Page 184 of Vicious Is My Throne

From here the ruination loomed larger than life, the ring of once-beautiful mountains now solid black, even the snowcaps stained a dark dirty gray. As if the life had been sucked from the marrow of this world.

“This is all we’ve cleared so far.” Cosimo waved at the ashy ground, the scant mile he and Zephryn had uncovered after a week of burning off rot, a patrol of sweating soldiers working behind them with pickaxes and shovels, making sure they eradicated every last speck.

“The soldiers have been working every day.” Lyrae volunteered, her pale blue eyes narrowed on the piles of ash, the daunting swath of black that seemed to stretch forever. “In shifts of twenty. I rotate them every few hours so the work doesn’t lag.”

“At this rate, we’ll reclaim the mountains in about a thousand fucking years,” Zephryn growled.

Zeph’s dark hair was pulled back, both he and Cosimo dressed in the same black, utilitarian clothing as Lyrae and the soldiers working at our backs.

Tavion crossed his arms over his chest, his expression grim.“Won’t this eventually die off? Now that they’re gone?”

I’d wondered the same. Why wasn’t this world healing itself?

What was it waiting for?

“I’ve run tests, investigated every lead, spent hours in the Keep’s pitiful library, but I don’t know what happened to the Fae magic,” Cosimo muttered, every face swiveling to him. Lyrae made a choking sound and Tavion chuckled.

I doubted the astrologer ever admitted ignorance, especially about something so…momentous.

“Whether the magic disappeared or became trapped in that cave, the power that the world would have used to heal itself…doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Then we keep going.” I swiped at the sweat trickling in an aggravatingly slow line down my neck. “We save what we can, a little at a time.”

But the sheer magnitude of those ruined mountains was sobering. And there were so many people relying on us at the Keep and Blackcastle. Caladrius would never be restored at this rate unless we figured how to reverse the damage.

“Food will be tight.” Zor pointed out in a low voice. “We have the Havens, but Caladrius and most of Varitus are worthless for growing so much as a blade of grass. Everything to the west will become a wasteland, probably for as long as any of us are alive.”

“If the wild magic still existed, wouldn’t the world just…repair itself?”

Cosimo shrugged. “Nature has a habit of correcting our mistakes. In time, yes, this would be undone, but something’s preventing that from happening. It’s like…the world is waiting for something.”

“Remember when you pushed the blight back with your magic?” Tavion asked softly, waggling his eyebrows. “Care to do a repeat performance?”

“Or how you convinced the forest in Caladrius to help you? Could you do that again?” Zor glared at him, as if to say, this is not the time for jokes, arsehole.

“That was…before.”

I hadn’t felt a trace of the Fae magic, not since Gelvira took everything back. Witch magic, yes, but that power didn’t nurture and restore. That kind of magic devoured.

“You could try.” Tristan cocked his head. “See what happens.”

I scuffed my boot through the desiccated, sandy dirt. “I don’t think I can,” I said, unable to look any of them in the eye. “I don’t have the right sort of magic. Not anymore.”

“Just try,” Tristan urged, his hand twining with mine, but only to press something warm and smooth against my palm.

Power rocketed through me—through us—light filling our eyes, hands glowing as they each gripped their stones. For a second, I had to remind myself how to breathe, those ruined mountains fading in and out before I got my act together.

“Holy gods.” Lyrae muttered, taking a healthy step back. The soldiers stopped working altogether, mouths hanging open.

Magic roared through our bond, fire and ice and thunder, rippling across the deep, still pool at my center like a stone skimmed across a pond.

A chill swept down my spine, the hair on my arms rising.

Zorander sauntered closer and tipped my chin up, forcing me to stare into his eyes. “You told me once you wanted to save this world. And I thought to myself…she’s so godsdamned naive. A dreamer. She hasn’t seen enough of life, doesn’t know the evil this world is capable of, to have such thoughts. Because if you did, you would know this world wasn’t worth the effort.”

I clamped my lips together to stop the not-so-nice retort waiting on the end of my tongue.

“But then you did something I never thought possible.” He brushed his knuckles down my cheek.

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