Chapter 196: Keep Fighting
>>Aelin
Her little smile grew just a bit, proud and bashful all at once.
Tala stood beside us silently, his presence calm and grounding, like the mountains themselves. I knew he was giving me this moment. Letting me take in what I had lost, what I had somehow, impossibly, found again.
I reached forward and tucked a strand of hair behind Asha’s ear, my hands still shaking.
I had mourned her every day. I had dreamed of her every night.
But now...
Now I had seen her.
Now I had held her.
Tala stepped closer, his voice gentle, low with the weight of centuries. "You know," he said, eyes settling softly on Asha still nestled in my arms, "because of her purple eyes, she’s very loved here."
I looked at him, still holding my daughter against me, her warmth pressed to my chest like a memory I never wanted to release. Tears stung my eyes again, the kind that didn’t ache, just flowed, quiet, overwhelmed, grateful.
Tala’s gaze softened further. "Those eyes..." he continued, "they belonged to many, once. Good people. People who risked everything for us." He sighed, the sound edged with sorrow, but his expression held peace. "They tried to help us escape. They gave shelter. Lied to the soldiers. Hid our wounded. And many of them..." He paused. "Many of them died for it."
He turned his smile to Asha, gentle, reverent, full of something almost sacred.
"So your daughter being a descendant of them... it’s like a gift to us. A living reminder of their hearts."
A warmth bloomed deep in my chest. Not fiery or sharp, but golden, whole. A calm, complete kind of warmth that spread to every inch of me.
I turned slightly, pulling Asha back just enough to see her face.
"And you, sweetheart," I whispered, brushing her cheek, "do you... do you like it here?"
Her eyes sparkled, and she gave me a bright, honest smile. "I love it here, Mama," she said, nodding quickly. "Everyone’s really nice. They’re always happy. And they hug a lot."
I laughed through a small sob, smiling even as more tears fell. Of course they did.
Tala watched us for a moment, then stepped forward. His voice was steady.
"Aelin," he said, "do you... want to stay here? With us? In the Spirit Realm?"
I froze.
The question slammed into me like a wave. My head snapped up toward him, eyes wide. "What?"
Tala just held my gaze, calm and patient.
"I said..." he repeated softly, "do you want to stay?"
"I can stay here?" I asked
"Why not?" Tala asked, "You’re already here." He smiled, "And you have Asha here as well."
***
>>Draken
Vesper had pressed herself flat against the serpent’s spine even though she was heavily injured, her blades still lodged deep in its scales.
She looked back at me and shouted, "The core has to be inside the chest! Under the second ridge!"
I soared higher, pain in my wing flaring with every movement, and then dove straight down, heading for the exact spot she’d called out.
The serpent thrashed again, trying to throw her, but she crawled forward like a warrior climbing a volcano, each movement deliberate and brutal. She was using her blades like climbing picks, stabbing them in, pulling herself forward inch by inch along its twisting back.
But it saw her.
The serpent whipped its upper body and slammed itself into a floating rock shelf to try and crush her. The impact was deafening. I lost sight of her for a heartbeat.
Then she emerged from the smoke, bloodied, panting,but still climbing.
I reached the chest.
Its heart was pulsing beneath the surface, glowing through semi-translucent abyssal scale. The core. Bigger than anything I’d ever seen, almost the size of a house, throbbing like it was alive, protected by overlapping bony ridges.
I roared and slammed into it, claws raking deep.
The serpent howled in agony, jerking midair. Its body curled into a spiral, spinning us into a massive tumble through the sky. Clouds tore apart around us. Wind screamed. My talons tried to dig deeper, but its bone armor was too thick.
Then Vesper was there.
She had climbed her way to the base of its neck, her arms shaking, her body barely holding together. Her eyes locked onto me, then the core.
She pointed her blade. "Now!"
I understood.
I opened my jaws and inhaled. Fire surged in my chest, growing hotter than it ever had before. My vision blurred with the intensity of it. The heat threatened to rip me apart from the inside.
Then I unleashed it.
Dragonfire.
Pure. Blinding. Ancient.
It slammed into the serpent’s chest. The scales glowed white-hot. Then red. Then cracked.
Vesper, still clutching the ridges near its neck, raised her blade high, screamed, and drove it downward with everything she had, right into the molten line I’d opened.
A blast of black blood sprayed outward like an eruption.
The core was exposed, and burning.
The serpent screamed one final time. Its eyes shattered. Its wings failed. Its entire body began to collapse in on itself, burning from the inside out.
We were falling.
The whole sky was falling with it.
I caught Vesper midair, holding her scorched, broken body in my claws as the carcass of the abyssal serpent spiraled downward like a dying god, crashing into the earth with a tremor that shook the world.
We landed hard, tearing through trees and stone, skidding across the ground for hundreds of feet before coming to a stop.
I shifted back into human form, dropping to my knees, Vesper still in my arms.
She groaned, eyes fluttering open. "We... got it?"
I nodded. "We got it."
But both of us were so battered by the end of it we dropped to the ground.
Except there was no time for break as the scream around us continued. The monsters from the eye were still pouring out
Vesper looked at me in horror but I couldn’t say anything back. We had to keep going.
