Chapter 29 The Traitor’s Price
The green light from Kael’s harpoon reflected in my eyes. The bone-ship was falling into Seraphine’s massive, shadow-filled mouth, and the wind was screaming around us like a dying god. I couldn’t believe it. Kael, the man who had fought beside me, was now the one holding the blade to my throat.
"Kael, stop!" I shouted. I pushed the small boy, the young Solis, behind me. "She’s lying to you! Seraphine doesn't want to reset the world for you. She wants to eat it!"
"She showed me the truth, Eara!" Kael’s voice was ragged. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. His eyes were bloodshot and wild. "Every time you 'save' the world, millions of people die. My sisters are gone because of your Weaver games. My city is a graveyard because you couldn't let a king die!"
"I was trying to fix it!" I felt a surge of hot anger. How could he blame me for the darkness Seraphine had built? "I didn't ask for this power! I didn't ask to be the one holding the threads!"
"Then let go!" Kael lunged.
The green-tipped harpoon hissed through the air. I dove to the left, the tip of the weapon slicing through the shoulder of my dress. The wood beneath us was turning to black ash. We were seconds away from being swallowed by the red-eyed shadow below.
I have to fight back, I thought. If I don't, Solis dies. If Solis dies, the sun never comes back.
I didn't use a thread. I didn't use magic. I tackled Kael.
We rolled across the slippery, bone-carved deck. He was much stronger than me, but I was faster. I grabbed his wrist, trying to twist the harpoon out of his hand. He slammed his elbow into my ribs, knocking the wind out of me. I gasped, my vision going dark for a second, but I didn't let go.
"She promised me a world without magic!" Kael wheezed, pinning me down. He raised the harpoon high, the green light glowing brighter. "A world where men rule themselves! No more dragons! No more Weavers! No more gods!"
"There will be nothing but her!" I spat, my hands shaking as I held back his arm. "She is the Hunger, Kael! Look at her!"
I pointed toward the horizon or what was left of it. Seraphine’s face was everywhere. She was the sky. She was the ground. Her red eyes were laughing as the ship plummeted toward her throat.
"I don't care!" Kael roared. "If I have to live in a void to be free of you, then so be it!"
He put all his weight into the strike. The harpoon came down toward my chest.
Suddenly, a small, golden hand grabbed the shaft of the weapon.
Solis. The boy was standing there, his tiny face glowing with a power that made the air hum. The green light of the harpoon flickered and died as his golden energy touched it.
"Don't hurt her," the boy said. His voice wasn't a child's anymore. It was deep, echoing with the strength of a thousand years.
Kael froze. He looked at the boy, then at me. For a second, the madness in his eyes cleared. He saw the child, the innocent version of the king he hated.
"Solis?" Kael whispered.
"I am the Sun," the boy said. "And you are a shadow that has forgotten where it belongs."
The boy didn't strike Kael. He simply touched Kael’s forehead with one finger.
Kael screamed. It wasn't a scream of pain but of memory. I saw images flash in the air between them: Kael’s sisters laughing, a city made of gold, and a world where the Weaver and the King were friends. The boy was showing him the original timeline, the one before Seraphine broke it.
Kael fell back, dropping the harpoon. He curled into a ball on the deck, sobbing. "I... I remember. Oh, gods, I remember."
"Eara!" Solis turned to me. He looked older now, his body stretching, his hair growing longer. He was changing back into the man I loved, right before my eyes. "The ship is gone. We have to fly."
"I don't have wings anymore!" I shouted.
"You don't need them," he said. He grabbed my hand. "We are the Loom now. Weave the air!"
I closed my eyes. I didn't look for the black or the gold. I looked for the bread. I found the threads of the wind and the threads of the light. I tied them together, creating a platform of solid silver beneath our feet.
We jumped from the deck just as the bone ship was swallowed by the black mouth.
We floated in the darkness, standing on a bridge of light. Seraphine’s laughter shook our bones. She was all around us, a storm of red and black.
"You can't hide in a dream forever, children!" her voice thundered. "The Hunger is real! The Hunger is now!"
Suddenly, the bridge of light began to crack. I looked down and saw that the threads were turning red. Seraphine wasn't attacking us; she was infecting our magic.
"She’s taking the bridge!" I yelled.
Solis looked at me. His eyes were fully gold now, and his face was the face of the man who had died in the cathedral. "Eara, there's only one way to stop her. We have to go into the center. We have to find the original heart."
"It was destroyed!"
"No," he said, pointing toward the back of Seraphine’s throat. "She didn't destroy it. She swallowed it. She is the heart now."
We flew toward the red glow in the distance. But as we got closer, a wall of white fire blocked our path.
A man stepped out of the flames. He was wearing royal armor, but his face was a blur of shifting features. One moment he was my father, the next he was the Collector, and the next he was a stranger.
"The pattern must be completed," the man said.
He didn't use a sword. He held up a pair of golden shears, the same ones the First Weaver had used.
"Only one of you can leave this place," the man said. "The King or the Weaver. One must be cut so the other can live."
He looked at me, then at Solis.
"Choose," the man commanded. "Or I will cut both."
Solis stepped in front of me, his hand going to the hilt of a sword made of sunlight. "I'll stay. Let her go."
"No!" I grabbed his arm. "I'm the one who started this! I stay!"
The man laughed and raised the shears. "The Hunger doesn't want a volunteer. It wants a sacrifice."
He lunged forward, the blades snapping shut toward Solis’s neck. At the same moment, I felt a sharp, cold blade pierce my back.
I turned my head. Kael was standing behind me, his eyes dead and black. He hadn't recovered. He was a puppet.
"The Queen says... both," Kael whispered.
He twisted the knife in my spine.