Chapter Thirty-Seven – Scarlett
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Scarlett
I dreamt of ice.
At first, all I could see was white. Then, as the snow seemed to clear, I saw someone else.
The young woman was dressed in cream-coloured furs, so light that she almost blended into the scene around her.
But her dark hair was vivid against all the white, cascading down her back.
And there was something oddly familiar about the way she knelt in the middle of a frozen lake, staring down into the eerie blue ice.
An overwhelming curiosity drew me closer, but something held me back. Something a whole lot like fear.
And yet, if this was my dream, what was there to fear?
Slowly, the woman began to turn–
Black eyes met mine. They bored into my face with surprising intensity.
I tried to back away, unnerved for a reason I couldn’t put into words, but my legs were heavy and leaden.
The young woman stood and walked towards me calmly, her bare feet making no sound against the ice. When she was close enough to touch, her image seemed to waver, until I was staring at myself. The version of myself that I had seen when I drowned in Kalure.
Another blink, and the dark-haired woman was back – her olive skin bearing a striking resemblance to Mira and Zandri.
‘I thought it was about time we met properly,’ she murmured, and understanding speared through me.
‘You saved me. When I fell beneath that ice.’ And I had been so convinced that I had survived on my own merits.
‘Not quite.’ The woman tilted her head almost playfully. ‘It was my power that saved you then, not me personally. But this time . . . this time, it will be me.’
And before I could move, before I could scream, the ice collapsed beneath my feet.
At the very last moment, the Sorceress grasped my hand. Her grip was unnaturally strong; up close, her eyes weren’t black at all, but a very dark brown.
‘You said you would help me,’ I said desperately, staring up at her.
‘And I will.’ Selussa’s expression softened, until her features were achingly sad. ‘I can’t save you from Velanthe, but I’ll keep you alive for as long as I can.’
Strong hands pulled me to safety, until I lay panting on the ice. I twisted to look at the Sorceress. I had so many questions – so many things that I wanted to know. But as my memories came flooding back, so did fear.
‘If I fall . . . Velanthe will resurrect me, won’t she?’
Selussa nodded. ‘I’m afraid so.’
A fate worse than death. That was what waited for me – a control so absolute that everything I was would cease to matter.
Velanthe would use me to kill whoever she wanted, to gain any scrap of power, and eventually my mother would have to decide if bowing to the high priestess’s demands was worth my life.
I rested my head back against the ice. The cold seeped into my skin, but I knew it wasn’t real. It was a mental manifestation of my body, which had probably been drained of most of its blood by now.
‘How did Velanthe defeat you? You’re supposed to be immortal.’
‘She disposed of my body, not realising that I had the power of astral travel. It’s the only reason my spirit isn’t trapped as well.’
‘But if–’
‘Shifters aren’t the only species that worship Fennec. My body is far from here, guarded by beings considerably more dangerous than Velanthe and her priestesses.’ Selussa’s voice was tight. ‘It’s beyond even my reach.’
We said nothing for a while. Even my teeth were chattering now. How much longer did my body have?
I gripped Severin’s teardrop necklace with chilled, aching fingers. It was curiously warm beneath my touch, the glacial blue glowing as if lit from within – as if it was trying to comfort me.
As if a sliver of him was here with me even now.
Glancing sideways at the Sorceress, I studied her carefully. If the legends were true – and I was beginning to suspect they were – the woman in front of me had destroyed a god, brick by brick, prayer by prayer. She had been the embodiment of revenge.
And yet she had also been capable of great kindness. Why else had she remained in Kalure after falling in love with a human man? Why else had she safeguarded her descendants and shared her secrets with the Temple?
I knew what it was like to live apart from others, yet still crave connection. And I knew what it felt like to have your kindness rewarded with betrayal.
It occurred to me that Selussa and I had a great deal in common. Maybe that didn’t make us friends, exactly, but alliances had been built on far less. And with the Sorceress on my side . . .
I could obliterate my enemies. I could make the entire world tremble .
‘Perhaps . . .’ I hesitated, unsure what my offer could cost me, but equally sure that I was running out of time. Given a choice between certain death and a shot at survival, I knew which option I preferred. ‘Perhaps we can help each other.’
Selussa had turned away, dangling her legs in the icy water.
But now she twisted to look at me – and the full force of her appearance hit me like the very first time.
Sharp angles, graceful limbs, and the kind of face I could believe a god would create another immortal for: blood-red lips, elegant high cheekbones, and a shock of long black hair, so dark it was almost blue.
‘Perhaps we can,’ the Sorceress said–
And smiled.