Page 116 of Crown of Darkness
I don’t recognize the ruins, but that doesn’t mean anything. There are dozens of Hallows in Unseelie.
Hallows are means of transportation, but they don’t open to just any other Hallow. You have to follow the ley lines, unless they’re located at a nexus point—like Ceres—with ley lines crossing to numerous other Hallows.
Slipping and sliding down the slope, I skid across the smooth slate floors of the Hallow.
Curse it.
Each rune has been chiseled from the guardian stones, until all that remains is a hint of copper. I don’t know which Hallow they align with, and several of the Hallows were destroyed during the wars—if I pick the wrong rune, then I might will myself out of existence.
Slamming my palms against them in frustration, I turn to face the fetch as it stalks through the ruins toward me.
“Nowhere to run,” it whispers, and a knife gleams in its hand.
“Who said anything about running?”
There’s one last option remaining.
I reach for the Mother of Night, using all of my power to call to her. “Help me. Please.”
Something dark and alien slips beneath my skin, and when I open my eyes, I could swear I’m seeing through hers. A heartbeat passes. The fetch glides toward me with insolent slowness, as if it knows there’s nothing I can do.
“What do you want, child?”
“I need to get out of here.”
There’s a hesitation. “I don’t grant gifts, Princess.”
“No? Well, if you want to prove to me that you’re a benevolent being, then it starts here!If I’m locked in a cell or dead, then you’ll never get your precious freedom.”
Silence.
“Think,” she whispers. “What weakness does one of the Heartless have?”
My blood and sunlight. But the moon hangs bloated in the sky and dawn is hours away.
“You have the power to move the tides themselves,” she continues callously. “You don’t need the sun to rise, Iskvien. You just need the light.”
I press both palms against the Hallow stones and close my eyes. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know if this will even work.
“Open yourself to the earth beneath your feet,” she says. “Open your mind. Open your heart.”
For a second, it sounds like some sort of rhythmic drumming echoes through the world, but maybe that’s just the echo of my heart.
“You are not just fae, you are also one ofus. We walked these lands when the sun was young and the earth green with new growth. We bled into these soils and bound our lives to the land. We heard the first birds chirp and saw bright scales flicker through our streams. We are everything that makes up the whole of Arcaedia.”
Light flares beneath my hands. It’s working.
“Use your power,” the Mother demands. “Control the Hallow.”
It feels a little like preparing to translocate. Energy wells beneath my feet, and I can feel it shivering through the Hallow stones into my palms. Heat and exhilaration rush through me, like the best kind of orgasm.
I lift my face, light shining through my skin.
I am power.
I am the land.
I am light.
