Page 140 of Witchlight
“Trust me.” A tired, terrifying smile. “The Fury never forgets.” Kullen’s pupils were dilating now. His gaze looking somewhere far, far beyond Merik’s head or even this tomb.
Merik barked another awful laugh. How could this be happening? How could he be losing Kullenagain? Were the first two times not enough? “But how can the Fury haunt me if he is gone? How can I make amends without you here?”
“You already have.” For the first time since Merik had dropped beside him, Kullen’s own grip strengthened. His longer fingers curled into Merik’s as they had done so many times during all those breathing attacks they had fought through together. “And now…” A weak breath. “Everything you have done is returned to you tenfold.”
One last squeeze.
Then came a burst of life, of light, of love and tempests and thunderclaps that had first rung out millennia ago—all of it surged out of Kullen and into Merik. “Safe harbors, my king.”
Kullen’s eyes fell shut. His body went limp. Then it went still, not with sleep but with death, death, the final end and a last embrace from the goddess at the heart of everything.
Ryber sank to Merik’s side. She did not cry as Merik did, but onlychanted—along with every other Sightwitch inside the mountain, now awake and watching.
In the name of Sirmaya, I vow to preserve
All that has come before,
For the past is the only truth.
Once seen, never forgotten. Once heard, never lost.
In the name of Sirmaya, I vow to see
With clear eyes and open mind.
For the world is ever changing,
And the present is the only constant.
In the name of Sirmaya, I vow to protect
The future that is shown
For the Sleeper knows all
The Sleeper dreams all
And there is no changing what is meant to be.
SEVENTY-ONE
Stix wanted to weep, but she couldn’t control anything inside her body. Whatever this ring was that Lovats had—thering she’d never been able to forget—it moved her about like a doll.
He carried her through the city, limp in his arms because he wanted her limp in his arms, and everyone she passed saw nothing more than a powerful man helping a broken woman. Without her spectacles, the people of the city blended into a hundred colors and countless sobs of pleading, of loss, of desperation.
Their Lady Baile had abandoned them. Not by choice, but by force.
Stix remembered Lovats now. Everything. How she had agreed to this—how they all had. Bargains that four of the Six had made, one by one, to protect the different peoples they’d loved. And one by one, Lovats had used their magics to build his city.
Thiscity.
But Kahina,Stix thought.She has her own ring. How?
The question was useless. Even if Stix had an answer, there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She was pain, she was emptiness, and each step that Lovats carried her—thump, thump, thump—splintered her farther apart.
But you have fought this before. She knew she had—she’drememberedit so clearly in the mountain only a few hours ago.What was different now? Why could you push back then?
Because she hadn’t been alone. Owl had been with her—a girl who knew so much more about their past lives than Stix did. Now, Owl wasn’t here. Nor was Kahina.
