Lumina Nightglow's Arc

Chapter 31 of 34

The next morning, Ivan and Aurora walked toward the dark wall of trees. The foxes ran ahead, their marked fur glowing. Aurora carried her mother's wand. The star at its top pulsed like a slow heartbeat. She was seven, but she walked without fear. She had felt the heart go cold. Now she meant to reach it. At the edge of the dark wall, Aurora stopped. She pressed her hand to her chest. "It's quiet in there," she said. "The heart is barely beating." Ivan knelt beside her. "Then we listen for it," he said. "The way I taught you. Not with your ears." Aurora closed her eyes. The largest fox pressed against her side. Its warmth steadied her. Aurora lifted the wand. She thought of her mother, the one she had never met. She thought of the light that once burned her hands and now sat calm in them. She let that love flow into the star. A glowing emblem bloomed above her palm, warm and bright, ringed with soft petals of light. Her wings snapped open. They grew wide and rainbow-bright, sparkling like glass. Ivan watched them stretch past the trees. Once such power would have thrown her to the ground. Now she stood firm. "Papa," she said. "I can feel the roots. All of them." Her voice shook, but she did not stop. "I know how to send it now." Aurora knelt and pressed both hands to the earth. The emblem sank from her palm into the soil. She poured her love into the roots, the way her mother had a hundred years before. The foxes circled her, glowing brighter. Light ran along the ground toward the dark wall and slipped beneath it. Far past the trees, the sleeping heart stirred. Aurora felt it catch her warmth. Its slow beat quickened. A faint pink glow spread up through the roots and lit the underside of the dark leaves. The cold pulled back a little. The heart was still sleeping, but it was no longer fading. Aurora opened her eyes and swayed. Ivan caught her. "I held it," she said. "I reached the heart on my own." Her wings folded slow against her back. "It's not awake yet. But I stopped it from dying." Ivan held her tight. The foxes bowed their heads around them. Aurora looked up at her father. She was no longer afraid. She had her family, the foxes, and the light her mother left her. "I know what I need to do," she said. "I'm the keeper now. The forest is mine to save." Ivan smiled and brushed the sparkling hair from her face. "Then we go past the wall," he said. "To the heart itself. When you're rested." Aurora nodded. The glow beneath the dark trees held steady behind them. For the first time, the forest's dying was slowed by her hand alone. The true waking still waited beyond the wall.