32. Raelyna
RAELYNA
I shouldn’t be here . . . I once again knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it.
Despite knowing that Callum and Finn would both kill me if they knew I was sneaking into the temples to find my sister—actually, they’d probably both have aneurysms first, then kill me—it needed to be done.
I wasn’t going to let my sister continue living in servitude to the temples—to gods that I knew to be false.
It had been a week and a half since Luc had taken Orela and sentenced her to servitude at the Temple of Cato—the temple all seers were subjected to serve at.
Cato, the God of the All-Knowing.
Or at least, that’s what the rulers of Solis Quarter would have us believe.
But I knew the truth. I knew now that Lucanus was just using Cato as a guise to predict the future—to see how he might gain more power for himself.
I realized now that Luc, and his father before him, both wanted the same thing.
Control. Complete control over Solis, possibly even over Aurelia entirely.
They hungered for power and control, choosing to create a religion that ultimately elevated their own status within the Quarter.
I had told my friends that I would be at my apartment tonight. My episodes had been getting worse, and they’d all demanded that I stay in the safety of my apartment until after the markings broke free and my episodes stopped.
I hadn’t wanted to lie to them, and I hated that I did. However, I had to do this on my own.
I needed to try to see Orela. I needed to get her out of the temple.
It was my fault that my sister was forced into a life of servitude. It was because of my failed bargain with the king that she’d been taken, and I needed to see her before it was too late.
I snuck through the side door of Cato’s Temple, the one Sage had mentioned was the least guarded.
I knew that the temples were among the few places in Solis without surveillance drones flying at every hour of the day.
And thankfully, I also knew that the side door key scanner had been broken for the past month, making it all the easier to sneak in undetected.
I prayed that Orela was here, that she’d already been moved to this temple—rather than being held at the High Temple.
It was easier to sneak into Cato’s Temple without the RSG detecting me.
If I were being honest, I needed this plan to go off without any complications.
Especially seeing as I’d stupidly decided to tell no one about my plans for tonight.
The temple for the God of the All-Knowing was located on the outer ring of the temple circle, and the side door I was currently sneaking through was hardly visible to the naked eye.
Sage had shown us all the night we’d snuck into the Solis Library how we could sneak into the buildings without triggering any of the warning alarms. I put that knowledge to use as I snuck through the various interior coded doors inside the temple’s first level silently.
Gray corridors met my eye as I stood inside the first level of the temple. I knew, from visiting the temples over the centuries, that the first level was reserved for worship and prayer to the gods, leading me to believe it was best to start my search for Orela on the second floor of the temple.
I stayed in the shadows, freezing anytime the slightest noise sounded in the vicinity as I slowly began making my way through the levels of the temple, searching for Orela.
It wasn’t the most thought-out plan—even I could admit that as I snuck through the floors of the Temple of Cato, checking any easily visible space for my sister, just praying that she would appear.
I had no weapons for protection, save for a small throwing blade, and absolutely no idea where my sister may have been forced to stay.
Not to mention, I was avoiding all main doorways and entry points, as well as any elevators, so that I, hopefully, wouldn’t encounter any guards.
Still, I kept searching, wandering the corridors in hopes of catching sight of her before someone caught sight of me.
A hand shot out of the last door in the hallway, latching onto my arm and yanking me into the darkness before I could even let out a scream of panic.
“You shouldn’t be here,” an angry voice hissed in the dark, and my frantic heartbeat began to calm as I recognized my sister’s voice talking to me.
“Orela.” I breathed a sigh of relief as she flipped a switch, and a small light flickered before turning on, making it so that I could make out my sister’s face. I launched myself at her, folding her into a hug as I clung to my sister.
“You’re alive.” Her arms wrapped tightly around me, hugging me in return.
“Of course I’m alive,” she bit out as she pulled back from me to meet my eyes. “Why wouldn’t I be? We literally still text every day.”
“We didn’t know what to think,” I admitted.
“Once again, Rae, we’ve all been texting in the group chat.”
