Chapter 37 #2
A wistful look graces my face. Gaelan is mine, I know it to be true. Just like the blood that runs in my veins and the next breath I take. They always knew about him, about what I am going to be. I miss my family so much.
“We will always be here,” Papa says, tapping the space over his heart, as if reading my thoughts, encouraging me.
I just wish that in the times that I needed them the most, I could have felt them.
He gestures to the kitchen door. “This is only the start of your journey. Why don’t you go and see for yourself? ”
Taking a reluctant step closer, my head tilts to the side when whispers from behind the door hit my ears.
They echo around the room, so familiar to me, yet I can’t seem to place where I have heard them before.
The tugging feeling wraps around me again, beckoning me closer.
My soul aches, as if it’s telling me to open the door.
I move another inch closer, unable to fight the allure.
My hands shake like an addict needing their next fix.
I look at my family. “I don’t want to go; please, can I stay a little longer?” I beg, my words almost getting lodged in my throat.
My grandfather is at my side in seconds, his voice reaching me over the whispers.
. “You can do this, Ari. Remember what I have always said: Listen to the voices, they are your guides.” He murmurs.
He kisses my cheek before taking my shaky hand, leading me over to the door.
My steps falter when I catch my family watching, pride showing on all their faces.
A feeling of dread washes over me, making my steps pause.
I’m scared I’ll never see them again.
I fight the hold this strange light has on me. Rushing back to my mom, I hug her tight and breathe in her warmth again, savoring the feeling of having her to hold. “I love you.” A whisper leaves my lips, filled with as much love as I can master.
She kisses my cheek before I straighten.
I smile at them all. “I love all of you.” My voice is thick with sorrow as tears run down my cheeks. I only have a couple of people left in my life. Everyone else is standing here looking at me expectantly, like I am about to save the world as a whole.
“We will see you again, Arianna. Have faith.” Mom kisses me again, her hand lightly on my back as she guides me toward the door. I go with her, trusting that none of them would make me do anything I’m not ready for. She offers me a soft smile before pushing me through the kitchen door.
I’m standing at the end of the hallway, looking out into the world that is slowly slipping away from me.
I exhale a shaky breath, slowly turning around to face what can only be described as a blinding golden light.
Despite the light, a corridor of darkness surrounds me.
Not knowing what to do, I nervously take a step forward.
Everything around me starts to twist and turn.
The gold light at the end of the tunnel bursts like an explosion coming out of a great cave.
It moves closer to me, like a race car at the starting line that was just given the green flag.
The light envelops my body, embracing me in such love and power that it takes my breath away.
The whispers are no longer the sound of a thousand voices trying to talk at once, but friendly chatters that echo around me.
Words I’ve heard millions of times, verbs I didn’t recognize, sounds and smells from the past that I had forgotten.
Now, I remember.
Bright light bursts around me; it shifts, and flashes of pictures begin to swirl in front of me like movie screens. Each image features a set of golden eyes, a happy smile staring at me, and touches and embraces. Love, hope, and dream of one soul.
Me. I am seeing who I was and who I am going to be
The feeling of remembrance trickles across my skin.
The images move again. A pair of beautiful blue eyes looks at me lovingly. Gaelan stands before me; he seems so real, but I know he isn’t. “Gaelan,” the gentlest whisper leaves my lips.
A single tear parades down his cheek, reminding me of all the pain this man has had to endure after losing me so many times. My heart breaks for all the bad things that have happened to us, all because Tate and his daughter want it all.
All this is a dark reminder of the pain my past has caused.
In all this darkness, I still feel my heart beating steadily and strongly in my chest, with the rich scent of lemon in the air.
I am loved.
I am supported.
I am powerful.
My chest heaves with every wheezy breath as I try to control the anxiety building in my stomach. This magic and power is a world I never thought I would be a part of. I never thought I was capable of this much power, yet here I stand.
The air around me starts to crackle, and little sparks like fireflies encircle me.
One by one, they dive toward me, setting my skin on fire.
A burst of heat ignites in my heart, and the power building in my body takes my breath away.
I feel charged, as if I touch anything, I will consume it and make it mine.
I hiss when a scraping sensation trails along my arm.
Looking down, gold lettering begins to cover my skin.
It feels like someone is using a knife to etch the letters and symbols into my flesh.
My hands are fists, and my arms shake involuntarily.
