Page 95 of Kept

“GIVEN!” I bellowed her name, beckoning her through time and space. Calling her back to me the way I had the night I found her freezing on her balcony.

“GIVEN!”

I reached for her. Commanded her. “GIVEN, COME BACK TO ME. I LOVE YOU. COME BACK TO ME.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw her.

Gasps behind me.

Laurent at my side.

Given floated up from the Rift, her black gown fluttering in an invisible current. Blood covered her from hip to ankle. She was pale and still, her eyes closed like she was sleeping.

Laurent and I held out our arms at the same time.

“Given,” he rasped.

“Given.”

She came to us, flowing with the invisible current. We lay her on the ground and knelt beside her. Her heart was silent. She’d been gone a long time.

“I don’t know what to do,” Laurent whispered, tears running down his face.

I did. Jordan had put the knowledge on my tongue.

Sliding a hand under her head, I leaned down and kissed her.

The knowledge—and the magic it contained—leapt from my tongue to hers.

She sucked in a deep breath. When I pulled back, her eyes were open.

Around us, knights fell to their knees. Heads bowed.

Given reached up and touched my face. She turned her head to Laurent. He captured her other hand and pressed it against his lips.

“The savior of the realm,” I murmured. “Bound in blood and reborn from the Rift.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

GIVEN

“Are there other worlds besides ours, Helen?”

“Probably, child. But maybe we only see them in our dreams.”

I thought of Helen as I joined hands with Varick and Laurent and stepped across the border between Wesyfedd and Eldenvalla.

Warrior. Priest. Queen.

Three in one and one in three.

We walked across the wasteland, green grass spreading under our feet. I spoke it into being, remaking everything that had been ruined.

We walked, and I thought of Rhys. I filled Eldenvalla with forests and a network of caves. Fields of wildflowers and babbling streams.

We walked, and I thought of the mages who died protecting Varick and me. I whispered their names into the ground and watched them flow away on new rivers that washed the evil from the land.

We walked, and I thought of Jordan. I turned my face up to the sky and wept, and my tears soaked the land.

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