Playlist:
Ruelle – War of Hearts
Taylor Swift- Enchanted
Alessia Cara- Wild Things
Britney Spears- 3
Taylor Swift – Dancing with Our Hands Tied
Halsey – Young God
JP Saxe, Julia Michaels – If the World was Ending
Zac Efron, Zendaya – Rewrite the Stars
The Chainsmokers – Paris
Selena Gomez- The Heart Wants What It Wants
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the words. Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight series, and the songs belong to their respective people.
*PG-13/R*
War of Hearts
When the alarms rang out, Edward watched as Bella's feet touched the floor. Gone was the neon-blue glow; her irises flared golden and warm. They stood in sharp contrast to the void of black that writhed through where the whites of her eyes should have been.
Marcos was crowding his family away from the living room and the balcony as an earthquake wrecked the kitchen; the bed was still on fire in front of Edward. Foliage crept across the cracking floor from the balcony, huge roses on the vines.
Edward didn't care. The whole Attic could've blown apart and he wouldn't have noticed.
Bella was projecting her thoughts telepathically.
...the darkness is coming...
She looked around the Attic, before she shook her head and put her hands over her ears, the sound of the alarms foreign and disorienting to her.
He could hear her. He let the shocked awe overtake him. He focused on her quickly, trying his best to push back mentally, to reach her. Her mental voice was butterfly wings: soothing and musical, soft rhythms of thought that quietly thrummed through his telepathic senses. Bella's thoughts faded in and out of his senses like she was on the edge of his range.
A faint sensation of confusion reached him, distant fragments of whole thoughts as Bella registered her surroundings.
...Where had the light gone?...
...
...No!...
Bella danced towards the balcony on tiptoes as she walked delicately, testing the ground before putting her weight on it; her footsteps were soundless. Marcos grabbed for him as he followed her past the inferno consuming the mattress, but a spike of sharp sandstone shot through the floor that nearly cut the commander's arm off.
Edward would have broken it anyway; he had to be near her.
When Bella looked out over Camp, she flinched, turning quickly and striking out at him like a wild thing.
...Protect!...
His palm tingled as he intercepted her and grabbed her wrist. He crowded her against the railing; if she wanted to escape, she would have to go past him. He met her eyes, discarding his family's telepathic shouts for him to return to safety.
"Bella?"
...?…
There was a sensation of acknowledgement. She had heard him speak out loud.
"Bella, it's me. Come back, Bella. Be here with me."
She looked at him curiously for a long moment as the cataclysm raged in the Attic. A shadow fell across the balcony, and Bella turned around to look at the throne platform like she had a thousand times before. He tightened his grip on her, afraid she would slip further away to that mental place he could not go. Instead, her thoughts rang clearer suddenly.
Adeline. Fiore.
She turned her disoriented gaze to look at him again. His Bella looked at him, he could see her behind consumed eyes. He felt adrenaline-laced hope flood through him at the half-suggested thought that was forming in Bella's mind.
...Edward?
MINE!
He couldn't help his flinch, pulling her towards him at the screeching alien thought that burned his telepathic senses, drowning out Bella's soft thoughts. He lost her again; she jerked free of him violently.
As suddenly as her focus had sharpened on him, it faded. Her eyes went back to the throne platform. Outside Camp's entrance, the moon was turning orange as it descended, casting light through darkening clouds that tinged three thrones in shadow.
"They died, Bella. Adeline and Fiore are dead because of the Master. He killed them."
She stroked the mirror shard through the pocket of her dress. Her response was distracted and distant, her thoughts elsewhere.
"Of course they are. So are you. You died a long time ago, before the darkness came. I killed them. I killed you, too."
The vines around him grew thorns; his family was fleeing the Attic as it began to hail small stones and dust from the ceiling. The gravity that held the books to their shelves failed.
Remember that you are water.
The cast in Bella's thoughts rang with magick and incredible power. The waterfall falling from the edge of the floating throne platform doubled in size in an instant, making the air on the balcony go misty with water droplets. Edward braced himself in the doorway, ignoring the creeping vines that blanketed the French doors. The windspeed was intense.
"Bella, my love. I'm not dead."
The vines he made contact with in the doorway crept along his hands and wrists, reaching to trap him. He was forced to balance without the aid of the doorframe to avoid their strong hold. Edward was trying hard to trust her, but she wasn't making sense. He had to work to keep his panic at bay; Bella didn't need to pick up on it.
Remember that you are fire.
"You didn't hurt me, Bella. Please—you have to believe me."
Lightning flashed through the night, and the darkening clouds cleared a path for the moon to shine on the waterfall crashing down past Camp from the platform next to them. Steam began to pour from the water. The green blanket of plants had reached the bed and grown past it. Now, the vines that crept up the wall behind the futon left black trails of scorched stone, glowing red hot as they tried to outrace the intense heat that consumed them. She didn't even hear him.
Remember that you are air.
"Bella, please -"
A scream tore through the Camp from somewhere in the courtyard of the Castle. The citizens below were flooding to the Arena for shelter; it was the only place left in Camp that wasn't shaking. The gardens that bordered the paths to the Arena were thickening, running wild. Soldiers fought to clear the paths, gathering in defensive groups.
Remember that you are earth.
He couldn't tell what the cast was going to do, just that it would be drastic. He reached for Bella's hand, off-balance as the earth bucked and rolled. Bella didn't turn from the throne platform. He was almost touching her, close enough to feel her warmth.
Remember that you are spirit.
She spoke to him, met his eyes with her kaleidoscopic ones as her feet lifted off the balcony. "The magicks will know the truth. They will show me which one is real, this place or the other."
So mote it be.
He fell at exactly the wrong time, losing even his vampiric balance as the balcony beneath him cracked in two. Simultaneously, there was a louder crack; one that ripped through the air.
Bella flew gracefully to the edge of the throne room. The platform was descending out of its impossible orbit around the Castle, the waterfall still steaming as the balcony fell from the sky. The crack had been the sandstone that formed the center platform of the Arena; it was breaking away from the path to float delicately below the throne platform's destination.
Edward couldn't run fast enough, pushing his family out of his way where they argued with Marcos at the top of the stairs. Edward was fast, but his family and Marcos managed to keep him in sight as he raced through the gardens and down the path from the still-shaking Castle entrance to the Arena.
Right before he reached the gap that he would have to leap to reach the throne platform, a panicked Kaedra had erected a hasty blockade with a small force of guards.
"What the fuck happened? No, screw that, there isn't time. There are Shades in the Castle. Someone saw a whole nest of them in the courtyard, at least three. The foul creatures must have snuck in during our hasty retreat from the Borderlands. Glow is made from the blood of Shades; that's how Izzy got poisoned. I bet it was one of the nobles."
