Page 301 of A Flame of the Phoenix

“I cannot.”

“If you do this…I will never forgive you.”

“Forgiveness serves you, not me. It is not an erasure of wrongs. My actions may seem drastic, but I have seen the infinite web of souls and their travel. I am at peace with sending every last one on this land back into that web, knowing they will scatter far and wide, beginning their cycle anew in another place. It is an ending of poetry only I can give.”

Nyte lunged forward, slamming his fist to the veil. He tensed with a pained groan as energy rebounded from it, and he sank to one knee.

“Do you even hear yourself? These arepeople,not just souls. These arelives,not just pieces of energy.”

Marvellas sank down with him, but Nyte didn’t look up. “Oh, my son…your compassion is a gift to see, but it will hurt you if you let it.”

“You have no idea what I’ve been through…” Nyte said menacingly, drawing his eyes up with such loathing. “In my childhood I yearned for you. In my adulthood I tried so desperately to refuse the poison Father spun about you. But he was right about you. After all this time, I finally get to look at you and feelnothing.You are nothing to me. You are nothingofme. Just like my father.”

“You found the love I didn’t get to give you…didn’t you, my son? That is why your heart was salvaged from the villainy of your father, and now from me. Someone protects it.”

“Yes,” he said coldly. “So how can you continue to say love is weakness?”

“Because it is stopping you from seeing what needs to be done. It will always fool you into believing it is a reward for your suffering when it is the cause.”

Nyte shook his head at the ground, emitting a dark, incredulous laugh. “I was born an orphan, and I have long since come to terms with that.”

He lunged up, slamming his hand against the veil again, but this time the Ruin Dagger pierced through it like a pin into glass, breaking a web of cracks from the impact that kept spreading. Before the veil could shatter, Nyte was thrown back by an invisible force. He crashed into several mirrors, which obliterated around him.

“In another time…maybe we’ll get a chance at the life I wanted for us, Rainyte. Maybe then you won’t ever look at me like the monster you see now,” Marvellas said vacantly, watching her son lift himself from the broken glass with nothing but hate in his eyes.

He said, “I believe love is embedded in each life cycle of a soul—it’s how we recognize our mate in every one. But I also believe our wounds and loathing carry too, so for your sake, I hope we never meet again.”

The Spirit’s eyes flexed. Tarly was used to seeing her lash out with power and anguish. Used to watching how composed and arrogant she was when she dominated a room. Yet now, even though her plans were still as heinous, Marvellas pushed on to carry it through as a lost and vacant vessel. Her eyes were tired, her skin pale and carrying dark circles. Her vibrant hair was now dull and mildly unkempt.

Rattling surged Tarly’s alarm, and the wolves growled louder. The mirrors Nyte had shattered with his body began to reform, and when they did, the Dresair still wearing Tauria’s face stood behind him.

To everyone’s horror, a hand lashedoutof the mirror’s surface, gripping the back of Nyte’s collar and yanking him.

Nik was closest to intervene, ripping the Dresair’s hand from Nyte and pushing him away. Then Tarly yelled Nik’s name but it did nothing to prevent the Dresair from taking hold of Nik instead, pulling him through the mirror. Tauria gasped, lungingthe few steps and taking his hand before he was fully pulled through.

Tarly and Nerida ran for them too, but they couldn’t get a hold of Tauria before they were both gone, sucked into the mirrors and leaving only their own horrified expressions to stare into. Still, they reached for large piece of glass that had stolen their friends within, but the surface had turned solid again.

An ear-splittingboomcaused them to duck and reach for each other instead. Tarly used his body over Nerida’s to shield her as best he could from the shower of glass that rained down hard on them. It cut into his skin at all angles as every mirror in the roomshattered.

“No,” Nerida breathed in horror when the chaos stopped.

They looked up, seeing only uneven stone wall. The mirrors lay in pieces around them. What locked Tarly still…was the new terrifying presence that now occupied the room with them.

The creature was unnaturally tall, with limbs too long for its torso. Its skin was like black tree bark, with a featureless face. This was the Dresair’s true form, and it was free. It bent to pick up the Blood Box, not giving them any attention as it headed toward Marvellas with it.

“Bring them back!” Nerida cried.

The creature stopped, turning its head around to her, and Tarly shifted, putting himself between them should it decide to attack. It had no mouth, and when it spoke to their minds, he wondered if Marvellas could hear it too.

“Every kingdom on this continent guards a mirror passage through time and space itself. Us creatures within are not merciful to fresh bodies.”

With that, it left, following Marvellas with the Light Temple Ruin, and they were powerless to stop them. As they rose, Tarly and Nerida could only stare at the place where the mirror had been in complete shock and helplessness.

“We have to get them back,” Nerida said in utter disbelief.

“That went far worse than we thought possible,” Nyte commented.

Tarly could hardly pay him any mind. His thoughts were reeling with the Dresair’s parting words.

---