Page 30

Twenty-Two Years Old

The crowd below the balcony looked up, their eyes fixed on Marlena and her parents. All morning had been spent signing paperwork, turning over control of Amora to Marlena.

Only one thing stood between her and the start of a new life—the start of a new world. And that was being sworn in by the head priest and priestess of Oro, being presented to the people and the dead gods.

Her parents’ hands were on her shoulders, one standing on each side of her.

They’d both finished their speeches, her mother’s drawing on longer than her father’s.

She wanted to thank all of Amora by name, it seemed, and then went on to boast about how she was excited to relax more… Oh, and “to hopefully plan a wedding!”

But now it was Marlena’s turn to take the stage.

“People of Tolevarre, tonight, a new leader steps into place. Marlena Caelum.” The oldest of the two acolytes, in stark-white robes, stepped forward. “It is time for you to take an oath with the old gods. Are you ready? ”

Marlena nodded, taking a step forward with an exaggerated roll of her shoulders, forcing her parents’ tight grips off her body. “I’m ready.”

Not just for this seat… but for all of them.

“Fantastic. Please face the sky.” Stella was as close as one could get to the stars in Tolevarre—as close as anyone could get to the dead gods.

Initiation ceremonies were always held in Stella, in the home she’d grown up in.

It didn’t matter what seat was being replaced, the leaders of Oro wouldn’t allow them to happen anywhere else.

“You need to be as close to the old gods as you can,” they would always say.

Marlena’s head fell back, and she closed her eyes.

“Marlena, all of the dead gods are here with us tonight.”

At his words, a rush of warmth swept over her entire body. Marlena could feel it, feel them. She’d attended only one of these her entire life, and while she was much younger, there was no way she’d ever forget this feeling.

“Strong.”

“What we need.”

The gods are here.

“They’re here to guide you on your journey as a new leader, to watch the world their powers created live on.”

The room was silent. All of the attendees craned their necks up to the dark night sky with their eyes closed like everyone was praying in unison.

People at home watched on their monitors, and if they didn’t have one, they were at a local pub that did or were standing in their town squares, watching.

Everyone will see what I’ve done. They’ll know who’s coming for them.

“Repeat after me.”

The priest began, and Marlena followed in his words.

“I will guide my territory as if my ancestors and the original gods are with me. I am here to be a voice for the people, ready to put them first.” No one ever meant those words.

Marlena didn’t feel bad for lying in front of the entire realm.

“From now until my time is up, I will lead how the gods would have. I will be better than the last.”

The prayer continued on, Marlena reciting every word seamlessly. She’d known the acceptance prayer like a monologue since the age of ten. It had been beaten into her. A test she’d been forced to take countless times until she got it perfect.

“Marlena, open your eyes,” the priestess said, taking a finger she’d dipped in a mixture of berries and red liquid to resemble blood and dragging it down the center of Marlena’s eyebrows to her nose. “Marlena Caelum. Amora’s newest leader.”

One down, eleven to go.

Marlena was turned around for pictures, but the smile on her face didn’t reach her eyes. Eyes that had a cold, blank darkness stared back from the picture.

Guards led Marlena to a back room, where she was allowed to wash the stain off her face and get her makeup touched up before returning to the party.

But Marlena wouldn’t be returning to the party right away.

Her reflection stared back at her in the bathroom mirror. A flash of the girl she’d been at nine distracted her.

Her eyes looked the same. Dead.

Defeated.

The dress she’d picked tonight had been intentional. A last goodbye to the girl she’d let steal her heart—to the only person who would ever break it.

When Arlet saw her in the green gown she’d bought Marlena for her birthday, it almost looked like she might break their silent no contact agreement.

But once she caught Marlena’s glacial expression, she thought twice of it and dipped off like a coward.

Marlena had known better. The voice in her head had warned her not to let Arlet get too close… and this was what she got for not listening to it.

It had never done her wrong.

And it wouldn’t start now.

“Everyone get out.” The staff and guards all looked at Marlena. Some might have had little question marks floating around their head if that were possible. “Did I fucking stutter?” she shouted.

Everyone scattered, leaving Marlena in the dressing room alone. She’d had a cloak stored inside the closet for her earlier, and the person who’d hidden it for her floated in.

“Is it time?” Ivelle asked.

