Page 37

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SIX

Oralia

I blinked and bright sunlight streamed across my face. The air hung heavy with spices, the rustle of a crowd in a market. Smudges of color came into focus like wildflowers climbing a mountain.

Mycelna. The human realm.

Shaking my head, I caught sight of the great ships at my back. Humans were gathered in a line, receiving barrels and crates stacked onto a narrow wagon. Around them stood what appeared to be warriors, hands resting on weapons in their holsters. As one turned, a flash of silver glimmered against their throat, as if someone had pressed a coin deep into their skin above their pulse. A warm breeze caught my hair and rippled through the thin fabric of my gown.

“Oralia?” The scarred god’s voice was familiar even after all this time.

But when I turned to face him, I flew backward. My arms flung out, and my knees hit the stone floor of the courtyard in Iapetos with a slap . Volleys of water poured from my nose and lungs, magic tingling at the back of my neck. Two sandaled feet stood before me. The god, Gunthar, grabbed me by the hair, dragging me to my knees as I continued to retch.

The knife in his hand glimmered in the weak light of the courtyard and, though my shadows spooled up to meet him, he broke through them easily, plunging the knife into my chest. I gasped, bowing over the blade as blood slipped from my lips and onto the stones. One beat of my heart. Then another.

Blackness crept into the edges of my vision, and I wheezed. But the kratus resin was too potent as it ate away at my bones. Gunthar’s hand closed over the hilt and wrenched it out with a jerk of his. hand. A cry slipped from my lips as tears rushed down my cheeks—agony, that was what this was. I could not catch my breath, could not see. Blood rushed up my throat, and I fell into darkness.

I jerked upright with a gasp and blinked into the bright light. My heart pounded in my ears as I struggled to find my bearings. My hands slipped across the worn wood beneath me. Fear reared its head like a monster, and I bit back a scream. But when my fingers scrambled over my chest toward the gaping wound, it was no longer there. I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the sun before it was blotted out by the face of the scarred god.

“What is happening?” he pleaded, falling to one knee.

But I did not know. I only knew the torture of my heart stopping. I gripped the front of his tunic, staring up into bright, mismatched eyes.

“I think I—”

Another jerk as I was wrenched forward this time. Beneath my hands, the pool of my blood was wet as was the blade clutched in Gunthar’s fist.

Someone new cupped my face. I spluttered as they pulled me upright, and two milky white eyes stared into mine. This god before me was all sharp angles, even down to the bow of her lips and straight auburn hair catching on my wet cheeks from the breeze as she prodded my face.

“What do you see?” Gunthar asked, his grip tightening on my head.

My hands slipped off the god’s wrists, and, though my shadows danced in my vision, sliding around myself and Gunthar, they could not reach her. I pushed my power out, forcing the shadows into flames.

“ Enough ,” he commanded, rattling my head with a jerk of his arm.

The god appeared unaffected by the display and only continued to trace the planes of my face, humming to herself. Overhead, the sun shined but weakly. It was so different than the sun in Mycelna had been—colder somehow. But I squinted against the glare all the same. She shimmered before me, the courtyard shifting first to the dock where I’d been only a moment before, then to the wide field of Aethera’s palace, and back to the courtyard again. I blinked, and the castle of Infernis appeared in the distance, the sound of metal clashing ringing through my ears, and then the quiet of the courtyard, only my heartbeat and the breathing of the god.

My voice was barely more than a rasp. “Let me go.”

“Petra, what do you see?” Gunthar said over me.

The castle winked again before my eyes, and I thought I could see a figure in the distance, blood running down their hands, chest heaving. Were those wings on their back or were their arms secured behind them, creating the illusion? Beside them, blood fell like rain and screams rent the air. And then the courtyard, the god, whose mouth flattened further in concentration, a rosy blush deepening the freckled skin of her cheeks.

“Who was that?” I asked, slipping on the stones as I tried and failed to push myself to stand.

