19. Rae
RAE
Someone landed with a thud behind me, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the being in front of me. The one who’d said they’d been waiting.
“You’ll pay for that, sympathizer,” Rhys snarled.
The Fate—or who I assumed was a fate—in front of me turned, smiling at our newcomer. “Rhys of Firelight, we’re so glad you’re here.”
He just grunted. Apparently, even gods didn’t get words out of him.
More of our group arrived, scattered among the different levels of the terrace: the family I didn’t remember. The Queen and King of the Luminaries. Pax. Ayden. But Calloway set himself down between Rhys and me.
The Firelight King clearly didn’t like this because he bared his teeth at the Prince.
Who I assumed was the head Fate held up a hand. “There shall be no violence in here.” She held out an arm. “Soraya?”
I glanced up at Kian, who eyed the Fate and then nodded. She smiled softly at him. “You are a good and kind protector, Kian of Starlight.”
The fact that she saw that made it easier for me to go to her. I hooked my arm through the Fate’s, and she placed a hand over it. “Be easy, Soraya. My name is Lyra, and I mean you no harm. You will be safe here.”
I breathed a little easier as she led me into the domed building. Everything was made of white marble, but there were fountains, garden beds, perches for exotic-looking birds, and mounts for torches that blazed brightly.
“We like to honor all of the elements.” Her fingers grazed a bloom.
“Earth.” Then they dipped into a passing fountain.
“Water.” She waved a hand through the open space.
“Air.” And then cut it through a ball of flame.
“Fire.” She led me toward a tiered dais.
“They all feed us and need to be balanced.”
“Seems, uh, smart.”
She laughed softly. “You must have many questions.”
“We all do,” Queen Daphne called from behind us.
Something I almost thought was amusement passed over Lyra’s face. “To question is to be alive.”
I turned just in time to see the Queen scowl.
Lyra patted my arm as we climbed the dais. “We will get you many answers today. I’m afraid there will be countless more questions, though. Ones even I do not have answers to.”
My stomach churned. “Your, um, Honor?”
I heard Pax stifle a laugh in the distance.
“You may call me Lyra.”
“Lyra,” I corrected. “I think there’s been a mistake. I don’t belong here. I—”
She squeezed my arm. “This is exactly where you belong. Trust me. Just for a moment longer.”
I bit the corner of my lip. “Okay.”
Lyra released me and came to stand in front of a pedestal of sorts. “In our world—your world—magic sometimes aligns to grant someone a mate. A fated.”
There were those words again. Mate. Fated. My stomach twisted, but I forced myself to keep breathing.
“These bonds are sacred,” Lyra went on. “A gift from the gods.”
“Are you, um, a god?” I inquired.
A soft, tinkling laugh left her lips. “Oh, gods, no. I’m merely a go-between. Someone who looks after Lumaria and helps guide those who need it.”
Rhys let out a noise that held more than its share of derision.
Lyra didn’t seem offended; she simply continued. “Typically, in every being’s twenty-first year, they partake of the Fating Ceremony. It reveals if they have a fated—or multiple fated—who is meant for them.”
My nerves built again, but I remembered what it felt like to have Kian’s hand around my neck, whispering that calming magic. It helped somehow, and I was able to ask my next question. “What does that, uh, ceremony entail?”
The Fate’s mouth curved. “All in good time. We have a few things we must do first.”
I felt a surge of energy at my back. Rhys, Kian, and Calloway all took a step forward as if poised to attack.
Lyra’s lips twitched, amusement spreading across her features. “Be at ease, young warriors. I am merely going to bring Soraya into her own.”
“What in the hades does that mean?” Calloway demanded.
Lyra met his gaze, completely unaffected. “We must perform an unbinding.”
A series of gasps went up all around me. I couldn’t help spinning around to take in the horrified expressions of those gathered.
Olympia stepped forward, lines of regret etched into her face. “I’m so sorry, my sweet girl. It was done to keep you safe.”
“Mother,” Imogen breathed—I’d learned that was her name. The woman who was supposed to be my mom. Just like I’d learned that my so-called dad’s name was Mikel.
But they didn’t feel like my parents. They felt like strangers. There was no deep tie breaking through as I’d felt with Kian.
I’d had parents. Ones who lived in Pinetown, Pennsylvania.
Jim and Dara Greenwood. And while I’d always felt a little different from them, I’d also always felt tremendously loved.
It was Dara who’d nurtured my love of plants and Jim who’d given me a love for science and nature overall.
