I still couldn’t see much thanks to the crazy bright light. Between the clouds outside and the bright light inside, using my sense of sight didn’t get me very far on Mount Majest.

I continued to follow the Elder until the light faded, and I found myself in a beautiful courtyard full of bright colored flowers.

“Now, isn’t that better?” The Elder spread her arms out wide.

“It’s beautiful out here, but I don’t see how this—”

“Stop. Relax for a moment.” She sat down on the bench that circled a stone fountain.

“Relaxing isn’t on my to-do list.” It was nowhere near it. I wondered when I would ever relax again.

“Sometimes you have to relax to prepare yourself for what is to come.” She closed her eyes and leaned back as if to soak in the sun on her face.

I gazed up at the sky, trying to determine if it was real or an illusion. With all the bright light I hadn’t noticed us move outside. “There is nothing I can do to adequately prepare myself for what’s coming.” My life as I knew it was over. Somehow accepting that reality made things easier. Slightly easier that is.

I tried to focus on the sound of the running water coming from all four of the sprayers in the fountain. The problem was although soothing, the sound reminded me of the water that transported us from the realm of the dead. I rubbed my throat, remembering that not-so pleasant experience.

The Elder kept her eyes closed. “There is always a way to prepare yourself.”

“Could you just tell me what it is you want me to know?” I sat down beside her, finally giving in to the exhaustion I knew would only get worse. “Then I can stop wasting your time.”

She opened her eyes and turned toward me. “You are not wasting my time. I am enjoying this. By the way, my name is Arabella.” She held out her hand in an informal way that seemed at odds with who she supposedly was.

I accepted her hand, noting her perfectly manicured pale pink nails. “Nice to meet you.” I wasn’t sure it was nice to meet her, maybe it would be if she told me something instead of continuously confusing me. Every time I thought I had a better idea of what was going on, I learned something else that confused me further. The sensation was the mental equivalent of what I imagined quicksand would be. Even if you thought you were escaping somehow, you would get sucked in deeper each time.

There had to be a reason she brought me out to the courtyard. She didn’t care about me or my problems, which meant the move was to put me at ease, a false sense of ease, and that wouldn’t be good. I needed to stay alert and remember that this creature, beautiful or not, had the power to destroy me and any hope I had left.

“You met your father.” She leaned forward, her elbow resting on her knee. “That must have been a memorable occasion.”

Memorable was one way to describe it. “I did. Although It was a weird version of him since he is dead and all.” Considering she claimed to know everything about me, I assumed she knew my father’s fate.

“Yes, but you met him. That is more than you could have hoped for.” She stared at me, full on stared at me. “There is no reason to deny the truth.”

I looked away, but her eyes followed mine. I gave up avoiding her bright eyes. “I am thankful to know who he is.”

“He is smart, but he cannot know everything.” She reached behind her and put her hand in the water. The water rolled right off her skin as if she was waterproof.

I resisted the urge to ask her about that—to ask why she was impenetrable to it, but there were so many other questions to ask, questions that had nothing to do with the Elder. I waited nervously for her to continue, to tell me more about what my father didn’t know. I was already so confused about my father, I didn’t need more fuel to add to that fire.

After a few moments she removed her hand from the water. “Your father’s plan forgot a key piece.”

I thought back on where our earlier conversation had dropped off. “Gregor?”

“Yes.”

“He forgot him?” That seemed unlikely.

“He forgot no plan will work as long as Gregor is around.”

“That is an important detail to forget.” My dad had gone to great lengths to help me, and I found it unlikely he could have made such a big mistake.

“He assumed with James gone, the darkness would be too. His vision on the realms of the living is limited by the life he lived.”

“Wait. What?” James gone? My chest clenched and my stomach churned.

She laughed. “Wait. You did not figure that part out on your own?” She gave me a puppy dog look. “How cute.”

“Cute?” Rage flowed through me. “Not even a little.”

“Fine I will save us some time. The flower is to give to Charlotte. She thinks it is to provide a longer life for her unborn child, but it is to counteract the poison and your reliance on James to live. Only the Essence can wield the flower in such a way, and it can only be used on one who can survive the flower’s power. As you have Winthrop blood you will survive. Got it?”

I had heard her words and processed them, but that didn’t mean I fully understood them. “But what about destroying James? Charlotte wouldn’t do that? They are so close.” She worried for him. She loved him. Their relationship was complicated, but I found it impossible to imagine her killing him.

“Yet her army is marching toward him.” Arabella whirled her hand around.

“Wait, is that happening still? This time travel thing is confusing.”

“Yes, it will still happen.”

“She doesn’t plan to kill him; she thinks she can help him.” I had to believe that. I refused to believe years of friendship could be so easily brushed aside.

“The whole reason for using the flower is to save you while destroying James. As the Essence she cannot destroy light. Only dark.”

“This seems like a lot to do just to save me.” My head throbbed. I needed James, but that wasn’t an option yet. I had to get answers and hopefully some help.

“I already told you. You are a daughter of Belgard. A true daughter. You are rare and your people would protect you at all costs.” Arabella’s words were sharp, piercing even. She didn’t like my family—or at least that’s how it came across to me. Maybe she didn’t like anyone.

“I find that hard to believe.” So far my experiences had been the exact opposite. Plus, no one even knew who I was. I had only just learned the truth myself.

“Believe what you wish.” She shrugged. “You will be the one hurt.”

“I refuse to let anything happen to James.” He wasn’t dark no matter what anyone said. It wasn’t his fault his father refused to let him go. He had spent years trying to change his reputation only to have his father reach out from the grave—or wherever it was he was hiding— to mess things up again for him.

“I admire your dedication to him. Such care is rare these days.”

