Page 50 of Destined Dawn

“I’m an academic, Rhi. I can give you my studied opinion but I’m telling you there is no definitive proof either way.”

“Except the story itself.”

“Stories can be both true and untrue.”

“And somewhere in between,” Barone adds.

“What does the prophecy say, Phoenix?” the man in black asks, hovering by the doorway, his eyes flickering out to the chapel like he wants to be away.

Stone turns back to the manuscript but instead of leaning over the page and reading the words, he waves his hand over it instead, his magic sprinkling like snow down onto the words. One by one the words light up gold like the border and a voice rings out from nowhere, a female voice, solemn yet wistful as if the speaker is talking in a trance.

“And she will come again,

She that fate has anointed,

She bound with the devotion of five.

Born a second time.

When the world is dark,

The light hard to find,

She will come again,

From the womb of the future

and the seed of the dark.

She will rise

with power in her veins.

And when the moment strikes,

She will seize the crown,

Where all must go to learn,

Drive away the shadows and the night,

And she will bring the dawn again.”

The voice fadesaway and the gold lettering fades back to black.

“That’s it?” I say, astounded. “That’s the damn prophecy we risked our necks to come find? What the hell does that even mean?”

“Apart from the legend of Queen Æðelflæd,” Professor Stone says, “there has never been another woman or man who had five known fated mates. One, yes. Two, sometimes. Very, very rarely three. Queen Æðelflæd was the only magical ever known to have five. Most scholars agree that this prophecy predicts there will be another. Another woman.”

“And all that crap about dark and light and a crown?” I say with irritation.

“Isn’t it clear?” Barone says, his eyes twinkling with awe. “Little rabbit’s destined to rule the world.”

“That isn’t what it says,” Rhi mutters, her eyes flicking back and forth over the words.

“It’s what it means though,” Barone says. “It’s your fate to drive out the fuckers in power and rule instead.”

Rhi laughs like that’s the craziest thing she’s ever heard. Part of me can’t help agreeing with her. Fuck, I’m head over heels about this girl, but, even if we somehow managed to take out Christopher Kennedy, there is no way all the other powerful magicals in this country would stand back and let an unregistered girl from the wasteland install herself as the next chancellor, or protector, or whatever else she might want to call herself.