Chapter 24 Jessiah
Jessiah
“Well,” she said, adjusting herself on the saddle. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? This place creeps me out.”
When I didn’t immediately follow her, she stopped and whipped around.
“What are you waiting for?”
I inhaled deeply. “Are you going to tell me what you’re hiding?”
Her expression dropped, though she quickly recovered, replacing the shock with a sassy smirk. “That depends,” she goaded. “What makes you think I’m hiding something, Jessiah?”
Goddess above. There was so damn much at stake here. If she would just open up to me, I could do the same. We could trust each other like we used to. We could work together. I could help her.
She scrutinized me, her lips pressed together, nothing but suspicion and doubt on her face.
It was a lost damn cause. “Forget it.” I maneuvered past her and entered the dark tunnel.
The breeze from the cold outside ceased to exist. In fact, just a few feet inside the cave’s entrance, the air did not move.
Nothing moved at all.
It was as if this place did not exist in the real world, as if it existed in a separate realm from all that lived and moved outside.
Rummy appeared behind me, the slow steps of her horse the only other movement in the darkness.
The horses both whined and hesitated with every step.
My heart raced as if every part of me knew this was wrong.
Every cell went on high alert. Waiting.
With a thick swallow, I carried on, guiding us deeper into the caves.
I scanned the cavernous space, unsure of what we should be looking for. Last time, we had been deep into the caves before the whispers began.
Maybe the voices wouldn’t speak to us today. Maybe they’d told us everything we needed to know already and we’d fucked it all up by not sticking around for clarification.
“Hello?!” Rummy yelled, the single word echoing for several seconds.
I stopped in my tracks and spun to face her. Of its own accord, my hand fell to the sword strapped to my hip and my body braced for—well, anything.
“What are you doing?!” My whisper was amplified in the hollow space.
“I’m trying to speed this up!” she snapped. “We don’t have all night!”
This woman was impossible.
With one last glower at me, she tipped her head back and yelled into the void again. “We’re here for help, creepy, all-knowing cave spirits!”
Teeth gritted and hands balled into fists, I stepped up to her, ready to tell her this wasn’t working, that we needed to move deeper into the caves, when a strong wind nearly blew me off my horse.
Rummy, too.
She squealed in surprise as the gust of air bombarded us.
The wind blew and blew and blew, stealing the breath from my lungs, until I was certain we’d be pummeled to death against rocks.
The caves had seen enough, and we were not welcome back. That was the only theory I could come up with that made sense.
I was ready to jump off my horse and flee with Rummy in tow when the wind died just as abruptly as it had started.
Our breaths became the only sounds in the cavern.
And then, “Hello.”
Rummy screamed, both horses startled, and I whipped around, in search of the source of the angelic voice.
Standing only a few feet away was a woman, yet not a woman all the same. Her ethereal presence sent a chill through my body. She was not here in the flesh like Rummy and I were, but rather made up of light beams and tendrils of white smoke.
An apparition.
Still, she emitted a powerful beauty. One that inspired fear, even in me.
“Dismount from the animals,” she ordered.
Rummy glanced at me with worry all over her face, but I gave her a quick nod and we both obeyed.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The figure surveyed us for several heartbeats before answering, “I am Astraea, Goddess of the East.”
“Are you here to kill us?” She stepped closer, her arm brushing mine.
The goddess smiled in response. “I’m not here to kill you, Rummy.”
Rummy stiffened at the sound of her name. I instinctively did the same.
The goddess’s eyes slid over to me. “I’ve been waiting for you two to seek me. It seems the voices of the caves have worried you both.”
I cleared my throat, forcing my shoulders back. “Confused us, mostly. Are you going to tell us what the rhyme means? Why do we keep hearing it? What are we supposed to do?”
A light breeze picked up and whirled around us, stirring up dirt like a small tornado around the three of us.
“Do you two believe in destinies?” she asked. “In fates?”
I glanced at Rummy. Though she had a fierce exterior, the tiniest hint of fear lingered behind her eyes.
“I guess so,” I answered, returning my attention to Astraea. “What does that have to do with the words we keep hearing?”
“In the shadows of the night, a force both dark and light.” The phrase rolled off her tongue easily.
Those damn words. I was certain I’d be happy if I’d never heard them again. But now? They sounded… different.
“What are we supposed to do?” Rummy pushed. “Are we supposed to stop Cornelius? Why us?”
