“NO!”
My stomach burned again as Kasia pulled her sword from me. The strength immediately went out of my legs and my shins complained as they slammed against the rough stone. Through my blurry vision I could make out the rest of the hall. The invisible barrier Kasia had cast to keep my friends and family away was disintegrating. Lucien and my parents were tearing at it, still trying to reach us. On the other side of the hall, Colson, Mia, and Asher continued to fight Greubal, all of them unaware of what had just happened. I saw one of Asher’s spells catch Greubal in the side, saw Greubal’s expression of shock right before Colson swung his hammer, the head crumpling Greubal’s chest in and casting his lifeless body out of sight.
“This is…This isn’t possible!”
Kasia clutched at her head, her eyes blazing with fury. “How could you know that kind of magic? How could you possibly have the strength to perform that?”
Another bout of weakness hit me and I fell forward, one hand braced against the floor to keep from collapsing entirely. Kasia looked up, all her anger now being directed at me. She raised her hand. “Die.”
Magic curled at the ends of her fingers and stretched toward me, then immediately dropped to the floor and vanished. Kasia stared at it, then at her hand. She stumbled back. She gave an immense, wracking cough. Flecks of blood splattered across the stone.
The burning in my center was beginning to fade, though I still swayed with the strain of sitting upright. I slowly unwrapped my arms from where Kasia’s blade had entered and blinked, shocked, at my unmarked stomach. It was as though I’d never been stabbed at all. I could feel magic coursing through my veins, flowing over my center and creating the barrier that must have protected me. But it wasn’t my magic.
I let out a sobbing laugh. The Prince. “I can’t believe it. You actually did something to save me.”
The Prince didn’t answer.
I looked up as Kasia collapsed. She still reached for me with one hand, fingers twitching as though to curl around my throat. I took in another deep breath and could feel only the faint buzz of magic in the air as it drifted away from her. She was nearly helpless, without any connection to the Realm of the gods. She couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.
I sat back with relief as I heard the barrier Kasia created shatter behind me. Multiple pairs of footsteps immediately headed our way. My parents and Lucien would be here soon, and I’d no longer have to deal with Kasia. I would no longer have to—
The magic in the air shifted again. I looked up, realizing it felt different now; it wasn’t drifting away from Kasia.
It was moving toward her.
“This…will not be my end,” Kasia gasped.
She raised her hand again and I tensed. There was no way…no way she could continue casting spells—
Kasia waved her hand. A Farcast portal opened behind her.
With a cry of pain, Kasia threw herself through it. I stared in horror as the portal began to close.
“Skylar!” my mom yelled.
I couldn’t let Kasia escape. Injured, dying, it didn’t matter, if there was even a miniscule chance that she might regain her power, that was a chance I wasn’t willing to take.
My legs screamed as I forced myself up. I lurched toward the open portal and practically tripped through it, even as the others yelled for me to stop. My head spun. My stomach flipped. I felt myself spinning, and then I was slamming against the ground on the other side. I heard the portal zip shut behind me, and then everything was silent.
I lay there, gasping for air until I’d gathered the strength to stand. I tensed, ready to fight with everything I had left if necessary. For all I knew, I’d done exactly what Kasia had wanted and followed her into another trap. I pulled Valkyrie out and, shaking, held it up, ready to draw the blade.
I was inside a house, the air stale and thick with the smell of abandonment. I could tell it had been pretty once, made of brick, with wide, clear windows. The windows were all smashed now. Bricks were cast across the floor, pulled from the few retaining walls that still remained upright.
I took a step forward, my feet disturbing a thick layer of dust. A chilly breeze rattled the peeling wallpaper and brushed across my skin. I craned my head to see that there was no ceiling, just an open sky devoid of stars.
I’d seen this place before, though I’d never been here. It had been in Kasia’s memories. This had been her home. This had been where her children had died. Where my mother had killed them. The epicenter of Kasia’s entire vendetta.
So where was Kasia now?
I took a careful turn around, trying not to disturb any more of this place than necessary. There was something here…something intangible I couldn’t put my finger on; it was an immense sadness dwelling just beneath the surface, something I was in danger of shattering if I was careless.
