Chapter 31
The glow of the midday sun is blinding. Salty air floods my lungs as my eyes adjust to my surroundings.
I’m soaking wet, my green cotton dress clinging to my strange body.
There’s an unmistakable pearlescent sheen to my fair skin that glitters in the light as if I’m wrapped in the very essence of magic.
My feet sink into sugary white sand as I struggle to stand.
Everything feels wrong, as if space and time no longer exist in this sliver of eternity. The seaside paradise of my childhood surrounds me, restored to the wondrous glory that colored it before Death’s arrival.
“Arcasia!”
My stomach drops at the sound of her voice. The unmistakable timbre that fell silent nearly two decades ago. The voice that haunts my dreams and colors my memories. The rough-stitched wound of her absence rips open, the pain of her death fresh once again.
My hands ball into fists, nails biting into the tender flesh of my palm to stave off the tears as the outline of my mother steps into view.
Her pale hair is haloed in a ring of golden sunshine, light pouring from her body as she glides atop the sand.
The gauzy fabric of her emerald gown whips around her legs in the breeze as she approaches the water’s edge.
The waves part easily for her, allowing her to effortlessly walk across the ocean’s bottom. Black flashes in the water as she calls out again for the Goddess of Protection.
I move to scream, to warn her, but the sound dies in my throat. Iridescent scales sparkle in the sun as the head of the sea beast rises from the waves. Familiar silver eyes level their piercing gaze on Selene.
“It’s done,” my mother says. “The boy is safe here, for now. He can’t find him.” Her hands trail absently across her body, stopping to cradle the gentle swell of her belly. “Now it’s time for you to uphold your end of the bargain.”
The beast flicks her mighty tail in anger, causing the waves to roil around her. With a lift of her delicate hand, my mother casts the salty spray into flecks of pure light that pierce the blue horizon—new stars that will be visible in the dark fabric of night.
“I had to,” she says in response. “Even in this form, you can feel what this realm is doing to our power. I gave them a way home … but it only works if you seal our bargain. It has to be the both of them, Arcasia. I will not settle for less.”
A grumble resounds from deep within before the serpent dips her head in submission, her giant tail twisting around my mother until she’s fully in the beast’s grasp. Light pours from their joining, magic rippling across the coast as their deal is sealed.
Pain sears into the skin between my shoulders, electricity sparking through the tattooed scar. Arcasia loosens her hold and soundlessly disappears into the depths of the Eastern Sea.
My mother turns from the water, the small slope of her abdomen glowing in a glimmering, viridian hue.
“Come.”
A single word. A command I silently obey.
Endless white light lies ahead, but still I follow. The sand below my feet quickly gives way to wooden floors and plush rugs, the landscape around us transforming from palm trees to bookcases. The rich scent of leather tomes, salt air, and mahogany fills the air of the idyllic cottage library.
Selene stops, her golden irises glinting in the ethereal glow surrounding her immortal body as she turns to face me.
“It’s time for you to finish what we could not. You have everything you need now. Use it wisely.”
She tucks a strand of wet hair behind my ear, tenderly trailing her fingers across my cheekbone and the constellation of freckles that dust it.
My consciousness hangs somewhere in the space between the past, the present, and the future. Magic permeates the air, sweeping across her iridescent form. I open my mouth but my tongue can’t form the syllables of her strange language, a language I understand but can’t speak.
“You are approaching a fork in your fate. Each of the two paths were laid out before you were born, and both were paved by the wills of different gods. Which path you take is up to you, but you must hurry.”
Selene’s glowing form fractures, the image of her dispersing as she begins to fade into a ball of holy light.
“It’s time to choose, my dark bloom.”
Choose what? I try to scream the question, crying harder as the last bits of my mother fade away into the abyss that envelops me.
“Choose home.”
I jolt upright, smacking my head on the lantern hanging from the ceiling of our tent. Cold air fills my lungs as I try to slow my frantic heartbeat.
