Lilith's Arc

Chapter 25 of 40

The wedding song was safe, but the cold came again before Lilith left the cave. This time it did not reach for one memory. It reached for many. She opened her sealed book on the wet stone and saw the pages inside it churn. Dozens of unsealed memories glowed at once, all of them thin and flickering. The thread had found the whole book. It moved fast, from page to page, and one page pulsed brighter than the rest. On it, her hand had written Tre's name and the day she chose him. That page held the binding between them. If it went, she would forget her own husband. She could not seal them all alone. Her voice could hold one memory at a time, not fifty. The unicorn pressed its horn to her shoulder. The seahorse curled at her throat, runes glowing teal. They could anchor her, but they could not read. She needed hands that sealed faster than the thread could bite. Lilith carried the book from the shore to the stone hall. She pounded the tall door until it opened. Mnemora stood inside, small and pale, her white dress edged in gold. She had sealed this book once before. She had warned Lilith she could not seal every memory. Now Lilith held it out, its pages burning through her fingers. "It found the book," Lilith said. "All of it. The page with Tre is going now." Mnemora looked at the churning pages. "Too many," she said. "I cannot save them all. Choose one." "I won't choose." Lilith set the book on the stone floor. She sang. The seahorse fed her voice. The unicorn held her spine straight. She did not aim her song at one page. She spread it thin across the whole book, a net instead of a spear. "That will not hold," Mnemora said. But she raised both hands. Gold light poured from her palms into the open book. The thread yanked at Tre's page. Lilith's song caught it. She held the net while Mnemora's gold light chased each flickering memory and pressed it flat. One page sealed. Then three. Then a whole row. Lilith's knees shook. The unicorn did not move. She kept the net wide until the last page cooled. The thread hit Tre's page one final time. Mnemora's light dropped over it and closed. The cold went out of the book. The pages lay still, all of them edged in gold. Lilith could not breathe for a moment. Then she found Tre's page, whole and sealed. She would not forget him now. "It is done," Mnemora said. She lowered her hands. "But the thread has no more book to hunt." She looked at Lilith. "It will come for what you never wrote down. The living memories, still in your head." Lilith closed the book. The pages were safe. Her own mind was not.