Chapter 114

SOFIA

I could tell that Mila was still doubtful of her role in all of this, which meant that I had to prove to her just how important she was to the grand scheme of magic.

I had made enough mistakes–it was high time that I started to right these ancient wrongs.

Magic was power, and power was all well and good, but even the strongest magic had its consequences. I may be able to cast a near-unbreakable curse, but even I was not strong enough then to break it.

Only Mila was–if she allowed herself to be.

I needed to show her the truth. The full, complete, devastating truth.

Mila’s face was flushed with sadness. “You keep saying that it’s up to me to fix all this, but I don’t know the first thing about magic. And even if I did, I don’t know if I’d want to save Fresonia after how I was treated. Are any of them even worth saving?”

It was exactly what I was afraid of. Not only had I passed my magic down the line, I had also passed along my great, deep anger. Mila had been broken by the betrayal of the people she trusted the most, just as I had, but the only way to move forward was to heal.

A difficult task not even I had been able to fully accomplish.

“Mila,” I said, as gently as possible, “Believe me, I understand your anger even more than you do. It is a difficult thing, to be put up as a lamb for slaughter by your loved ones. I know the rage that you’re feeling. I created that rage.”

Mila wiped at her leaking eyes furiously. “This is different. I didn’t even do anything. You’re the one who cursed an entire family.”

I swallowed. “We are one and the same, Mila, whether you like it or not. You’re definitely a more evolved version of me, but we are the same soul, the same spirit. The anger you feel towards me is nothing more than the anger you feel towards yourself.”

Mila really started weeping at that, sinking to the ground and burying her head in her hands. I knew it must be a lot to process–but I was processing, too. After all, it was the first time I had been able to communicate with one of my future lives.

It meant that Mila had to be the one.

“I need to show you something,” I said. “As much as you may hate Fresonia right now, Mila, it needs you.”

Mila shook her head. “I am no longer its queen.”

“Maybe not,” I admitted, “but you are its savior.”

Mila loosed a shuddering breath. “That’s… that’s a lot of pressure.”

“I know.”

She looked up at me, the tiniest glint of curiosity in her eyes. “How am I supposed to save Fresonia?”

The truth of it all felt overwhelming, even to me, but it was necessary if I was ever to persuade Mila to get involved.

I reached back in my memories, to that fateful day centuries earlier, and willed my wedding ring back onto my finger. Mila gasped at its appearance.

When I finally spoke, it was with a voice both young and old, guided by the ancient magic that flowed through my veins. “The day I married Samuel, we exchanged multiple sets of vows.”

In my mind’s eye, I could see it all: the foundation of Fresonia’s stone castle being laid behind us, the rolling, grassy hills that would eventually become the capital city of Fresia before us.

And across from me stood Samuel, that kind, understanding smile on his face as he gazed at me. The feel of his warm hands in mine. The way he looked at me like I was the single most important person in the world.

We had been so, so, so in love.

Before I blew it all up.

“We made our wedding vows,” I said in a monotone, aware of the way my heart felt like it was splicing open in my chest. “And then we made an additional set of vows. Not to each other, but to Fresonia.”

For Fresonia was truly born on our wedding day, its borders snapping into place, and its people uniting under one banner. I knew even then that history would remember Samuel, the Great Unifier, the hero of early Fresonia–but forget its first queen, the woman who gave all she had to protect the country and preserve its magic.

In the void, I was vaguely aware of Mila gasping with the realization of what I had done with Samuel.

“We knew Fresonia was a special place, and therefore needed an extraordinary protection on it to keep it safe, “ I continued. “So we bound the magic of the land to the strength of our bond, so that the strength and health of Fresonia would always be tied to our eternal love.”

Although all I could see was Samuel’s smiling face, I could hear Mila, a faraway voice in the wind.

“You didn’t just bind Fresonia’s magic to your love,” she whispered. “You bound all magic to your love.”

It had been a great idea at the time. We knew that our love was strong enough to keep all the magic in the world alive, and that by rooting it in the seven magical kingdoms surrounding the Dragon’s Teeth mountains, there would never be cause for concern over its stability.

Until I was burned at the stake.

“There was once a time when nearly all the citizens of Fresonia possessed some form of magic,” I confessed. “But much of that magic was dampened when I cursed Samuel.”

When she spoke again, Mila’s voice was full of sympathy. “That’s why only the nobility in Fresonia are aware of their magical powers. Everyone else’s magic is dormant. The magic isn’t nearly as strong as it was when you married Samuel.”

I exhaled. “Yes.”

“Because of the curse. Because you and Samuel never reconciled.”

My voice broke. “Yes.”

“And all our other past lives…” Mila glanced around the void, as if expecting some variation of herself to pop up from nowhere. “No one ever got close to reviving that bond.”

“Until you.”

“Until me.”

I opened my eyes to see Mila, clear-eyed, holding her head a little taller than she had a few moments ago. She looked… aware of herself, of her mission, in a way that I’d never seen before.

She tilted her head at me as she asked that final, devastating question. “What happened to all the other versions of us? Did they just never meet their Felix or Samuel? Is that why the curse never got close to being broken?”

I hesitated, reaching for her hand, the weight of what I had to do bearing down on me. “The betrayals are not limited to us, Mila.”

She flinched. “What do you mean?”

I closed my eyes, summoning centuries of painful memories from the void. “Every time we have been on this earth, we have been betrayed by Samuel. Or Felix. Or whatever name he takes in that lifetime.”

Mila started to cry once again. “In every lifetime?”

I let go of Mila’s hand. “It’s time that you see for yourself.”