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“I thank you for your offering, but that won’t be necessary. I don’t need to take your physical essence in order to draw magic from your being. I can just take it throughyou.” A soft snort of amusement escapes her. “Your people are very good at suppressing and destroying magic, but they know solittleabout it. It’s as if you’re fumbling in the dark. But never mind. I only ask that you lend me your power.”
Immediately, I trust her. I don’t know why. It’s just an instinct. “Anything.”
“Good. All will be fine now.
Through my hand, she starts to take from me. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I can feel the power leaving my body. Instantly, I become lethargic, but the feeling is pleasurable, not painful.
The glow in her eyes intensifies. Her hair writhes and swirls, tendrils flying around her face.
And as Ansar tries to stab me in the back from behind, Aralya simply turns her arms into thick, swirling vines and wraps them around my half-brother, immobilizing his arms and legs.
A blade clatters to the ground. A hoarse scream escapes him.
The red threads disappear entirely.
“His magic is useless against the true power of Hecoa. In so many ways, there was nobody more fitting than you to free me. I’ve waited soverylong for you to come. Corvan Duthriss, my son, be at ease now. You’ve done enough. I’ll take care of the rest.”
And with that, she disentangles her hand from mine and steps away from me, with Ansar still imprisoned in her tentacle-like branches.
She holds him in her arms as the packed earth around her bare feet starts to crack apart, forming a gaping chasm.
Aralya’s verdant hair lifts up with the sheer energy of her magic, forming a wild halo around her face.
I stare at her in disbelief. “Where are you going?”
“Into the earth, of course. To hibernate, and regrow. And to teach this stupid child and his forebears a lesson. Then, I will go find the Baron Solisar, and give him what he deserves. I ask that you allow me to takemyrevenge on the ones that have wronged me. It’s the only way I’m going to assuage the anger burning inside me. Don’t fret, my son. When I am finished here, I will come and see you and my most beloved daughter. In the springtime. I can’t wait to meet my child again, and I’m so verypleasedshe’s found you.”
I stare at her in disbelief. Did Finley’s mother just give me her blessing?
With that, she starts to submerge. Tendrils emerge from her body; vine-like, root-like, extending toward the ground, penetrating the shifting earth.
She takes Ansar with her. He can suffocate under there for all I care.
“Goodbye for now, Corvan. You have my eternal thanks.”
All of a sudden, she’s gone, leaving me standing in a room ofserpenstoneand mangled iron, and above me, the castle is shaking, as if struck by an earthquake.
The curse of the necromancer is gone, swallowed by life itself.
All that remains is that terribleserpenstonecave, where Aralya suffered so much. I can feel its oppressive presence even now; it spills out from the open doorway like a toxic miasma.
I can’t wait to be out of here.
I take off like the wind, surging up the stairwells, speeding through the corridors, higher and higher until I’m back in the main castle, and I don’t really care that branches and vines are shooting through the halls of Deignar Castle, wrapping around anything and everything, and Rhaegar and Leticia Talavarra are nowhere to be seen.
I resist the temptation to hunt them down.
Aralya said she would deal with them, and that’sherrevenge to take.
She deserves it more than I, and I have no doubt she’ll deal swift justice to all that have harmed her and her child.
A vengeful dryad is loose in my empire, and I don’t care.
Right now, all I want to do is return to Finley.
63
FINLEY