I scoffed slightly. “Texting doesn’t guarantee to us that you are unharmed. For all we knew, someone could have been monitoring your messages, or your phone could have been confiscated. We had no idea what would happen to you here. Are you okay?”
“Well,” she stated in a low tone, “I was ambushed by RSG in our home, taken against my will to the temples, and forced to use my seeing powers for Lucanus’s agenda . . . So, okay isn’t really the word I would use. But I am alive.”
I tugged her into another hug, holding her close. “I’m going to get you out of here,” I confirmed once I finally released her.
“Rae,” she replied, a sad smile on her lips. “You shouldn’t have come today.”
“I had to,” I said as I scanned Orela, taking in the large gray robe she was clothed in, the material seeming out of sorts on her thin frame. “You shouldn’t be here, and it’s my fault you are. But we need to get going before the guards do another round.”
Orela shook her head at me, a sorrowful smile on her lips. “No, you don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand what?” I questioned, confusion laced in my words as I studied my sister more closely. “What’s going on, Ore?”
She ran a hand through her hair, nearly tugging at the brown waves, before she looked back at me. “I saw so many visions of the future. So many paths—so many options. So much death. You shouldn’t have come.”
My heart stuttered in my chest, the air escaping from my lungs as I watched my sister closely. “What exactly did you see, Orela?”
Her hair bobbed as she shook her head, her eyes losing focus.
“The visions—the prophecies. I know it . . .” Her eyes darted from side to side as she continued rambling.
“They’re from him—not the king, the Eternal one—prophesying the future.
But it’s all . . . it’s all based on choice—free will.
It’s up to you, to me, to choose. I’ve seen paths and futures.
Futures and paths. But I can’t—can’t tell you.
You have to choose. We each have to choose. ”
“Choose what? Tell me what, Ore?” I inquired, never having seen my sister this disconnected as she spoke.
She shook her head, hazel eyes filled with sorrow.
“I-I can’t.” She shook her head more fiercely this time, as though she were debating internally with herself.
“I can’t tell you.” Her eyes brimmed with tears.
“If I tell you what I saw, it could alter the future—again and again. So many options. So many paths.”
“Orela.” I grabbed my sister’s hands, forcing her to look at me. “It’s going to be okay.” I repeated the words, waiting for her to focus on me. “I’m going to get you out of here, and it’s all going to be all right.”
Orela’s brown waves bobbed in a side-to-side motion as she once again shook her head. “No. Rae, you have to listen to me. I can’t leave. Not today—not if you want any chance of making it out of this temple alive today.”
“What do you—” I didn’t finish the sentence as a wave of nausea rolled through me, a sharp pain stabbing in my temples, and I cried out, grabbing at my head in pain.
Now was really not the time.
I felt the nausea roll through me in an even stronger wave, pressure building in my head as I briefly squeezed my eyes shut, trying to make the episode subside.
“No, no, no, no—” Orela’s voice sounded in the distance. “Not yet. Not yet. We need more time. Just a little more time.”
I could hardly register what she was saying as my head spun, the pressure building through my very being.
In the distance, I heard a rap on the walls, before a small door opened.
Two robed figures peeked through, conversing with Orela in frantic, rushed tones, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
My head felt as though it were under water, a heavy fog surrounding me as nausea rolled through my body more fiercely than before. I lurched forward, nearly folding in half as I tried to make it go away.
“Raelyna.” Orela’s voice sounded from in front of me. “I need you to hold it together. Just for a few more minutes. If you can’t do that for me, then we may all get caught.”
Caught. The word stood out in my mind through the building migraine raging inside my skull. Caught.
We couldn’t afford to get caught.
I nodded in understanding as Orela and the two other females half-guided, half-dragged me through the door that had appeared and into a small maze of narrow passageways.
Darkness licked at every corner as we wound our way through the temple, my head pounding more erratically with every movement I took.
The pressure began building more intensely as we maneuvered through the passageways, until it felt as though I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Ore.” My sister’s name was a feeble, pained groan as we turned into yet another room. I felt blood begin to stream down from my nose and heard a subtle curse before me as a cloth was pressed into my fingers, and I pinched the bridge of my nose, pausing as blood coated my hands.