We slip through the crack in the world and end up in a new world altogether.
The cavern is endless and filled with trees, with trunks a gray blue and leaves like crystals that shine against the spines of their branches.
It’s a forest under the earth.
Only unlike the haunted trees above, this place doesn’t look like it wants to kill us. I might even call it beautiful. The floor is a shallow pool of crystal water, tree roots swirling through it in a tangled maze. An array of silvery fish weave through them.
Above, light drips from the ceiling through a handful of tiny holes, pinpointed across the cavern like some kind of map. Water slips from the walls in tiny curtains.
“What is this place?” I ask.
“Magic,” Selestra whispers. “I can feel its power, coursing from the ground and into me.”
Though I don’t say it, I can feel something too. It starts at my toes and then shoots straight into my heart like an arrow.
“Let’s make camp,” I tell her. “We need to gather our energy, for whatever the next trial is.”
“Here?”
“It’s not currently attacking us and I don’t see any ghosts nearby, so it’s as good a place as we’re going to find for a while. Plus we’re sheltered from any rainfall.”
Selestra nods but doesn’t say anything else.
She marvels at this place, taking in every ripple of the water with a sharp intake of breath. The power she feels must be invigorating, because when I tell her to gather firewood, she does so without a single quip or glare in my direction.
Whatever this place is, she looks like it was made for her.
We finish finding enough supplies to last us the night.
It’s oddly warm here compared with the forest, barely a breeze coming from the few holes in the ceiling that let us glimpse the stars. Nearby where a bundle of bleached bones lie, there’s a break where the damp ground turns dry. We settle there, and I try not to think too hard about what might have happened to the person those bones belonged to when they last ventured here. Selestra barely seems to notice. She’s gathered enough soft branches and leaves to create a bed of sorts, cushioning our stay.
She’s also found some crystals from the nearby trees for light and more of that fruit we’d discovered earlier. The shallow waters farther in are ripe with fish, and though it took nearly an hour, we managed to catch two of the smaller ones.
As they cook across the small twig fire, I can feel my stomach thanking us already.
Next time I’m sent on a mythical quest set by an ancient queen, I’m bringing cake and rum.
Selestra is silent as she pokes at the fish, suspended over the flames. I’m not used to her being so quiet and it sets me on edge.
I force myself to speak, to say anything.
“Why did my father turn against the king?”
Selestra removes the fish from the fire and places it on a large leaf in between us.
“He was loyal to the throne my whole life,” I say. “Do you know what changed? I never got the chance to ask.”
Selestra picks at her fish, like she’s suddenly lost her appetite.
“I’m not sure he was loyal,” Selestra says. “He trained me behind Seryth’s back for years, preparing me to fight and be strong.”
I still can’t quite fathom the man I knew, who spouted such loyalty and trained me to be a part of the Last Army, doing all he could to ensure the king’s heir could fight against him. How well did I truly know my father? Did he ever believe in Seryth, or did he always know the king needed to be stopped? Was he really training me to be a part of the Last Army, or was he training me to fight against them all that time?
“When the king last successfully attacked Polemistés two years ago, he managed to get prisoners,” Selestra says softly. “There was a young family. I could hear their screams even from my bedroom.”
“They were tortured?” I ask.
“The king was looking for something and he wanted their help in finding it,” Selestra says.
“For the sword,” I say.
For Lady Eldara.
Selestra nods. “Asden—your father—it didn’t sit right with him that they were brutalized like that. He thought they were innocent.”
I suck in a breath.
We both know the king would never think of anyone as innocent, let alone feel mercy for them if he did. My father should have known better.
“I think that’s what made your father realize the king didn’t care about anyone in the Six Isles if they stood in his way,” Selestra says. “Seryth must have seen the shift in him. He made me look into your father’s future and—”
She breaks off and her expression wilts in pain.
She looks ashamed, avoiding my eyes as she says it, like it’s a sin she never wanted to admit.
“You were just a child,” I say.
“I didn’t feel like a child.” The anguish on her face is enough to splinter me in two. “I felt like a monster. I felt like I betrayed him.”
She looks at me, eyes threatening to spill over with tears. She swallows them down well enough.
“His last words were of you,” Selestra says. “He asked my mother to promise to keep you safe and to not punish you for his mistakes.”
It’s a small comfort, but I’m grateful.
Selestra lets out another long sigh. “I haven’t had someone care about me that way in a long time,” she says. “My mother can’t risk loving me.”
She gets that look on her face again when she says it. The same helpless disappointment I saw when she spoke about not feeling worthy.
It’s a look that makes me think she feels just as empty.
Selestra is a princess and, if Lady Eldara has her way, a future queen. She has some of the last magic in the world inside her, but even with a league of people so sure of her, she can’t be sure of herself.
“I know you blame yourself,” I say. “But if you’re looking for me to blame you too, then you’re looking in the wrong place. My father wouldn’t have blamed you either.”
I should have said it sooner.
I understand now why Selestra was so reluctant to look into my deaths. It wasn’t just because she saw hers too, but because it reminded her of that day with my father.
I’ve always wondered why she didn’t revel in death, despite being raised around it. Now I know.
I want to tell her that she’s not the sum of her family’s mistakes and that I know what it’s like to be caught in the shadow of your parents’ pasts. There’s so much I want to say to her, but it’s hard to find the right words.
“I was angry that you lied,” I say. “But I never held you responsible.”
“You’d be right to think I was.”
I shake my head, but Selestra is insistent.
It’s like she wants me to hate her.
Maybe she thinks she deserves it.
“You need to forgive yourself.”
“You say that like it’s easy.”
The pain in her eyes is the same pain I’ve felt for years. I was wrong to think I was alone in it.
“Nothing worth fighting for comes easy,” I say.
Selestra blinks up at me, a small smile on her lips.
The warmth of the moment fills the cavern, overtaking the fire. You don’t always see beauty—sometimes you feel it too.
And I feel it when I’m with her.
I was stupid to try to push that away.
“I never would have gotten this far without you,” I say.
“In an empty cave?” Selestra snorts a laugh.
“To the place my father always dreamed of. It’s because of you that I’m going to be able to fulfill his dying wish.”
Selestra isn’t on some selfish quest for vengeance, too wrapped up in herself to see clearly. She cares, even if she tries not to, and she wants the world to be something I wasn’t sure it ever could be: capable of redemption.
I think the only thing she’s really afraid of is that she’s not strong enough to help it.
I know better.
“I don’t think Eldara is the weapon capable of killing the king.” My heart pounds as she looks at me. “I think it’s you, Selestra. You’re what I’ve been searching for.”
She swallows and I inch closer to her.
My pulse races and I can’t tell whether it’s from the adrenaline of near death, or from looking into her eyes.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “For helping me find my way. And for being someone I can trust.”
Selestra blinks. “You trust me?”
There’s so much surprise in her voice that I feel ashamed.
“I always have,” I admit.
Trust isn’t just about letting go of doubt, it’s about letting go of the past and looking to the future. When I look forward instead of back, she’s all that I see.
I lean into her and Selestra’s breath catches.
I move closer, letting the brush of her sigh hit my cheeks.
Despite what anyone might think, Selestra is strong. She’s worthy. And with a lifetime of stars gathering in the sky above us, I don’t need some trial to know exactly what she is.
A witch.
A princess.
A queen.