Page 116 of At the Mercy of Midnight
Lyana cocked her head. “We?”
She looked at the red-haired woman in confusion. “Yes, of course. Both of us, how do we get out of this?”
Her eyes flitted away again, glancing at the reflective pond around her. “The ritual…it will always require a sacrifice. There is no way around that.”
Amelia’s heart began to pound, just as menacingly as it had when she had been surrounded by the shadows, being pulled into the darkness. “What do you mean?” she asked stupidly, knowing exactly what it meant.
“Amelia,” Lyana said, voice cracking on the syllables of her name, “you do understand…oh…you don’t.”
“What?”
She sighed, hands coming together before her. “The bonded pairs, they are an extension of the Monoliths themselves.” Lyana looked directly at her now, eyes sombre. “They are the original, true pairing. Light and dark, a true balance. When they came into this world, they were torn apart, on differing edges of the land, far from one another.” Amelia wanted to move again, to step away this time. She didn’t want to hear any of it. “They want to be together, theyneedit. The bonded pairs represent one of each Monolith, and the ritual was created…to join them back together.”
“Join them?” Amelia’s voice was small, wobbly.
Lyana nodded. “Yes. The magic of one, needs to enter the other. Two must become one, and to achieve that…one must be sacrificed.”
Amelia felt her chin wobble as her eyes fell shut. “There has to be another way. That can’t be the only way.”
“It is, Amelia,” Lyana urged. “If you don’t, you will both end up taken, lost to this place forever. Like all the rest before you.”
She opened her eyes, finding Lyana again. “Why did you not succeed?”
Her red hair flowed in the absent wind, brushing against the side of her face, eyes flickering. “You can see it yourself by visiting the place where it happened. There is a magical signature left behind that only you and Silas, with your bond, can access. You will see what happened, and you can learn from our mistakes.”
Amelia shut her eyes to process.
She looked back up, shaking her head. “I’m the siphon, right? That’s what that crazy man Demetrius told Silas.”
Lyana seemed to pause, something passing over her face, a reflection of anger or something that ran deeper. But then it was gone.
“Not so crazy,” she said with a shrug of one delicate shoulder.
Amelia scoffed. “That means Silas has to be the sacrifice? How is that fair…that’s it’s just decided like that?”
“It’s not fair,” she said, “but that does not change what is fated to be. Find Bane’s journal, it will explain the ritual, so perhaps…you can survive this, Amelia. Bring the Monolith’s back together, and it will restore magic to its balanced state. It will repair the Rift, and most importantly…it will stop the cycle of bonded pairs falling to the same fate, once and for all.”
Lyana began to dissolve into light, her features slowly softening at the edges and fading away.
“Wait,” Amelia said, panicked, needing so many more answers, needing to fall to her knees and beg for a different solution, a different outcome. “What journal! Wait, don’t leave me!”
“Complete the ritual,” Lyana’s voice said in the same echoing voice, her body now nothing but brightness. “Stop the cycle.”
Her brightness disappeared, and the darkness returned.
Silas stared into the low flames in the hearth, watching them dance while he begged his eyes to remain open.
It was a battle he was in grave danger of losing, lids heavy, his blinks long and arduous.
That was when he heard her.
It was a soft noise, low and steady. And then a sharper sound, like a gasp, cutting through to Silas clearly over the crackling of the fire.
He pushed himself up with an arm, looking towards the dark passageway. Silence fell once more.
He looked to the clock behind him. Still ten minutes until midnight.
He started to settle back on the couch with a deep sigh when he heard it again. An unmistakeable noise of alarm coming from Amelia’s room.