They were the people who’d raised me. My heart ached at the endless memories.
But what if I was never meant to be theirs?
Queen Daphne strode toward Olympia, fury rippling over her face. “To bind a Luminary’s powers is to strip them of who they are. It goes against every tenet of our faith and heritage.”
Olympia’s chin jutted out. “Yet there are always exceptions.”
The Queen let out a huff of air. “If the Luminary is a danger to themselves or others.”
“She was a danger to herself because of who she is meant to be.” Olympia spoke the words with finality.
Whispers spread throughout the room and among the people gathered outside.
Lyra held up a hand. “Please cease.” The small crowd obeyed. “Soraya is destined for many things. But first, she must reunite with her magic and her memories.”
Nausea swept through me. All of a sudden, I wasn’t so sure I wanted those memories. Wasn’t sure I wanted this world of power plays or a family who didn’t feel like mine.
“What if I just want to go home?” I asked softly. “Back to my life.” Because I loved that life.
A look of sympathy washed over Lyra’s face. “This is your home. And I promise, with time, it will begin to feel that way.”
My eyes burned as I looked at her, but I knew there was no escape. At least if I had this supposed magic, maybe I could find a way out of here and back to where I belonged.
Lyra motioned me forward, and I didn’t fight her. I took the steps to the top of the dais as the two other Fates joined her. Lyra dipped a finger into a gold bowl and began to chant in a language I didn’t recognize.
When she withdrew her finger, it glowed like liquid gold. As if someone had melted down a priceless treasure to coat it. I swallowed hard. Gold shouldn’t be terrifying, but it somehow was.
The other two Fates started chanting, as well, and closed the circle around me. Lyra lifted her hand just shy of my forehead. “I’m sorry, Soraya. This will be painful.”
She didn’t give me a chance to stop her, to choose this life—to choose magic.
Instead, she decisively brought her fingers to my forehead and drew a design onto my skin, almost like a priest would perform with ceremonial ashes. But this wasn’t that. It was nothing of the sort.
Because at the first swipe of her fingertip, agony ripped through me. I cried out, unable to stop myself, the sound more animal than human.
I heard snarls and shouts of protest from behind me, but no one reached me. No one could stop this.
Another swipe of her finger, and I dropped to my knees. It felt like a fire had been lit in my blood, and it surged through me in a wall of burning flames. But Lyra didn’t stop.
She kept chanting, anointing my head with that gold. I fell completely to the hard marble floor, but the cool stone was welcome as I writhed.
Some part of my brain saw that Rhys, Calloway, and Kian all battled against some invisible force, trying to get to me. But they couldn’t break through.
I would’ve tried to get free myself, but all I could think about was the pain. The brutal, all-encompassing pain.
Then the flashes began. Tiny snippets like home movies.
Me, as a little girl, braids flying behind me as I raced through an elaborate garden with two boys chasing me.
I recognized them, even so many years younger.
Calloway called out to me with a teasing chide, and Kian raced faster, circling in front so I was trapped between the two of them. I erupted in a fit of giggles.
My spine arched as another wave of agony ripped through me.
My mother combing my hair and whispering what a wonderful Queen I’d be one day. Strong and fearless. Telling me what an honor it was that Calloway had chosen me. I caught sight of Izzy behind us in the mirror, her expression pained as she listened.
I cried out again, tears streaming down my face as my blood burned so hot that it felt like it was cooking me from the inside.
Running through the woods with my grandmother. “Hurry, my girl. Our feet must be quick as lightning, for I fear we may already be too late.” The memory jumped then. Rhys, just as he appeared now, flying us into the night air as an animal’s cry split the air.
“Hold on.”
And I did, clinging to his neck as that haunting flock of crows gained. Only they weren’t crows, just like they hadn’t been in my dream. They were monsters. The masked rider with the white eyes atop the beast of my nightmares still leading the charge.
A smoky hand reached out, trying to snatch me from the man. Shadowy tendrils slid across my chest and shoulder, making me scream in agony. But Rhys twisted, shielding my body with his, taking all that pain. For me.
It was a different agony than the one I faced now but still familiar. My hand reached up to stroke the scar, because this was the memory from my nightmares. The dream I’d had over and over, always brought on by my migraines.
Only it wasn’t a dream.
It was a memory.
My body twisted on the floor, instinctively seeking him out, the man whose face I’d never been able to see in my nightmares but could now see clear as day.
Rhys.
“You,” I croaked, my voice raw and ravaged. “You saved me.”