“Good, but before I do that, there’s something else.”
“What?”
Rey looked up at me a little sheepishly. “You might want to, uh, turn away for this…”
“Turn away?”
The silver tabby hopped off my lap, made a circle at the foot of the bed, and then started to… lurch. Repeatedly. It was almost like… he was about to throw up. “Seriously?” I said, “On this bed?”
Draven didn’t know what to do with himself, so he stood where he was, watching, in two minds about whether to grab the cat and throw it off the bed or not. Rey throwing up on his comfortable bed was likely to be high on his things that’ll royally piss me off list, but Rey didn’t spit up a hairball. What came out of his throat was a chunk of glowing green light bright enough to touch the ceiling and multiply the amount of shadows in the room.
Rey’s throat swelled and grew, until finally… a God stone fell out of his mouth. It landed on the bed and sat there for a time, sending its light around the room. Rey licked his lips and sat upright. “Sorry about that…” he said, “But it was the only way.”
“Is that…?” I asked, of course it was a stupid question.
“It is. Now you have the fifth stone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I almost didn’t wanna touch it. I didn’t touch it, in fact. I just left the stone there, sitting at the foot of the bed. Rey sat upright next to it, his stripy tail curled around his front paws. He angled his head to the side and narrowed his eyes, eyes that shone green when they caught the light from the God stone.
Wisdom. That was the stone by my feet. The fifth stone, granted to my people as a gift from a God whose true name nobody ever knew. If they did know what it was, nobody had ever told me. I was confident in that knowledge now, given all I’d learned about my past.
It was all there, now. As if unlocking the memory of the ritual spell I was to cast on the day of my birthday had opened a whole bunch of other previously closed doors in my mind. My mom, my dad, my home, my family… Draven. I remembered them all. I didn’t think I’d need Romeo’s magic anymore.
“Are you going to touch it?” Draven asked.
“I don’t know if I should…” I said.
“Why not?”
“Because she’s in shock,” Rey said, “Give her a second…”
He wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to touch the stone, not really. Touching it was only going to be good for me, in the long run. But I couldn’t move. My muscles and joints were all frozen, like they’d all turned to ice. Even my breaths were shallow and short, so short I was having difficulty holding onto consciousness.
“Are you alright?” Rey asked.
“You’ve been carrying the stone… this whole time…” I said, staring at the stone, not at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Rey shook his head. “Haven’t you been paying attention all this time? How many times have I told you there were rules I had to follow, most of which are too complicated for me to try and explain them to you.”
I frowned at him. “Pretty sure you just called me an idiot.”
“I didn’t. The rules that bind me are cosmic in their complexity and scope, most of them are metaphysical, abstract, with conditions so specific my ability to act in this world has been pretty much hamstrung ever since I crossed through the rift. I was never supposed to come here. I was never supposed to swallow that stone, either. I sacrificed my own freedoms and most of my power to make sure I was with you when you needed me.”
“You’re saying you chose to go through the rift?” Draven asked.
“The night of the attack…” he bowed his head. I could sense the hurt inside of him. “I wasn’t able to help you, Seline. I couldn’t. My powers, my abilities, they were always weakened during the night. I would rarely leave the confines of your bedroom while the sun slept. That was my weakness, but I got over that by learning how to dive into your dreams and help you sleep more comfortably through the nights. When the soldiers came, I could sense you… I knew you were fighting them, I knew they were hurting you. When it… happened… I felt the pain rip through me like fire.”
Rey moved across my lap and sat down. “But that wasn’t all I could sense. The rift… I still don’t know what exactly caused it to open as quickly as it did, but I felt it happen, and I knew you had fallen through it. I raced to the stone room, but your mother had beaten me to it. She was in so much pain… she’d sensed what had happened to you also, she was hurt deeper than she’d ever been…”
My chest tightened. I shut my eyes, but that didn’t stop tears from forming. “Mom…” I whispered.
I felt Rey’s paw touch my hand. “But she was a fighter, Seline. The most formidable woman I have ever known. She knew what had to be done, so she relinquished her ownership of the stones and pleaded with the Gods that they send the stones after you. The Gods agreed and decreed the stones would find their way to you, but it would be for you to claim them as yours, the way you were supposed to on your birthday.”
“What… what happened to her?”
Rey paused. “She died… I saw her fall after she said the words. I’m sorry.”
Tears spilled from my closed eyes and trickled down my cheeks. I shut them tighter, but that didn’t stop the tears from falling.
“I didn’t have long,” Rey continued, “I saw the stones rise from their podiums and start racing toward the open balcony. I shot after them, pushing against the limits my curse had placed upon me just to keep pace. The green stone was the slowest of them, and when I caught it, I swallowed it whole and let it drag me through the rift with the others.”
“It… didn’t kill you?” I asked, opening my eyes and wiping my face with the back of my hands.
Rey shook his head. “It would’ve killed a lesser creature, but I’m… very much like you.”
“Like me?”
“Shards. Inside of us are tiny pieces of the Gods. In my case, one God in particular; the God of wisecracks.”