"Not that it matters, we're all dead anyway. I've formed a perimeter around the throne platform, but I don't know what we'll do if she loses it right now. The Arena is a designated shelter, like the dining hall. Trust Izzy to outsmart our defensive plans while half out of her mind. We're hunting the Shades, for all the good it will do. We need to get her out of here, push her back towards the Castle. There's a place, in the basement. If we can get her there, we'll be safe."
Bella was distracted by the soldiers surrounding her. She was...quiet, if not calm; Bella was ready for an attack and confident in her ability to stop anyone who stood between her and her unknown goal. Her head cocked to the side quizzically as she looked at him from across the gap. The sensation of a question reached him again.
...why are you here?...
Edward swallowed. If Camp's soldiers mounted a defense against Bella right now, she would slip away from him. Edward dreaded the thought of the damage the Master could wreak on Camp with Bella's power. He was fully aware of the sharp edge of the risk he was taking, the weight of his decision at that moment. It was the difference between life and death.
"Bella doesn't want to hurt anyone. She...she's still her, Kaedra. I can hear her, in my head."
Bella's regent narrowed her eye at him, an evaluating glare that was interrupted by the rush of panicked people fleeing towards the Arena from the earthquake.
"It's not like there are many options right now. Don't let her go, Edward. You won't get her back."
She stood aside, ordering the soldiers to let him closer. Marcos and his family caught up to them. Marcos was already shouting orders to stop the efforts to shelter in the Arena, his eyes flashing as the alarms turned silent.
Enchanted
The throne room platform was a sacred space. It remained locked in its orbit away from casual use, and Edward and the Cullens were not the only ones who had never seen its interior. All that could be seen of the grand open-air balcony from Camp proper were the three intimidating thrones that stood at one end of the platform and the wide marble pillars that stretched into the sky. Some of the guards were gawking; as Edward passed them, he could see why.
Edward immediately noticed the inlaid image on the marble floor: impossibly shining stained-glass forming the impression of each of the five elements, contained within a huge steel pentagram outlined on the floor. Earth was a rich emerald green; like Alice's dress for the gala. The glass it was made of moved slowly, dancing in the pattern of leaves. Water was curling ocean waves in a royal blue, and from this element the waterfall manifested, carving its path and crashing over the edge. Air was a much lighter blue and expressed by waving lines of glass that shined white. Wind twisted around the Arena, lazily cooling all the Fae on the platforms nearby with a cool kiss. Spirit had rich purples and navy in a swirling, starry galaxy pattern that made Edward dizzy if he looked at it too long. Fire burned brightly with lines of yellow, orange, and red; the colors were made even more vivid by the soft light of magic that shimmered up like heat waves.
To the left of the pentagram stood the slightly elevated stage where the three thrones sat. The thrones were exactly equal, in a row facing the pentagram on the floor. The one in the middle was a golden seat, taller and leaner than the other two. The two at the ends were made of rich wood; all three were too intricate to have been formed by anything other than magick.
To the right of Bella's seat was a wide mahogany and oak throne with short dragon-shaped pillars on either side; fire burned in dishes on top of the two pillars. The emblem at the top was round, with an image of a scarab in the middle; the symbol of the Salem line.
Closest to him was a winged throne, rich in cherry and oak. The curved arms of this throne were distinctly feminine, and it was slightly wider than the other two because of its emblem: a massive set of wings in the shape of a Phoenix rising. A small seal was inlaid in the center of the wings. It was a crescent moon rising over a simplified horizon line: the Smith crest.
The golden throne in the center captured most of Edward's attention. It was simpler than the other two, and distinctly Bella's style. It was round, with no emblem but instead two panels of metal attached to the seat that made wide crescent shapes. Stamped at the head of the throne was a complicated Celtic knot, the symbol of the Swan bloodline.
Edward braced himself, jumping across the gap just as Bella pulled the mirror shard from her dress pocket.
He landed just behind Bella's throne, on a small lip of marble floor; his bones immediately started vibrating with power thrumming up from the marble platform. The world was suddenly quieter; further away from his perception. He took an instinctive step back, his heels catching on the gap of open air. He teetered only a moment over the long fall to the cavern floor before Bella shifted and caught him.
She pulled him back into place with one hand; the mirror shard was clutched to her chest with the other. For just one moment, they were close; they were face to face and focused on each other. Edward knew that his eyes were wide; he could see them reflected in Bella's consumed ones. The tears on her face left stains of black tar. When she released him, she put a finger to her lips.
Shhh...don't wake the magicks yet.
He nodded, moving to follow Bella as she crept towards the center of the pentagram where the elements mingled; she balanced on the steel lines that marked the boundaries of each element. She held out a hand behind her, motioning for him to stop at the outermost curved steel edge. When she was a few feet away from the center of the star, she paused; she looked back at him gently before she focused on the mirror shard in her grasp.
She ran her fingers over its surface, making it shimmer. An echo of laughter floated on the wind. The Arena was still crowded, but there was an expectant hush in the air; the chaotic evacuation procedures stilled.
...Remember...
When Bella threw the mirror shard into the center of the pentagram; light flared. The cavern flashed; every Fae and vampire watching had to shield their eyes from the brightness.
Edward opened his eyes to find that everything had changed.
Bella was in a plain white gown, blood spattering the hem. A simple halter held the dress around Bella's neck, the long skirt covering her plain bare feet and scars exposed for all to see. She was completely unembellished, her hair braided simply to keep it away from her face. She had shifted to her golden throne, perched lightly on the seat with her legs crossed at the knee. Her eyes were still consumed with warring black and gold, but her face was clean of the strange overflow of the Master's aura that had stained her cheeks with black tears. The image she presented was striking, one Edward knew he would never forget.
Edward stood in front of her, sideways on the edge of the platform near the pillars, between Bella and the pentagram. On the platforms floating around them, Fae were gathering curiously. Even the Fae who had already been ushered away were crowding back into the Arena. Edward could see his family gathered across the platform and the gap; he watched their serrated panic fade into wonder and shock.
Bella's voice rang out in the stillness from the brightly glowing mirror shard; it levitated in the center of the pentagram like a key in a lock. When Bella's voice filled the Arena, she was telling a story.
A fairytale, Edward thought hysterically.
His Bella stiffened on the edge of her throne, giving the pentagram her full attention. The echo of her voice began slowly, speaking softly and reflectively; it was a musing set of tones that filled the silent and expectant space.
