Chapter 32: Astoria - Bound to Ruin

THE TAPESTRY OF MAGIC, THE WEAVE

I have no plan. All I can do is run and try to keep from falling through the holes in the Tapestry. The queen is close behind, screaming her bloody vengeance. My heart pounds, and my eyes burn. I keep screaming for Jinx, but there is no answer.

A hand rips out from the Weave and grabs my foot. I hit the Tapestry and throw my fire forth. The hand releases with a screech, and I clamber back to standing.

I must keep going. I can’t stop. Valen and Lucas will get me out. They have to. Surely the curse keeping me in the statue is weakened without Alasdair or a grimoire powering it.

The Tapestry jerks, rippling. A fissure rips before me, widening more and more, a small army of the spidery creatures meticulously working along the edges with their many hands moving so fast that I cannot track them.

I exhale harshly, shivering as I behold the gap. It is a dark pit, like the one I threw my father’s shredded soul into. I could try to summon my wings to fly, but I am no longer an Heir. I don’t know if I can form them again.

Prickling awareness tingles up my spine. It’s too late.

I turn slowly to face the queen. She stares down at me with her too-many eyes glowing, her spinneret rippling with thousands of threads. Her limbs frame me. There’s nowhere to run.

She lifts a spindly leg with a shriek, bringing it down to crush me.

A roar rattles my teeth, and Jinx’s massive jaw clamps down on the limb, her momentum throwing the swing wide to crash into one of the spidery creatures working on the torn ledge. It falls off the Tapestry with a shriek. Jinx doesn’t let go even as the queen stumbles back, shaking her grotesque body.

I smile widely, but my smile falls. Liquid sprays from Jinx’s limp form as the queen tries to dislodge her bite. A large gash splits open in Jinx’s right side, and her right tail is missing, the other two matted with blood. I gape, terror holding me in place. Then the queen sweeps her limb down. I scream, “NO!”

The leg crashes into the Tapestry’s edge, and Jinx rips free. Her limp body spirals down into the gap, towards the pit below.

I don’t think. I dive off the ledge, tears dripping from me as I scream, my eyes burning. Fire erupts all around, stinging my form painfully, but my wings do not come. I try again and again, trying to force my two flames into compliance. The pain is near-blinding, and I bellow my rage, my tear-filled eyes trained on Jinx’s limp form.

With a surge of agony, my wings return to me with a blazing flourish of raw power that hurls me towards my familiar. I beat them, ignoring all the blistering pain and gaining speed as I dive. I stretch my arms, heart in my ears as I sob. Jinx’s broken body leaves a trail of glittering blood in her descent towards the darkness.

I wrap my arms around her fluffy neck. Wings beating wildly, I try to regain control of our descent, but it’s much harder than when it’s just me. I slow us, but we keep falling. I beg anyone who will listen, “Not Jinx. Please. Not Jinx. Not her. Please.”

Jinx’s large lungs suck in breath, and she twists her body. Her paws hit that sparkling star platform she creates under us, and I nearly lose my grip on her when we come to a jarring stop. She pants heavily.

I gasp as I drag myself higher up on her mane. “Make yourself small. I can fly us out. Just hold onto me, Jinx. I’ll save us.”

She says nothing as her lungs heave. Fear nearly robs me of my logic, but slowly, Jinx shifts to her housecat form. My wings flap, keeping us aloft. I clutch her to my chest. “Valen and Lucas are going to get us out of the statue. We just need to survive until then.”

I swish my wings, sending us higher and higher until I clear the edge of the Tapestry.

Jinx says, too weakly for my liking, “Stay close to the Tapestry.”

“Are you crazy? That thing will kill us like it killed Alasdair.”

“It’s your only hope. I carried you to this place from the statue, and I can’t take you back in my current state. If you’re by the Tapestry, your Soul Threads within your body’s heart will naturally summon you if you’re close enough to the Tapestry to be absorbed. But if you get too far from it, you’re at risk of missing that trigger and becoming lost.”

“You mean ‘our.’ ‘Our’ only hope. I’d rather die lost than leave you.”

Her feet twitch as I bank, diving closer to the Tapestry. “I’m too damaged, Tori.”

“Then I’ll drag you back! I am not losing you.”