I spied a spot of crimson on the ground near my feet. Blood. Fresh, too. Splatters of it led from where I stood in the living room, through a narrow hallway where the pictures had been torn off the wall, all the way to a bedroom at the end.
It had been a child’s room, and again I was reminded of another of Kasia’s memories I’d seen, this one of her family’s house in the Valley of the Chosen. Kasia’s room there had remained untouched except by the hands of time.
This room had not.
The back wall had been blown outward as though by an errant spell. There were children’s growth marks nicked into the wooden doorframe, but most of those, too, had been blasted away, leaving the remaining wood jagged and sharp. The only piece left was the sunken bed, the metal frame snapped and rusted over, the mattress filled with holes.
Kasia lay twisted in the center of the bed, her blood leaking into the rotting fabric. She coughed and more blood bubbled up past her lips. I curled my hands into fists. This was exactly how Headmaster Phillipe had died. The blood had gurgled in his lungs as he fought for every breath, all the way up until his last. She had caused that. This was no less than she deserved—
“Olivia? Adam? Is that you?”
With great effort it seemed, Kasia craned her head to look at me. Her eyes were clouded with pain, but she blinked and they cleared. I saw a glimpse of recognition spark within, and she let her head fall back again. “No…I was wrong…I thought…”
I let my hands slowly uncurl. “It’s me.”
“Of course it’s you—” Another wracking cough shook her. “It’s always you.”
Whatever my spell had done, it was killing her fast. This must have been what happened when a true Zukami lost their connection to the gods. This must have been the kind of horrible death that Mushka had suffered when she’d given her god away to Nolan.
I stepped closer to Kasia and knelt beside the bed, being sure to avoid the holes in the floor where rainwater had eaten through. Kasia gaped up at the ceiling, her eyes once again not really seeing anything. I wanted to say something to her, something to let her know just how much she’d hurt me and so many others. But no amount of words seemed to do justice to that kind of pain. How could I sum up in just a few sentences how much her actions had affected my entire life? How could I convey the bewildering mixture of hate, and pity, and sorrow, and even admiration that swirled within my chest?
Kasia coughed again. Her voice came out rasping, “I’ve always wondered how I would die. Would it be a glorious flash of light, or a simpering whimper? The thunderclap of a supernova, or a feather breath of air leaving my lips in the middle of the night?”
She let out another rattling breath. “There’s no question about which it will be now. But before that…before that, I need to see, I need you to see, one last time…”
She turned her head to look at me. Her hand barely moved as she twitched her fingers, and a wisp of magic trailed from the ends. I tensed, prepared for another attack, but the magic simply manifested into shapes before us. Within seconds I was looking at a magically conjured image of the house, as though we stood in the middle of a scene from her memories. My mouth fell open as I saw my mother step through Kasia’s front door. It was clear she was uncomfortable being there.
“You’ve been told time and time again you can’t use that kind of magic,” my mother said, her voice sounding strangely disembodied from the memory. “I’ve spoken to the Paranormal Coalition on your behalf more times than most—”
“And what did you say to them, I wonder?” Kasia snarled.
She stood in the foyer, posture tight, glowering at my mom like she was the last person on earth she wanted to see. “Did you tell them that we’d been targeted three times in the last month alone?” She pointed to the hallway behind her. “Did you say that my children have been attacked twice whenever they’ve left the house? If it’s not the shifters or Vamps loitering around our street, it’s those accursed witches claiming we’re possessed!”
“I told the Coalition the truth,” my mom said calmly. “I told them you were new here and still getting used to our laws. That you had a magic that was uncommon, yes, but nothing to fear. As I’ve said before, the magic you possess is not known to many of us, so they’re understandably afraid. The Coalition—”
“Does nothing to protect us! The Supes here, those stupid, ignorant creatures, hate us because they don’t know us. They would rather attack us on sight than try to understand.”
My mom let out a long sigh. “I said I understand. I’ve dealt with my own share of ignorance amongst the magical boroughs. There are many who are still stuck in ways of the past. I can talk again to the Coalition—”
“You can talk as many times as you want, but it will make no difference,” Kasia said.
“Kasia, I’m on your side!”
