It took Radell the better part of fifteen minutes to finish saying hello to Dragon. Or rather, for Dragon to stop aggressively slobbering on him. Even Radell’s ancient, otherworldly calming presence seemed to have no effect on the beast’s puppy-like ADD.
“My you have grown so!” Radell chuckled, patting Dragon’s scaly side. “I see you are not so shiny as you once were. I suppose that is as it should be. All of us lose our luster as we grow older.”
I took the time Radell was distracted to take him in. Though he’d been nothing but kind and understanding when we’d seen him last during our search for the Cursed One, he was still a Fae, though he didn’t look it. For one, he didn’t cast glamour, and appeared about as ancient as he probably was, with wrinkles deep enough for rivers to flow through—and he’d probably seen his share of those formed. The rest of him looked like a skinny Santa Claus if the guy in red had shaved his beard: pearl white hair brushed back atop his head, tufts of it sprouting from his ears. A ring of jewelry hung around his neck, tinkling every time he moved.
Despite my anxiety, despite my fear that as one of the Fae Radell would have reason this time to despise us, as Radell gave Dragon a final pat of greeting I couldn’t help feeling a sense of calm fall over me. I wasn’t sure if it was his magic or the fact that he just looked so darn sweet-grandpa-like, but I wasn’t scared being with him.
“Now that those pleasantries are out of the way,” Radell said, turning to us. “Let us get comfortable.”
He led us through the castle, past foyers with patchy walls of still-standing stone, across a courtyard that had seen better days probably three thousand years before, its pond dried and cracked. Everything seemed totally abandoned until we reached the part of the castle where Radell clearly lived, lit with torchlight, warm, and smelling of honey.
The twenty-foot long fire was already lit behind the grate in the sitting room. After standing awkwardly for a moment, each of us took one of the offered armchairs. I immediately felt myself sink into it, my exhaustion finally catching up to me. The comfort, combined with warmth and the gentle sounds of the fire, pretty much guaranteed that I would fall asleep if I stayed there for too long.
“You are probably famished,” Radell said. He briefly put his hand behind his back before revealing it again, this time holding a golden tray of fruits and drinks. He set the tray down between us and, after only a little hesitation, we each dug in. I knew from last time that Radell hadn’t charmed the food to keep us trapped in the Fae realm. If this even was the Fae realm. Set deep in the center of the Black Forest, the line between the mortal realm and the Fae was more blurred here than anywhere else I could think of.
“So…” Asher drew out the word. I was surprised to hear it tinged with annoyance. “You’re the Sage of the gods.”
Radell took his time procuring another plate of food from behind his magical back, placing it between us, and settling into his chair. “Indeed!” He put up his hands. “You have found me at last!”
“We already found you,” Mia pointed out.
Radell’s laugh was like a soft breeze rustling through windchimes. “Yes, you did! And an excellent job you did, too! I imagine your journey to seek the Cursed One went well, or else you would have sought me again long before now.”
“Why didn’t you tell us you were the Sage of the gods?” Colson said, brushing bread crumbs off his face.
“It wasn’t important for you to know!”
“What?” I sputtered. “How could it not be important!”
Radell sat back, folding his long fingers in his lap. “I did mention that I had no association with the Unseelie Fae, or my former brethren of the Day Court. When I took on the role of Sage I severed all ties to those who might have known me. Those tidbits of information should have been clue enough, for it’s few Fae indeed who leave their Courts.”
I resisted putting my head in my hands. Radell, wise as he was, seemed to be treating the discovery of his identity like a teacher leading a student to an elusive answer. Something that he, and only he, could have possibly figured out from his clues.
“If you’re Sage of the gods,” I said. “Then you certainly don’t make it easy for anyone who needs help finding you.”
“Ah…” The twinkle in Radell’s eyes dimmed slightly. “I believe, at this moment, that is probably for the best, wouldn’t you agree? For if I was as easy to reach as you wish, you wouldn’t be the only ones here. At one time I was needed far more than I am now.”
“Some would argue people need you a lot more now,” I said.
