A Thief of Nightshade(82)

Including all of us. I don’t know what to tell you to do.”

Aubrey expected to feel afraid. For a fleeting moment as the sound of fighting behind them grew louder, she did. But then the anger she’d previously harnessed flared to life and she clung hard to it. “I know what to do,” she said as she stepped into view.

Saralia

stopped

walking

and

clenched her jaw. “Congratulations,” she said coldly. “I don’t know how you managed to escape Cedrick, but since you’re here, you might as well enjoy the show.”

“She didn’t escape anyone, Saralia.”

Cedrick stepped from the shadows, followed by Given and Aislinn. Lipsey clung to Given’s shoulder.

Saralia didn’t falter. She lifted both of her slender arms to the false sun of the dome and shouted the words to summon the Lyr. Slowly, the circles where Jullian stood shifted, the groan of stone against stone echoing through the room. Brilliant blue light erupted from the exposed caverns and the strange symbols and letters. Then, as the circles moved farther apart, the light swirled like a vortex, creating three separate lines on all sides to form a trinity symbol, trapping Jullian on a single, elevated post.

Saralia touched the Oran around her neck, smiling. “Go ahead, Aubrielle. Try and go to your Prince, to wake him from this trance.” Yet, the Oran did not respond. Aubrey’s heart skipped a beat.

Given stepped closer to her and to Aubrey’s shock, fastened an identical Oran around Aubrey’s neck. Unlike the lifeless dragonfly Saralia held, this one flared to life in Aubrey’s hand. “Go. We all have faith in you.”

Saralia seethed. “You’ll fail. You’ll fall just like Madame Crimson did.

You’re just as unworthy and...”

Aubrey drowned out the Queen’s words, focusing instead on looking into Jullian’s eyes. She stepped forward and it seemed as though everyone but the two of them disappeared. Squeezing the Oran tighter, she said, “You reached me when no one else could. You loved me before I’d learned to love myself.” Her throat swelled just before she reached the first gap in the floor. She spared only a moment to glance down before returning her gaze to Jullian and stepping out.

The Lyr swirled around her ankles and felt like thousands of tiny feathers brushing against her skin. But she did not fall.

She breathed a short sigh of relief when her foot hit solid ground again. “You gave me back the life I took for granted.”

She stepped across the second line. “I know that now, and I also know what you’d tried so hard to tell me.” She paused again, this time before the third and largest of the divides.

Jullian’s expression remained as still and emotionless as the lake had the moment she’d stepped off the dock. The looking glass ... the only mirror that can be shattered and put back together again ...

Saralia moved to stand behind Jullian. “You think you’re winning, but you haven’t made it any farther than your pathetic predecessor did.”

“Someone once told me that a very fine line exists between my world and this one.” She stepped over the final line and lost her breath as the Lyr moved to envelop her whole body. “Emotions, if strong enough, will carry us through. I’m here because you’re my husband and my love for you pulled me over. My past has no hold on me. This darkness...” Her words faded as she watched Saralia rush Jullian. Time slowed. Saralia had the crown in her hands ... reached for him.

This is the end. You must finish this!

A surge of energy ran through Aubrey and she knew then, somehow, that she had a choice. She could try and take all of the Lyr for herself, save her own life, heal her own wounds ... or save Jullian’s.

That’s why the Madame never made it across. It wasn’t about strength, it was about choice.

She gathered that energy into the Oran with all the strength she had left and looked back at Jullian. “This darkness has no hold on you.”

Saralia lowered the crown onto Jullian’s head, the power from it so strong that it forced his eyes closed.



Aubrey’s

body

gave

and

she

crumpled into a heap. She heard Aislinn roar and a fight erupt around her. The vortex beneath her ... the light ... had not changed color.

I was wrong. This is goodbye.

She squeezed the Oran, still warm to the touch and pulsing. Though she could not sing aloud, she sung to Jullian in her mind the only song that felt fitting.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme ...

Jullian opened his eyes to a blinding blue light and the dying echo of Aubrey’s voice.

“No!” someone screamed behind him.

He turned and strained to see Saralia right behind him, clutching at something on her neck.

The Oran?

Something black seeped from it into her skin, spreading like ink in her veins.

The scream had come from her.

Where am I? Where is Aubrey?

That’s when he felt the weight on his head and reached to tear the crown away.

Once he did, the light around him shimmered from blue to white. It faded until only traces of it remained in the pattern beneath his feet.

“Jullian!”

He

recognized

his

brother’s voice as it sounded to his left.