“It shouldn’t be rare. You are supposed to care.”

“There is another way.” She ran her nails over the stone bench separating us.

“What way?” I was willing to do just about anything, but I didn’t like how excited she looked. We were talking about life and death, not shopping.

“You could choose to sacrifice yourself instead.” Her eyes lit up.

Sacrifice myself? I let the words sink in. Would I do that? Yes. The answer came far too quickly. I was willing to trade my life for a man I hadn’t known long. But length of time had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. “I would do anything, but would that really help?” There has to be another way. I needed that thought to be true, but what if there wasn’t? What if this was it, and the choice was really my life for his?

“Stop.” Arabella held up her hand. “I bet you are viewing this as a choice. You or him?”

“Yes. And he wins. James has to win.”

“But it is not two equal choices. Not at all.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You are the vessel. The darkness will eventually die out without you.”

“So if I die, the darkness can’t consume everything?” I hadn’t considered that possibility before. Maybe that was a good thing. Having a better understanding might have made me chicken out. I didn’t want to die. There was so much more I wanted to do, but if it could end the darkness? If it could save everyone else I loved? If it could save James. It all went back to James, like a never ending obsession.

“Not so fast.” Arabella’s lips curled into a smile. “What would James do if you died?”

He would freak out truly and completely. That wasn’t me over inflating how much he cared. I understood how strong the bond was between us. He would absolutely lose his mind if I died, but what did that mean? Did that actually change anything? And why was she so happy? I shouldn’t have cared about her mood, but it made the conversation even harder. It was so much worse. “He would be devastated.”

“And he would do something stupid. You know that as well as I do. My guess is his grief would set off the darkness that still exists in him.”

The darkness would still exist? My sacrifice would still leave darkness? “Then what are you suggesting? How can I change the way he’d respond to my death?”

“He will only react that way if you two are bound.” She wound her fingers together. “He would still be sad, but not enough to destroy the very worlds you sacrificed your life to save.”

“The kindred bond.” I thought over her words. There was only one bond for her to mean.

“Yes.” Arabella leaned forward. “That bond.”

“So what are you suggesting exactly?” I both wanted to know and didn’t. I knew I wasn’t going to like any of her suggestions. She had suggested I sacrifice myself after all.

“I suggest you let me help you, honey.”

Honey? That was a random endearment. “Help me?”

“I will give you the flower so Charlotte can break the bond. Then I will aid you in your sacrifice if you so choose.”

“And what do you get?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Why would I want to get something?” She tapped her finger nails again.

“You want something.” I wasn’t going to play around. She might have been a super powerful creature, but she could still put her cards on the table.

She stopped tapping. “I want the power in the bond. As you know, it is one of the most powerful bonds ever created. This helps both of us.” She put her hand on my arm. “It is the only viable choice you have.”

There was no such thing as ‘only choice.’ Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of any other. I didn’t trust Arabella, but my father must have sent me to her for a reason.

However according to Arabella my father had been wrong before. “What about Gregor?”

“What about him?” She twisted some of her hair around her fingers.

“You said no plan works without considering him.” Had she seriously forgotten that already? Impossible. This was all part of her plan to mess with me.

“Gregor will die when you die.” She looked away.

“Uh, I’m not following?” How was that possible? Nothing was that simple.

“You are the vessel. He needed you in order to get his power. His decision to throw you in the lake had nothing to do with hurting you. He was forging you—strengthening you so to speak—into a stronger vessel. In doing so, you two became linked. When you die, he will die.”

“How can you be sure?” I wasn’t sacrificing myself in vain.

“Because Gregor is not human, Ainsley. He is pure darkness. Blake destroyed the human part of Gregor before he filled him with the darkness.”

“Blake did that to his own son?” I shuddered.

“Does anything Blake does surprise you? He is the one who poisoned you.”

“But something about this makes no sense.”

“What part? Blake being evil or Gregor being pure darkness?”

“Neither. It’s the whole ‘if I die he dies’ thing.”

“I already told you the darkness will die out without you. You are going to have to trust me on everything else. It is like your bond with James. Some things cannot be seen.” She crossed her legs. “What is your decision, Ainsley?”

“My decision? How can I make a decision before you tell me the truth? None of this makes sense.”

“What else do you need explained? I thought I was being perfectly clear.” She yawned.

“Why is Charlotte the only one who can break the bond? Aren’t you supposed to be all powerful?”

Arabella frowned. “It is one of the few things I can’t do. Besides, this must be done on the true timeline.”

“The true timeline being the one with the soldiers marching toward us?”

“Yes.” She nodded.

“So?” I wished she would just spell it out already.

“I will accompany you. When we return to the true timeline you offer Charlotte the flower, have her break the bond, and I can take care of the rest.”

“Take care of the rest, meaning kill me?”

“I prefer to think of it as helping you sacrifice yourself.”

“Is it easier for you that way?” I didn’t hide my bitterness. I was getting ready to die. Die. Not a temporary solution, but death.

“Would you rather stand back and watch everything you care about destroyed?”

“Me? You’d be the one standing back. You are the one with the power.”

Arabella laughed. “You have power, honey. You have more power than you realize.”

“Yet you are suggesting a suicide mission.”

“I said sacrifice—“

“But it’s death. We both know that.”

She shrugged. “You never know. Not all deaths are forever…”

“Wait. What do you mean?” I tiny glimmer of hope flashed before me.

“Are you thinking time travel? Like Elron could go back and somehow save me?”

Arabella shrugged again. “In the end the only one who can save you is yourself.”

“Stop it!” I ran out of patience. “How can I save myself if I’m dead?”

“I already told you, you have power. Use it.”

“Use it how? Use it when?”

“That is for you to figure out. I can’t do it all for you, can I?”