Failed Future (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles, #3)

by Elise Kova

A voice that resonated with her very soul.

“It’s nothing.” Besides being trapped in the dark prison of my thoughts. “It took a lot to get here. That’s all.”

They were from different worlds, pulled together by fate. Two people who should have never met and seemed destined for nothing more than heartache.

I can’t let myself love you. Despite all she’d been though, that realization may have hurt the most.

The shift transitioned what was to what could be.

Near. Far. Near. Far. Back and forth they swung, a pendulum that never lost its momentum. The closer she got to him one moment, the further he felt the next.

He’d said terrible things happened to the people he loved. But Vi supposed her track record was no better. The only other people she’d loved were plagued, captured by pirates, struggling to keep an empire together, and watching their people die with little hope of a cure. Maybe they were both cursed.

While Vi couldn’t see through the wrapping, it left little to her imagination: a long pole, connected to something flat and curved at one end—a scythe, she’d surmise.

She was staring at a crystal weapon. A real, complete, legendary crystal weapon. She could feel its power, even now, thrumming quietly. It whispered secrets to her, inviting her to uncover them. Yet it spoke in a language she couldn’t understand.

“If we’re meant to burn, then we burn together.”

“Perhaps you’re right about us burning together, because only you can set me on fire.”

“I’ve never had much… but this is all I have now. This whole world may need you and not know it, but no one needs you more than I do, I promise you that. I will make mistakes. But I need you to believe in me, trust me.”

“Then hold me, and let the world wait.”

But the king who breaks his own rules is a ruler soon to lose his crown.”

And I know that, in the lore on the Dark Isle, there were four of these weapons—an axe, a scythe, a crown, and a sword.”

“Why does any man turn from duty? Love, loneliness, family… I can only speculate,”

“The Champion used the power of Yargen within him to split the staff into an axe, a scythe, a crown, and a sword—the Crystal Weapons of lore.”

What does she matter to you? Everything.

He was light and life and everything she’d ever wanted without knowing it.

Yes, beyond the Twilight Forest we are as deadly as you feared.

“Should you want it… allow my arms to be your home. Here is home. Because, as I told you once, here is where you are safe.”

Imperfection fit them both well. Maybe life had carved enough parts out of each of them that they needed each other to feel whole.

“I don’t think we should be going toward the people trying to maim or murder us in order to bring about the end of the world.”

“I think it’s you who will be slaughtered.” Vi felt as much as heard her father’s declaration.

You should never underestimate a Solaris… least of all my daughter.

“I would know who you are anywhere. Not even a haircut can hide you from me, my daughter.”

Vi was a wildfire compared to the measured elegance that was Taavin. Fire around her. Fire within her. Fire within her father.

But unlike the Stormfrost, Vi was at her best—she’d recovered, she’d been trained, and she’d learned how to channel the darkness within her.

“You did well,” her father repeated softly. Even though she knew all that lay before them, three words had never sounded so beautiful.

We’re running short on time. The end of the world is near, and we must be ready to meet it.

“He’s a Lightspinner. Like me.” Her voice nearly quivered at the end. “I-I’m not a Firebearer.”

“This streak of recklessness, you get it from your mother.” Despite his words, her father had a proud smile, as if he were silently taking credit for the fact.

“I will save our family,” she vowed. “First our family, then the world.”

“Your mother is strong. The strongest woman I have ever met.” Nothing short of wonder, admiration, and love filled his voice. Vi watched as her father gazed out to sea, his brow softening. Only to nearly choke on his next words. “But I have been away from her long enough, and if ill is to befall her, I should be by her side, as she would seek to be by mine.”

Beautiful!

“This recklessness—you get from your mother.” “So you’ve said.” “Have I told you that you also inherited her profound compassion?” Vi gave a small smile.

Before your mother, I was a man who would have watched the world burn. She was the one to show me how my actions impacted others, and how to care.”

“But that love was the best thing I ever surrendered to. It gave me your mother, and it gave me you and your brother.” His palm rested on the crown of her head, stroking her hair twice like he would when she was a child.

I was close to crying.

Every detail had been explored and every truth confessed. Her father was the only person in the world other than her who knew everything.

It didn’t matter what he said or claimed. Whatever they were—whatever they’d shared—was breaking right before her eyes.

“You couldn’t know.” She slowly turned, lacing and unlacing her fingers to try to keep the spark from springing forth and burning him alive. “Because you do not see the future. That is my destiny.”

She was the fire of her forefathers. She was the bitter ice that had hardened her. She was the frozen flames of the Goddess herself embodied in crystal: hard, unmoving, unfeeling.

“Count your blessings,” Vi whispered. “The last time someone betrayed me and my family, I killed her. But I guess I really did love you, Taavin. Because here you stand, and here you’ll stay.”

“Assume your mantle as Champion.”