“Indeed. And those people are sitting here before me.” Radell suddenly leaned forward, looking deeply at me. I knew what he was looking for, and already I was pretty sick of my eyes being literal windows into my soul.
“It’s gone,” I said. “The god I carried is gone.”
“I know. I knew the moment you landed, just as I knew you carried one the moment you arrived before.”
“And you didn’t help me?”
“You didn’t need the help I could provide. Not then. But now…”
“Anatole told us you had an ability Skylar could use,” Asher said, still with bite in his voice. I looked over at him to see what was irking him so much, but just like the look he’d thrown me in the meadow, his true feelings remained shuttered. “He said you would know how to sever the connection she has to the Realm of the gods.”
“I see…” Radell let the words hang. “And that is all he told you?”
“What else is there?” Mia said.
Radell looked at me, and at once I knew the answer he was looking for. “No,” I said. “That’s not all he told us.”
“It isn’t?” Asher said.
“There are two ways to sever the connection, isn’t there?” I said to Radell. I tried to focus only on him, tried to block out the heavy stares of my friends as they attempted to figure out what I was talking about.
“Indeed there are,” Radell said. “One way will sever the connection you have. The other…will sever another’s.”
“That’s all?” Asher said. He chuckled. “I thought you were talking about something else. Okay, so there’s two ways to use this magic, big deal.”
“And only one chance to use it,” Radell finished, still looking at me. I got the feeling that even though he wasn’t asking the question aloud, he wanted to know my answer.
“Can you teach her how to sever the connection?” Colson said.
Radell gave a slow nod. “I can.”
“Well that’s great!” Mia said. “You can teach Skylar how to sever from the Realm of the gods, and then she can heal, and we can go back to the Academy and kick Kasia’s butt!” She beamed. “Easy!”
“Used only once,” I repeated, still looking at Radell. “Just once?”
“That’s correct,” Radell said.
“Wait.” Asher was looking between the two of us, as though finally catching on to what this implied. He started to stand. “If it’s a choice between hers or another’s—”
“I want you to teach me how to sever another’s power,” I said. “I want to cut off Kasia’s connection to the Realm of the gods.”
Mia gasped. Asher let out a strangled cry of alarm. He was standing fully now. “No, she’s going to learn how to sever her own connection. Then she’s going to get better and—”
I was standing now as well, speaking straight to Radell, “Teach me how to take Kasia’s power away.”
“No!” Asher’s face was a mask of fury. Fury and something else…fear. True, unbridled fear. “Skylar, I won’t let you do this—”
“You’re not letting me do anything,” I said. “I’m choosing myself.”
Asher faced Radell. “Let me learn the spell, then.”
“Yes!” Mia said, getting to her feet. “We can learn it too. It doesn’t just have to be Skylar!”
“I’m afraid it does,” Radell said sadly. “Only one who is marked can learn it.”
I picked at the sleeve of my right arm. “Guys, I’ve already decided—”
“Perhaps Nolan can do it,” Colson said. “He also had a god.”
“Nolan’s barely strong enough to cast a normal spell,” I said, growing more annoyed by the second. “And if you think we’re going to leave this chance and break him out of the Academy…”
I glared at them, knowing they saw my reasoning. Asher stared at the ground, hands clenched at his side.
“Asher,” I said. “This isn’t what you wanted, but you know it’s right. Even if I get better, if Kasia’s still as strong as she is now, it won’t matter.”
“You knew,” he said, his voice choked. “You knew this was going to be your choice this entire time, and you let me think you were going to heal.”
“I only found out it was a choice last night,” I said. “I…”
Asher turned to me, and his eyes were red with tears. “I thought I lost you once. When that happened I…” He put a hand to his chest, in almost the same place I felt the hollowness of my missing god. “You told me what it’s like to miss him. And I get it, I get it, because it’s the same thing I felt. But then I found you again and for a bit everything was all right. Only it wasn’t. I’ve been watching you slip away from me, day by day. We might defeat Kasia, but you’re going to die and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
I hugged him, feeling his body shake as he tried to contain more of his tears. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” he said, sagging in resignation. “I’m sorry this is the choice you have to make.”