I stared at him, my eyes widening with disbelief. “What?”
“That was a joke…” Rey said.
Despite it all, Rey had forced a smile. “Your God would’ve been pretty disappointed if that were true.”
“The shard inside of you belongs to the God of the Sun. Strongest of them all. You were meant to rule over everything and everyone under the Sun God’s domain. That’s why the stones are yours, only your bloodline can handle their power. Unfortunately, that’s why Valoel can handle them, too. He carries your mother’s blood. But he doesn’t know the incantation. You do.”
I nodded. Paused. “If you could shapeshift into whatever you wanted, then why’d you choose to be a cat?”
“Well, in this world, griffins are creatures of myth and imagination. I figured I’d attract too much attention that way, so, I decided to go with the next best thing.”
“A cat is the next best thing to a griffin?”
“Cats have been worshipped as Gods for thousands of years. We’re literally the closest thing to Godliness incarnate this world has.”
“You know… you actually make a really good point.”
I stared at the stone, now, glowing gently at the foot of the bed. Draven hadn’t said a word since Rey had started speaking. He was a dark statue in the corner of the room, his arms folded around his chest. I wasn’t naïve as to why he hadn’t spoken, though. This was all a delicate subject. None of this would’ve happened, none of it would’ve been necessary, if not for his actions.
All of this was on his shoulders, and there was nothing anyone could say to change that terrible fact… but I could make it hurt less for all of us.
“Draven,” I called out to him.
From the shadows he shifted and moved slowly into view. “I’m here,” he said, keeping his voice low.
I froze. Now that I had his attention, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to say to him. I knew what I wanted to do; I wanted to help him. I would never be a
ble to take away the guilt he was feeling, but if I could say something to him, anything to him, to make him feel like he could find some kind of redemption, then I had to try.
“I…” I started, pausing again, “I feel like there are powers at work here that are way bigger than the two of us. I don’t think I’ve totally processed everything Rey has said yet, especially that whole thing about me carrying a piece of a God inside me. So, while I’m still me, the me I’ve always been, while I’m still thinking…” I took a deep breath, “For everything that I can, I forgive you.”
That was harder to say than I’d thought it was going to be. The words rang in my head, in my chest, the weight of them pressing down on me. But after a moment, the weight was gone, and that was it. I watched Draven from where I sat, saw the way the light reflected off his black eyes and almost, almost, imagined they were glistening slightly.
Draven nodded. “I was never blessed with the right words to express myself,” he said. “I can only thank you…”
I smiled at him. “I must really be able to remember more than you, then, because the Draven I knew was a poet.”
His eyebrow went up. “A poet?”
“You never wanted to fight. You only did because you’d been conscripted. All young men of your House were. You wanted to write, and you wrote to me—the only person you ever trusted with that side of yourself.”
“I… don’t know what to say.”
I shrugged. “Don’t say anything. Maybe I’ll recite some back to you one day, see if that won’t help jog your memory a little.”
A pause. “Is it cringeworthy?” Rey asked.
I shot him a hard look. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because… if it is, I wanna hear it. Draven’s poetry. That sounds incredible.”
“If I have things my way, it will never touch your ears.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Boys,” I cut in, “I know I have a ton more questions, but I also have an incantation burning on the tip of my tongue. I need to say the words… and I need to do it soon.”
“I won’t disagree with you there,” Rey said, “I just wanted you to know everything I could tell you before you walked down that path.”
“You said before it would change me… what did you mean?”
Rey paused. “I don’t exactly know what happens. I only know you’re about to go through something only a handful of people have ever gone through. I can’t tell you what you’ll find when you say the words, I can’t tell you how you’ll come out on the other side. I only know, everything will be different. Best we can do is hope you’re still mostly you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know if I’m ready to give myself up… I don’t want to not be me. I like being me.”
“This is bigger than you, though. We need those stones, otherwise Valoel has them, and knowing what you know about them now, do you really want him having that kind of power at his fingertips?”
“No…”
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but we’ve all made sacrifices.”
“Are you suggesting I haven’t?”
It was Draven who stepped in. “No, he isn’t,” he said. He squatted next to the bed and looked up at me. “I know this is scary. I don’t have his insight, so I can’t even begin to predict what might happen, but I do know one fact.” Draven took my hand. “I’ll be right here throughout, and after. No matter what.”
I stared at him, then, overpowered by a sudden urge to let myself fall back into those feelings I knew I had for him. Those feelings bubbling under the surface. Those feelings I’d tried to put away and had just… failed miserably at doing so. I swallowed hard. I knew full well what I had to do. It didn’t matter what the incantation did to me, in the grand scheme of things.
I was supposed to do this, only I could do this; I was born to do this.
“Alright,” I said, “Let’s get it done.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Draven decided it was best to say the words in the vault. The vault would provide at least some protection from external forces, should things go wrong. It was also where the Hope stone was being kept. We, I, didn’t know if having all the stones in the same place was necessary for the ritual to work. I didn’t think so. But it was always going to be better to collect all the stones I had and keep them nearby, just in case.
