Chapter 6 Camilla
CAMILLA
The room was enormous, the ceilings soaring to such heights overhead that they nearly disappeared into the gloom.
Marble statues of warriors, blades either drawn or kneeling with shields, filled the halls.
Tapestries supported by large, spiraling columns wavered in the breeze coming in through the open balconies.
I could see the wind in how the heavy fabric moved, but I did not feel it.
I wondered where I was and stepped out onto the balcony.
Mountains, half-hidden by rolling clouds, surrounded a silver city.
I looked down at it, wondering at the blue lights racing across buildings and twisting through the streets.
Murmurs came from the hall behind me, and I whipped toward the sound.
Guards marched toward me, their feet hitting the stone floor in unison.
I caught glimpses of them as the tapestries shifted.
A sash crossed their armor, bearing an image of a three-headed beast, and I realized this was not Samkiel’s reign. This was Unir’s.
I stepped back into the hall as the guards pressed forward.
I blinked and somehow stood directly in their path.
My eyes slammed closed, and I flinched, expecting to be trampled, but they walked right through me.
I felt each of them as a whisper of heat.
Opening my eyes, I looked down at my form as they passed.
It shimmered like wavering smoke before solidifying once more.
“Look.”
My head jerked up at the feminine whisper.
In a darkened corner, a woman stood wrapped in cloaks.
Her short, dark hair stopped at the base of her jaw.
The thick bronze belt that wrapped her narrow waist was etched with symbols that matched the bands encircling her upper arms and wrists.
She felt ancient and powerful, and my magic sang in her presence. When my eyes met hers, I knew why.
Witch.
The anger in her glowing green eyes had me swallowing whatever question I was about to ask. She pointed after the retreating guards and commanded, “See it.”
I nodded, and she dissipated like smoke.
My feet seemed to move of their own accord, following after the guards as they walked toward the end of the corridor.
They split at the massive staircase, taking up flanking positions and coming to rest. It looked like they were guarding someone, and I wondered what was happening.
I heard voices from upstairs and grabbed the edge of my long nightgown before taking the steps two at a time.
The voices grew louder as I neared massive twin doors decorated with intricate designs of gold and pearl.
I rested my hand on the curved, smooth handle and leaned forward, hoping to hear more clearly through the thick wood.
Instead, my body slipped through it and slapped against the floor. I stifled a gasp and looked up.
There was so much power in the room that my skin prickled with it.
My magic went on high alert and surged forth, ready like a viper to strike out and protect me.
When no one looked my way and continued talking, I pushed myself up.
My eyes widened as I took in the massive room, but it was the beings sitting around the U-shaped table that roused my magic.
I slowly walked toward them, stopping in the space formed by the tables.
The power of the four men and women was like standing in the middle of a maelstrom.
“… power beyond our gates,” Unir said. He sat at the head of the table, a woman with wavy brown hair at his side. From her posture and crown, I knew exactly who she was. If her nearness to Unir wasn’t enough, the slope of her cheekbones and soft eyes screamed of Samkiel.
“Nothing you have to fear,” a strong voice replied.
The man, or at least a being that wore the skin of one, tapped his fingers against the table.
His dark hair was spiked around his head, and his eyes were so black there was no distinction between iris and pupil.
When I looked into them, I felt like I was looking into the void of the abyss.
His skin was not just pale by mortal terms but nearly transparent, and I could almost see the dark creature moving beneath it.
His broad shoulders were draped in the same silver and white council garbs worn by all here, indicating this was some sort of council meeting made up of powerful ancients.
“Yet.”
My stomach dropped, and my blood ran cold at that voice. I looked across the table and met the eyes of Nismera.
I wanted to ask how. When was this that she was here, but Kaden and Isaiah were not?
But as I looked closer at her, the age she wore was clearer.
Her body was slender and softer, her features hinting at a teenage youth.
This Nismera was less mature than the woman who currently claimed the realms and everything in between.
This had to be before Samkiel was even born, perhaps even his brothers.
The dark man drew my attention as he shifted in his seat, resting his chin on his fist. His lips quirked, and his eyes held a seductive invitation as he stared at her.
Nismera smiled at him, a glow touching her cheeks.
With how the two of them looked at each other, I hoped I was wrong about her age.
He was well past her senior, regardless of eternal, immortal beauty.
The dark man pulled his gaze from Nismera and addressed Unir, who had not missed what had passed between the two. “The medallion allows us to travel to places that would surely invade the second your realm becomes a threat. With all due respect.”
Unir’s eyes narrowed, his gaze sliding between the dark man and Nismera. “Peace must, and will, always be the foremost important thing in these realms. War has plagued it long enough,” Unir finally said.
The dark man smirked. “Thus, the treaty we so happily signed over the disintegrating corpses of my brethren.”
“And mine,” Unir said, his tone hard.
Unir’s indomitable will was apparent in every word he spoke. There was no doubt that Samkiel and his brothers were this god’s sons.
“I must ask you, god king,” the dark man started. “Is this treaty not a way to control me and the rest of my people?”
“I would never suggest such,” Unir assured.
The dark man smiled but shot daggers at the gods across from him.
I felt the chill as that glare passed through me.
“You all buy into the high praise heaped upon you. Your arrogance makes you unable to see that not every powerful force is your enemy. You cloak yourselves in a proud sense of justice, portraying yourselves as protectors and saviors. What happens when one of you falls into betrayal? Who will sign peace treaties then? You can only hold your nose in the air for so long before one of you slips up, and that silver is finally tarnished.”
