Chapter Thirty-Three – Mira
Chapter Thirty-Three
Mira
I turned my head, feeling the soft brush of flowers against my cheek. It was only as I looked to the side that I recognised where I was: in the golden meadow surrounding the shifters’ temple.
Only this temple was no ruin.
I moved forward slowly, reluctant to disturb the serenity that clung to this place. The sun shone down overhead, and I glanced up to see that the circular roof was open to the elements.
All the pillars were intact and unblemished, painstakingly decorated with beautiful carvings.
The marble floor was cool beneath my bare feet as I approached, taking in the designs: all different, and yet all related to nature.
Carvings of vines were most prominent, running down the sides of all the pillars, but my eyes skimmed over images of clouds and forests, blazing fires and endless oceans.
When I reached the first pillar, I placed my hand against the ancient stone. Though it should have been impossible, I could have sworn I felt it shudder at my touch. As if in recognition.
Movement in my peripheral vision made me turn–
It was as though the Sorceress had stepped right out of my imagination and into being. Her hair and eyes were the ebony of a moonless night, and her olive skin glowed as if she had consumed the sun.
‘I was hoping it would be you.’ The hint of a smile upturned Selussa’s ruby lips. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mira. I have been waiting a long time for this moment.’
‘If that’s true, why haven’t you appeared to me before now?’ Was it because you found me unworthy?
‘No, Mira,’ she said, and I flinched with the realisation that she could read my thoughts. ‘I couldn’t be prouder of you. You’ve endured so much, and still you continue to fight for Kalure.’
Her gaze was steady on mine, filled with an acceptance that lifted a weight from my chest. Tears welled in my eyes, but I held them back with an effort of will.
‘But you haven’t fought for Kalure.’ Part of me couldn’t believe the words that had left my mouth. My ancestor, a virtual goddess, was standing before me – and yet I couldn’t seem to hold back my rising resentment.
The Sorceress didn’t seem offended by my accusation.
She didn’t even seem surprised. ‘Even immortals can be defeated,’ she told me.
‘My body was trapped and hidden by one of Fennec’s worshippers.
Without it, there is little my spirit can do but watch this country suffer.
’ A deep sadness emanated from her. ‘You know the responsibility that comes with being queen. The weight of all the lives depending on you. Imagine what it is like to feel the weight of that responsibility for over a century, all the while being unable to protect your people.’
What she described . . . I couldn’t fathom the depths of that feeling. That torture .
‘Please forgive me.’ I dropped to my knees in the centre of the Temple. ‘I didn’t mean–’
‘You meant it.’ Selussa tipped my chin gently upwards. ‘But there is nothing to forgive. The question was a fair one. Besides, I already knew to expect boldness from you.’
I smiled at what was clearly a compliment.
Selussa’s pale blue dress rippled like water as she helped me stand, and I realised it was the same colour as the aquamarine light I had glimpsed earlier.
The same aquamarine light that surrounded the temple like a haze, obscuring my view of whatever existed beyond it.
‘We’re not really here.’ Selussa followed the direction of my gaze. When she looked at me, her expression was serious. ‘And you cannot stay for long without your body failing. When you return, you will need to take this back with you.’ She opened her palm to reveal my locket. It hummed with power.
I took it from her and slowly turned it over in my hands. ‘What did you do to it?’
‘I imbued it with some of my healing magic. In time, it will help overcome the damage that blood magic has done to you.’
‘Damage?’
Selussa considered me. Despite her youthful appearance, I knew she was much older than she appeared, and much more cunning.
‘You have the natural ability to sense and connect with the world around you,’ she told me.
‘It’s a precious gift that could turn the entire tide of this war.
If you can connect with the Wilds, you could harness the power of nature itself. ’
The intuition I had felt. That sense of connection . . .
‘But blood magic is a perversion of nature,’ she continued.
‘I was born with great magical power. My blood, however, was entirely ordinary until Fennec cursed me with eternal life. Once Fennec took away my mortality, my blood ran black with power – but it is a twisted power that comes with consequences. If anyone else consumes it, they are cursed as I am cursed.’
Eternal life. Eternal damnation.
I wondered whether she had ever offered anyone that choice. And whether anyone had accepted the price.
‘Someone did,’ Selussa murmured, and I realised she had read my thoughts again.
‘Who?’
‘Do you really need to ask, Mira?’
‘No.’ I shook my head, sending my hair fluttering around me. ‘It’s not possible.’
‘Didn’t you ever wonder how Velanthe knew so much about me? Why she appears so youthful?’
‘You lived over a century ago–’
‘And Velanthe ingested enough of my blood to become equally long-lived. She has been chasing the shadow of that power ever since, which is why she created the Temple – to instruct the descendants of the Sorceress on blood magic, in order to collect their blood and channel their power for her own ends.’
I didn’t want to believe it. But then I thought of Velanthe’s insistence on using blood magic, and the blood I had donated for various Temple services. Was it possible that she had been using it to–
Selussa cocked her head and closed her eyes, as if she was listening to something I couldn’t hear. For a heartbeat, I fancied that I could hear a distant whisper on the breeze.
‘We’re running out of time,’ she said, her musical voice grim. ‘You have to return to your body now.’
