Page 83 of Claim the Twilight
“Even so, Finian’s heart was found in your room. Beneathyourbed. His blood on the shirt you hid in your armoire.” She shakes her head. “Before Moringa discovered the truth, when we found poor Finian’s body in the woods nearby, all she wanted to do was change his fate. To turn back time. Bring him back. She communed with powerful forces but to no avail. His fate had come to pass and could not be altered. You see, there are some people who have powerful destinies. Destinies that shape worlds, and altering Finian’s fate would interfere with one such destiny. At least that is what these forces told Moringa.
“Moringa might have let it go then, grieved and moved on with Harald for comfort, but she discovered the truth. That the entity she had trusted beyond all others had taken the person she loved the most from her. Vengeance became her new goal.”
“She never confronted me,” Harald says softly. “Never raged. She lay with me that night. Kissed me, made love to me, all while plotting to imprison me.”
“She knew she couldn’t kill you,” Aster says. “But she needed vengeance like she needed air. You crushed her heart, Harald.”
“She crushed mine!”
“No. She never told you she loved you.”
“She showed me with her actions.”
“Sex and fondness, that was all. You read more into her attentions, and when she told you she was in love with Finian, you chose to take him from her.”
“I did not choose to do any such thing. It was the wine. That night…there was something in the wine…” He looks away, his brow furrowing as if he isn’t sure of his own words.
Aster presses her lips together and looks to me. “Moringa summoned the spirit of the wild. A powerful force that inhabits the Isle. The spirit has no form of its own, and to commune with it, she needed to make room for its magic within herself. A witch’s magic comes from our connection to the weave, and to allow the spirit to form a connection with her, we transferred her connection to the weave to me.”
“Whoa, wait a minute. How did you do that?”
“It was a spell we derived. Together. It worked. The spirit spoke to her, through her. It granted her wish, but not in the way that Moringa had hoped. It could nottakeHarald’s power, but it placed a block on it, weakening him enough to imprison him in the very teapot that he’d made for Moringa.
“That should have been the end of it. Moringa should have woken and taken back her connection to the weave. But the spirit had a price, one it exacted as it exited her body.”
“It killed her?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t it tell her the cost of her wish?”
Aster smiles sadly. “I believe it did. I believe she kept it to herself. I believe that Moringa wanted to die, to be with Finian once more.”
“But she didn’t get to do that, did she? I mean, I’m here. Reborn.”
Aster shrugs. “Maybe you were with him in another life before this one.”
The whole thing makes my head hurt. “So what do we do now? Revert the spell and give me access to the weave once more?”
She sips her tea with a smile. “Yes.”
“Why did we have to come here to do that?”
“Because this is the only place it can be done. The only place with enough power to allow such a transition.”
“And how will that remove the block on my power?” Harald demands.
“It won’t. But we can petition the spirit of the wild and ask it to release you.”
Petition the spirit that killed Moringa? “Wait a second. The last time you guys did that, it killed Moringa. I already have to risk the surge. I can’t risk being killed by this spirit too.”
“You won’t,” Aster says. “I will.”
“What? No. I can’t let you die for this.”
“Oh, sweet child, I have lived for too long in this form. I’m ready to pass on and be reborn. Holding Moringa’s access to the weave kept me alive. I cannot die, and believe me, I have tried. I want to move on. Once I give you back your power, the centuries will slowly catch up to me, and no doubt the pain of that death will be excruciating. Better to go quickly and on my terms. I want to do this.”
The determination in her eyes tells me that this isn’t a decision she’s come to lightly. I want to live, and she wants to die. I’ll respect her wish. “All right. Let’s do it.”