"Among the Fae, there are three royal bloodlines, two of which are recessive. Salem, Swan, and Smith have the sacred duty to serve their people as rulers; they are trained for this purpose from the time they express their magick. The Smith and Swan lines express magickal power only every now and then, and when they do, their claim to the throne is stronger than that of the Salem line. Never have the two recessive lines expressed magic within the same generation- until you were born. Three royal heirs were born, destined to compete for the right to rule: Adeline Smith, Fiore Salem, and Isabella Swan. Only, well, the Royal Three were never very good at following the rules. Your name is Isabella Swan, and this is where your story begins."
An echo shimmered into existence in the center of the pentagram, lined in the multi-colored light from the stained glass beneath it. The girl was small for eight years old. Her eyes were doe-brown that shined with sultry gold; loneliness filled them as the scene around her grew more solid.
Edward took in the familiar eyes of his lover as she fluttered through flashes of scenes that never fully formed around her. The elements of the pentagram flared and dimmed as they responded to the scenes flashing by. The echoed Bella grew rapidly until she was about thirteen, suddenly becoming clear as the glitch built a single scene around her.
Bella's words came back to the front of Edward's mind, more foreboding than comforting as the glitch formed.
...the magicks will know the truth...
The glitch flashed around them on the floor, and somehow Edward could see all of it no matter how he moved his head; it remained whether he opened or closed his eyes.
The scene was another meaningless political gala, and Edward instantly hated the excessively gilded ballroom where the younger Bella stood, alone save for the handlers and guards at her side. Her long mahogany hair was in a complicated updo, and she wore a modest gold gown that ended at her knee. The girl's back was visible through the gown, still unscarred.
He spied Josephat in the glitch of the crowded ballroom, strange looking with his rough beard and in a tux; the echo of a woman was hanging on his arm affectionately. The real Josephat stood just across the gap with Kaedra, Marcos, and his family.
The younger Bella was in the middle of welcoming the individual bloodline leaders, though her smile was just for show; it was impersonal and stiff. Out of the corner of his eye, Edward saw a flash of the hem of a floaty red dress, and echo-Bella saw it too, following it curiously with her head as it disappeared around an archway.
A stiff dance started. The echo-Bella approached the girl in the extravagant red dress, embracing the girl in a distant waltz hold.
…Adeline…
As the echo of the dance played on, Adeline and Bella stepped closer and closer to one another, genuine pleasure on each of the pre-teens' faces as they conversed softly, their voices still muffled. The ballroom faded and blurred as the two girls danced, only their light-traced echoes staying in focus.
The glitch held his Bella's full attention from her seat on the golden throne and Edward shared her fascination. He recalled his first conversation in Biology with Bella: so different, and yet, the same.
The echoing dance came to an end and the girls reluctantly let their arms fall, standing across from each other silently for a moment as the ballroom sharpened in clarity. A steward called to the echo-Bella, motioning her away from her companion and towards Josephat's stiff form.
There was another blinding flash of light from the pentagram.
They were looking into young-Bella's bedroom at the School, in the wee hours of the morning. Bella was still dressed in the modest golden gown she had worn to the gala; the dress gleamed in the moonlight as his young lover paced. After a few moments, the younger Bella threw up her hands, exasperated by her silent thoughts. She grabbed a violin case from the floor next to the door and headed down a gilded hallway towards the music rooms.
His Bella's thoughts drifted to him from her throne. I remember...I remember this. This is who I am—Isabella Swan. I am that girl in these echoes. That's Adeline, she was standing right there. We danced at the gala far from here, at..at the School. I remember this. It was so long ago now...so long before the darkness came. How did I forget this?
The music room was abandoned in the dead of night. Bella went straight to the private practice rooms at the back of the hall. She played her violin with passion, eyes closed and swaying to the melody of her unfinished composition.
Suddenly, the younger Bella opened her eyes, pausing in her song for a moment as isolated piano notes rang into her ears - a muffled accompaniment from the practice room adjacent to hers. Echo-Bella's annoyance flashed across her features; then she seemed to stop herself, listening to the melody of the piano. She took up her bow and began to accompany the piece, improvising on the spot. There was more passion on her face than before; the music she made with Adeline was exceptional, bursting with energy and joy.
Her bow got faster and faster, her eyes roving behind closed lids until a golden glow consumed the young girl's eyes. She threw down the instrument haphazardly, rushing for the door. When she fumbled the door open, Edward caught a glimpse of red hair disappearing out of the music hall, a slim feminine figure running out the door in a rush.
Echo-Bella took a step towards the door, but a steward flashed from nowhere. He grabbed Bella's arm and scolded her as the sun rose through the window. Her handler led her in the opposite direction from the way the figure had gone. As she was ushered away, Bella craned her head behind her, trying to see Adeline again. The hallway behind her was empty.
Stewards dressed her quickly and escorted her to a grand council chamber; it was different from the one in the Castle, even more imposing and cold. The familiar faces of the bloodline nobles stood in small groups in the room, obviously awaiting an event of some kind.
As the ceremony began, young-Bella approached the head of the council chamber. When the nobles moved away—There! In a shimmering silver ballgown: the red-haired girl from the dance and the music hall. Edward felt projected excitement, anticipation, and wonder fly through him from where his Bella sat just out of his view.
The two girls approached each other more quickly than their handlers meant for them to, and echo-Bella paused briefly before she shyly reached to caress the girl's freckled face. When the younger Adeline smiled at her, gently encouraging, Bella's echo pulled her in for a scorching first kiss, crushing her own body to the slim girl in the silver dress. The ghostly nobles panicked around them, quickly fading away into a bright orb of nothingness that hovered over the pentagram.
Wild Things
...I remember this. I remember more, now, of who I was. She's Adeline. Fiore will come soon. And you...You're Edward. You're Important.
Edward could have sworn his heart let loose a pounding beat, just once. He immediately turned towards the thrones to give his Bella his full attention, nodding at her eagerly.
...I couldn't share this with you before. Could I?
Edward's eagerness gentled. He shook his head slowly, his voice a whisper for her ears only. "The Silence...you couldn't."
...The Silence...Master...
The blackness in her eyes leapt forward, and Edward jolted towards her. She held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks.
Stop! It's dangerous; the darkness is near... but I know now. I wanted to share this. I wanted you to know it. It's why I built the story the way I did, at least part of why. It's why I wrote this spell; in case the darkness came again and I... I fell. Would fall. Have fallen? Time is all jumbled up in my head. Still ...I wanted everyone to know...that we were happy, before. Before he came, we were happy.
The echo caught her attention again as the pulsing light in the center of the pentagram threw a half-formed echo of young-Bella and Adeline giggling through a group meditation. Bella spoke to him in her thoughts distractedly, a commentary for him alone.
