Page 127 of The Edge of Darkness

Maeson seemed to catch on. “Maybe it’s not referring to an actual fireside hearth. Maybe the ‘hearth’ stands for something else. Like . . . a place of origin.”

“What do you mean?” Nivelle asked.

“Well, a hearth is often considered the center of a home. In that way, it can also symbolize one’s sacred center, or the connection one shares with something.”

“Could it be divine?”

“I . . . I guess so. If it’s referring to something that is connected spiritually.”

Nivelle shook her head. “And how would one get a stone ‘of’ something like that? What stone even has that sort of importance?”

I exchanged a look with Maeson, only to witness her eyes light up. “The Alatyr stones!”

When I didn’t immediately agree, her face fell.

It was a genius idea, but it didn’t feel quite right. “It’s clever, but if we assume that the bearer of the burden is the one saying the spell, that would mean they would have to have a connection to whatever stone is being referenced. And in this particular case, I don’t have a connection to any of the Alatyrs.”

“Do you have a connection to any sort of stone?” Maeson asked.

I shook my head. “Not that I’m aware of.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nivelle’s head tilt.

“Not you . . . Your power.” She drew out the words, as if the answer was taking form in her mind’s eye. “It’s the Aether. The Aether harbors the connection.”

“Not to anything of this world,” I said, ready to scrap that idea as well.

“You’re right. Not this world.”

“The stone that it’s connected to must be one of Torin’s,” Nivelle stated.

“Do you mean . . . like a talisman?” I asked.

Nivelle nodded. “The Aether was bound on Skotos. And the only stones I’m aware of, that would have any sort of meaning, would be the ones in Torin’s diadem.”

What were the odds that the thing we needed for the spell was something so easily known to us, and that this book just so happened to contain the right spell for this exact thing? I was usually the most skeptical one out of our group, and I wanted to be for this particular happenstance as well, but the more I stared at the spell, the more I felt an internal instinct tell me that this was no happenstance at all.

It was fate.

Stone of the hearth . . .

“I’m just the vessel,” I said. “Torin is considered ‘the hearth’ because she is the goddess of witchcraft—the pillar of spells and magic.”

Everything was making more sense now. And no wonder the witch who tried to release it the last time failed. If she didn’t have the stone, she was missing a crucial piece to the spell.

If the spell would even work.

The incantation was oddly simple. I tried to pick it apart to see what we were missing, when a thought came to mind. “Didn’t both you, and the wraith, say that the Aether was bound using dark magic?”

“Yes . . .” Nivelle answered.

“How do we know this spell will be enough to undo something of that nature? It doesn’t sound like anything dark to me.”

“Besides the blood and bone part,” Maeson pointed out.

The witch met my stare. “I guess I will have to ask Torin directly, won’t I?”

I raised a brow in surprise. “You’ll summon her?”