Gunthar’s grip tightened, and his free hand closed over my shoulder. He was grumbling at me to be calm, to be quiet, but I only stared at the god. “What was that? It looked like—”

“Infernis,” the god answered.

Her voice was a shroud around us. Even the sun in the sky dampened. Fingertips brushed my lips before her hands fell away like leaves fluttering from a tree.

“The universe converges around you. It pours its energy into your fount, its magic. There is no stopping what will come, and no changing what has already come to pass. Light and dark, fire and shadow, sun and rain, life and death, ruin and reckoning.” Her head tilted up, milky irises sliding to the god above me.

“All the power of the universe,” Gunthar murmured.

The god—Petra, Gunthar had called her—hummed again, nodding. “As powerful as a timeless god—more powerful even. It is as you thought. She cannot die.”

I gaped at her. “No…that is not true.”

Gunthar huffed a laugh, tugging at his thick beard. “Oh, it’s true, little one. I’ve killed you twice in the span of a few minutes and Petra drew you back.”

No—no, it could not be.

“What did you see when you died?” Petra asked.

My brows pulled together, and my skin itched with the drying water on my clothes. “The human realm, Mycelna.”

Gunthar made a small noise in the back of his throat. “The same as Renwick always did. It is her all right.”

But I shook my head as much as the hand in my hair would allow. “But I have seen that place before, long before I ever came here.”

The god before me gave a soft smile. “That day in Infernis your power consumed you.”

“How do you know about that?”

Her milky eyes glazed as she touched my cheek. “We know everything that has come to pass.”

Stars. I was not sure if I could believe it, and yet, my magic pulsed with understanding. It had been so painful. I could recall the memory perfectly.

The grip on my hair lessened. I wrenched myself away and rose to my feet. Both gods stared at me, at the shadows pooling at my feet, the clouds gathering overhead, and the flickering flames dancing at the ends of my fingertips. If they wanted to see all the power in the universe, then I would show it to them.

“Take me to my companions,” I commanded.

In another breath, Gunthar and I were nose to nose, but I ducked before he could strike again and send me catapulting back into the water. My shadows wrapped around his ankles, jerking him back so he fell with a crack on his face. But he only shook the blow off, rising with a manic grin pulling at his beard.

“Do you think you are special now, little one?” His tone was soft as if he was speaking with a misbehaving child. “That it means something, this power?”

I ducked as he swung out, his fist connecting with empty air, but his next punch landed in my ribs. Though he did not send me back into the water, the breath rushed from my lungs, and I was unable to answer him.

“Do you think this means you were chosen?” A bitter laugh echoed off the stones.

Behind him, the god who had pronounced my power observed without expression, milky eyes flicking back and forth between us, her hands clasped lightly in front of her bright white robes.

“I do not care what it means,” I gasped, sending my shadows forth only for him to brush them away. Gritting my teeth, I pushed my power harder, firming my magic until one tendril struck, sending his chin to the side.

“So humble, our latska lathira na thurath, but I see you.” His voice dropped low. His hand flicked out to wrap around my throat and drag me up to the tips of my toes. “You think the universe chose you for this power, but it did not. You are merely a convenient host—one who was there at the right time and the right place. If Typhon had not taken you in the woods that night, you would have never been bitten, and the power would have never been yours.”

“But I was,” I rasped, “and it is.”

The wind shifted my wet hair, and a chill flicked up my spine. My fingers dug into his wrist even as his tightened over my throat until the air was thin. I fought against the hold. But, I did not look away from the red shards within his brown eyes, I mirrored the ruthless grin spreading across his cheeks.

“Yet you are no closer to your goal than before. You are a child playing at being a soldier in a war among titans—your power will not save you, little one.”

My shadows crept up behind him, gripped his head, and jerked it to the side with a crack. Gunthar fell into a heap at my feet, and I wondered how long it would take for his broken spine to heal.

“We will see about that.”