...One of my teachers used to say that it was impossible to lead a people that you weren't at least a little bit in love with. I always liked that; it sounds so right to me. I made a good try of it on my own; I snuck off a lot. I had always found myself falling in love with the Fae through unsanctioned opportunities and unsupervised adventure. I fell in love with the Fae in backrooms and bars, in merchant stalls and crowded streets. I fell in love with Havana through wanderings in the wilderness and long afternoons at the Library. But it was even easier to fall in love with my people and my kingdom once Addy was by my side...
A few months flashed by; they were half-formed echoes that blurred across the pentagram.
...We were isolated at School. I blew away the grading curve because of my affinities, and Addy was gifted with affinities in Air and Earth. I think you called me a trouble magnet, once... Well, I was a trouble magnet, even then. I couldn't help it. I didn't like watching things happen and not being able to fix them, or not knowing why things were the way they were. It seemed I always moved faster than everyone else, and I got bored easily. Adeline was the only one who could keep up. It wasn't long before we came up with something to fill our free time...
The echoes solidified into a cohesive glitch, a new scene. Adeline and Bella were hiking a mountain; other students stretched down the mountain behind them in scattered groups. There was only one student ahead of them, and her dark hair and startling-blue eyes were familiar.
Alexandra Ipswitch.
Adeline and Bella pushed through the rough terrain, playing off each other's strengths seamlessly as they approached a cliff overlooking the valley. They took in the view as they waited for the other students to catch up, giving Alexandra a spirited high-five for beating them.
The two echoed girls were quiet, taking in the view before they were interrupted by a tussle coming into focus behind them. A group of their classmates was pushing Alexandra towards the edge of the cliff with cruel laughter and jeers falling from their lips.
"An air affinity who's afraid of heights? Come on squirt, take off and fly!"
Bella threw a small pebble at them that bounced off the leader's forehead. "Hey! Knock it off. Don't be mean just 'cause Alex is twice the earth affinity you are. God, Demetri, you're such a bully. You guys are a class ahead of us, aren't you supposed to be more mature and stuff?"
The boys backed off as their teacher broke up the scuffle, Demetri shooting Bella a withering look. After a quiet moment, young-Bella turned to her red-haired companion.
"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout, Addy-lacky?"
"I was just thinking about that book that 'Tuss showed us; the restricted one with the Stories. I mean, Destiny giving the Fae the blessings to guard? I keep trying to imagine what the world was like before Havana was formed. Why do only the bloodlines get magicks?"
"Jeez. When did you get so deep?"
"Oh, come on Isabelle. Aren't you curious what our destiny is?"
"I guess. Sometimes." Bella shrugged, nonchalantly stretching her legs out against a nearby boulder. She didn't look at Addy when she spoke. "I met her once—Destiny. It was...weird. I don't care what my destiny is, I just want to be a good ruler."
Addy took Bella's hand as they abandoned the overlook and started their descent of the mountain.
"You met Destiny? You probably shouldn't tell people that, they'll gossip more than they already do. What was she like?"
"She was pretty! ...in a really strange way. She was nice, but I felt like she could be mean, if she needed to, you know? Sharp teeth." Bella made fangs with her small hands near her mouth, her expression dreadful. "But she was cool. She said she was giving me a gift and kissed my forehead. I fell asleep, then. I didn't wake up till the search party found me."
The terrain started to get rocky, almost impassable; Bella and Addy separated, jumping from boulder to boulder.
"Well, what'd she give you?"
"I dunno. She didn't say."
"It was probably your affinities. You know, we should try to find the blessings! Then we'd be strong enough to stop the bullies."
"Yeah! Then those idiots wouldn't mess with someone we like, 'cause we'd get mad."
"There we go, that's our destiny. See? Adults make this stuff so complicated."
"Right now, my destiny is to beat you down this mountain! See you at the bottom, Addy!" Bella levitated a few inches off the boulder she had just jumped to, taking off from the trail into the sparse forest around them.
"Hey, not fair! I can't fly yet!" Addy's levitation was much shakier, and her flight was jolted and slow as she flew after Bella.
The echo flashed, light pulsing over the pentagram.
3
...We went after the blessings with all our focus, and after weeks of research we found a solid lead. But the path to the mountain that was missing from the official maps was treacherous, more than some school kids' hike. We needed help, and everyone knew who at School spent the most time in those mountains- Fiore Salem...
"I found him!" Adeline's excited voice pulled Edward's attention back to the glitch as the light faded enough to make out the echoes.
The red-haired echo had grown even in the short time between glitches, tall enough now that she had to crane her neck awkwardly to talk to Bella through the high window she was half-hanging out of. She clambered through the window into Bella's dorm room at the School, talking excitedly.
"Man, that kid is hard to get alone! He hangs out at that club sometimes, the one we keep meaning to go to. I gave the bouncer my best cast for cleaning dishes to tell me when he showed up next, and he sent a message a minute ago. If we go now, we can get there and back before the School shuts its gates. I do not want to spend another night waiting outside for them to open again."
Bella drew close from across the room as quickly and quietly as she could, putting her hand on Addy's mouth. "Shhh! I'm still on lockdown from the last time we snuck out. The dorm resident does patrols, he's due back from break any second now. We'll have to take the roof."
"Oh good, I've been wanting you to show me more about levitation."
"Addy! What if I drop you?"
"You won't!"
Addy pecked Bella on the lips as she clambered back out the window. The two girls climbed along the steep side of the roof, their path made more treacherous by the slick tile and gilded edges of their path. When they reached the farthest edge of the building, Addy turned to Bella's echo.
"Ready?"
"I don't know about this, Addy."
"Come on Isabelle, I trust you."
Bella peeked over the edge of the ten-story drop before she braced herself. "Alright. But when we splat against the grass like bugs on a windshield, don't come crying to me."
"That's the silver lining; I won't!" Addy took Bella's hands and put her feet on top of Bella's, smiling brightly. A more intimate kiss was shared, and Bella stepped off the roof.
They dropped quickly, before their descent slowed and gentled. When Bella's feet touched the grass of the open field, it was barely disturbed.
Adeline whooped loudly from the adrenaline before Bella could stop her, and a guard who had been busy lighting a cigarette for his partner yelled at them from the shadowed entrance of the building.
"Hey! - It's those girls again, get the others. Where do they come from? Adeline! Isabella! Get back here!"
The scene dissolved into a bright flash as the two laughing girls ran into the city, hand in hand.
The new scene was a darkened dance floor, vivid in hedonistic purple light. The room was crowded with teens and adults; echo-Bella and Adeline were not the youngest in the room. Echo-Bella took a shot and turned to Adeline, swinging her into a dance.
The image sped through the two girls dancing wildly, teasing each other by pulling in random partners who they would grind against, eyes on one another. Slowly, Edward began to be aware of a predatory teenager stalking the edges of the crowd, watching the two girls' dance.
...Fiore...