“Finally,” a voice groans. Kieran sits beside me on a rolled out pallet of furs, clearly agitated. “Holy shit, Ivy.”
“How long was I out?” I ask, still fighting the panic rooted in my gut.
“Ten hours.”
I gape at his response. What felt like only moments on whatever plane I ended up on was nearly half a day here.
I rip off the fur covering my lap to find myself not in a green cotton dress, but still in my muddy riding leathers. I examine my hands closely. They’re drab and pale, no longer coated in a pearlescent sheen.
“Where’s Cal?” I ask on a shaky breath. Did I drain him too? Is he sleeping off my magical assault outside in the cold?
“I finally convinced him to leave you long enough to take a piss. The bastard has been hovering over you like you’re an egg that will hatch at any moment. It’s a good thing you’re awake, though. I was not looking forward to riding with your unconscious body slung over a horse.”
“Your idea, I presume.”
“Don’t look at me like that.” Kieran glowers. “The Ascension Vote is in a week and we have shit to do. Lover boy was content to stay here until you woke up, no matter how long that took.”
“Good thing I woke before dawn, then.” I scoff at Kieran.
He’s always callous, but this time he’s also right. We are on a schedule, and I would have been pissed if we missed our chance to take down Marks because of this. The aevus resistance is waiting.
My hands are still quivering, shaking from the otherworldly encounter. Kieran notices, his russet eyes freezing on them for a moment before moving upwards to my face.
“What you did out there,” he says as he pulls out a pair of leather gloves from his pocket and passes them to me. “That was fucking incredible. This changes everything, Ivy. You’re the weapon that ensures we all live to see the new Corinth.”
I slip the sable-lined gloves onto my shaking hands, focusing on fitting each individual finger into its slot.
Weapon. The one thing I never wanted them to make me is exactly how he sees me.
But he’s wrong about one thing—we won’t all live. The fork in my fate approaches, the moment of truth when I make the choice I must no matter the personal cost. My mother bargained with multiple gods to give us a fighting chance. She sacrificed and now I must too.
“I know why my mother made the deal with Nobus,” I murmur, eyes still focused on my gloved hands.
The canvas flap of the tent flips back. Cal’s large frame in the entry blocks out the campfire on the other side, casting him in an eerie orange halo.
“Ivy.”
Relief is thick in his hoarse voice but worry still colors his face. The dark circles under his eyes are obvious signs of his refusal to sleep.
“That’s my cue,” Kieran says, as he moves to vacate the tent. “You should talk to Murphy.”
Cal quickly moves to take his place beside me, pulling my hands into his, squeezing them until they no longer tremble.
“Talk to me about what?”
I swallow, buying time while I decide my course of action.
He patiently waits for me to continue, giving me the space I didn’t ask for but desperately need.
I want to tell him who I saw, but the words dry up in my mouth like sand.
If I’m right about who he is … if I’m right, it changes nothing.
Our mission, our fate is still the same.
“Hey.” Cal’s voice cuts through my clouded thoughts. “Talk to me.”
“Your magic is limitless, Cal. Do you have any idea what you can do?”
“Me?” He asks with a half laugh. “Ivy, what you did … I’ve never seen anything like that. Marks is the most powerful god I have encountered and I don’t think he can do what you did.”
“You can,” I say, pulling my hands from his. “You are powerful enough to take on any god. Why don’t you?”
“I can’t access it.” Cal’s hands snag in his disheveled mass of hair as his confession hangs between us. Shadows dance in his eyes, haunted memories that he doesn’t openly share. “It’s only ever responded to you.”
My hand moves to his chest, instinctively splaying across the image of Arcasia’s beast form that connects us and our power.
The deal my mother struck with the leviathan to ensure my protection has led me to my end.
And the more pieces of this puzzle I uncover, the more I’m certain of what I must do.
“Then we’ll take him down together.”