He stepped closer, almost pleading, “You must go to it, Odessa. It’s the only way.”
“What did you do when it called to you?” My voice was even as I ignored the strain in his.
“I drank from it,” Raithe said, before falling silent for a moment. “The Ossirae’s sap is both a gift and a test. If your blood accepts it, your power will root itself in something eternal. But if it finds you undeserving, it will kill you. You’ll die.”
“So I could die,” I repeated.
“You won’t.” Raithe’s voice was firm. “I don’t believe anything can stop you, except yourself. Not even the Ossirae.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’ve watched hundreds take the sap,” Raithe’s pitch sharpened. “Most survive. Those who didn’t either lacked the strength of will or their bloodline was too thin. They were children of minor gods, with barely a thread of divinity in them. But you,” his gaze locked with mine, “you were born of Wrath. One of the oldest and most powerful gods in this realm. Wrath is fed by humanity itself. As long as mortals feel rage, Wrath endures.”
Something dark stirred behind his eyes. “And so will you, Odessa. When you drink from the Ossirae, you won’t die. You’ll rise.”
38
Raithe had been leadingme somewhere, though he refused to say where. At the moment, I lacked both the strength and the will to press him further. I had been naive to think I could drink freely from any tree here. Not all of them produced sap, and fewer still were ready to give it. Only Raithe could tell which ones would yield their nectar, and he was firm in his warnings not to take too much.
It was the lifeblood of gods, after all, and I was only half of one. Until I proved myself to the Ossirae, the sap could hurt as easily as it could heal.
“Where are we going?” I repeated.
To my surprise, Raithe finally answered this time. “I meant to show you this when we were children, before that witch ripped you away from me.” His tone was sour at the mention of Mag. “I’m taking you to see my ossiraen. The place where my lifeforce is rooted. Soon, you’ll have one of your own.”
Before I could ask anything else, we stepped through another grove, but this time, it didn’t open into more trees. It opened to a gate. Themoment I saw it, something sharp struck me. Recognition flooded in so suddenly it knocked the breath from my chest.
I remembered.
I was twelve. Crying. Bleeding. My fingers gripped tightly around Raithe’s hand as he led me to this very place. He hadn’t spoken a word, but I knew he was trying to show me something. Something important.
But then Mag appeared.
She came with something in her hands, an object that severed the realms, a line drawn between the mortal and the divine. Whatever she held, it was enough to keep Raithe back. He couldn’t reach me. And just like that, she took me, dragged me back to her apothecary, back to Brier Len.
I’d buried that memory so deep it’d become myth.
Lost in the flood of that memory, I felt Raithe extend his hand, just as he had all those years ago. I stared at it for a moment. But then I placed mine in his, our fingers threading together with haunting familiarity. A current passed between us, not just of touch, but of something older. Something vast.
As we neared the gate, I felt its pull, an ancient force radiating from beyond the threshold. I hadn’t remembered that before. The darkness within me, always restless, seemed to calm in its presence. Even if Raithe hadn’t brought me here, I knew somehow I would have found it. Or it would have found me. There was something sacred in it.
Something immense and beautiful and terrifying all at once.
The iron gates creaked open on their own as we approached. Raithe leaned toward me, his voice low and reverent, “Welcome to the Ossarith, Odessa.”
The Ossarith unfoldedacross an endless stretch of rolling hills, a forest unlike any I had ever seen. It was wild, mystical, andutterly otherworldly. As far as the eye could reach, trees covered the land, some towering and gnarled, others slender and smooth. Some were heavy with vibrant foliage, while others stood bare, their branches skeletal against the sky.
No two trees were alike. Their bark shimmered in hues I couldn’t name, and their leaves caught the light in shades that seemed to shift with each step. Every color imaginable bloomed across their forms, as if the entire spectrum of the world had rooted itself here.
I stood breathless, overcome by the scale, the splendor, the sheer magic of it all.
Raithe guided me along a path I couldn’t see, winding us through the grove. Along the way, we passed trees that felt as old as the first gods themselves, and saplings so new their roots barely kissed the earth.
“This is where you were going to take me?” I asked.
“Incredible, isn’t it?” Raithe responded.
I followed closely behind him, unsure where to look or how to process what I was seeing. My attention was constantly shifting, drawn to one thing, only to be swept away by another moments later. There was something magical about this place, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
