journey to that temple, didn’t all follow that book? Why did Okivo worship the Goddess if these people followed the sister?
Everything had become twisted and backwards in a millennium of time, and if Ryndle and his story was to be believed, it would continue to mutate into the tale of the Princess Elara returning to save them all.
“May we always wait for the lights’ return.” They all said into the silence as Ryndle and I continued to stare each other down. The solemn prayer echoed in my head as what they had said slowly sunk in.
Not her return, the lights’ return.
The three pillars of light.
The three children.
It was all lore and histories and prophecies that right then I couldn’t give two shits about. Tales from zealots. Right then, the biggest problem was that if I was right, and that language about her returning was only stolen from a religion that dwindled in the next eighty years, then the Princess Elara wasn’t going to make some grand return to save them all. She sure as shit couldn’t save anything. She and her Catalyst had probably died before that bloody alter and I’ve been chasing nothing but fucking ghosts.
In his last few breaths Theadore had said that I should kill the princess and take her magic, which suddenly made sense if she wasn’t due to return.
I no longer knew what I was heading into, but if I needed to give Lily a chance at having a life. Give Amari a long life. And Jayse…
If I was going to give any of them a chance, I needed to hurry.
It was up to me to kill the Queen, to kill the princess.
To end them all before anything had a chance to begin.
Chapter 33
Elara
“Time to go! Get out of there, you lot! If you can!”
The voice rattled me out of the fitful sleep, if you could even call it that. I was sure I had only fallen asleep minutes ago with how my body ached. Every joint was sore, my face still burning with tears, my heart still raw and swollen.
Swallowing on a dry tongue, I opened my eyes, the darkness of the room engulfing what I knew was there, what I had spent most of the night after Adain had left staring at.
The Boy lay on the other side of my bed, his magically healed body dressed in new leathers, his face covered by a new, dry shroud. He was the shadow he always was, but he was right there, alive.
I blinked, still not understanding what had happened. I had spoken those words and the world had turned to light and then he was fine. I had barely blinked and everything was alright.
He had dressed, he had held me, his lips soft from behind the veil as he pressed them to my forehead again and again. But there were no answers, no explanations. There were no more words spoken, only gestured promises and signed warnings and gentle touches. I had seen magic that I didn’t know existed and now I was lying next to a man who should be dead.
It was all too much. My father and his Catalyst. The magic I wasn’t supposed to have. Batian’s orders. Batian taking his role as Ramal. My mother. A Catalyst that wasn’t a Catalyst. And blood. So much blood.
Laying there, clutching his hand, it had all swirled together, keeping me awake.
“Get up!”
The voice came again, my breath shuddering out of me as the Boy turned to face me, his leathers rustling softly as he shifted that shrouded face closer to mine.
“We have to go,” I whispered as the Boy made a walking gesture with his fingers, the words clear. It was time for Aeinya’s pilgrimage.
It was the morning that Aeinya was set to begin the Walk of the Maiden, and all the wedding party would begin the trip to the Temple of the Sister. It was also yet another thing that had kept me awake most of the night.
“Yes, but that is not what I am speaking of.” My throat burned, the tears over what I was about to say coming back to haunt me. He shifted closer, as though he could see the pain ripping through me.
I sighed, leaning into the softness of his glove as he pressed it against my cheek.
“We need to leave the Runturin. We need to escape after the wedding. We can’t come back here.” I didn’t want to leave Father. I didn’t want to leave Aeinya. I didn’t want to leave Batian, even if I wasn’t sure what he had become.