‘I need your blessing first,’ I reminded her, careful to phrase my request as respectfully as possible. ‘To become clan leader.’
‘You have it,’ Selussa said, fixing me with her dark eyes. ‘But in return, I need your vow that you won’t use blood magic again. No matter the provocation.’
I hesitated. ‘I don’t know if I can promise that. It might be the only way to win this war.’
‘The way to win this war is by embracing your natural magic,’ Selussa cautioned. ‘Your heart and magic are still pure, but already your use of blood magic has taken you to the precipice. I can reverse some of the damage, but even one more use of blood magic could tip you over the edge.’
A shiver of foreboding darted down my spine. ‘What would happen then?’
‘Most likely,’ Selussa said severely, ‘you would lose control. If that happened, you could destroy everyone around you – and yourself. There’s a reason your father and grandparents tried to ban blood magic, Mira. It’s dangerous. You have no idea how dangerous.’
It was impossible to doubt her sincerity. It radiated from her – and anger stirred in me as I wondered why Velanthe hadn’t warned me about the consequences.
‘I promise,’ I said to Selussa.
She considered me for a moment and then nodded her assent. ‘Return to your body with my blessing and my love. But you must hurry back to the Temple, Mira, or you won’t survive long enough to lead your army against Roran.’
Before I could ask what she meant, the Sorceress was gone – as was the meadow.
And its precious air.
I opened my eyes to darkness and steel bars.
The need for air still pressed urgently against my chest, but my mouth and lungs were no longer filled with water. A glance down at my locket showed it pulsing with that beautiful aquamarine light.
The Sorceress was still helping me – but for how long, I couldn’t be sure.
I turned my attention to the bars. It would have been more helpful if the Sorceress had charmed my locket to help me break them down, but after hurling myself against them, it was clear she hadn’t.
And the locket’s light was already beginning to dull, my need for air growing increasingly insistent.
I cast my mind back over our conversation, recalling what the Sorceress had said about connecting with my natural magic.
I released my hold on the bars.
It went against every instinct I had to stop fighting and stand in the middle of the cage without doing anything at all.
But a strange certainty kept me in place. The same certainty that had served me well all my life.
Don’t look with your eyes , I reminded myself.
I closed my eyes, embracing my surroundings completely. And as I did, my intuition seemed to expand, until I was one with the elements.
I was the fire blazing in the braziers set around a temple that pulsed with power. I was the clear azure sky and the faint breeze that ruffled the hair and clothes of the shifters on the cliff above. I was the ancient trees of the forest and the golden flowers beneath their feet.
And I was the water.
I was its coolness, its slight current, its peaceful expanse that sheltered schools of fish and a thousand other organisms. I felt its depth and its mass. And I felt its power.
It was that power I called to me to lift the cage. Slowly at first, so that the bars hovered a few inches above the sandy bottom of the sinkhole. Then higher and higher, until fish darted around me once more and the surface was visible.
Still the water answered my call, until I was buoyed up on its current. Light and weightless and–
Floating. That was what it felt like as the cage broke the surface and I inhaled beautiful, wonderful, life-saving air .
When I glanced down, I noticed dark blue tendrils extending from the lake. They reminded me of hands as they pushed the cage upwards, propelling it towards the cliff face and my watching audience.
The first thing I saw was Cassius’s golden-blond hair. He was being restrained by two shifters with gold medallions around their necks, but they released him at the sight of me.
There was a thud as the cage hit the grassy ground, the wisps of water returning quickly and silently to the sinkhole where they belonged.
I slipped between the bars like a wraith. As insubstantial as water and air and fire.
The shifters fell to their knees before me, Conall and Sionnach amongst them. Even Cassius was staring at me with awe.
Elements cared nothing for worship, so neither did I. But when Cassius extended a hand, as if he might touch me–
‘No,’ I said sharply. ‘Don’t.’
He drew back slightly, and I saw myself reflected in his eyes – my skin a kaleidoscope of colour: blues, reds, greens. I ran a hand over my palm, where the scar from the priestess’s ceremonial blade should have been. There was nothing but smooth skin.
Reborn . That was what Sionnach had promised, and that was how I felt. Physically – but also . . . there was a lightness to me now. An emotional weight that had been lifted from my heart.
No – not a weight. A darkness that I hadn’t even known was there until it was gone.
My fingers curled around my locket, imbued with the Sorceress’s healing powers. Gratitude rose within me – the gratitude I should have felt the moment I saw her, but that had been clouded by whatever darkness blood magic had brought out in me.
I walked between the shifters towards the temple. Understanding what I needed to do without fully understanding why.
I placed my hand against the first pillar, where the Sorceress had emerged. A deep shudder went through the earth, and suddenly the magic I had felt . . .
It coursed into and through me. Like a conduit.
I closed my eyes, visualising the temple as the Sorceress had shown it to me: complete and beautiful and untouched. I felt the transformation as it happened. Felt the pillars increasing in size, the earth shifting and hardening beneath my feet, the open circular roof forming overhead.
And as it transformed, I felt everything around me wake up. As if I hadn’t just revived the temple–
But the entire Wilds.