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Within the span of a breath, she draws the blade of her dagger across her hand, vines instantly springing up around her feet where the blood drips and revives the earth.
“No!”
I leap toward her, but I’m too late. She presses her bloody palm to the veil, and I’m swept back by the force of the gale that whips around her body. Rearing onto her hind legs, Meera paws at the air and then bolts.
I stumble forward, bracing myself against the worst of it, but just as I get close enough to touch her, I’m forced back. I try again and again, but the result is the same.
Elora screams, and the agony of it rips through me. I shove my power against the wind keeping us apart. If I can stop her in time, it might not take her. I have to stop her.
Smoke swirls around my legs, winding up to my waist and over my arms, but it's useless. Nothing can penetrate whatever force is holding her to the veil while it drains her.
Her face has gone pale, and she wobbles before falling to her knees. I rush forward, but I’m still unable to get close enough to grasp her and tug her free.
“Why?” I demand over the roar of the wind.
She reaches out to me, and I press my fingertips to hers. “Because Acaria needs you more than it needs me. And I’ve lost enough already.”
Her eyelids flutter, and when the wind shears to dead silence, I catch her before her body hits the ground. Cradling her in my arms, I shift us back to the palace, frantically searching for a heartbeat.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I sit in a chair in the corner of Elora’s room, watching the subtle rise and fall of her chest. I haven’t let anyone else touch her since I brought her back from the veil and tucked her into bed. But I’ve upended every potion Kaia has left outside the door down her throat.
None of them have worked. Her heart still beats, but she will not wake. And I have sat vigilantly by her bedside for three days and three nights, only to be treated to the same view.
Elora, as pale and still as she was when I scooped her up and carried her back with me. Nothing has changed in all that time. Not with her, anyway.
The Shadow Realm is revived, stronger than it’s been in decades. I feel a renewed sense of power thrumming through not just the realm, but myself. Like her sacrifice has woken some long-buried power in me as much as the realm.
I’m not sure if it’s my connection to the realm or to Elora that’s sent this surge of power through my veins, but I would give up every drop if it meant she would open her eyes.
Someone knocks softly on the bedroom door, and I glance away from Elora’s sleeping form to see Kaia step through. She moves to the side of the bed and reaches out a hand to brush Elora’s hair back from her forehead.
“Don’t touch her,” I snap, and she instantly drops her hand, gripping the skirt of her gown.
“No change?”
I don’t answer her. I don’t need to. We can both plainly see Elora is no better than she was when I first brought her here. No worse, but that’s hardly a consolation when she’s stuck in this state. As unreachable to me as if she were dead and her soul lost.
“Railan would like—”
“I don’t care what Railan would fucking like,” I say through gritted teeth.
As far as I’m concerned, Elora wouldn’t be in this condition if not for him. If he hadn’t insisted on arguing with me about it, insisted on trying to change my mind, she wouldn’t have overheard us.
And then she would still be blissfully unaware while I searched for the book and the ritual. She would still be awake, alert, alive. She might not be dead now, but I feel as if I’ve lost her all the same.
“She’ll wake, Thieran,” Kaia assures me, but I hear the doubt in her voice.
There’s no guarantee Elora will ever open her eyes again. And what do I care if the Shadow Realm remains intact if it means I have to rule it alone?
Any more words from Kaia now would be empty, so she doesn’t try, simply laying a hand on my shoulder and giving it a light squeeze before crossing the room and slipping out. The following silence is heavier than it was before.
I feel the tug of Garrick requesting to meet with me, but I ignore it. I left Elora alone once today already. I won’t be doing it again. Seconds later, a roll of parchment secured with a wax seal appears on the table beside me.
Tearing my gaze away from Elora, I break the seal with my thumb and unfurl the sheet of parchment. Another report. This one more upbeat than the last, if that’s possible.
Not only has the veil been fortified to the point of glimmering with a golden light, but the borders of Meren and Síra have been strengthened as well. The entire realm looks and feels the way it did when it was first created. Pulsing with power and possibility.