“No, you’re part of the problem! What’s come of all the ‘help’ you’ve provided? Nothing. I…” Kasia took a step closer, lowering her voice to a dangerous whisper, “I have been patient long enough, and I promise you that the next time one of your Supes tries to move against me, I will not wait for the Coalition’s decision. I will permanently fix the problem myself.”
My mom’s face tightened with disapproval. “You know that will only cause more trouble. Once you do something then you’re only giving them an excuse. It’ll be open war. Supes from every faction will take it as an invitation to attack whomever they please.”
“Mom?”
I saw a little girl poke her head out from the hallway. A boy a couple years older than her, I guessed her brother, stood just behind her. They’d clearly been listening in on the entire conversation. “Mom, is something wrong—”
“Go to your rooms,” Kasia snapped. “And don’t come out until I say. And you…”
Kasia took a step toward my mom, and though it was nothing but a memory, still I itched to cry out a warning as Kasia’s hand twitched in the beginnings of a spell. At the edges of the memory I could make out the shadows lengthening as the power of Kasia’s god began to manifest itself.
“Mom?” the little girl said again.
“I said back to your room!”
“Come on, Olivia.” The boy tugged on her shoulder, but the little girl wouldn’t budge. Her eyes were wide and fearful. “Has that woman come to stop them from hurting us? Is she here to make things better?”
“Olivia, come on.”
“If you don’t stop using your magic against other Supes—” my mother warned.
“Who attacked us first!” Kasia said.
“—then the Coalition will have no other choice but to send me back here to personally escort you out of New York. Believe me,” my mom’s face softened. “I have a daughter of my own. I can’t imagine how hard it must be adjusting here, but the last thing I want to do is force you out. I’m just asking you to stay strong for a little longer. Please.”
“We’ve been strong. We’ve been patient. No more.”
“Then you’re leaving me no choice.”
A soft cry escaped my lips as Kasia whipped up her hand. The shadows around the edge of the memory leapt to her bidding, collapsing in on my mom. There was a bright flash of light. The entire memory seemed to shake as the house rumbled. The vision went dark, and then I heard it: an anguished scream. The kind of scream someone would make if they were cradling the bodies of their most cherished loved ones. Kasia’s scream.
The memory vanished altogether and I was left staring at the empty space it’d occupied, my mind racing. That memory hadn’t been anything like what I’d seen before. It seemed I’d only caught snippets of the truth and now here it was, laid out and complete. All this time I’d believed my mother had been the one to kill Kasia’s children, and yet…
“For so long I was afraid of facing that,” Kasia said. “Of facing what I’d done. It was my spell that triggered the collapse. My anger…”
Her lips trembled. Tears leaked from her eyes, only to clump and dry on the ash coating her face. “I was the one who killed them. If I hadn’t let my anger get the better of me, they might still be alive. Because of that, I found it easier to destroy the lives of thousands of others rather than face what was left of my own.”
The afterimage of the memory continued to linger, forever imprinted on my mind. Wrong. I’d been so wrong this whole time. I’d believed my mother had been at fault—she even believed she’d been at fault—but we’d both been wrong.
One day, when you have to make your own tough choices, I hope you’ll forgive me.
Hot tears splattered onto my fists as I clenched them on my knees. It was bad enough that I hadn’t believed my mom. She had always been straight with the things she’d chosen to tell me. And the things she hadn’t she’d feared, rightly so, that I’d take them the wrong way.
But even worse than my premature judgement was the fact that my mom, who had only done what she believed to be right, had been forced to carry around the guilt of a crime she hadn’t committed.
And she wasn’t the only one, I realized, as Kasia gave another shuddering breath. My mom and Kasia were both tied to the weight of their past guilt. It had eaten away at Kasia from the inside more than any dark god ever could have.
“I see why you hated me,” I said. It felt weird to break the silence, like I was bursting unannounced into something as somber as a funeral. “Your daughter, Olivia, she would have been about my age now, wouldn’t she?”
“My lovely ‘Livia, my handsome Adam,” Kasia breathed, and more tears built in her eyes.
“Maybe we could have been friends,” I said. “I would have liked that.”