Tears were streaming down my own face now. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. It’s my choice. It sucks, but it has to be me. At least with this we have some chance of beating her. And hey.”
I pulled away to smile up into his face. “I’m not gone yet. Who knows? I’ve survived this long without the Dark Prince when Nolan thought for sure I’d die. Who’s to say I can’t keep going?”
My ‘encouraging’ words must not have been as encouraging as I thought. Asher wiped his face with his sleeve. He gave me a final brief hug then left the room, shutting the door softly behind him.
“I’ll talk to him,” Colson said, rising from his chair.
I almost told him not to. I could tell Asher wasn’t upset with me, but rather this whole screwed up situation we’d been put into. He wanted to be alone, I knew, but I’d rather he had a friend there who could understand.
“Skylar?” Mia whispered. “Does it really…do you really have to choose that? If we can heal you we’ll have time to find another way to stop her. You could—you could come back here once you’re better and learn it again…”
She trailed off as Radell shook his head.
“Then maybe,” Mia tried. “Maybe…”
Maybe I would get better if I used the spell on myself. Maybe I’d get to feeling as strong as I once did. Maybe Kasia wouldn’t attack and take revenge on everyone I loved. Maybe she would stop at just our Academy and be satisfied with that.
But I knew she wouldn’t. I knew I’d never be strong enough without the Dark Prince to take her on, that nobody would be. I knew that if we waited too long, that if we didn’t stop her here and now, she wouldn’t ever stop.
I turned to Radell. “Teach me what I need to do.”
I dreamed I was in another place.
That sounds like a big ‘duh’ moment, like, ‘yeah, Skylar, everywhere you dream is another place’, but I don’t mean like that. I mean a completely other place. Outside of anything I’d ever known or ever dreamed existed. Maybe outside of earth all together.
The landscape was completely flat, except for a cluster of soaring rock columns out in the far distance, rising to the cloudless sky like pillars of a long-fallen temple. There was no sound here, save for my steady breaths, growing faster as I became more aware of the emptiness. Because there was nothing here. Not just physically. It was as though all the life had been soaked out of this place, as though it was the end of existence itself.
I heard a low, warning rumble behind me. I spun and my heart jumped.
There was something. An immense wall of dark storm clouds tearing across the empty plains, heading straight toward me. They moved like a living thing, chewing up the dirt into dusty whirlwinds, thunder growling, lightning snarling. I knew, more than I knew anything right at that moment, that if it reached me, I’d be dead. More than dead. There wouldn’t be enough pieces left of me to be dead.
The columns. I had to reach the rocky columns.
But the moment I ran toward them I lurched to a stop, my right shoulder protesting painfully. I looked down at what held me.
My right arm was stuck in place, chained to the ground by black lines. I wrenched my sleeve up. It was the same black lines that covered my arm. They’d dripped off my skin and cemented themselves into the ground.
The thunder growled warningly, louder. I could feel now the cool air proceeding the storm, could almost imagine it laughing at me to run as it barreled closer.
“Come on!”
I yanked on my arm, but the black lines wouldn’t give. My wrist was screaming at me, feeling like it was about to separate from the rest of my body. Again and again I pulled, each time inching a little further, but never escaping its hold.
The storm loomed overhead, blocking out whatever this place used as a light source.
A great fear overtook me. Panic crawled up my throat and threatened to escape as a scream. I drew Valkyrie and, hand trembling, breaths coming in sharp gasps, held it above my arm, right over my wrist.
Then I yelled and brought my sword down.
I snapped awake, breathing hard as though I’d actually cut my right hand off. Without looking, I felt for it, some part of me still worried that I would find nothing but a stump where once had been flesh. I winced as my fingers closed in around its reassuring shape, tender as the black marks always were. I risked looking then. They were there, thicker now where they snaked around my knuckles, but my arm was whole and not chained to the ground.
I heard footsteps.