“Because he senses your gift, child. What he’s told you about that is true, although he is a deceptive man. He plans on raising the dead, yes, and you must put an end to this. Both of you.”
So he did plan on raising the dead. He was so dangerous, the goddess was getting involved? I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
“Rummy’s gift?” I asked, confusion alive inside me. “Do you mean her magic?”
Instead of answering, the goddess waved her hand, and a vision of Rummy appeared between us, a copy of the woman beside me floating like a specter herself, entangled in the light beams and smoke emitting from the goddess.
Though this version of her was much, much younger. Her blonde hair was cut to her shoulders, with strands sticking to the dried blood and tears on her face. She was kneeling over a woman.
A woman with sharp cheekbones and plump lips. A woman who looked almost identical to Rummy. Her mother.
And she was dead.
Horror dripped over Rummy’s features. She stared at the woman, hands shaking, as if she was seeing death for the very first time.
“Rummy,” I breathed. “What is this?”
She shivered beside me. “Stop this,” she demanded. “STOP IT!”
“This is only the beginning,” Astraea said softly. “Keep watching.”
“I don’t need to see this.” Rummy suddenly morphed into a version of herself that couldn’t be more different from the cool, collected female I knew. Her voice shook as she clenched her shaking hands at her sides.
The vision shifted then. It was no longer an image playing out in front of us. Suddenly, it felt as though it was happening there. The turmoil twisting in Rummy’s chest, the grief pouring from her heart, were palpable, making it hard to breathe.
Then—mixed in that grief—came the darkness.
I felt that, too. The power that lit up in her veins was undeniable.
“Goddess above,” I breathed as sensations warred inside me. “Is this real?”
Astraea only responded in riddles. “Where chaos reigns and hearts beat, through the veil of love and deceit. Darkness becomes the chain that binds, love discovers the thread that unwinds.”
“I am cursed,” Rummy whispered, the words broken, as she stepped toward the now fading vision.
“I’m diseased. I get that. I’ve accepted my fate, and I’ve done everything in my power to keep that part of me hidden.
I killed her, okay? I killed my own damn mother.
I’ve relived that horror every single day in my mind. So why is this happening now? Why me?”
Astraea’s ethereal features softened. “A force both dark and light. This is your destiny, Rummy. The power that Cornelius will possess if he moves forward will be world-ending. You can stop him. Use both the dark and the light, and you will prevail.”
Rummy’s focus was locked on Astraea, but I couldn’t look away from her. My mind reeled, piecing together the images I’d just seen with the words the goddess had spoken.
She had magic. Not just any magic, either. I felt it as if it were my own. She had death magic. Just as Cornelius did.
Before I could formulate a single question, Astraea’s figure faded before us. The wind strengthened once more, causing the beams of light that held her floating body to dissipate.
Rummy raised her hands in protest, but it was too late.
The Goddess of the East was gone.
“You’re telling me that you have magic? And you’ve known about it all this time?”
All those masks, all the lying. She’s had magic this entire fucking time.
I brushed off my hypocrisy. This was different. I had a feeling Rummy was hiding something, and I’d been right all along.
Rummy sucked on her bottom lip, those large, innocent eyes fixed on me.
Darkness becomes the chain that binds. It all made sense.
“Rummy,” I said, lowering my voice. “Say something.”
Instead of speaking, instead of fighting or protesting or telling me that the goddess was lying, she sucked in a sharp, shaking breath. “What do you want me to say, Jessiah?”
Frustration and hurt warred in my chest, my hands balling into fists at my sides. “I want you to say that I’m wrong. I want you to tell me that you haven’t been lying about your magic! Say anything, really, Rummy. Help me understand why you’ve been lying to us for years!”
Her nostrils flared. Even in the dim light of the caves, the way her shoulders tensed was obvious.
Rummy.
I wanted to be soft for her. I wanted to lean into her, to coax the truth from her, to tell her I was here for her and I would always fucking be here for her. But that wasn’t us, was it?
The two of us no longer possessed a bond like that. I was no longer the nice, supportive guy she could lean on. I had fucked that up a long, long time ago.
I knew it. Rummy knew it.
“How could I tell you?” she asked, voice wavering. “How could I tell anyone? You don’t understand what it’s been like for me.”
“I don’t understand because you don’t tell me. You don’t tell me anything anymore. Not since…”