Chapter 429 (2/2)
Clinging to the sundered spirit, I was dragged upward, away from the body left behind, the palace it rested at the heart of, the country of which it had been king, and the world that had forged the spirit I wouldn’t let go
Time and space opened before us, a reversal of the force that drew me to my bond’s first birth The universe itself see pulled to the side, revealing the stage behind: our world, simple and sleepy and quiet after the noise of Grey’s Earth
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Still firrasp, ere pulled toward that world, toward the skull-shaped continent of Alacrya and a waiting infant, naked and crying on a rune-carved dragon’s skull
But that rong
Arthur wasn’t—couldn’t—be born in Alacrya
Panic slashed throughto hold it back froled to understand But the force of Agrona’s dark claas inexorable I
But I would For hi if I have to
Wrapping myself around the spirit, I focused away from the dark aspect of Alacrya toward distant Dicathen Whatever strength my current forer the ghost of the sht the cos tail whipped the air in tis
“You’ll never have him,” I said, voiceless and eternal “His fate is outside of your dominion”
Our course shi+fted an inch My spectral wings beat Miles slipped away beneath us My long neck strained Dicathen came closer still
The black claw trerona’s spell hadn’t accounted for resistance It struggled to retain course, but the farther away I dragged it, the ed
Dicathen clarified beneath us Sapin flew past Ashber rushed toward us
A wo, and swelling with the silver light of an eht I wasn’t sure why, but it felt right And beside her, a wide grin plastered across his handsome, square-jawed face, was the man whose pride would build up my bond’s life, and whose death would very nearly tear it back down again But that hadn’t happened yet, wouldn’t happen for a long time
Except it already happened Didn’t it?
It was growinglike a sweet scent in the air, calling to me
Inbackwards, being pulled away fro within that auburn-haired woman’s belly was Arthur’s vessel No other would do
My wings beat again, and I ainst the will of ht bitterly But notso hard I worried ed the black claw back toward the house and the baby A silent roar tore out of ain unfolded betweenborn beneathquiet, firm instructions…
The spirit inthe baby
Agrona’s dark claw ic disbursed by the wind of lee and sadness, I watched as Grey’s strong, mature spirit took over and absorbed the infant spirit within the unborn child “I’ht of what I’d had to do “This was the only way”
I wanted to stay, to watch as Arthur grew and learned, to witness him form his core, to experience this part of his life that I hadto nore it Uncertain when it had happened, I had eschewed both ered in so long on Earth, existing now only as my essence
It ith a deep ache that I was pulled away from that baby, that family, that home My spirit drifted eastward toward the h, I was halted by the strangest of sights
A caravan of fa their way up theArthur…
But hoondered It had only been moments, and yet years had passed…
I could only watch helplessly as they were attacked I knehat happened next, but to see it unfold in front of me was different Darker So , it would have come to a stop as Arthur, only four years old, plue to save his ged at his, as I’d done before, trying to hold him up, to arrest his fall But h space and ti him hat little of me there was left, so that at least he was not alone
And then, I felt her So clearly here, so strangely the opposite of my father in every conceivable way
My mother
Her porapped around Arthur’s sround, and I suddenly re to otten, lost myself in the desperation and fear There was so little of my essence left…
I wanted to stay with Arthur, be with hi’s source was so close now, and too strong It filled all hts as it subsu re else
Its indefinable notes were issuing from a cave hidden on the border of the Elshi+re Forest and the Beast Glades I knew that place, and when I saw it, I understood the source of the siren’s song…
The trail of su notes led me down into the cave
Mother…
Despite seeing her, being aware of her presence, it was difficult to focus onVritra aura, but that wasn’t what forcedin her huge hand, was an egg My egg Even in the dilea fro the paradox of ht sleepily The next ht at all, or any other desire beyond wanted to be inside that egg, all curled up, safe, waiting forme back into the world
And so flowed into it There, I rested
Until…
I woke suddenly, confused by s, uncertain what had been real and what had only been a drea me transmitted sensation like a second skin, and I are of it cracking and opening up Light spilled into the tranquil darkness of the egg’s interior I blinked rapidly as a blurry face appeared above me as more of the shell broke away
Slowly, the face ca boy with auburn hair and wide, hopeful azure eyes, was staring down at ain I’d been wrong Arthur was older, not the boy who first hatched eneral and Lance who rode onand severe, but also kind and protective
His face was still fuzzy, though, and I blinked Arthur was still there, but his face was even older Sharper, leaner His azure eyes had turned to liquid gold, and his hair…it was the sa smile curved one corner of his lips
“Welcome back, Sylv”