Adeline turned to the slender, dark-haired young man and motioned for him to join her on the dance floor. Echo-Bella quickly grew jealous of the boy dancing with her and joined them, sandwiching Fiore in the middle with her eyes on Adeline. The boy turned and nuzzled into Bella's neck, bending his slightly taller form to brush his face against her cheek. Echo-Bella let out a surprised sound, turning her startled attention to the boy. Fiore.
It was Adeline's turn to be jealous, though she reacted too when the boy slid a hand up her leg and gripped her behind him, his front still facing Bella. The glitch of the three teens slowed as they moved against each other, and Edward couldn't help but notice how beautiful the wild image was. His Bella's attention was arrested on the glitch over the pentagram. He felt his stone heart cracking inside his chest as the image sped again, following the three teenagers through the wild party.
They retired to a small corner booth after their heated dance, and Fiore threw up a hand, requesting his "usual."
"Fiore Salem, at your service. The troublesome twins from Class Seven have come looking for me. Should I run for cover or brace myself for adventure?"
Bella and Addy smiled in mischievous unison. "Both."
The bartender delivered a copper teapot to the table with three small stone glasses next to it. Bella raised her eyebrows. "Your usual order is Darjeeling tea?"
"You know tea well enough to identify the blend by smell alone?"
There was a beat in the air, a sudden drop of clarity in the surroundings as echo-Bella took in the man with a cutting gaze.
Fiore was visibly unsettled by her attention and turned to Adeline. "What can I do for you, ladies?"
Adeline's eyes glinted silver with a dangerous jealousy. "You know the mountains near the desert better than anyone. Surely, you've noticed there seems to be an extra peak, these days."
"That's the Impassable Way. It's custom to avoid it. No one climbs that mountain, and why would you even want to? It's shorter to go around. Besides, it's steep and treacherous, no one could even make that climb."
Bella's soft murmur could barely be heard over the music. "Where is that written?"
"Look, I hang out with the people who work those mountains. I grew up in the Salem compound over there and I still go to visit my parents. We travel that road to go to the Shaman compound - everyone knows you can't pass that way. You go around or you take a portal, or you don't come back. I'm not saying I'm not curious, I'm just saying it's stupid to take a risk like that for no reason."
"We have a reason. We know what's up there." Adeline's voice was velvet, sure and certain, and Fiore shifted uncomfortably as he took her in. He switched back to looking at Bella.
"And what, pray tell, is up there?"
Echo-Bella's eyes caught the light and glinted golden. Something came alive between the echoes; it was a chaotic wish on a falling asteroid that was bound for impact. Bella and Adeline and Fiore brought their foreheads together in the small booth, that strange something crackling in the negative space around them. Adeline leaned closer and whispered in Fiore's ear.
"The Spirit Blessing."
Dancing With Our Hands Tied
…And suddenly, we were the Royal Three. It was like coming in from the cold and finding a home all prepared for you. Fiore was an inventor and problem solver by nature, and Adeline was a gifted fighter with a growing collection of restricted reading material and a passion for exploring. I tinkered with them both, but I spent a lot of my time making sure we went to class and learned our duties. We made protecting Havana and the Fae our personal business daily, and we were open for business all hours except School hours. We went on adventures together, trained together, did research together, everything. We took to collapsing on the nearest horizontal surface when we had to pass out for a few hours, and the dorm residents were mostly just pleased when they found the three of us sleeping in the same bed; it meant we weren't sneaking off somewhere...
The echoes flashed by, multiple scenes that were clear for a moment and gone. There were Fiore's hands bringing Bella's fiery fists in front of her face, over there was Adeline casting a silver spell that made the earth crack and shift.
...Eventually, we were as ready as we were gonna get. It was the second week of spring when we took off. Everyone thought we were going to visit Renee together, no one would start looking for us for a day or two. The climb was treacherous and terrifying in its own right, but it wasn't until we got near the top that things started to get really weird...
The caw of a Shade echoed out from the pentagram, and Edward snapped to face it, baring his teeth. It was coming from the glitch, outlined in elemental magick. The royal three were walking down a faint path, more a shallow creek bed than anything else. The teens looked a little worse for wear, but there weren't any major injuries. They were passing relatively close to where a Shade perched in the thick trees around them, half obscured by misty clouds.
"Uh, what is that? Gross."
Fiore chastised echo-Bella playfully, throwing a bit of grass into her hair. "Aw, come on ma belle. Little birdie probably has a nest somewhere of ugly ink-stained babies."
"Aw, come on ma belle. Little birdie probably has a nest somewhere of ugly ink-stained babies."
The Shade took flight from its faraway branch, coming towards the rubble remains of the path where the three royals stood.
Addy winced as it drew nearer. "It's...bigger...than it looked."
"Did it just mimic my voice?"
"Run. Running now, running for cover, now!" Bella shouted as she grabbed Fiore's collar and ran uphill towards the tree line. Behind them, the caws multiplied, and at least twenty of the creatures joined the predatory assault, circling the battered trio. Fiore got separated from Adeline and Bella, forced into taking a sharp cut downhill and falling, rolling down a steep decline to a narrow cave entrance.
He quickly took shelter in the cave.
"Adeline? Isabelle?" Fiore called to his companions, but his voice only echoed behind him in a creepy imitation, like the Shades. He startled, turning quickly, before he noticed the abandoned campsite he was standing in- tools scattered around the man-made entrance to a cave.
The glitch showed a dark cave filled with shallow glowing-blue fluid. The intricate altar in the cave glowed purple, but whatever had been on it was gone. Fiore stepped into the pool of neon, reaching for the single handwritten page that still lay on the podium.
"Well, what do we have here? Someone was thieving ancient things, naughty-naughty." He took hold of the torn page, examining it.
"Woah- This is Shannara's handwriting. Yeah, I'm definitely taking this with me. I wonder where the rest of it is? Guess I'm the naughty one now." He laughed as he rolled the page delicately. "This cavern looks like it turns uphill; I've got to find Addy and Isabelle. Who knows what trouble they're getting into?"
Adeline and the echo-Bella shared Fiore's determination to reunite uphill after the Shades' attack ended. They climbed a sheer cliff face, straight up for five hundred meters before it leveled into a long, high-altitude bluff. They called for Fiore across the cloudy bluff until they reached the entrance to a huge cavern that looked...familiar.
Edward looked around at Camp and the Arena, comparing it to the grand cavern Adeline and Bella were panting on the floor of, trying to catch their breath. The cavern in the glitch... it was Camp.
He was still getting over that thought when echo-Bella saw the massive crack in the back wall of the sandstone, right above the natural shelf that formed what was now the bottom floor of the basement to the Castle.
"Hey, look! When Fiore gets here, we should see what's back there."
"Oh! There he is."
