Without the Heart to power them, the silver vines and black thorns that had been coiled around my body dropped to the ground, dried up, and disintegrated into ash as well. I staggered away from Covington and sucked in breath after breath, trying to get some air back into my lungs.
Covington’s dagger was still buried in my stomach, and he lunged forward and grabbed the hilt again.
“You’ve ruined everything!” he screamed. “I’m going to kill you if it’s the last thing I do!”
“Funny,” I snarled. “I was just going to say the same thing about you.”
I snapped up Fafnir’s Dagger, but Covington was quicker, and he locked his hand around my wrist, stopping me from stabbing him.
“Now what are you going to do?” He sneered.
“What I was going to do all along,” I said. “You see, I’ve learned an important lesson over the past few days, thanks to you and all your monsters and schemes and Reapers.”
“And what lesson would that be?” He sneered again.
I smiled. “Never drop your sword.”
Covington frowned, but then his eyes widened as he realized that I was still holding Babs in my right hand. Before he could react, I snapped up the sword and drove the blade straight into his heart.
The evil librarian screamed with pain. He tried to jerk away, but I shoved Babs even deeper into his heart, the same way he had shoved his dagger into my stomach. For a moment, we stood there, snarling at each other, hate gleaming in our eyes. Then our bodies gave out at the same time.
I wrenched Babs out of his chest, while Covington yanked his dagger out of my stomach. Then we both stumbled away from each other and slid down to the floor.
Despite our mortal wounds, he kept glaring at me, and I did the same thing to him. Covington blinked once, twice…and then his eyes stayed open. The red glow slowly faded from his gaze, as the last of the Narcissus Heart’s magic left his body. A second later, Covington’s eyes had returned to their normal hazel color, although he wasn’t seeing me anymore.
He was dead—finally, finally dead—and I had finally, finally gotten my Spartan victory over him.
The last of my strength gave out, and I toppled over onto the floor. I was dimly aware of footsteps pounding in my direction. A second later, Ian’s face appeared above mine.
“Rory!” he screamed. “Rory! Stay with me! Don’t close your eyes!”
I tried to keep them open, I really did, but his worried face was the last thing I saw before my eyes slid shut.
* * *
I woke up in the Eir Ruins.
I was lying on my back in the courtyard, staring up at the sky. The snow that had been falling when I was here earlier today had stopped. The sun was setting, and twilight was taking hold, tinting the clouds and everything else lovely shades of purple, gray, and even a hint of green.
Something soft touched my face, and I realized that it was the same white winterbloom that had been staring at me when I had woken up here earlier. Had that only been a few hours ago? It felt like a lifetime.
The winterbloom reached down and pressed its petals to my face, almost as if it was kissing my cheek, then drew back and stood up straight and tall. I smiled and reached up to stroke its petals, but before I could touch it, the winterbloom shriveled up. A second later, it crumbled to white ash right before my eyes.
Surprise filled me, along with worry. What was going on? Why had the winterbloom suddenly died like that? I jerked upright, looked around, and immediately wished I hadn’t.
Because the same thing happened to all the other flowers.
I was lying in the middle of the blossoms in the center of the courtyard, close to the broken fountain. One by one, the flowers closest to me shriveled up, died, and disintegrated into ash, just like that first winterbloom. It almost seemed as if I was some sort of plague that was killing the flowers, even though I was only sitting on the ground with them.
I scrambled to my feet, hoping that might help, but it was already too late.
After all the flowers closest to me died, the ones beyond them shriveled up as well. And then the ones beyond them…and then the ones beyond them…
All I could do was stand there, stunned, and watch the waves of silent death sweep throughout the courtyard.
It didn’t take long, no more than a few minutes, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. From one moment to the next, the courtyard went from being full of beautiful, vibrant, colorful flowers to a silent graveyard for their ashy remains.
Grief surged through me the way death had surged through the blossoms. Tears streaked out of my eyes, rolled down my cheeks, and dropped to the ground, turning the ash at my feet into a pale white mud.
“Hello, Rory,” a soft voice called out.
I whirled around. Sigyn was standing next to the broken fountain. I hurried over to her and threw my hands out wide.
“What’s happening?” I asked. “What’s wrong? Why did all the flowers die? Did I…did I do something to them? All I did was try to touch that one winterbloom, I swear.”
Sigyn shook her head. “No, Rory. You didn’t do anything to the flowers. It was their choice, their sacrifice to make, and they did it of their own free will, just like you did when you traded your life in order to destroy the Narcissus Heart.”
My own heart dropped. “What sacrifice?”
She didn’t answer, but sadness sparked in her black eyes.
“What sacrifice?” I asked again, my voice rising to a scream, even though I already knew the answer.
The goddess kept staring at me. “You had already been badly hurt by the vines and the thorns with their red narcissus venom. Perhaps you could have survived those injuries, but the dagger wound that Covington gave you was a mortal one. Even your healing magic couldn’t save you from it.”
“So I’m…dead?” I whispered. “Truly dead?”
“You would have been.”
My heart dropped again as I realized what she meant. “If not for the flowers. They…they traded their lives for mine, didn’t they?”
