Lilith's Arc

Chapter 6 of 40

Two rites remained. Lilith swam back into the drowned library and found the unicorn slumped against a broken shelf. Its mane no longer drifted. Its horn had dimmed to gray. Each stolen memory had taken more than moonlight. It had taken the creature's strength. Lilith knelt in the water and pressed her hand to its cheek. The unicorn barely lifted its head. She needed two more memories from it. She could see it would not survive them. Selene watched from the dark, the pixie still glowing on her chest. "It fades," she said. "Take what you need before it dies. A dead thing has no memories left to give." Lilith looked at the pixie's light. She thought of the companion she had already sacrificed. She thought of her son Gabe, who went still and watched whenever she worked. She did not want to become the thing her children feared. "If I drain it dry, I finish the spell over a corpse," she said. "I will not." She made a choice instead. She would take one memory now, gently, and let the unicorn rest. Then she would find another way for the final rite. She pressed her palm to its cheek and sang low, her goddess side holding the thread, her siren voice pulling soft. A thin silver light rose from its eyes. She stopped before it took more. The unicorn shuddered, then breathed easier. Its horn flickered back to pale white. Lilith carried the light to the dragon. It breathed the memory in. Its chest glowed and dimmed. "The fourth rite opens," it said. "One rite remains after this. One memory more." "Not from the unicorn," Lilith said. "It has given all it can survive." The dragon lowered its horned head. "Then the last price comes from you, or from something else you love. The choice is yours. It will not be free." Lilith turned to the unicorn. It stood on its own now, weak but alive. She had spared it. But she had spent its last safe gift, and the spell was not done. The dragon's words settled in her chest like cold water. The final memory would cost her own family, or her own heart. Selene spoke from the shadows. "You saved the creature. Now you have nothing left to hide behind." She was not cruel when she said it. She only stated the truth. Lilith looked at the page brightening under her hands. Four rites finished. One remained. She had kept the unicorn breathing. She had kept her own memories whole. But she had run out of other hearts to spend. The last price would come from the very family she was trying to save. She pressed her hand to the shelf and made herself read on.