As my consciousness returned, I realized I was tied up near the altar where Maveryck had been. The light came from a portal that was open above the altar, though I saw no signs of anyone until I was able to focus better.
Bodies lay scattered around the room.
Most of them were covered in blood. The room was barely recognizable from how I had seen it earlier. The destruction was epic—only piles of rubble remained where the coffins had been. In fact, the only objects still intact were the six weapons of the Madralorde brothers, which were placed around the raised altar and glowed with an intensity that blinded me.
Acid churned though my stomach as I tried to make sense of the situation. I sat up straight and focused on my breathing, feeling the headache diminish as I did so. The sound of footsteps came from somewhere, but piles of rubble blocked my view. I grasped at the ropes tying me and found them loose, so I pried them off.
As I stood, dizziness disoriented me for a moment, but I steadied myself and managed to make it to the altar. My stomach sickened as I found a pool of dark, drying blood staining its surface.
Behind the altar, I found the remains of the vachonette egg. Tears stung my eyes as I knelt by the shell. Hopelessness tried to overwhelm me. With the egg destroyed, I had no way to get my stepfather back. I wanted to sit on the floor and cry—nothing ever worked how I planned, and now I’d failed at saving the one person who had cared for me my entire life.
I carefully picked up a piece of the fragile shell, finding it surprisingly heavy. Such a waste! That my stepfather should be destroyed over such a small item didn’t seem fair, but nothing ever seemed fair.
Magic no longer coursed through the eggshell, making its destruction weigh even heavier on my heart. But I couldn’t give up yet. Was there still a chance I could save Kull and the others? I placed the shell back on the ground where I’d found it. Standing, I stumbled away from the altar and searched for my friends, or for anyone alive. I had to stay focused on them. If I thought of anything else, I knew I would lose it.
The violence was worse than I’d thought from my vantage point on the ground. The elves had been massacred. Limbs lay strewn about, discarded like garbage. Tattered clothing and blood were all that remained of others. Frantically, I searched for Kull, Heidel, and Maveryck, but I couldn’t find them.
“They’re not here,” a voice said.
What appeared to be queen Euralysia emerged from behind the rubble, although her form was blurry, her skin tinged in orange, and her eyes glassy.
The instant I saw her, I knew everything I had feared most had happened. She had used the vachonette egg and the Madralorde weapons to call Theht back. The queen and the goddess were now one. She grimaced as she clutched her hands to her stomach, making me realize that whatever power the queen was using to control the goddess must not have been working well.
“I have become Theht,” the queen said, approaching me. “The same that has happened before has come to pass once again.”
“Where are my friends?”
“I will tell you soon, but first, you must know something else, something I have been trying to communicate to you for a very long time—a mystery you have been grappling with—the truth of the nature of our universe.” She outstretched her hand. “Let me show you.”
Mystery? What was she talking about? Part of me was curious to find out, but my fear won out and I drew back. “No.”
“I beg you to reconsider. There is more you must know. The queen and I are one, but this is not the first time I have inhabited another’s body. I was male, long ago, when the first books were written. I had taken another form, and since then, I took another form still—that of a woman. Now, I have taken the queen.”
Her body shimmered as waves of magic, so intense I felt queasy, coursed through her skin.
Theht fisted her hands until the waves of magic stopped pulsing. “But the queen cannot contain me, and I cannot last in this form for long. A piece of myself exists within you still. You must give it to me.”
So, that’s what she really wanted. She wasn’t whole yet—she still needed the piece of the goddess that existed inside me.
“What if I don’t?” I asked.
“Then I will take it from you,” she said, “but that is not my first choice.”
I connected the dots. She needed what was inside me to be whole, and she needed me to give it willingly.
“Show me where my friends are first,” I said, “and then I might consider it.”
She smiled, a look that made me shudder. “Yes, I was hoping you would ask.”
My heart fell. That was her plan. She was using my friends as leverage to get me to give up the piece of the goddess I held. But maybe that was good news. It meant they were still alive.
“Take my hand, and I will show you everything. There is so much you don’t yet understand. Let me show you. You will understand why I have taken the queen. I am not your enemy, Olive. I never have been.” For a moment, she sounded like the princess.
My heart pounded as I stared at her hand. “First, show me where my friends are.”
She hesitated, not answering, then met my gaze, her glassed-over eyes making my heart race. “After I show you the vision, I will take you to your friends.”
It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was good enough. “Is that a promise?”
She only nodded.
I knew I couldn’t fully trust her. I knew the moment I took
