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The moment Gabriel Jumped Val and Orion into the tower of the Whein, the building began to crumble. The marble floors quaked the castle from the bottom up.
"What's happening?" Gabriel asked, watching as the vision blurred since the building was about to turn to dust.
"Probably cause we're not supposed to be here," Valeria heard Orion say as her gaze fixated on the podium in the middle of the room. The diadem was rotating in middle air from the base, emitting an emerald shine.
"It's beautiful," she admitted.
"What is?" Gabriel asked.
"The diadem," she said matter-of-factly.
"What are you talking about?" Gabriel asked, I don't see — "
"You didn't finish your HALT time. You're not on the scoreboard," Orion informed, the green hue dimming in his eyes.
"So, what do I do?" Valeria stammered. "Do I just grab it?"
Gabriel and Orion exchanged looks.
"Sure," Orion guessed. "Yeah, try that."
Valeria heard voices in the back of her head, swirling, too many voices to keep track or make out what they were saying. But the more she walked towards the diadem, the louder and more clear they became. The sound of her heart deepened into her chest, like millions of times before but it didn't feel quite the same. No, it felt warm, comforting.
When she approached the podium, the diadem stopped spinning, as if feeling her presence. Shades of green clouded her sight before it could even touch her hand. Her fingertips hovering around the edge of the tiara sent chills down her skin, the hairs on her knuckles raising, gravitating towards it.
Picking it up, the light vanished as she placed it atop her head.
She chuckled, "How does it look?"
She hadn't realized once the diadem had been placed on her body, that the castle had ceased to obliterate. And when she turned towards the boys, they weren't there. Instead she was greeted by a young woman, with bleached blonde and soft pink hair, and tattoos across her chest that travelled along her arms. "Mom?"
"Damn," Leah looked her up and down. She stood in the middle of the room in a tank top and pajama shorts. "Stuntin' on a dead woman, you were always such a show off, Valley."
Valeria felt her throat tighten, "What are you doing here?"
She shrugged, "I saw an opening and wanted to see my girl."
"But you," she paused. "I can fully see you. You look ... real."
"Aw baby," Leah rushed over to wrap her arms around her daughter who was on the brink of tears. "You didn't think you got necromancy from your dad, did you?"
Valeria laughed through her tears.
"Come here, mija," she said, taking the diadem from Valeria's hair, placing it in her hands. "You need to let your power in, Valley. Shutting it away only makes it want to escape even more."
"But I don't like how it feels — "
"How does this feel?"
Valeria caught herself, "Great."
Leah gave her a warm smile, "Now go save this world."
"Wait!" Valeria grabbed her mother's arm before she could leave. "I — There's so much I wanna ask."
Leah took Valeria's cheek in her hand, kissing her forehead. "We'll talk when you wake up."
"But Mom — " In the blink of her eyes, her mother was gone, and she felt Gabriel and Orion trying to break her from a trance.
"Val, what are you doing? Let's go!" Valeria put the diadem in Gabriel's hands, watching him Jump to wherever Tessa was. Orion took the necklace from his pants pocket, running his watch across to scan the necklace, the pixels forming into a replica of the diadem.
"It's exactly the same," Valeria mentioned.
"Yeah, we better go before the roof caves in."
They darted for the nearest staircase. Ducking from falling rubble and stones, Valeria felt her body jerk forward as they made their way down the last of many. Hearing a crash, she looked over her shoulder to see Orion lying on his stomach, not far from a boulder-like stone hole in the ceiling.
"Thanks," Valeria breathed.
"No problem, " he stood up.
She followed as they ran through the corridors of the castle, trying to find the exit. Valeria bumped into his back when he stopped. "What are you doing?"
"Please tell me that's no the entrance," she followed his gaze at the force field that was slowly unraveling at the front of the castle.
They didn't have time to meet each other's eyes before the dashed for the door. The closer and closer they got, the more Valeria felt more far away. She could see the dock. She could see the line of people awaiting their chance at the diadem; a chance she stole from all of them in order to save her sister's life.
"Go, go go!" She heard Orion yell, seeing the people huddled around the entrance cheering them on, wanting them to not get trapped.
Valeria dove for the light, hearing the shield close off. She fell onto her back, scrapping her left shoulder. But all she could see was the white-teethed smile on Orion's face.
"We did it!'"
She laughed as he drew her into a hug. "Orion look," she said before it could even process that a sunrise arose in the distance.
"Whoa, is that?" She heard someone say.
Orion snapped from his gaze, standing up, "Yeah."
She watched as Orion placed the diadem atop his head.
"I am Orion, Earl of Nazareth," he projected. "Keeper of the Diadem."
The crowd waited a moment. Valeria grew wary of their silence just before they raised their wrists into the air. Their watches on their wrists shot up, in a green hue.
"Orion, Earl of Nazareth" they chanted. "Keeper of the Diadem. Winner of the game we call Sweven."
Valeria was happy that the plan worked, but that was supposed to be her.