Fiore came out of the wide mouth at the back of the cavern from the caves below, waving the girls over. They waved back eagerly, blowing kisses. "Girls! There you guys are!You guys should see this!"
When Addy and Bella reached where Fiore stood, he pointed out the shallow divots in the wall. "It's a staircase, see? That's why there are those lines like that on the wall. It leads up to that shelf."
"That's the one below that crack you wanted to look at, ma belle."
When Bella brushed her hands against one of the horizontal divots that stretched in a staircase pattern along the cavern wall, there was a soft glimmer of magicks that made the glitch flash and brighten. When it cleared, there were narrow floating stone stairs leading to the shelf, wide enough for them to climb, single file. The echo-Bella blinked at her companions. "I didn't do that."
Adeline bounced on the balls of her feet, already two steps up. "I call first to climb the magickally appearing stairs!" Bella grinned as she followed, but Fiore was more cautious as he brought up the rear. "Girls, you should really see this page I found, we need to be careful. I was being tracked by something in the caves below, and it didn't seem friendly."
When Adeline stepped into the crack in the wall behind the low shelf, the air instantly got cold. Addy walked down a long, slim passage in the sandstone. Gradually, the stone grew cooler, the air becoming misty and damp. Adeline tried to disperse the mist but couldn't, and when she called over her shoulder for Isabelle to manifest a light to guide her, she realized she was alone. She could hear a waterfall off in the distance.
Adeline stopped at a slightly wider circle of space. A lantern levitated there, a small candle inside that threw more light than it should have.
Adeline saw something that Edward did not, out of reach of the candle's light. A growl reverberated around her, and she panicked; she called boulders to collapse the narrow hallway as she grabbed the small lantern and ran towards the sound of water. She could see starlight ahead of her, a place where the cavern opened into a larger space. She ran out of the narrow passage at full speed, almost running into Bella. If Bella hadn't thrown out her arms to catch Adeline, she would've run right over the edge of a dark shaft formed by a split in the floor. The waterfall plummeted into unseen depths through the naturally occurring crevasse.
"Whoa! Easy Addy, there you go, breathe."
"Isabelle! There was something, something in the dark."
"It's okay, Adeline. You disappeared for a second there, we weren't sure where you went. You were only gone for a second. Where'd you get the lantern?"
"What are you talking about? I was gone for like twenty minutes!"
Fiore cut in. "See, I told you. This place is weird. I could've sworn I was missing for at least two hours, before. Something was hunting me in the caverns below the floor."
"Yes! I saw it, sort of. It moved fast. It growled at me; I was terrified!"
"You two are overreacting. Just look at this place!" Bella swept her arm out.
The cave was half naturally formed, and half built: a slim waterfall was supported by an arch and disappeared into the jagged crevasse that cracked through the worn grey stone of the floor. The waterfall fell into the dark abyss below from somewhere above them. The sound of it crashing by filled the echo, but Edward couldn't see where the waterfall ended. There was wild greenness everywhere, huge burgundy roses that glowed softly and trailed to meet the moss on the ground. There were strange runes carved into the walls that shined gold, forming what Adeline had thought were stars.
Echo-Bella spoke softly. "This place is amazing. It must have been here since the Beginning. The magick of this place is ancient. It's strange. I feel like...I feel like it's talking about me."
Bella ran her hand over one of the runes on the wall, stepping closer to it as though in a trance. She pricked her hand on one of the roses as she did. "Ow!" The rose shivered, and its petals curled up into a bud.
"What the hell?" Bella reached for the flower, curling two fingers around the base of the rose as it grew backwards; from bloom to bud.
Fiore rushed into the cavern. "Girls, you've got to come see! It just— it just appeared! It's a Castle, it's the coolest thing! There's a whole city now, and the most amazing thing—the throne platform has appeared for us! It has three thrones on it!"
"What?" Adeline rushed back down the narrow hallway towards the crack, letting Fiore drag her along. Bella snapped her head up, but she looked back at the strange flower. The bud drooped now, starting to wither. Bella seemed to make an instant decision and plucked the rose, disregarding the wounds on her hand from the long thorns. She turned to run towards her companions' loud gasps.
...It's funny, how clear things become, in hindsight. How things change in meaning... Endings beget beginnings. Even happily ever after ends and turns into new stories. When we got back to the School, everyone was furious. All our adventures were dragged into the light and re-examined; we were thoroughly chastised in private. In public, however, we were legends. They couldn't stop us from moving into Camp in the summertime, and as the Castle became more active so did the city...
Young God
The glitch flashed. Fiore was carrying a large box in his arms, clunking his way up the steps to the Attic. He went through the kitchen to the living area and turned, looking out of the huge glass window in what was now Rosalie and Emmett's room. Adeline bounced into the room.
"Finally, the last box from my parents' place!" Fiore wiped sweat from his forehead as he set the box on a long table that filled the room, already crowded with all sorts of odd equipment. The young man had a half-faded black eye. Edward spied three hand-mirrors peeking out of the box the echoed boy had just set down.
"Jeez, am I glad you're out of that place! How's your eye? Your dad really walloped you right in the worst spot."
"Eh, I'll live."
"Yes. You will." Bella strode into the room, waving a piece of paper. "Your official emancipation from the powers that be. Ta-da! You're all ours now, and your dad is forever on my shit-list. In the meantime, next summer we're going to Renee's. She invited us to Phoenix; she's going through another break-up, and I think money is getting tight for her. You always make her smile, Fio."
"I'm okay, ladies." Fiore was chipper, but tired. "Seeing your mom sounds fun, ma belle, but what I want most right now is for you two to finish unpacking the books so that I can finish unpacking the workshop. And then we can move on to the bedroom and officially be moved into the Attic!"
"Yes. You can put together the one bed."
"No!" Fiore and Adeline stopped in their tracks; completely aghast and pleased. "How did you pull that off?"
Bella laughed. "I convinced the healer my nightmares were getting bad enough that I needed my security blanket. You know she treats Fio's insomnia too, and she was already worried about Addy's little incident with her aura-magicks last month. She did the rest. You would not believe 'Tuss' face when they told him. It was like...purple."
"Well hurry up about it then! Maybe we'll have time to go down to the music room before we sneak out for patrols. I need to tune my guitar. Honestly, I don't think anyone knows Havana better than we do at this point."
Bella grinned brightly. "Probably not. It's gonna be so much harder when me and Addy go back to the School for our last year. I am not looking forward to being back in the dorms again, especially since you won't be there."
"You girls will enjoy being in Class Nine. I'll still be around. Besides, the rumors should be even wilder by then."
"Oh no." Addy turned to Fiore at his comment. "What is it this time? Am I having your lovechild while Bella wastes away pining for your love?"