My familiar laughs weakly. “I stayed to keep you alive. I loved Gildra too much to let her child die, and I loved you too much to abandon you to your father. Now that he’s dead, you’ll live. You’ll thrive with or without me.”

“Stop talking,” I snarl, weaving clumsily through spidery creatures that screech and swipe at us. “We are surviving. We are going to live and maybe even retire somewhere on a Southern beach, sunbathing and having a good time. That is our fate, Jinx. When I die, you’ll carry my soul back to the Tapestry, and we’ll go together.”

Her silence is more unnerving than her talking. I look down at her. “Jinx?”

A blow to my right sends us crashing to the ground. Jinx slips from my hold, her body lax and oozing back into her monstrous form. I drag myself up to my elbows.

Fuck. This. I am not dying now, and neither is Jinx.

I grit my teeth, my lips curling back, growling, “No.” I shove up, whipping around with a crack of fire. “NO!”

The queen’s eight limbs ripple towards me, her monstrous body making me feel like a fly before a tarantula. I point my finger, magic crackling in my voice as I roar, “I freed you!”

I suck in breath, my feet planted wide to shield Jinx’s body. “You’d still be in that fucking cocoon if not for me. You should be thanking me!”

The monster that my ancestors believed was a goddess opens its terrifying mouth. My fire roars around me, my skin glowing gold and black in the crackling flames. I smack my chest with my open palm. “I’ve fought for the basic right to live every single day of this gods forsaken existence! I’ll destroy you if I must, but I will not let you touch my familiar.” My flames crack like whips, keeping the creature from reaching forward. “You want a fight? Then come and fucking get it, bitch!”

Tingling pools in my fingertips, my toes. It grows like a swarm of bees is taking residence within my flesh. My hands are fading, and my eyes grow wide. I turn my back to the creature. I’m fading, but Jinx is not.

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I exhale a terrified, “No.”

I throw myself on Jinx’s body, wrapping around her. “No!” The buzzing worsens, and I sob, “NO!” But no matter how much I roar, I continue to fade away while Jinx remains limp on the Tapestry. I wail, shaking my head, burying my face in her fluff, but the soft fur is waning from my senses. I fight vanishing with everything I have. My heart is thudding too fast, my tears raining down my face.

The Tapestry of Magic is fading away, and the receiving hall of the Archweaver estate overlaps it. I blink, one foot in both worlds. Lucas’ rings are glowing. He’s yelling, but I cannot hear him. My soul’s form within the Weave is forced into the same flat-on-my-back position as my physical body. I thrash against it, trying to get my arms around Jinx again, but it’s no use. I’m pinned.

Pain erupts down my chest. Valen appears in my vision, too pale and sweating, his hands glowing as he fights to close up my chest from when Jinx ripped through it to save me from Alasdair.

Blood is pouring from the corner of my lips as I return more and more to my broken body, dust from the stone statue Lucas and Valen dragged me from itching my skin. Tears slip down my face. I can’t feel Jinx under me, and I convulse in agony.

Please. Please, no.

A shadow overlaps in my vision, flickers of the Weave’s stars appearing. Then the monstrous queen is there with her too-many eyes glowing. One of her long, thin limbs is stretching towards me, towards Jinx beneath me. I shake my head, uncertain if she can see it. Don’t touch her. Leave her alone. I scream, spasming as Valen fights to save my life. Then I beg. Please, don’t hurt her.

My chest is stitching together, Valen huffing a relieved breath, but the beginning of a smile fades away. Lucas is yelling louder, and Valen’s eyes fill with tears. Hot and cold flood my body.

My Dual Threads. There’s no more Archweaver line, which means I’m no longer Heir. My Creation and Entropy Threads rage, my flames cracking along me, the Creation blistering my flesh, and I exhale a wisp of smoke. My soul screams, cracking without the Archweaver line stitching it together. Agony floods me, and I begin seizing, my body shaking so hard my teeth rattle. Valen holds my hand, tears slipping down his face, and I slowly slide my gaze to Lucas. His warm honey eyes meet mine, wide and terrified, his hands blistered from his rings.

I swallow, my lips moving soundlessly. “I love you.”

His eyes fill with tears, and he shakes his head. He takes my other hand, bowing over it until his forehead presses into my neck. I blink slowly, turning my attention back to the queen. The point of her long, thin limb has tiny pincers the size of a thimble. It dips into my chest.