Asher slipped inside the room and froze when he saw me. His hair was a bit of a mess from where it looked like he’d tried tearing it out. His eyes were still red. I remembered Colson had come back ten minutes after going after him, but Asher had stayed gone. Radell had reassured me that nothing in the forest would harm him, but I’d still worried when Asher hadn’t come back by dinner, or when he still hadn’t returned by nightfall…
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said softly, trying not to wake Mia and Colson, sleeping on their own blankets on the other side of the room. “Radell said you’d be fine but there’s always the chance of getting mauled by a deer or something.”
Asher didn’t laugh. He didn’t even grin. He simply gave a jerky nod, jaw tense. He went to the pile of blankets laid out for him beside me and lay down, facing the other way.
I sat up more. Asher could be stubborn—he could even give me a run for my money most days—but now that he was here I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep without at least trying to get him to understand.
“Radell taught me how to sever the connection,” I said. “He said I was a good student.” I chuckled. “Never thought I’d hear anyone say that. Wish Master Lipstuck could have been here for it.”
Asher didn’t answer, but I could tell by the slight tilt of his head and his less-than-steady-breathing that he was listening.
“The spell is easy, actually. You wouldn’t believe how easy. Just a few words, some hand waving, and some visualization. Of course, I have to be near Kasia when I do it, which means she either needs to be distracted, or has to stop trying to kill me for half a second. I’m sure we can figure that part out when we come to it. We always have. Even the times I didn’t think we were going to get through, we always…”
I trailed off, and the three-AM kind of silence swooped in the moment I did, making me want to start babbling again just to fill the void. It was the kind of silence where you felt nothing good could come of it. The kind of silence where you were forced to lie there and listen to it, feeling the weight of everything still to come crushing you, and being unable to do anything about it.
“Asher, are you still mad at me?”
For a moment, I thought he was going to continue giving me the silent treatment, and I was about ready to lean over and give him a true, healthy piece of my mind.
But then, “I’m not mad at you, Skylar.” His voice was a bit rough. “I wasn’t then, and I’m not now. Yes, I wished you told me you had one chance to use the spell, and yeah, I wish you’d told me you were going to use it on Kasia instead of yourself. But that’s the thing: you’re the most selfless person I know. You’re stronger than anyone I know. I just wish I was that strong, too.”
“You are strong,” I insisted, scooting closer to him. “Anywhere and always, that’s what you say to me all the time. You’ve kept that promise. We’ve been by each other’s sides through the good and the bad, and we’ll keep doing that, for however long we have. Until Kasia’s gone.”
“I know. I just have to accept that you may not…I just have to accept it.”
The silence again, and this time I knew mere words could never be enough to fill it. I scooted again until I was pressed up against his back, resting my head between his shoulder blades, feeling the strong, steady thump of his heart. I reached over with my blackened fingers for his hand. After a moment, Asher twined his in mine and pulled them to his chest.
It was easy to fall asleep after that.
I felt like I’d barely closed my eyes before I was opening them again. I heard shuffled movement, more frantic than the usual sleepy bustle of morning. I immediately pulled my fingers from Asher’s and went for Valkyrie beneath my pillow.
Colson was at the door, his body lit up by a clearly magical blue light.
“Wassit?” Mia said, peeking sleepily over the mound of her lumped blankets. “Colson, wassa that? Is it Radell?”
Colson stepped aside in answer, and a rabbit-shaped tracking spell made entirely of blue magic darted in. It bounced a full circle around the room before leaping high and landing in the center where it exploded in a shower of blue sparkles. In its place rose the magically composed outline of a man.
“Asher!” I shook him hard as the outline began taking Lucien’s shape. “Asher, your dad sent us a message!”
Asher was up immediately, looking as though he’d never been asleep at all. The image continued to fully materialize, my apprehension growing every second. The fact that Lucien had used incredibly powerful magic to find us all the way out here meant this message was important. And if it was that important, then it probably meant…
“Kasia has attacked the Academy,” Lucien’s voice boomed. “You need to return right away. You need to come defend your home.”