Page 112 of Faerie Fate
Relief made me dizzy.
It was all a metaphor. I knew it as I stepped forward for my magic. The dragon was the wildness of me, the part I was scared to approach so I’d shoved it down where I didn’t have to look at it.
I forced the terror away because it had no place in my life. Why would I be scared of parts of myself? It all boiled down to what I was willing to look at. What I was willing to accept, the good and the bad.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
The dragon stepped aside on my approach to give me access to the chest. Up close, it was nothing special. But inside? It held every hope my mother had for me and for our world. It held more responsibility than I’d ever had in my life, possibly more than I was willing to bear.
But I was here. I was ready. Whatever happened, it couldn’t be any worse than what I’d already survived.
Here goes nothing.
I carefully pried open the edges of the old chest and winced. Blinding light spilled out, searing. I closed my eyes against the glare and?—
I opened my eyes to the ritual room, back in my body. The glow remained but now it came from me. From the inside out as though I’d devoured a star. The relief was keen, sweet, without end. The aches and pains vanished and in their place, strength returned. Magic coursed through my body.
Poppy smiled, and this time the expression sent a thrill through me. Her relief and her excitement bolstered me.
“It worked, girl,” she said reverently. “It finally worked.”
I held a glowing hand up and studied the curving lines of power. It pulsed out of me, ready for use. I’d never felt this good in my life. The rough edges of the jagged pieces that never fit before finally did.
Whole. New.
Was this how Ishouldhave felt my entire life?
Was this what I’d been missing?
I’d gone from a half-life to a new existence.
“You’re not going to know how to use these powers until someone tutors you.”
The sudden grim sound of Poppy’s voice drew me out of my introspection.
“I have to do something about this battle, Poppy. The pixies are supposed to win. Something…something went wrong. I made the wrong choice somewhere.”
“Let it play out,” Poppy suggested urgently. “The wrong will right itself. Things will get better. Back on track.”
Get better? And I was just supposed to let people die, let fate course correct on its own, when I had the ability to do something about it?
“I’ve sat on the sidelines my entire life.” I surged to my feet. “I’ve been cautious and I’ve ducked my head down out of the need for survival. This is my fault.”
“Stay here where you’re safe, and once I’ve made sure of it, I’ll come get you. Tavi.Tavi!”
Poppy screamed after me but I took off, faster than I’d been before. Like someone had flipped the volume up on my life and my abilities, all the way from nothing to something wonderful.
Now I had the potential to fix what I’d broken and I wasn’t going to struggle the entire time. I might actually be able to make a difference and save the pixies. Wouldn’t it be better for Elfwaite to have a happy childhood, with her family, in the home where she’d been born?
I stopped those thoughts before they had a chance to grow. Mike didn’t want us to change the past and I understood why. This wasn’t a change. It was a return.
I pumped my arms and took the steps up to the ground floor three at a time.
Many of the doors I passed were closed and a swift tug on several showed them locked, too. The pixies had barricaded themselves in the interior of the palace. But there were many more still fighting.
The huge front doors of EverRose were still wide open, but now more fae spilled into the interior like a wave of blight. The pixies who remained did their best to hold the fae near those doors. Stones flew through the air, boulders brought up through the floor to force the warriors to retreat. The marble tile buckled and caved, opening up into sinkholes to surprise the fae. The earth swallowed up several unlucky ones.
The morsana-fueled weapons were the only reason why the pixies with their earth magic stood a chance, why they’d held their ground to this point.
