Page 116 of Claim the Twilight
Ordell ground to a halt beside us, taking in the scene, his body rippling with tension, ready to defend me.
Kaster landed a few meters away with Lorenzo, and both men hurried to flank me and Hemlock.
But my attention strayed back to Encantor, compelled to stay fixed on him. I caught movement behind him, a whisper of gray, a spectral face drifting close to his cheek.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, a wilted smile curving his lips. He opened his eyes and looked right at me, and something inside me tugged. An awareness unlike any I’d ever felt before. The darkness inside me filled my veins like warm honey. Not destructive and rage-filled, but protective and comforting.
Encantor approached me, his gaze intense and searching, and I found myself breaking away from Hemlock to move toward him.
“Orina?” Hemlock reached for me.
“I won’t hurt her,” Encantor said, his gaze still fixed on me. “I would never hurt her.” His throat bobbed as he came to stand in front of me.
“No…” Loviator said.
“Yes…” The echo materialized beside us. “Do you see now?” Ice touched my temple, and a kaleidoscope of memories flooded me.
Memories of a sunlit field and a boy with dark hair and moonlight in his eyes. Love filled me to the brim. Safety and joy and the promise of endless possibilities. Hope, glittering and winged, burst to life in my chest. But in the next moment, I was cold and alone. Trapped in a dark cell with nothing for company but gnawing hunger and fear. A shadow loomed over me,spitting harsh words. The scene changed again, and I was seated at a wheel, molding clay and creating beautiful beasts. I could breathe life into them. They would be my friends. But in the next heartbeat, I was in a dark room, the oppressor close at my back, barking instructions to weave shadows into creatures. Creatures that begged me not to give them away. I sensed their hearts—soft and gentle. Hearts thatshewould fill with ice and her dominion, and I was helpless. Always helpless. Until the moment that I was free. Flying away from my cage, hope blooming in my heart, only to be trapped by her once more.
Forever dark. Forever bound.
The echo released me, and I stared at her ghostly face, finally understanding who she was and how we were connected. How we’d always been connected, across lifetimes and across time. “Elanthra…”
She shook her head, sadness pulling at her mouth.Not me. You…a little inside you…
The darkness inside me was Elanthra. Or what was left of her. Loviator had put her there. Penance for murder. A second chance for her favorite child to live without becoming a threat to the goddess’s rule. But she’d miscalculated, and now this darkness would become her doom.
“Let her out,” Encantor said. “Give her to me.” He held out his hand to me.
“No!” Loviator thrashed, still trapped in Encantor’s mystical grip.
“Yes.” I slipped my hand into Encantor’s, and a jolt rushed through me—a connection so ageless and acute it stole my breath. The darkness surged, and I allowed it to surface. Inky black smoke rose from my pores and streamed into Encantor. His eyes bled to black. He released me, and my knees buckled, but Ordell caught me and swung me into his arms.
My head fell back, eyelids growing heavy as Encantor drifted toward Loviator.
She screamed, trembling with the effort to break free.
“This is for Elanthra,” Encantor said, his voice a deep, resonant echo. “Goodbye, Mother.” He pressed his hands to her temple, and she began to glow, brighter and brighter until I couldn’t stand to look. I turned my face away, burying myself against Ordell’s chest as the world lit up. The air shook with tension that made my bones quiver and my hair crackle.
Loviator screamed, a high-pitched wail. Then there was a silence so deep I wondered if I’d gone deaf.
“It’s over,” Encantor said, his voice low and weary. “It’s finally over.” He stood facing the echo, his face a mask of sorrow. “Will you stay?” he asked her.
“I’m not her,” the echo said. “I’m only a?—”
“Memory, I know. But to me, you are the most beautiful memory of all.”
The memory of Elanthra smiled. “In that case, I would be honored.”
My skin began to prick and burn. “Something’s wrong.”
“Orina?” Ordell looked down at me, then up at the late afternoon sun. “Shit!”
Hot fingernails raked down my arms, and I twisted in Ordell’s arms, crying out, trying to get away from the awful sensation.
“Cover her!” Hemlock yelled. “The sun’s burning her.”
Kaster shot up into the air, wings spread wide to shield me from the sun, but it wasn’t enough. My blood was on fire. I was going to die. Again. A billion fiery needles pieced my skin. I screamed, grounded in the physical even as my mind made the connections as to why. Why now.