Marlena grabbed the thick black cloak out of the closet and slipped it over her shoulders. “Is the horse ready?” she asked, ignoring her question.

“Yes. Your mare is waiting for you behind the garden like you asked.” Ivelle leaned against the wall. “Marlena, what are you doing? Where are you going? We’re supposed to attack tonight.”

Marlena’s wind whipped with her growing agitation.

“Do you think I’ve forgotten about that?

” Her laugh sounded foreign to her ears.

“Everything I do, everything I’ve done , is for this night.

Nothing has changed. I’m sealing our win.

” Marlena strode for the door, letting it open through a gust of silent wind.

“Tell the others to wait. They’ll know when it’s time. ”

Slipping behind her invisibility, Marlena disappeared, sneaking out of the busy Aeris home and onto her horse without being seen.

Marlena pushed her horse to the brink of total exhaustion, not allowing her a break until they were deep in the patch of woods near a small and unpopular lake outside Stella. Her mare huffed, leading herself to water when Marlena left her unattended after dismounting.

Marlena emptied the bag she’d hidden in her cloak onto the forest floor.

A box of matches, twelve candles, and the notebook she’d been hiding since her first trip to Littera fell from inside.

Bringing it had been in case of emergencies.

Marlena knew everything inside of it like the back of her hand.

Marlena grabbed the matches up and shoved them in her bodice, keeping them away from the snowy ground. Quickly, she placed the twelve candles in a circle around her.

One for each of the dead gods.

Mira had gotten it wrong.

Marlena wouldn’t.

She’d spent too much time researching, too much time preparing.

Mira was careless. Marlena was careful.

With a match and a single breath, Marlena lit the twelve candles. Her control of the air from her exhale sent the flame in a perfect circle. The natural night air was calm, a few lone snowflakes falling from the sky.

Marlena sank to her knees, digging into the wet dirt under a small patch of snow, and opened her leather-bound notebook. She smeared the damp earth across the book, breaking into the very essence of the realm.

Her hands shook with nerves, but there was no time for that. There was no time to second-guess what she was doing.

She wouldn’t lose.

Marlena wouldn’t let herself become the person people expected. The girl who waited around for what she wanted.

No, no. I’m going to get what I want. What I deserve.

Marlena leaned her head back, and in a natural Latin tongue, she began to reach out to the gods who’d visited her once already tonight.

“To the gods who were stolen from, who knew what our powers meant. To the gods who wanted more but had their lives cut short. I come to you tonight to promise liberation from the hell you’ve been trapped in.

I come bearing myself as a vessel. I come to offer myself to you. ”

The wind around Marlena stirred, the flames of her candles breathing the oxygen swirling around her. Marlena’s hair rose, and goosebumps formed on her arms.

“I feel you,” she said, opening her eyes and looking around at the clearing and the foliage ruffling in the breeze.

“No one has my rage. No one can promise you what I can. Mira was close, the closest anyone has ever been… but she wasn’t right.

She got it wrong. You don’t care about love. You want power. Like me.”

A candle’s flame shot up, reaching out at Marlena. It didn’t burn her, but it seemed to watch her, examining her every move. She stared it down, watching the flame ride pieces of her wind.

But nothing more than a few elemental changes happened.

Marlena rose from the ground, turning to take in her surroundings. The sky was clouded with an oncoming winter storm, but above was clear, and stars twinkled in the darkness.

She could feel a presence slithering up her spine, but nothing spoke back. Nothing more than a few gusts of wind that weren’t hers skirted around her circle.

No one came.

And the longer she stood on the edge of the lake surrounded by pines, the warmer her body got from the rage of being ignored.

You’ll always be ignored.

No, Marlena wouldn’t be ignored, and she wouldn’t fail. Marlena was the only choice the dead gods had.

Marlena was the only one who could promise them their own form of revenge.

“What is it that you want?!” she screamed in the new language. “What must I prove to you?” Marlena spun, following a gust of wind with her eyes. “I am the one you’ve been waiting for. After thousands of years stuck in the in-between, you can finally let someone take over and get what you couldn’t.”

A bolt of searing heat poured through Marlena’s body, burning every part of her until it settled in the core of her brain .

She stripped out of her cloak, the change in her body temperature becoming unbearable.