Sigyn nodded. “These are the Eir Ruins, named after Eir, the Norse goddess of healing. These are her ruins, and her flowers, so they have the same healing properties and magic that the goddess herself does.”
After all the injuries I had sustained in the library, I didn’t think I could hurt any worse, but I felt like my heart was breaking into a thousand tiny, jagged pieces. I stared out over the courtyard again. All of those thousands and thousands of beautiful flowers, all gone and reduced to ash, all because of me. More tears streaked down my cheeks, dripped off my chin, and landed on the ground, adding to the pale white mud at my feet.
“They didn’t have to do that,” I said, my voice teetering on a sob. “They didn’t have to sacrifice their lives for mine. Why would they do that? Why?”
Sigyn tilted her head. “Follow me.”
She headed out of the courtyard. I looked around at the ashy remains of the flowers again. Guilt and grief squeezed my chest, but I followed her.
The goddess led me through the ruins and over to a much smaller courtyard. This was where she had first shown me how dangerous the red narcissus flowers were. When I had been here before, an enormous patch of red narcissi had stood in the center of the courtyard, ringed by a thin line of white winterblooms. But now the flowers were dead, the red narcissi and white winterblooms alike, all crumbled to ash just like the blossoms in the rest of the ruins.
“What happened?” I asked in a miserable voice. “Did I kill these flowers too?”
“Yes,” Sigyn replied. “The moment you destroyed the Narcissus Heart, all the red narcissi in this courtyard, everywhere else in the ruins, and even beyond in the mortal realm died as well.”
We stared out over this ashy graveyard. Then Sigyn turned to me again.
“The red narcissi have always threatened the other flowers. If not for the white winterblooms standing guard, the red narcissi would have infected all the other plants here long
ago. That’s why the flowers gave their lives for you. Because you saved them from being turned into red narcissi.”
“But they still died anyway,” I whispered, that sob in my voice again.
She nodded, and more sadness sparked in her black eyes. “They did, but it was their choice. It was their decision, and it was a noble death, an honorable death. Sacrificing yourself for someone else always is.”
“Self-sacrifice is a very powerful thing,” I whispered.
Gwen had told me that once, and I had said the words myself on more than one occasion. So I understood what Sigyn meant, but that still didn’t make it any easier to bear. More and more guilt and grief tightened my chest, making all those broken pieces of my heart scrape together.
I bent down and picked one of the shriveled winterblooms that was still standing upright, but it too crumbled to white ash at my touch. More tears streaked down my face.
“Come,” Sigyn said. “The sacrifice has been made, and there’s nothing you can do for them. Not tonight.”
I followed her back to the main courtyard with its ashy heaps of dead flowers. My gaze went from one section to the next, hoping against hope that at least a few of the blossoms had survived, but none had. Even though they were all gone, I still wished I could do something to help them, although I had no idea what that could be.
How did you help the dead?
Sigyn and I ended up standing next to the broken fountain. The goddess stared out at the courtyard again too, then turned to me.
“You have done well as my Champion, Rory Forseti,” she said in a soft voice. “You saved your friends, stopped Covington, and destroyed the Narcissus Heart. You have achieved everything I hoped you would and much, much more. I’m so very glad that you agreed to be my Champion, and I’m so very, very proud of you.”
Despite my misery and heartache, her words made me stand up a bit taller.
Sigyn reached out and took my hands. Her fingers felt cold against my own, like bits of frost pressing into my skin, but the familiar sensation soothed me.
“Now what happens?” I asked.
“It’s time for you to go back to the library. Your friends are quite worried about you.”
“So is this it? Is this the end of my being your Champion?”
She gave me a small, mysterious smile, her black eyes gleaming in her beautiful face. “Only if you wish it to be. Covington is gone, but there will always be battles to fight. And as long as there are people like you to fight them, then the mortal realm is in good hands. Take care, Rory Forseti. Until we meet again.”
The goddess leaned forward and kissed my cheek, just like the winterbloom had done earlier. Then she let go of my hands, stepped back, and bowed her head to me. I bowed to her as well, and that bright, familiar silver light flared. It engulfed the goddess first, then washed over me too. I closed my eyes and stepped into its cool embrace…
I sucked in a breath, and my eyes snapped open. For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was or what had happened, but then Ian’s worried face came into view above mine. I focused on his eyes—his clear, beautiful gray eyes.
“Rory!” Ian asked. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” I said, my voice still raspy with dreams and sorrow. “Help me sit up.”
Ian eased me up into a sitting position, and I glanced over to my left.
Covington was sprawled across the library floor, his lips curled back in a painful snarl, his sightless gaze still fixed on me. Blood had dripped down his chest and pooled on the floor around him, just like it had pooled around my parents’ bodies. I didn’t know if it was irony or poetic justice that he had died in the same exact spot where he had murdered them. Perhaps it was a little bit of both.
“Rory!” Another voice sounded, and I realized that Babs was talking. “Are you okay?”
I was still holding the sword in my hand, and I smiled and gently laid her down on the floor next to me. “I’m fine.”
Babs smiled back at me, a tear gleaming in her emerald-green eye.
