Page 191 of The Reaping Rose

I look from Esen’s body to Hazel. Her soul was split, and now it’s one. One died to make the other whole.

Did my father know this is what I am? Not my own being, but a part of another. A piece to die so a god could be freed. Did he sense this all along, and that’s why he left the prison with me and never went back?

“Don’t be scared.” Davorian steps closer.

“Do not go near her.” Wilder holds the spot between us.

But Davorian ignores him. “Don’t you see the pain is over? We can finally be together again. I will set you free, and then we can return as one. It is not death to be placed back where you belong. It is rebirth.”

My gaze moves to Esen’s lifeless body on the ground. Her cheeks so pale and cold. Malachi’s words play in my mind.

Pay attention, Elorie, he’d said. What is broken can be whole once again. There is a lesson to be learned here.

It sings with the song on the wind. A truth I didn’t yet understand. A warning given by Lady Reah in Tempest before the mirror of Echme. You are but a piece.

She knew when she placed her fingers on my temple what I was. What she saw. Who she spoke to.

Davorian reaches a hand for me. “I will free you from this body. This confusion. We will be together.”

My hands shake, and I’ve yet to take my eyes off Esen. Two parts of the whole. Malachi killed one and put his sister back together. That’s what Davorian intends. To erase me so he can have Voilene.

Or am I Voilene?

Am I anything?

I had a father, a life, memories. I have a mate here. These things are not nothing. I am not insignificant simply because she carved me from her soul. Her body.

Esen was a person of her own. She was not Hazel. I saw the proof in her choices, her beliefs. She was someone. I am someone.

“Come with me, Voilene. I’ll show you. I’ve spent so long searching, but here you are. As soon as I heard the voice through the orb, I knew I could find a way to get here. I just needed him to remove the shield on the orb that was keeping you hidden from me. But I’m here now.”

“You lied to my brother.” Hazel’s voice snaps me from my thoughts.

My head turns as she slowly lifts from the ground, darkness brewing in her eyes. Shadows pool from her fingers, dancing along the sand, just shy of Davorian. “You promised my brother great power for doing what you asked with the orb, but you lied to him. You used him to fulfill your own mission.”

“Your brother wished to unlock great power, and I showed him how to do it.” Davorian grins. “Here I am.”

“Not like this.”

“Your brother played a game with gods and lost. It’s not my fault he misunderstood.”

Her head cocks, rage brewing in her eyes. “He understood enough.”

With every step, the sand beneath Hazel’s feet turns black as coal. She drags death behind her as she approaches. And when Davorian’s magic stretches out, it coils back.

“It’s not possible.” Davorian backs up, glancing down at Esen’s body. “He destroyed the void. I told him how to, and he did it.”

“Did he?” Hazel holds up her hand, wiggling her fingers; purple veins run through the black shadows.

Davorian’s eyes widen, and for the first time, he is the one to show fear. Like Idunn told me. And so the gods carved the first realm, flourishing in life and beauty. But forgetting to pluck the reaping rose. And so its darkness spread with the setting of the sun. Magic woke no more.

The void is not just feared by the Fae who wield remnants of gods-gifted magic, but the gods themselves. It’s why, even if Davorian needed the void to break whatever shield was on the orb, preventing him from finding Voilene, he needed Malachi to destroy the void—kill Esen—before he stepped through.

The void is magic beyond all of us.

Except Malachi didn’t kill anything. Just like when the void left Hemlin’s body, it did not drop into another realm or object. It stayed, bound with Hazel’s soul, and now, it is within her.

Hazel Adira is our greatest weapon, and we just killed her brother.