Angela's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Angela stood in the clearing, staring at the broken archway. The silver thread had sunk into her chest and left a dull ache. She pressed her palm to the cold stone. Nothing. The symbols did not light. The gap in the center stayed dead. This was the only door home, and it was shattered. She had to know what broke it. "It will not open," the Moon King said behind her. "Not for you. Not for anyone." She turned on him. Fear made her sharp. "Then tell me what broke it. I came through here. I need to go back." He said nothing. His pale eyes moved over the ruined stone. Angela stepped past him and grabbed a loose chunk of the arch. The violet crystals at its base glowed faintly under her fingers. She tried to fit the piece back into the gap. It slipped free and fell. The glow died. "Stop," he said. "Help me, then." She grabbed his wrist to pull him toward the stone. The touch struck her a second time. Heat flooded her arm. The world tilted. She saw things that were not hers: a sky split open, this same archway whole and burning with light, and his own hand raised toward it. She felt his terror. She felt him break the portal himself. Then it was gone. She let go and staggered back. "You," she whispered. "You broke it. I saw you do it." His face went still. The fractures of pink light flickered inside his horns, then faded. "You cannot see that. No one can see that." "I did." Her voice shook. "Why? Why would you close it?" "I did not close it for you." He stepped closer, towering over her. "I closed it long before you were born. To keep something out. To keep something in." His clawed hand lifted, almost touching her hair. "I have spent a thousand years burying what you just saw. And you reached into it like it was nothing." Angela understood then. The portal was no accident. He had destroyed it on purpose, ages ago. There was no quick repair. There was only him, and whatever he was hiding. "Then you can reopen it," she said. "You broke it. You can fix it." "It is not that simple." His voice dropped. "And now you are bound to me. If I reach for that power, it reaches for you too." He turned toward the black spires rising beyond the trees. His palace. He did not ask her to follow. He simply expected it. "Come," he said. "I will not leave you here for the hound. And I must learn how a human touched my memories." Angela looked at the dead archway one last time. The crystals stayed dark. No way through. Then she followed the monster toward his obsidian gates, because the only path home now ran straight through him.