Page 135

“Touching and experimenting with certainelementswould alert them, yes. Talking to you now about such things doesn’t.”

“They can’t hear you or see you while you’re down here but they can… feel you?”

“In a manner of speaking.” He held out his hand to me. “While you are here, and I know you have no further classes tonight, let us begin now. Are you ready for our first session?”

“Right now? This very moment?”

“Well, I’m sure you need to make your loves aware and I’d advise you to do so to ensure further ill-advised aggression is not visited upon me from them, but once you have done so, yes. You are open and in the right frame of mind. I also believeit will make you feel better to experience no further delay in undergoing my teachings. We can also discuss the issues of this True Celestial threat, now that you have confirmation that it isn’t actually me, now that you can trust enough to work with me on determining what is happening.”

“Yeah, let’s do it. I’m ready.”

Actually, I felt more ready than I ever had before.

22

~Ariana~

Meforian Forest.

That was where Cassius had brought us.

Specifically, to a clearing within it.

“You brought me here because the ground is consecrated with Celestial magic from where my grandfather fell?”

He turned from erecting a containment dome, and walked the few feet back to me. “That is part of it. The recognition to his magic will soothe and help you to enter the correct mindset conducive to our training. But it is also because you were here when you and your loves bonded as a whole. I believed it would bring you comfort.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong about the soothing and comforting edge that being in this place brought to me.

But I also didn’t need it.

Not anymore.

For one, my bond with the boys gave me comfort even when we were apart.

And, for another, it had become clear that Cassius wasn’t the tyrant intent on molding me into the Champion that the Celestial Plane had determined it was my duty to become.

And he most definitely wasn’t the threat.

I folded my arms across my chest and told him, “Before we begin, I need to lay my cards on the table where this training and my supposed Celestial duty is concerned.

“By all means, have at it.”

“Even though you have my cooperation, I’m not okay with the duty that’s been foisted upon me. That said, it’s clear I do need to know more. There’s been a lot of knowledge that was closed to me, so I need to expand my understanding—of what it means to be a True Celestial, the power, the limitations, the rules and regulations. We now know that Draco’s sword is on the mortal plane again and that a True Celestial must have brought it, one who could very well be the threat that the Rift Mark warned of. Possibly even the threat that the Celestial Plane wants me to champion. And I will work with you to champion it, to see to it. But you also need to work with me. Because I won’t be doing it to fulfill the bargain and duty struck. I’ll be doing it to protect those I loveandthe supernatural world as a whole. When I stopped that Hellfire attack, it became so clear that they need that from me, that I’m the only one who can stop threats of this magnitude. All I’d gotten from them in my life up until that point was fear and concern, so much so that I didn’t even see what I could really be to them. But I do now. I was born with incredible power. A power that can protect them all.”

To my surprise, he smiled. “Such great power and yet you do not seek to conquer or to make the world bow to it. Your intent is to do good, to inspire hope, to take away fear.” His eyes shone. “To spread your Light.”

“Is that what the Celestial Plane worries about? That when I reached magical maturity, I’d become some sort of monster like that? The next Draco?”

“What they worry about goes beyond that.”

“What could be worse than somebody with their power wreaking havoc on the mortal plane?”

“Somebody whom they cannot control.”

Oh.“Then… if that’s the case… they’d see me as a threat… and…” It hit me. Painfully. “This threat I’m supposed to be the Champion against… is it supposed to kill me? Like what happened to my mom? She killed Draco with the Wrath of Hades, but she died also.”

“I onlyknowwhat they allow me to know.”