"Worse. According to Arisele, we're genetically altered experiments from 'like...Shanarra's time or whatever'..."
"Oh my god, I really cannot stand that girl." Adeline snarked as Bella dissolved into laughter at Fiore's impression. Adeline's annoyed face only made her laugh harder.
The echoes flashed through the summer, through their nightly patrols through Camp and Havana; their packed-full days sped by in a second or two. In the fall, the bed was moved to the corner of the main Attic space, and the bedroom became a delegated space for their desks. They adjusted to their new duties as they took them on gradually, sitting with an older man that Edward didn't recognize and attending council meetings while their days became more work and less school.
When the echoes found clarity again, the Royal Three were older; Adeline and Bella were back at the School, and Fiore had cajoled his way into staying with them in the dorms. In fact, they were soaking wet and shimmying through a window into their dorm-resident's office. There was snow outside the window. Fiore was limping, and Bella had her bloody hand wrapped in a towel. A shivering Adeline supported Fio as Bella checked for the resident's patrol.
The echo-Bella turned to whisper at Fiore. "The coast is clear. I'm telling you Fio, don't worry about it so much. We won't take a risk like that again, not even if we think there's a blessing. Besides, we always win."
"Of course we do, Isabelle. But haven't you ever worried about what would happen if we lost?"
"But we've never lost!" Addy's voice was chipper even through her chattering teeth. "Come on, Mr. Salem, smile for your girls. So, it was a crazy risk; when aren't the risks insane? We saved that unicorn from those barbaric poachers, didn't we? She spoke to us! We may not have gotten the water blessing—but still! Tonight, we are gods!"
Fiore kept his eyes on Bella for one more second as Adeline danced away, headed down the hall; Bella nodded seriously, holding her bloody hand to her chest. Her voice was quiet.
"Not gods, Fio. Just Fae."
"Fae are still human, ma belle."
"Yes. But we are not only human." Echo-Bella pulled off the towel around her hand to reveal her wound was already half-healed. Fiore sighed as he examined it more thoroughly, sending blue-magicks to knit it closed. When it was fully healed, Bella put her hand on his face, stroking near his eyes. "Your lips are starting to match your aura." She kissed the young man briefly. "We'll be okay, Fio. We haven't lost yet."
Adeline poked her head around the corner. "Well, we're about to find out just how human we can get; as in, if we can die from dorm resident called the guards again. We save the day, and I can't even get a cup of Fiore's hot tea before the scolding begins."
Fiore turned from Bella's embrace, groaning at the red-haired girl. "Oh no. 'Tuss is gonna be really mad this time."
Bella shot them both a half-second grin. "I might have a plan for that—I've got an experiment in mind. Be super sorry, guys - stick to the basics. Strangeness and charm; we'll get our way."
"It's okay." Adeline shrugged, taking the other two echoes' hands in hers. "We might deserve the lecture, this time. Those sirens were pissed."
"Sirens?! What have you three done now? You simply must grow up and stop sneaking about! Put these childish adventures behind you." Aphroditus and a guard rounded the corner; a kind-looking older man with a badge on his chest followed them. Aphroditus was already yelling, cuffing Fiore on the back of the head when the teen made a face at his companions.
"Fiore Salem, you are almost sixteen. I have half a mind to revoke your privileges to the School grounds. And you girls! You've already turned fifteen this year. Soon there will be no one to come after you, and you have responsibilities!" He turned a deadly gaze on Adeline as she mouthed his speech along with him. She looked only slightly chastised. "No, you know what? You have robbed me of my sleep, I shall rob you of yours. Dry off and change into your uniforms, it is time for your lessons. Mine shall simply be early today. I've got meetings this afternoon, now I won't have to cancel them. No buts! This morning, I am going to tell you about the Choosing ceremony."
Bella blinked at Aphroditus. "The Choosing ceremony? Yeah, it's when we'll be coronated and everyone finds their Chosen. So what?"
If the World was Ending
"It is a great deal more than some meaningless ceremony, Isabella. The Choosing occurs every year, and every teenager who has reached the age of adulthood is compelled to participate. The Akira preside over the ceremony. It is the one occasion upon which they travel as a group, from the Temple to the throne room. When a new generation of nobles come of age, they are bestowed with their destinies. This Choosing will be unique because of how the throne room has manifested, but even for normal citizens the Choosing is momentous. It is when the soul-entwining is performed, when the Akira illuminate who is destined to be each Fae's truest soul-companion. Each Fae is gifted a single companion to guide them to their destiny. This ensures that the Fae do not lose themselves to the pull of elemental power and helps prevent aura overflow."
"Wait, one?" Bella looked between Fiore and Adeline, starting to panic.
"Yes, each Fae is gifted with one chosen soulmate. It tethers-"
"But...I... I don't understand! You never said there could only be one! Why one? It was just one ruler until the throne room manifested! Now it's just one Chosen. I don't understand! Why can't we just stay the way we are? We should get to choose! I want to serve the Fae, but not like this, not alone."
"It is the way we follow, Isabelle. It is how our society functions.You will not be alone; you will have your Chosen."
"Well, maybe it shouldn't function that way! I don't want to be alone again; I don't want someone new. I love Addy and Fiore, 'Tuss! I don't want to do this, not like this. It hurts too much."
Bella ran down the hallway, and Adeline and Fiore didn't even look back at their mentor as they took off after her.
There was a blinding flash of light as Aphroditus called out to them, trying to slow them down.
… We thought we were gods, we thought we were untouchable. We hadn't known there was a timer ticking in the corner. It was unbearable, Edward. It hurt every second of every day... like a hole where my heart should be...
His Bella looked at Edward from her throne, her shoulders slumped as though she bore a heavy weight.
...I wish I did not have to show you what comes next. I want to protect you from it... I'm afraid...
Edward met his Bella's eyes. His whisper was hoarse and impossibly gentle. "Let me help you carry it, my Bella. Little witch, you are not alone. I'm not leaving you."
Bella's eyes flared golden and warm, pushing the void of black away.
...thank you...
Rewrite the Stars
Adeline walked from the workshop to the office off the kitchen of the Attic with Fiore flanking her silently. She scattered all of Bella's paperwork with a wave of her hand, blowing it around the room. "When, exactly, were you planning to tell me that you submitted your blood to the Choosing?"
Bella only rubbed her nose, standing wearily. "You're helping me reorganize those, later. It's procedure, Addy, I didn't have much choice. My birthday is in September, it's coming up in just six months. Fiore needs to submit his too; his birthday is before mine and the threats are starting to get explicit. You'll be sending yours in before you know it. They need us to. The Fae need us to choose."
"No." Adeline and Fiore's voices rang out in unison.
