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CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

ZéLIE

“Y é VA TOLD US TO meet her at the top of the mountain,” Mae’e calls down to me from the ledge above.

The two of us continue our spiral ascent up Mount Gaīa’s black rock, traveling up a well-worn trail.

A tangle of vines reaches up from the mountain’s base.

I hold on to them every time the mountain starts to shake.

The city of New Gaīa glitters kilometers below.

Its waters gleam white in the burning sun.

It’s been a half-moon since our arrival, but crowds are still protesting outside Emperor Jorah’s palace. They call for us to be thrown out. The fear of Yéva’s prophecy hangs over our heads like a cloud.

Every time I reunite with my brother, new scars and bruises cover his skin. Tzain won’t tell me who he is fighting day in and day out, but I see the way he stares at Koa and the rest of his men. Mae’e insists her people will come around, but the longer we stay, the more their hatred rises.

At my request, Mae’e’s sent emissaries to Or?sha to recover Inan. Every day I await their word. I don’t know if he was able to unify a fighting force. I don’t even know if he and the others made it back to Lagos’s port.

Outside these shores, King Baldyr still hunts for my heart. And I don’t know when the Blood Moon will rise. I glance at the waxing silver crescent hanging in the sky, and Baldyr’s golden skull fills my mind.

I will see you again. His promise returns to me, making my stomach clench. The medallion’s veins have spread throughout my chest, digging over my rib cage and reaching the base of my neck.

I escaped the Skulls. I found the girl. Yet I feel no closer to their defeat or returning home. Time is slipping through my hands.

I have to find a way to change the tides in our war.

“We need to hurry,” Mae’e calls down when I reach a gap in the stone. “Yéva grows weary. She will not be out for long.” She opens up her palm, and the vines around the mountain come to life, knitting themselves into a ladder.

“You can tell from here?” I ask as I climb.

“I see many things.” Mae’e gestures to her sparkling eyes. “But Yéva feels all. Her connection to the Mother Root allows her to sense the entire island all at once. It was she who alerted Emperor Jorah and the Laminas when your boat landed on our shores.”

I stop, remembering the shudder that passed through the bottoms of my feet when I stepped onto the black sands. The vineweavers were there in an instant. Yéva must have sent them there.

More questions rise as we near the mountaintop. My pulse starts to spike. I haven’t seen Yéva since that day in the town circle.

What does she want with me now?

Mae’e pulls me over the final ledge, and my feet warm across the black stone. Yéva stands in the center of the volcanic crater, staring straight into the blinding sun.

The very mountain seems to still beneath her. The shrouded faces that reach out from her emerald cloak whisper as they shift in the wind. A circle of vines slithers at her feet.

In her presence, I struggle to speak.

“What do I do?” I whisper to Mae’e.

Yéva doesn’t turn from the sun. She doesn’t even acknowledge our arrival.

“Do nothing,” Mae’e breathes. “You just have to wait.”

Mae’e leaves me in the crater, returning to the mountain’s edge. I hold on to her instructions as the sun arcs above, ignoring the strain in my legs.

All the while, Yéva doesn’t move. The air dances through her silver hair. My shoulders start to relax when I hear the slither of approaching vines. I look down as the vines weave into a circle around me, connecting me to the circle Yéva stands in.

In a breath, the weight of the air shifts. Yéva remains still, yet I feel the faint brush of her fingertips. My skeleton turns to lead. The medallion pulses through my skin.

“What did you feel when it chose you?”

The mountain rumbles. Yéva’s ancient voice pulls me in like the tides. Before I know it, I’m standing next to her. Her all-consuming aura wraps around me, strangling me like vines.

“What did you feel when it chose you?”

Her unspoken question rumbles through the ground once more. She forces me to my knees. I look to the medallion in my chest.

“Did it choose me?” I whisper back.

“ Their metal lives. ” Yéva keeps her eyes on the sun. “ It has a spirit. A soul. It feeds off your being. It is feeding on you now. ”

Yéva waves her hands, and the ancient medallion heats. New veins sprout from its golden metal, spreading across my dark skin like the roots of a tree. I scratch like I can tear the medallion from my chest, but the veins continue to spread.

“Their bloodmetal prepares you for the harvest. Its roots will grow until they’ve overtaken your soul. You will be his greatest weapon. With the power of the storms, he will end civilizations.”

All at once, I see my kingdom ablaze. From the vast grain fields of Minna to the stone huts of Ibadan. Our temples. Our people. Our language.

Everything I’ve ever known disappears in the flames.

There are no maji. No t?táns. No nobles and no kosidán. My motherland lies barren, destroyed by the power I hold within.

“How can I stop it?” I gasp through the pain. “Tell me how to stop it!”

My chest heaves up and down at the sight. I close my eyes, trying to shut the images out.

“ You must fight. ” Yéva finally looks at me. The world stills in the center of her gaze. “ You must take the power he seeks to harvest from your soul and use it yourself. Rise! ”

Yéva circles me, sharp like a red-breasted firehawk. I hold my breath as she walks. Her stride could draw blood.

“Tell me what you hear.”

My body starts to shake. Thunder booms between my ears.

“ Tell me what you hear! ” The mountain quakes with Yéva’s voice.

“Thunder!” I shout back.

Yéva sweeps out her hands. All at once, the mountain disappears. Everything darkens in an instant. It’s like she blocks out the entire sun.

“Now breathe.”

Yéva presses two fingers below my diaphragm, and the medallion lights in my chest. A surge like lightning pulses through my skin. I stare at my buzzing hands, suspended in a black haze.

“ Feel it. ” Yéva’s voice shudders through my soul. “ Draw it deep inside. ”

My bones shake with the power King Baldyr hunts. The storm he’s awakened in my blood.

“When you face their king, you must release that surge. Harvesting that power is our only hope.”

Yéva claps her hands, and I blink. In an instant, I break from my trance. The sun reappears in a brilliant glow. Blue skies look down on me from above.

I find myself on my knees in the center of the crater, clawing at the ground. The golden veins around the medallion buzz in my chest, still pulsing with the power of Yéva’s command.

Yéva stands with Mae’e on the mountain’s edge. Though fierce moments ago, now she has to hold on to Mae’e to stay upright. Slowly, I realize nobody else knows what she’s shared.

The weight of what’s to come stays with me alone.

I lift my hand and push—no power comes forth. How am I supposed to defeat their king when I can’t summon the golden lightning myself?

“Please.” I rise to my feet as Yéva turns to leave. “Show me how to fight.”

Despite her exhaustion, Yéva sweeps her hands out. I brace myself, allowing her to bring me back to the black.