Dusk of the Realm

40

"No!" Serena cried, feeling herself thoroughly break from her attempt at composure. "I will not separate from Tarin again!"

She looked at him while she said it, and he appeared crestfallen, staring at Muiress as if hoping that she was about to say something to contradict the plan she had just announced. Her great-grandmother met his gaze and reached up to touch his face with just two fingers, and Serena saw the difference. Tarin's spine straightened, and his eyes went blank. Muiress was showing him something, but Serena did not know what it was. Frustrated even more so now that she was being left out, she started yelling again.

"This is not a good plan. The human world? The last time I was there--"

"You had no knowledge of your past life, and no protection against your enemies," Muiress interrupted her, both her hands now at her sides. Serena narrowed her eyes at her, determined to be as stubbornly rebellious as necessary in order to get her way in this.

"This time you will have one of the best warriors of all time at your side, and you will know exactly who you are. I am more experienced with ancient spells than Eris. I know how to make it so; how to separate you from your magic without also stealing away everything you know and are. The heavens have guided me," the queen finished, her sentences short and to the point. With the way she kept glancing back at the water, Serena knew that their time was nearly up. Her stomach twisted as if she was ill.

"Please," she said, and her voice cracked, almost a sob. Even though she was still angry at Tarin, she found herself stepping forward to clutch at his tunic. "Tarin, please. Don't leave me again. It never works, it never works..."

He was trembling, and the hair on Serena's arms stood on end as his magic created a sort of static around him. She knew her words were getting to him, but he did not respond. Muiress' vision must have been just as powerful.

"Serena," Muiress snapped, sounding impatient for the first time since Serena had ever heard her voice calling out to her. "This is the only plan we have that might work. It is time to put the good of your kingdom before your own desires. Store your magic. Now. Ambrose has already passed his onto Nahla."

Serena looked over her shoulder at the Wolves. Ambrose was back now, and so were all his limbs. She did not know when he had returned, and did not know what sort of magic could possibly have returned the gruesome mess of his body to normal, but she could not spend time questioning it now. If Nahla was the one who had freed him, no wonder he trusted her so quickly; handing his power over to her was reckless and brave at the same time.

Vice and Vex intertwined hands as they watched the scene unfold before them, not looking particularly upset over any of it. Serena supposed they might have been if it were not for the ancient tomes held in the crook of their free arms distracting their minds. The twins held them tightly against their bodies as if they were the things they would save first in the coming attack.

She watched as Dallin tucked away his new, incredibly dangerous steel just before clasping Ambrose in a gruff hug. Birches clapped both warriors on the back, blinking hard, and Serena could tell that he was going to cry. She turned away. She had never been good at goodbyes; no matter how much practice she had gotten.

Feeling a pit of helplessness open up in her stomach, Serena turned to Muiress, then Tarin. Her eyes locked on the latter, and his expression was broken enough for the pit of sorrow in her stomach to gape wider. Still, Muiress was right. She had to be strong. Her heart could afford to break; her kingdom could not.

Without a word, Tarin lifted a hand toward her, his palm raised in offering. She knew what he was proposing, perhaps what he was even expecting. After all, who else would Serena trust enough to give her magic to; the source of her power, a tool to aid in the future of her kingdom, a weapon that would suffocate and kill her if its host was destroyed while she was in the human world.