I want to cry out, to make it stop. The only thing that stops me is seeing the letters start to glow brightly, lighting up around me and bathing me in even more gold.
The stinging stops and the markings settle.
Finally, I’m able to take a full breath, filling my lungs with cold air that soothes the burning in my heart.
Words I’ve never seen before in a language I don’t know stare back at me.
I touch the raised skin, amazed that it no longer hurts.
My eyes trace the delicate, intricate tattoos, unfamiliar yet at the same time, it’s as if each one is branded into my soul.
I can feel the powers radiating from them.
From me.
A light innocent giggle rattles in my head.
Wincing, I lift my hand, pausing before I can touch my skin.
Everything around me starts to buckle, warping the gold and black, making me feel like I’m in a drunken spinning haze.
Snapping my hands to cradle my head, my stomach turns, and bile starts creeping up my throat as I fight the need to throw up.
The relentless spinning moves faster until suddenly everything goes black.
Covered in a sheen of sweat, I groan against the harsh sunlight. It takes a couple of blinks to adjust to my surroundings.
I’m back in Westrey, sitting in the middle of the houses in what would have been a street.
Slowly standing, I dust the sand from my clothes; the row of houses on either side of me shimmer in the heat like a mirage.
The memory of what this town used to look like seeps into my mind.
“I remember,” I whisper to nobody but myself.
This was my home. A younger me dressed in a sandy-colored dress, running around the streets, my amber eyes glowing gold with my laughter. The little shops… the people bustling around… Happy memories until Tate and the Blood Bringer took it away from us.
I walk toward the end of the street, the sand slipping under my shoes with each step I take. Up ahead, the sand resembles someone attempting to build a giant wall in the shape of a circle, keeping something enclosed in the middle.
As I get closer to the circle, I see what looks like a large book floating in the air on an aura of golden light. It shimmers so beautifully in the sun that it takes my breath away. The pages flutter like someone invisible is searching for their next page.
Gaelan told me that the book is looking for me; the happiness of its finding me bursts from its pages and hits my heart. I am the Book Reader..
“I’ve found you,” I call out, my voice filled with longing.
The pages flip faster, fanning the air until they stop abruptly. Walking over to the open spell book, I look down at the golden writing that graces the pages. The letters and symbols look like the markings that are now on my arms.
I run my hands over the pages. The paper doesn’t feel like paper; it’s as soft as silk, and the lettering has no indent or scratches from whatever was used to write them.
My fingers tingle, and feather-like vibrations run all over my body —a mystical connection so strong that I shake from it.
The book is new to me, as are the powers it contains.
But at the same time, my soul knows each page and word as if I had read them thousands of times.
My hands caress the pages, feeling the urge to protect the book by any means possible.
The book surges, humming under my touch before a burst of gold glitters in the air around me.
The pages start to flutter fast again, as if it’s searching for something.
I watch it mesmerized. It lands open on a page, the writing forming words just like they did in the book back in Gaelan’s library.
I don’t need to read the words to know it’s a spell to send me home, I feel it deep in the marrow of my bones.
I want to return to Gaelan—to Illis—but this place in my home too.
I don’t want anyone else to claim this as theirs.
As if reading my thoughts, the book pages flutter again, turning to another spell.
I run my hand over the words with a smile.
I remember this one; I’ve cast it a few times before.
Not in this life, but in some of my past lives.
Stepping back from the book, I lift my hands high into the air and whisper, “per sanguinem meum, per verba lectoris, custodiat et custodiat.”
By my blood, by the words of the reader, protect and keep safe.
The words from the spell lift out of the book; they float through the air toward me on a trail of gold glitter.
The letters then run up my arm to be imprinted on my skin, just above my elbow.
When the first letter touches my skin, it burns a little, but by the time the first word is complete, it tickles more than anything.
A dome rises from the book, making me stumble back a little from the force as it soars high into the air, covering the land as far as the eye can see.
The dome glitters, pulsing with power like a siren before the gold ball vanishes.
The dome will protect these lands from Macy and anyone else who thinks they can take it from me.
Stepping back to the book, I hover my hand over the open pages. The connection chills the palm of my hand, the pages flutter again, and fall to the home spell.
I close my eyes, drawing the book’s power into me. The power ignites my blood, the burn of the words imprinting onto my flesh is less this time. The spell moves up my arm, warm and comforting. The sensation flows along my chest to imprint on my neck.