Page 87 of Savage Crown
“Creator, see me,” I said, because saying nothing felt wrong. “Receive her and keep her always,” I begged him.
‘Bless you, daughter,’she said, her voice a whisper, but her energy engulfed me, cocooning me in a mother’s love.
I lifted Valkaryn over my head, and a sob burst from my throat. I put every ounce of strength I had into the downstroke.Valkaryn’s steel bit the stone, and the white seam accepted her. A low sound like a lion roaring went through the mountain.
Pressure built up in my arms, and my vision went white at the edges. I kept my hands on the hilt. The blade slid another inch into the seam and stuck.
‘More,’Val said, the word bright with pride.
I pushed, heaving all of my weight onto her hilt, tucking it under my ribcage and grunting, driving the blade deeper. The seam widened around the metal as if it had been waiting for this shape. Light rose from the cleft, then the rock swallowed her whole, and I pitched forward, falling onto my hands and knees.
She was gone.
The mountain rumbled, shaking violently, and I screamed because my hands were now on the green stone and shocks ran up my arms and settled in my teeth.
‘Brynn…’Valkaryn’s voice found me somehow. ‘Tell Kaelric I saw him become the man I prayed he’d live long enough to be.’
“I will,” I sobbed, as the stone beneath my hands heated up.
‘And you,’she said; the light rose again, and she was everywhere.‘You were the best choice I ever made.’
I let go. I couldn’t touch the stone any longer. My palms were scorched. Valkaryn’s bright purple light shot out from the stone, and everything went black.
Chapter Twenty
Iwoke to a familiar smell. Pine. Leather. Wolf.Kaelric.
“Brynn,” he said, his voice scraped raw.
His arms were around me, and we were outside the cave. I peered around to see that over twenty trees outside the cave had fallen over with the force of some blast.
He lifted me as if I were precious and held me close to his chest as his heart thundered under my ear. The moon’s light bathed us in her glow.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded. “It’s done,” I said. “But… she’s gone.” I couldn’t hold back the tears.
He held still, no doubt processing my words. Then he breathed out, and the breath shook his entire body. His cheek pressed to my hair.
“I felt her go,” he said, wonder and sorrow mixed.
“You did?”
He nodded. “The world feels quieter now.”
He carried me out onto the path and down the side of the mountain. Only when we reached the bottom did Kaelric set me on my feet. He kept one arm around me and looked at my empty hands.
“She went to Him,” I said.
We stood there with the mountain behind us and the world in front. He then leaned in and kissed my temple.
“Let’s go home,” he said at last.
“Weshouldgo home,” I added, but gave him a look.
He sighed. “You want to go to Aerlyn and check on them, don’t you?”
Elites suddenly without magic? They would panic, there would be chaos, and innocents might be hurt. I wasn’t naive enough to think that every Elite deserved cruelty. And Cassian went to visit his family there soon after the elections had taken place for a new leader. What if he was caught in the fray?
