Rory Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 12 of 13

The bell above kept ringing. Rory stood on the lit grooves with Kael's hand in hers. Void sat at the center point, tail curled tight. The chamber answered her. Not in words. In a warm push against the inside of her chest, like someone leaning on a door from the other side. She froze. The push felt like Kael. It also did not feel like Kael. Two things at once. "Something's in here with us," she said. "Something that isn't you." Kael's black eyes swept the room. "Say more." "It's answering me. When I think, it thinks back." Her voice shook. "If I open to the wrong one, I open to the wrong one forever." She pulled her hand back from him. Just an inch. Just enough to test. The push in her chest stayed. It was not coming from him. Void meowed once, sharp, and looked past her shoulder. Rory turned. Her grandmother stood in the archway. Translucent, thinner than the last dream, her white hair moving in air that wasn't moving. The pendant at her throat caught the groove-light. She looked tired. She looked like she had been running. "Grandma." "Little bird." Ada stepped onto the grooves and did not disturb them. "Listen. I have one minute of me left in here." Rory's throat locked. "The thing answering me—" "Is the chamber. Is him. Is you. All of it." Ada's mouth pressed thin. "Convergence isn't a thing done to you, Rory. Two lines. One witch. That was the old lie. It's two witches. One line. You and the shadow boy. Yin. Yang. Balance. Together you are the convergence, or neither of you is." Kael went still beside her. "The bell," Rory said. "They're coming." "Then we shut the bell." Ada raised her thin hand and knocked on the air. Three. Pause. Two. "The pattern I taught you at four. In the cedar song. Do you remember?" Rory did. Her hand moved before her head caught up. Three. Pause. Two. She knocked on nothing. The bell above them cut off mid-swing. The academy went quiet over their heads. "Good girl." Ada was already fainter. "Now the harder thing. If you want him, you merge here, tonight, on the point. Not later. Later, she takes one of you." "She?" Rory said. "Aphrodite?" Ada did not answer that. Her sentences got shorter when she was firm. "Stand on the point. Hand in his hand. Say yes out loud. Once each." Rory looked at Kael. His black eyes held on her face. He did not ask what she wanted. He already knew. They stepped to Void together. The grooves burned white up her boots. Her chest opened wide and clean. It was him. Only him. She had her answer. "Yes," she said. "Yes," Kael said. Ada was gone. The chamber closed around the two of them like a held breath.