“Rory! Are you okay?” Aunt Rachel echoed Ian’s and Babs’s words and dropped to her knees beside me.
“I’m fine,” I repeated.
And I really was. Oh, I was a torn, tattered, bloody mess, but the flowers’ sacrifice had worked, and all my cuts and gashes had vanished, along with the burning sensation of the red narcissus venom. The horrible stab wound that Covington had inflicted on me was gone as well, and I could feel my healing magic flowing through my body like normal.
Aunt Rachel stared at me another moment, making sure that I was really okay, then turned and looked over her shoulder. “Guys! Over here!”
One by one, the rest of my friends limped out of the rubble. Zoe, Mateo, Takeda, Professor Dalaja.
The fight with the Reapers and the Narcissus Heart had taken its toll on my friends. They were all sporting cuts and bruises, and they were all tired, dirty, and bloody like I was, but they were all still in one piece. Everyone had survived the fight, including the gryphons, who hobbled over to join us.
The Reapers hadn’t been so lucky. They were all dead, many of them killed by the vines and thorns, and the basilisks and the dragon had vanished. The gryphons and the vines must have finally gotten the better of the other creatures.
I glanced around the library, and I finally spotted Drake, who was slumped up against one of the study tables, with Ian’s ax buried in his chest. Ian had finished his fight with his brother, just as I had finished mine with Covington.
Ian stared at Drake, his mouth twisting and sorrow dimming his eyes.
I squeezed his arm. “Are you okay? You know that you didn’t have a choice, right?”
“I know that Drake didn’t give me a choice, that he never gave me a choice about any of this,” Ian rasped. “But he was still my brother, and it still hurts that he’s gone.”
I squeezed his arm again. Ian stared at his brother a moment longer, then turned to me.
He smiled, and his eyes softened. He cupped my cheek with his hand. “But I’m so glad you’re okay. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while now.”
My breath caught in my throat. “What?”
He gave me a serious look. “I should have said it before, but Rory, I—”
Behind us, the library doors burst open, cutting him off.
We all tensed and looked at the doors, wondering if more Reapers were coming to attack us. But instead of Reapers, a girl with frizzy brown hair rushed inside. She was carrying a silver sword, and she wasn’t alone. Logan and Linus Quinn and several Protectorate guards stormed into the library behind her.
Gwen Frost, my cousin, stopped short when she realized that we were all alive. She glanced around, taking in the destruction in the library, before her violet gaze focused on me. She smiled with relief and slowly lowered her sword to her side.
“Hey, Rory,” Gwen said. “I got your messages. Sorry I’m late.”
I smiled back at her. “It’s about time you got here.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Three hours later, my friends and I were all healed, cleaned up, and down in the Bunker, surveying the destruction.
Takeda winced. “I don’t remember us making quite this big a mess.”
Professor Dalaja sighed. “It will take weeks to sort through the artifacts, make sure they weren’t damaged, and put everything back the way it was.”
“Well, I’m just glad we have a chance to do that,” Aunt Rachel said. “Thanks to Rory.”
My friends smiled at me, and I grinned back at them. Aunt Rachel was right. No matter how big the mess was, I was just glad we were going to have a chance to clean it up.
Takeda found some chairs in another room that hadn’t been damaged, and we took our seats at the briefing table. Me, Babs, Aunt Rachel, Professor Dalaja, Zoe, Gwen, and her talking sword, Vic, sat on one side of the table, with Takeda, Ian, Mateo, Logan, and Linus on the other side.
Linus had brought a whole platoon of P
rotectorate guards with him, but they were all either upstairs in the library or over in the dining hall, helping the students, professors, and other staff members. After I had destroyed the Narcissus Heart, the Reapers who had been guarding the students had fled from campus, and the red narcissus venom had slowly started wearing off. It had taken a couple of hours, but everyone who had been infected was expected to make a full recovery.
Mateo’s laptop had survived the destruction in the briefing room, as had one of the monitors on the wall. He managed to access the security footage from inside the library, and we watched the final battle with Covington. While we studied the footage, I told the others everything that had happened from when I had escaped from the library in the early afternoon to when I had come back to the academy to rescue them.
When I finished, Takeda shook his head. “I still can’t believe you hid the Narcissus Heart and replaced all these other artifacts with fakes.”
He waved his hand. Aphrodite’s Cuff, Hermes’s Sandals, Thrud’s Necklace, Benzaiten’s Ring, Hephaestus’s Apron, Veritas’s Diary, Typhon’s Scepter. My friends had taken off the artifacts, and the objects were sitting in the center of the table, along with Serket’s Pen and Fafnir’s Dagger, which we had recovered from the Reapers.
The only artifact that wasn’t here was Freya’s Bracelet, which Ian had given back to me and which was hanging off my right wrist like usual. I was keeping it, not because I needed its protection anymore but because my parents had given it to me.
I winced. “Are you angry? I know I should have told you what I was doing, but it seemed like the best way to protect you all from Covington.”
“Well, I’m not happy about it, but I understand why you did it. And if you hadn’t, we would all still be Covington’s Reaper zombies.” Takeda stabbed his finger at me. “But no more replacing artifacts with fakes, understand?”
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