I bow, mouth stretching wide as my chest arches up. Pain I’ve never felt before explodes through me, and she pulls forward my Entropy Thread. An oily sheen of corruption glistens and drips. Another one of her limbs touches the thread, and she begins stroking it. The oil sizzles away, leaving behind a matte black, a darkness like the shadows of night. My Creation Thread is drawn next. Little flakes chip off of it as the queen works, stroking my threads until they glow brightly. A third and fourth limb joins and tucks the ends back into my chest, fusing my soul back together with little fast movements. The other two limbs continue their rapid cleaning as she draws back, fading away the farther and farther she goes.

I was wrong. She didn’t want vengeance. She was enraged by the corruption that mirrored Alasdair.

I suck in a trembling breath as my healed, aching soul settles completely in my barely healed body. Sound returns to me, Lucas’ sobbing nearly cracking me back open. I blink, meeting Valen’s shocked gaze. I wet my lips, but I can’t bring words forth. I pant, a pain akin to discovering Viola’s body rocking me.

“Jinx. She’s… she’s not coming back.” I weep, my tears running down the sides of my face to soak my hair. My protector. My mother when I had none. My life’s companion. I can’t… I can’t…

I squeeze my eyes shut and scream within my soul, screaming and screaming as I shatter apart. I call and call, reaching for our bond, begging for a response. Anything. I’ll take anything. Please. Please. Don’t leave me.

Footsteps sound, and Emilia Bauer appears in my vision. She offers me a small smile, but I’m too numb to feel anything towards her sudden arrival.

Lucas drags me into his lap, enfolding me in his large body. Valen curls around him on my other side, his head resting against Lucas’ shoulder as he gazes down at me. He keeps one hand on my sternum, a raised scar red hot and puckered under it.

Valen’s low, soothing voice sinks deep into me to touch my pained heart in a way I wasn’t sure was possible any longer. “She was a good familiar, and she loved you so much. She only left because she knew you wouldn’t be alone.”

I sob harder and grip Valen’s hand in mine. It breaks something in me, something that needed to be cracked open so that the tears can pour their healing pain into me. I gasp for breath, sniffling loudly, and say brokenly, “Even though she hated you?”

Lucas laughs, and Valen smiles. He kisses the back of my hand. “Yes, even though she hated me.”

Lucas wipes his own eyes. “She was a good cat. Slept all day and hated everyone but me.”

A broken laugh bubbles out of me. “She really did. She didn’t eat you when you tried to steal from me.”

Valen quips, “The magician stole from you, but I’m the one she didn’t like.”

“Tried,” I correct. My tears lessen. I gaze upon my two men, their playfulness easing my deep pain. Valen’s words sing truer and truer, mixing with the warning Jinx tried to tell me, but I didn’t want to listen. She was weakening in this world. She had stayed too long because of her love for me. There were signs that I dismissed as other things. She would sleep for days. She was hard for me to summon. She didn’t sense when I fell into corruption when facing my father. She didn’t sense Alasdair when he was in the shop. But I didn’t want to piece the puzzle together.

Perhaps I don’t need her, but I want her. I don’t think my soul will ever fully heal without her.

I wipe my eyes. I’ll cry all the tears I want once we’re out of this gods forsaken place. For now, I need to ensure one last loose end is tied before we go. “We need to find Viola’s body and burn it before we can leave.”

“Already ahead of you,” Emilia chimes in as she draws a Transformation circle around where we’re curled up together.

Valen doesn’t lift his head when he asks, “Was that what you were doing while I was getting captured?”

“Most definitely. I had to make sure I found all her parts to burn. Well, that and raid the Archweaver archive. Stealing all the good stuff before this place burns to the ground was extremely important.”

Lucas looks up sharply. “Burn?”

“Hm?” Emilia hums innocently. “Let’s go before we get caught up in the explosion.”

Valen lifts his head as well. “Explosion?”

“Oh yes. Can’t let the humans get their hands on this place once they figure out what happened. Now let’s go. We have maybe a minute or two,” she says before wrapping her arms tightly around us and whispering the ancient word for “travel.”

We teleport out of there, leaving the Astrum Forest, Havenport, and the resulting fallout far behind us.