Unlike the other two stones, the Wisdom stone didn’t trigger any kind of strangeness when I picked it up. Besides being a little cold to the touch and buzzing like it was full of bees, the stone was no different from any other beautiful gem—except for the fact that it was glowing with its own light.
“Are you sure this is the right stone?” I asked Rey.
“I’ve been carrying it literally since I left the palace,” Rey said, “It’s the right stone.”
“I don’t… feel anything.”
“That’s because Wisdom is subtle, and quiet. Hope and Courage, on the other hand, are loud concepts that overpower the heart. Trust me, even you’ll learn a bit of wisdom in time.”
I walked over to the door to Draven’s room, paused, and looked at Rey. “You know, I’m starting to remember you more, and you were a bit of a wise-ass even before you swallowed the Wisdom stone, but you would never have said something like that to me.”
“Yeah, I know. This world taught me sarcasm, though. Now, I’m downright dangerous.”
Draven made sure the path was clear for the three of us to make it to the vault without interruptions. The last thing I or any of us wanted was to run into anyone who might have questions about what happened to me.
Down in the vault, standing in front of the blue God stone—Hope—I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread creeping in. I was about to do something I knew I had to do, but also knew nothing about. I was about to dive off a precipice without looking, hoping there was water deep enough at the bottom that I could land in and not jagged rocks I’d break myself on.
I was nervous, and it showed in the way my heart fluttered against my chest, the way I couldn’t keep still even when I was supposed to be standing still. I shut my eyes and breathed deep to try and fight the nerves back, and in my mind, I saw the words I was supposed to say. They flashed brightly in front of my eyes, almost like an urgent message, never letting me forget that they were there, and that they needed to be said.
It was like they were prisoners desperate to be freed.
“What if I say the words and nothing happens?” I asked.
“Then we’re back where we started,” Draven said, “But we have three stones instead of two, so already the balance of power has been tipped in our favor.”
I shook my head. “Valoel still has Wrath. Wrath is the strongest of all of them. Even armed with these three stones, he can still beat us.”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” Rey said. “Now, concentrate… you must speak every word exactly as it was meant to be said. Don’t deviate, don’t improvise. Take pauses only when the words allow it. Feel them out, let them fill you, let them guide you. You don’t want to get anything wrong.”
“And if I do?”
“Don’t.”
“Geez, no pressure,” I mumbled.
I took another deep breath, exhaled loudly, and began.
The vibrations in my chest reached a point where I was sure my ribs were going to pop off one after the other, or maybe explode all at once. My hands were trembling, my heart thundering, my head pounding. All around me, the lights continued to flash—arcs of lightning went shooting through the room, some of them striking me, others striking Draven and Rey.
I hoped they were okay, but I couldn’t stop speaking the words. I was almost done, only a few more left. I’d never used so many words of power one after the other. I remembered there was a time where saying even one word would cause ripples of pain to tear through me, back when I thought my kithe were dormant and not… gone.
I felt it now, that same crippling pain, only it was worse—and not e
ven the Courage stone could protect me from it. I fell to my knees, struggling through the words while at the same time fighting desperately to hold onto consciousness. My back pulsed and ached; pain far worse than getting my wings severed in the first place. Finally, I spoke the last word, screamed it at the top of my lungs.
A magic explosion shot through the vault, sending me hurtling toward a wall. I struck it hard, the impact making the pain I was in way worse than I could’ve imagined. I fell to the floor and didn’t even have the strength to put my hands out in front of me. I hit my head on the ground, and the world turned black.
Silence. Darkness. A strange ringing in my ears. It didn’t last long. I opened my eyes slowly, blinking hard to fight the daze. My vision was swimming. Around me, everything was bright, too bright. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but I knew, even before they did, that I wasn’t in the vault anymore.
If I was, then the vault was probably on fire.
A soft breeze pushed past my head. On the back of it, I heard faint whispers, like distant voices talking amongst themselves. Ahead of me was a long corridor. White marble, brightly lit but not by torches—by sunlight. There were arches in the walls, curtains fluttering across the corridor as if to touch each other.
I turned my eyes on myself and noticed I wasn’t wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but a gorgeous, flowing white dress. On my wrists were gold bangles and bracelets. My hair fell in soft, white curls around my shoulders. I was barefoot, the floor cold beneath my feet. I swallowed hard, pinched my skin to make sure I was alive.
It felt like I was.
Carefully, I took a step forward. Then another, and another. I started walking along the corridor, wondering what was on the other side of it, wondering where Draven and Rey were. Wherever I was, wherever I’d gone, they weren’t with me. I thought maybe I was dreaming, I thought perhaps I’d fallen into another memory, but this didn’t feel like a memory.
My memories, were usually separate from the me that existed on this side of the rift. They played like movies in my mind, cars that drove themselves, with me only as a passenger with her hands tied and her mouth sealed shut with duct tape. This was different. I was me, the real me; the me that had lived with the Obsidian Order for months. The me that had fallen through a rift between worlds. The me that had just spoken the words of an ancient and powerful magical ritual.
Wings of Fire (The Obsidian Order Book 4) Page 17