Fiore stepped forward and clutched Bella's hand to his chest. "You're ours. We're each others'. The Fae aren't asking this of us, it's just a stupid custom to get access to more power. I won't leave you. Either one of you." He reached his hand to Adeline, stroking her face.
"Don't be afraid, Fiore. You'll probably match with each other; I'm the freaky one who wasn't supposed to be born. I'll be fine. I've been alone before." The echo-Bella's shoulders slumped, but she tried for a brave face.
Adeline's eyes were filling with tears. "Ma belle, I promised I wouldn't leave you to your loneliness ever again. I meant it."
Fiore took Adeline's hand. "The two of you found each other first, maybe I'm the odd one out."
Adeline squeezed his hand imploringly. "No, Fiore. You're our missing piece. We won't be the same, not without you. You know me and Isabelle are too reckless on our own, we won't last a day without your common sense."
Bella's voice was fervent as she took hold of her companions' hands in excited epiphany, straightening her shoulders and leaning her head in close.
"Then maybe it's time for a little recklessness. I'm not going through this stupid ceremony just 'cause some long-dead queen of ages past wants me to. Damn Shanarra and her scheming—I'm powerful enough on my own. I won't leave either of you behind."
"How?" Fiore was breathless.
Addy's voice was bright and determined. "We'll find a way. We always do."
She kissed Bella soundly, and Fiore laughed when Bella jostled him, reaching out to pull her companions closer. They pulled at each other now, their playful wrestling turning desperate as they stumbled across the Attic to the bed.
There were only flashes now, half-second glitches shuddering quickly:
A flash: Fiore grinned as Bella tripped, bracing her so she wouldn't fall. He twisted a streak of navy magic that brought the bed to them, finally letting Bella down into the softness as she laughed at his eagerness.
A flash: Addy's lips were swollen and red as she looked up at Bella from the pillows, her green eyes wide with pleasure. Silver and gold glistened in wisps through the air.
A final flash: Compelling forest-brown eyes were consumed by navy magick as the air flashed with metallic sparks.
The scene faded back to its glowing ball of light, leaving Edward's stone heart lodged in the back of his throat.
Paris
The echoes flashed by, half-formed echoes of spring days and the dregs of their remaining classes. The Royal Three laughed through what was left of their schooling, breezing through their final tests. Their nightly patrols continued and so did their long hours at the Library, collapsing into sleep only when they dragged one another to the bed.
They visited Renee, carrying their research with them, and returned to Havana the night before Bella's sixteenth birthday party. There was a small after-party in the kitchens following the formal gala that marked Bella's coming of age.
Aphroditus patted Fiore's shoulder and handed him three airline tickets.
"To my apartment in Paris. You should have some time together; the Choosing ceremony looms near. Growing up is difficult, indulge yourselves. We will worry about the ceremony when you return."
Each burst of light shined a little slower as the glitch moved through time: until the tired trio was curling up in a large four-poster bed surrounded by bookshelves with the Siene in their balcony window. They were silent as they entangled their legs under the covers with Fiore in the middle. He kissed each girl's forehead, and they closed their eyes.
Muttering filled the Arena around him, each person blind to what would happen next. Everyone knew that The Royal Three hadn't made it to the Choosing that year.
Fiore awoke to a sudden thump in the open room that made everyone in the Arena jump, including Edward.
His Bella was suddenly on high alert, digging her nails into the seat of her throne to hold herself there. He glanced at her worriedly, but she didn't respond. Her attention was still fixed on the glitch.
Fiore's alarm faded into curiosity; he was sure he had heard something. He extricated himself from the echoes of Bella and Addy, careful to preserve their modesty and shield them from the cold as he got up. Bella mumbled sleepily at him.
The room was pristine, everything untouched and the door locked. When Fiore turned from where he had checked the windows to walk back to his lovers in the bed, he cursed, stubbing his toe on a book that had fallen to the floor.
As the echo of the young man held the book up to the moonlight to examine it, Edward felt a rush of cold clench at his unbeating heart, suddenly on high alert himself.
It was Shanarra's grimoire.
Fiore opened the book idly, taking in the thin, spidery writing that filled each page before he threw the book on the table at the foot of the bed.
He climbed back under the covers and Bella turned into his chest, still asleep. Addy's small hand came over Bella's shoulder and slid her arm down to drape over her waist, sleepily tangling her fingers with Fiore's.
The Heart Wants What It Wants
...The darkness comes near...
Light strobed more slowly as the glitches formed again; Edward spared a glance to his Bella behind him. She was watching Edward now, motioning for him to pay attention. He watched closely as the glitch sped through the days.
A flash, half-formed: Adeline and Bella's faces began to grow worried, shooting glances out of the corner of their eyes at Fio, who was bent over Shannara's grimoire from dawn's light until far into the night.
A day passed, it was late at night: Bella finally dragged the boy to bed, plucking the book from his hand and slamming it on the table disgustedly.
Dawn: Adeline was distracting Fiore from his reading, and he snapped at her, irritated. Looking shocked, Adeline grabbed the book from his grasp, throwing it to the floor and yelling in his face as Bella tried to make peace between the two.
Only a moment of that night flashed by: Bella's face was strained in the light from the dim lamp on the table, taking in Fiore still hunched over Shannara's grimoire from her spot in the bed.
Now it was a new day, and early afternoon: All three lovers were shouting, small elemental disasters wrecking the apartment as they screamed at each other; the grimoire was open on the table. The image on the page was a sketch of eyes consumed with black. Fiore talked loudly over the two girls; his speech muffled but insistent. He was motioning to the book, and then to himself. Bella threw herself in a chair at the table and clutched her head in her hands, looking defeated.
The echoes slowed to real-time. The muffled yelling stopped, and Fiore's voice took on a begging quality. He took Bella's hand, not turning his gaze from her and motioning for Addy to take his opposite one. Adeline took his hand, also looking at Bella's defeated posture. Bella let Fiore pull her to standing slowly, turning to look at the book.
Bella reached for the book of Dark magick on the table with her free hand, turning the page to the consumed black eyes before she closed it, releasing Fiore to place her hand on top of the cover. Adeline covered Bella's hand with her own, and Fiore placed his on top, meeting each other's eyes with their hands on the grimoire. There was determination on each face.
The silence in the Arena was devastating.
The glitch faded into an orb of floating light around the mirror shard as the throne room darkened malevolently. The shimmering magic that emanated from the pentagram shined all the brighter in the growing darkness. When his Bella met Edward's eyes from her golden throne, her eyes were a kaleidoscope of gold and black.
The decision had been made: the Royal Three would raise the Master, counting on his borrowed power to overcome the destiny waiting for them at the Choosing.
Edward closed his eyes, blocking out everything around him as his heart sank.