Unir did not flinch. He only smiled back unblinkingly and said, “Our people survived eons before yours arrived and will continue to do so long after yours are gone. Your father brought war, Nydmjir, and now we have ended it. This meeting is just to ensure that the ones who fled do not return to our lands.”
Nydmjir. That was his name. Recollection hit, and I gasped, my breath sucked in so harshly my lungs hurt.
I remembered that name. On Onuna, Reggie and I researched the history of the Ig’Morruthens and the realms. He was the son of the fallen primordial, King Ormjir, who started the War of Wars.
Ormjir created and controlled the Ig’Morruthens.
The first beast he made became his general.
“Regardless of our arrival and what has transpired, may the eternal peace bless their souls. Even with the gods you have now, all your combined power will not scare the Sovereigns.” Nydmjir counseled.
Sovereigns? My mind reeled. I hadn’t heard of them and didn’t understand everything they were discussing, but I knew one thing.
That medallion she had me make was about more than just giving her more power.
If she got her hands on it, could she leave this realm, too?
Was that her true goal? What did I mend?
Mouths moved, only no words came out that I could hear. I reached into my pocket and plucked the medallion from it. My hand warmed beneath its weight, and I stared at it. The brilliant green swirl of my power in the center mixed with something ancient and primal, and it glared back.
The medallion yawned open, and my hair slapped my face as the room spun.
Darkness fell, and the room grew cold. I looked up and gasped as the fabric of reality tore and more dark-eyed beings spilled in.
War broke out between the gods and what I now knew were the Primordials.
Blood spilled, worlds shook, and Ig’Morruthens were born.
Screaming and death coated the room, my skin, and my very soul.
The tear made my skin crawl and my stomach turn.
My body was yanked toward it as if the medallion wished to show me where it came from.
Our realm was not just a stopping point for the Primordials.
It was an escape, a refuge where they could hide from what sat behind this realm, what watched and waited.
I saw skin of the softest blue, the harshest red, and pale tan.
There were antlers and what looked like branches nestled as a crown on another.
Four great beings in four great chairs ruled over four realms.
Fear, heavy and thick, wove through my very being, the primitive part of my brain shuddering with the instinctual knowledge of a predatory threat.
My lungs closed, and my breath was stolen with the force with which it hit me.
Panic flared in my heart, the beat erratic and wild.
She would doom us all for it if she got this.
The power I felt coming through that tear was pure and undiluted energy.
It was stronger than I’d ever felt, stronger than Samkiel or Dianna.
I was yanked back to the present of my dream, my head snapping back with the force. The witch from the hall stood in front of me.
“Do you see what you made?” she asked. Her eyes stared into me, not at me, but beyond.
I could feel her in my mind, her voice like nails raking across my skin.
I took a step back, but she followed. My hand clutched the medallion so hard I feared it would crack my palm wide open.
“That is their way in, and they will bleed into this realm if you let them.”
“I-I didn’t … I didn’t know.” But I had. Nismera had been adamant and willing to do almost anything to have it rebuilt. I had known that it would likely be a tool capable of catastrophic damage, yet I mended it.
“You have to destroy it,” she insisted. “Destroy it, or it will destroy all.”
“I don’t know how,” I said almost desperately.
She grabbed my wrists painfully tight. The witch’s eyes burned brighter, and my skin heated beneath her touch. I looked down and saw her palms glowing. I tried to pull away, to jerk back, but she was too strong, too powerful.
“You’re hurting me!” I cried out, yet she held on.
The witch tightened her hold as her touch began to burn.
Power emanated from her, twisting her features.
Her short hair floated around her head, and her feet left the floor.
As she rose, her grip on my arm pulled me with her.
More magic spilled into me, the medallion I held between us sizzling.
I wanted to drop it, to let go before it melted into my palm, but I couldn’t move or even scream. All I saw, all I felt, was her.
Wet hair whipped around sea foam eyes. Vincent gripped me, but I couldn’t look away from the destruction happening behind him.
My magic flared bright and wide, the green tendrils reaching as they held us suspended in the air, just like my dream.
Only I was awake, and the ship and everything around me was caught within my magic perimeter.
Vincent held my hands, floating with me as if he had grabbed me the second I started to levitate and refused to let go.
Rocks and dust-speckled plasma spiraled upward around us.
We floated above the ship, Vincent’s hold keeping me stable.
The crew screamed, flailing all around us, colliding with items from the deck.
A flaming disc slowly floated toward us.
It vibrated with so much power you could almost see the tremors of the metal.
The edges of the medallion were a deep orange, and I could see the moisture in the air around it, popping and steaming, but I still reached for it.
The cooling mix of stone, metal, and magic landed in my palm, and I hissed from the heat still emanating from it.
We floated back to the deck of the ship, everyone scrambling as they found their footing again.
As the crew recovered, they formed a wide circle around Vincent and me.
There was no coming back from this. It was too late.
Our disguises had burned away, revealing our truth.
We ignored the whispers and commotion, focusing on the medallion I held between us.
Moisture ran from my eyes and nose as I sobbed, terrified by what I had seen.
Vincent shook me as I cried. “What happened?” Vincent asked, his voice edged with anger and fear. “Tell me what happened?”
“I made a mistake.” I sobbed, truly understanding now what I had set in motion. “Vincent, I made a mistake.”
Vincent wrapped me tightly in his arms, his hands running soothingly over my back. The medallion between us burned, and I knew the world would do the same.