Page 122 of The Court of Secrets
I turned, looking down at the cloth wrapping. “Thank you, Ian.”
He nodded and handed me the Dagger wrapped in cloth, then left.
Blaise slipped it from my hands, earning himself a glare. He shrugged. “Until the curse is broken, which will be any moment now, you’re still mortal and this”—he waved the Dagger in his hand—“can still send you mad.”
“I’m so happy it’s finally here. I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner.”
His eyebrows wrinkled. “Love, you did right by Magaelor. I will never fault you for it. You saved your people, and I couldn’t be prouder. You became the best half of us.”
I rolled my eyes, tsking. “You have too, bringing the humanity back to most of the feral fae. It seems we both had good in us.”
He chuckled. “Don’t start thinking me a savior.”
I grinned. “Oh, I would never go so far.” I winked and walked us to the altar that had been prepared by Morgana’s sister, an alchemist who’d remained on Inferis until Morgana’s death. My mother, who had become more withdrawn since the spirit realm was destroyed, had decided to go back to Inferis. I’d offered her a place at Court, but she didn’t want to stay. I guessed the memories of André still haunted her at the castle.
Blaise placed the Dagger next to the Sword, Amulet, Crown, and Ring. “Are you ready?”
“I still don’t know if it will work,” I said. “I wish I used the energy from the spirit realm when I destroyed it, to break the curses.”
He gave me a knowing smile. “There is residual energy and a lot of it. The elders were enraged. We can use the emotion left behind.”
My stomach knotted into ribbons. I hoped it would work. I needed it to. Blaise deserved peace, and it was the only thing left standing between us. Pushing my hands into the soil before the alter of wood, I latched onto the energy and felt it as a living thing. Anchoring myself into the ground, I opened my sight, which I had been working on finessing through Morgana’s grimoires and journals. I closed my eyes to align my focus, removing the need to see with my eyes and allowing the images to clear in my mind. I felt their fear and anger course through the ground. I curled my fingers and inhaled deeply, feeling the air fill my lungs. The magic from the energy moved through me as if it were a part of me. My lips tingled. My grief remained in the ground too, as did Adius’s sadness and Neoma’s fear, all residual emotions from that fateful day. Tears leaked through my closed lids, tickling my cheeks as it all consumed me. I steadied myself when it forced me to convulse under the building pressure. I imagined a locked box in my mind and imagined the magic filling it, then closed the lid after.
I exhaled shakily and opened my eyes. Magic coursed through my veins, spiking my heart rate, taking away every ache and pain in each of my muscles until it was gone.
“Are you okay, love?”
I concentrated everything onto the Objects, hovering my hands over them. I recalled the words Blaise and I had practiced many times, going over the pronunciation until I said them perfectly. My voice was light when I uttered the incantation with precision on each curve to the words and change to their accents. Warmth emanated from my body, sparked around me, and dove into the Objects. They rose from the altar, a few inches from the ground. I imagined a snakebite. The magic in me sucked the venom-like curse from the five Objects of Kai. Inky liquid seeped from each of them, moving like the bloodworms in the forest, stretched across the wood, and finally came together into a dark, black-oozing liquid.
“Incendia,” I whispered, and the inky darkness caught alight and swirled into smoke. A breeze swept it away, disappearing it into the sky. The energy fizzled from my body, leaving me lethargic. I whipped my head around, smiling. It had worked.
“Blaise?” My forehead wrinkled. His dark hair tousled in the spring breeze, curling around his crown of silver. The pain from his eyes sizzled away, leaving behind the silvery gray I loved. Burst blood vessels healed, turning the normal bloodshot whites of his eyes brighter than ever. He breathed in and smiled on the exhale. He closed his eyes, rolling his shoulders back, and his nose wrinkled when he smelled the air. I took his hand in mine as the curse lifted.
He opened his eyes and gazed at me, seriousness swallowing his expression. I’d never seen him so focused before; I worried something had gone wrong.
“I’d die for you and live for you, over a thousand lifetimes,” he said.
My eyebrows shot up my forehead. That was intense but my heart raced, as it had years before when he’d told me he couldn’t love, when he’d pushed me away during our dance because he was afraid to love. “I love you so much.”
“I want you to know I will remain at your side no matter what. I’m yours, love,” he said. The intensity in his gaze caught my next breath in my throat. “I will never leave you.”
I touched his cheek and traced my fingers to his lips. I grabbed him by the front of his pants and pulled him closer. My lips brushed against his, and he devoured my gentleness into a deepened need. He held me unlike he had ever done before. There was unrestraint to his kiss.
When he pulled away, a glimmer shone his eyes. “I’m going to have to take you back to the castle.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “First, we should bury these.” I eyed three of the five Objects of Kai. “We only removed the curses on them. If anything, we made them more dangerous. Now anyone can use them without consequence.”
“I’m keeping the Dagger, for Niferum.”
I nodded. It was the right thing to do. The fae deserved the right to be able to end their immortality if they wished. “I’ll send the sword to Berovia, to Cedric.”
Blaise tilted his head. “Speaking of Cedric, how do you feel about letting things go with his brother?”
Anger trembled my hand, but I hid it before he could see. I’d never really be able to forgive him, but I didn’t want to kill him anymore. “Fine. As long as he stays far away from me.”
“Good.”
We turned our heads as a hummingbird flew past us, its wings flicking so fast, they blurred. I smiled. The animals were returning to this part of the forest again. Most had abandoned it when the leaves turned gray—a side effect of the spirit realm dragging the energy from the trees—and the ground filled with dust and bone.
