My hands were shaking and I didn’t know how to make them stop, so I pressed them into my lap, but it didn’t help.
“I can’t do it,” I said, my emotions trying to break free. “You can’t let me do this.” I looked from Fan’twar to Kull. “You’ll have to stop me. It’s the only way to save us.”
“It’s too early to talk that way,” Kull said. “There’s still time to stop it from happening.”
“But how? Even Fan’twar said I can’t stop prophecy.”
“You cannot stop it, no,” my stepfather said. “But perhaps there is a way to better understand it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You must find the one who spoke the prophecy in the first place. Lucretian—the first high druid of Faythander.”
“Is he still alive?”
“Possibly. He disappeared almost half a millennia ago, and no one has seen him since. But, he was last spotted on Dragon Spine Mountain, near this very palace. If anyone knows where he is, the witch is the one to ask.”
“And if I find him, do you think he can undo the prophecy and stop it before it happens?”
“Stop it? No. But he can explain it to you and perhaps help you find a way to fulfill it without the consequences you anticipate. And that is not all. Lucretian was the last known person to possess the sword of Dracon. It is the weapon that will destroy Theht—that I know. You must find Lucretian, and you must recover the sword. As you see, all is not lost, for if even the tiniest glimmer of hope can be found, then goodness still exists. You will succeed, young one. That I know.”
I uncrossed my arms. With his words, I finally felt as if fear didn’t control me. Peering overhead, the bands of radiant stars reminded me of something else I’d seen, the truth of our universe.
“There’s something else,” I whispered, “something Theht showed me.”
“What?” Kull asked.
Studying the stars overhead, my memories turned to an image of the world splitting apart. “I saw the birth of our world,” I said, “but Faythander wasn’t the only planet formed that day.”
“What are you saying?” Kull asked.
“There are three worlds, not two. I think we finally know where the Regaymor come from, and where Geth took me when he imprisoned Mochazon, and where the bloodthorn tried to take me. The third world.”
I almost said the name of the world out loud, but I stopped. The fairies had told me its name was a spell, and I would only say it if I had to.
“All this time,” Fan’twar said, “I believed it to be a place in Faythander. I never thought to look to the stars.” He chuckled. “Well, even an old dragon can learn a new thing or two.”
“So you didn’t know?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I doubt anyone in the history of our planet knew this. Even Geth, I suspect, did not understand the truth of the alternate reality he had had discovered. You are the first to learn of this. You are special in more ways than you know.” He turned to me, his golden eyes intense. “You may think to be hard on yourself and believe you have failed. You have not. My life has been restored because of you. Theht has not destroyed our world yet because of your persistence. If ever a person could stop the goddess, it is you. It was no accident that Lucretian prophesied of you all those years ago, because if there were ever a person to beat a prophecy, it’s you.”
A lump formed in my throat as his words sank in. “I’m glad you have faith in me,” I said. “That means a lot.”
He nodded, then closed his eyes.
“Do you need to rest?” I asked.
“Only for a little while, child. Only for a while.”
As he breathed shallow, ragged breaths, I stood and backed away quietly. My own body hardly felt recovered, but at least I felt I could walk without fainting. With nowhere else to go, Kull and I crossed to the staircase leading to the balcony overlooking the ballroom.
My mind was a mess. I still carried a piece of Theht inside me, but I knew that as long as it stayed there, Theht couldn’t control our world, at least for now. The events that had happened in the last few days were hard to grasp, and even with Silvestra’s spell working inside me to restore my mind, I felt as if I would lose it again if I thought too long about the future.
We made it to the top tier, where we stood looking out through the opened glass windows with the smell of greenery in the air and the smooth marble railing beneath our fingertips. Above us spanned the universe, and before us, the world of Faythander, with thundering waterfalls, trees that stood like spires reaching for heaven, and life that filled every corner—a place so beautiful it resonated not just with my physical senses, but with my soul as well.
“Olive,” Kull said quietly. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you for quite some time. Well, since you arrived back in Faythander really, or perhaps before that… after we defeated the bloodthorn, to be honest—”
“Kull,” I stopped him.
“Yes?”
“You’re rambling.”
“Oh, yes, I am. You’re right.” He leaned with his elbows on the balcony railing, looking out over Faythander. Of all the beauty in Faythander, I didn’t think I could find anything more perfect than him. The way his eyes reflected the moon, the curve of his strong jawline, the wisps of his blond hair caught in the breeze. He was more than I deserved or expected, and I feared I would wake up and lose him, only to realize I didn’t have to.
“What I meant to say,” he said, “was that I was going to talk to you sooner. I wanted to ask you something.”
My breath caught in my throat. I didn’t want to let on what I suspected he
