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I held out my arms and dropped my head back, slushy clumps sliding out of my hair and dropping into the languid waters. I swished my arms. Waiting. Waiting.

Nothing was happening. I cracked an eye open. It was possible I’d misinterpreted the runes. Was there an incantation I’d missed? I exhaled a frustrated sigh and dipped beneath the water to rid the silver strands of the clinging ice crystals. On my way back up, my forehead smacked an invisible ceiling.

My eyes shot open, the surface of the water coming into focus. What the hell? I reached up, and my fingers met an unbreakable force.

I was trapped? Adrenaline spiked my veins. My lungs burned as I pounded the ceiling with my fists. My pulse pounded in my head. My eyes bulged. I might be divine, but I still required oxygen. I needed out. With my pulse racing, I ran my hands over the stones. There had to be a hidden release.

“Why do you seek this power?” a soft, feminine voice asked, the words echoing in my mind instead of my ears.

“What is the meaning of this?” I demanded. “Release me.”

My frantic search for an exit revealed nothing. Bubbles parted my lips. My chest ached to expand—to draw in a breath. Spots swam before my tunneling vision. Spasms racked my frame. My body was no longer mine to control.

Against my will, my reflexes took over, and I sucked in a mouthful of water. The thick liquid flowed down my throat. It filled my lungs, and still, I continued to breathe.

I was drowning and breathing all at once. Alive and dead. Everything and nothing.

Serenity filled the hollow space at my center. A void that had been there since my youth. Since I was cut off from Carcerem. It healed me where I was broken. Soothed me where I was hurting. Took away all my pain, making me whole.

“Why do you seek this power?” again, the soothing voice asked.

This time, I was calm enough to hear her.

“Because it’s…” I faltered, realizing it wasn’t water that flowed through me but obsidian. Through it, I was connected. Connected to something so much bigger than me. The thrust of Carcerem’s mountains. The rush of her rivers. Warmth of her sun and tranquility of her twin moons. She was all around me. I was Carcerem, and Carcerem was me.

This feeling. This sense of belonging. It was exquisite.

Voices flooded my mind. Not the deity’s. Like me, there were others here. The low murmur grew louder. Only it wasn’t overwhelming, each individual speaking in harmony. Hundreds of them. All connected. At the center was the sacred arbor, guiding them, enabling the ebb and flow.

“Why do you seek this power?” the woman asked once more.

“Because it’s…” How could I claim this place, this sensation, this magic as mine? It would be like trying to seize the stars. My ignorant words sounded ridiculous now. I was so foolish. So blinded by my own importance.

The presence of the others surrounded me. Comforted me. Grounded me. Our souls were connected. All of us were part of the divine. I was no longer alone. Adrift.

In the darkness, a single flame flickered, calling to me. Instinctively, I sensed it was my mate.

Runa.

She was here as well. The sorceress was a servant of the realm. A keeper of her faith. I reached for my mate, deepening the connection. Only instead of the warmth I expected, cold greeted me. My mate’s light was dim.

Runa.

My pulse raced. I had to find her. She was in danger.

The rapture that consumed me seconds ago turned bitter. The comfort I’d found here, connected to Carcerem, filled withobsidian, faded. In its place was something oily and tainted. Someone drained Carcerem’s strength, stealing her life force.

The destroyer’s presence lingered like stink on a corpse.

Idris. He was killing the kingdom.

“Why do you seek this power?” she asked again.

I needed to fix this. To save the realm from the damage he’d done. A sense of purpose welled inside of me. My mind cleared of all the confusion I’d found in the mortal realm. All the noise, the politics, the posturing. The greed to have more and be more. Nothing was ever enough. The mortal way of life had poisoned me as surely as Idris poisoned this land.

Thiswas what I was meant to do.

“Because it is ours. Because I belong here. I seek this power to return to Carcerem all that was stolen.”