I shivered as a vapor passed through my right shoulder. I jerked my head up. Another memory was forming in front of me. Many of them. It seemed as the last of Kasia’s magic leaked out of her, so did the other things she’d held on to, the figures of misty gray playing through their past moments.
For a while, I saw places I didn’t recognize, inhabited by people I didn’t know. Then there were the ones I could remember myself: the fight in the Paris prison, and before that, Kasia in the house of the Cursed One, the caverns beneath New York where we’d first fought one another.
The figures began to blur and reshape. Now I was looking at the same memory we’d just seen with Kasia clutching her children; then one before that where Kasia as a child stood in front of her family’s burning home, her eyes filled with hatred and loss.
“The only way…The only way…”
“What?” I said.
Only, it wasn’t the Kasia beside me speaking, but the one in front of me. One last memory had shuddered into sharper focus than all the rest. I recognized the forest I’d run through as a child, chasing pixies in their dancing patterns of light. I heard my mother faintly call for me to stay close, felt the sting as I tripped over a log and picked myself up again, winding up in a new clearing. I watched as Kasia stepped out to meet me.
“Hello, Skylar.”
“I’ve seen this before,” I whispered, though Kasia couldn’t have known that. I knew how it ended. Kasia took her revenge on my mother here, through me. She cursed me with the Dark Prince so that when I lost control of him, it would destroy my mother, me, and everything I loved.
“Stop, please,” I whispered. “Please stop showing me this.”
But I continued watching as Kasia caught my unconscious body. I watched her eyes glow as she transferred the Dark Prince to me.
That was it. I waited for it to end.
Only Kasia didn’t put me down. The scene kept playing, and as it did, I was shocked to see that she was crying. The tears were faded with the gray mist of memory, but they were there.
“What…what are you doing?” I said.
In the memory, Kasia brought her hand up. She held it over the top of my head, clearly unsure, then she stroked my hair gently. Almost…lovingly.
“The only way,” she muttered. “The only way.”
At last she seemed to come to a decision and pressed her fingertips firmly to the center of my chest. There was another flash of light, so bright it hurt my eyes. When it faded, the scene hadn’t changed except that Kasia now stood over me, Greubal at her side. I could hear the faint shouts of my mother’s voice growing closer.
Greubal’s eyes darted toward the sound, then to the dark recesses of the forest. “Mistress, the Aspen woman will be here soon.”
Kasia continued staring down at me. She didn’t seem to have heard him.
Greubal shuffled his feet. “Greubal is not strong enough yet to fight her. Mistress is strong enough, yes, but not Greubal…”
Kasia still didn’t move, and now Greubal took a step back into the forest, as though prepared to run.
“Greubal saw…you put a seal inside her, mistress. Greubal saw a seal spell. But Greubal doesn’t understand. The little girl, she is the Aspen’s daughter, yes? The little girl is not good. She should hurt like you hurt. So why the seal. Why—”
He gurgled into silence as Kasia pierced him with a sharp look, her magic wrapping around his throat.
“If I had wanted you to question me, I would have asked.”
“Apologies, Mistress,” Greubal gasped as Kasia’s hold on him broke. “Greubal is sorry. Greubal would never dare question your judgement.”
He took another step back into the woods. “Greubal will…go rejoin the others.”
He scurried out of sight without waiting for an answer. Even after he left, Kasia continued staring down at me. My mom’s voice was close now. I was sure she’d stumble across me any minute. I knew I’d have no memory of how I’d gotten here, and my parents would assume I’d fallen and hit my head. All would be forgotten until years later when the consequences of this day would come roaring back with a vengeance.
As my mother called again, Kasia at last turned and stepped into the forest.
I saw her look back once before she vanished.
Beside me, the present Kasia coughed again and the memory vanished. She continued staring up at the ceiling.
“Will I…get to see them again? Will I get to say sorry?”
Her fingers moved as though trying to find something to hold onto. I pulled myself out of my shock and took them, clasping them tight.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “No one knows for sure. But I believe you will. I believe they’re there waiting for you.”
A slow smile grew across her face. Her entire body relaxed. First her trembling hands stilled, followed by her breaths growing shallow, then ceasing altogether.
The very last thing to go was the light in her eyes, dimming like the end of a sunset, until they, too, went dark forever.