“It’s time to choose, my dark bloom.”
Choose what?I try to scream the question, crying harder as the last bits of my mother fade away into the abyss that envelops me.
“Choose home.”
I jolt upright, smacking my head on the lantern hanging from the ceiling of our tent. Cold air fills my lungs as I try to slow my frantic heartbeat.
“Finally,” a voice groans. Kieran sits beside me on a rolled out pallet of furs, clearly agitated. “Holy shit, Ivy.”
“How long was I out?” I ask, still fighting the panic rooted in my gut.
“Ten hours.”
I gape at his response. What felt like only moments on whatever plane I ended up on was nearly half a day here.
I rip off the fur covering my lap to find myself not in a green cotton dress, but still in my muddy riding leathers. I examine my hands closely. They’re drab and pale, no longer coated in a pearlescent sheen.
“Where’s Cal?” I ask on a shaky breath. Did I drain him too? Is he sleeping off my magical assault outside in the cold?
“I finally convinced him to leave you long enough to take a piss. The bastard has been hovering over you like you’re an egg that will hatch at any moment. It’s a good thing you’re awake, though. I was not looking forward to riding with your unconscious body slung over a horse.”
“Your idea, I presume.”
“Don’t look at me like that.” Kieran glowers. “The Ascension Vote is in a week and we have shit to do. Lover boy was content to stay here until you woke up, no matter how long that took.”
“Good thing I woke before dawn, then.” I scoff at Kieran.
He’s always callous, but this time he’s also right. We are on a schedule, and I would have been pissed if we missed our chance to take down Marks because of this. Theaevusresistance is waiting.
My hands are still quivering, shaking from the otherworldly encounter. Kieran notices, his russet eyes freezing on them for a moment before moving upwards to my face.
“What you did out there,” he says as he pulls out a pair of leather gloves from his pocket and passes them to me. “That was fucking incredible. This changes everything, Ivy. You’re the weapon that ensures we all live to see the new Corinth.”
I slip the sable-lined gloves onto my shaking hands, focusing on fitting each individual finger into its slot.
Weapon. The one thing I never wanted them to make me is exactly how he sees me.
But he’s wrong about one thing—we won’t all live. The fork in my fate approaches, the moment of truth when I make the choice I must no matter the personal cost. My mother bargained with multiple gods to give us a fighting chance. She sacrificed and now I must too.
“I know why my mother made the deal with Nobus,” I murmur, eyes still focused on my gloved hands.
The canvas flap of the tent flips back. Cal’s large frame in the entry blocks out the campfire on the other side, casting him in an eerie orange halo.
“Ivy.”
Relief is thick in his hoarse voice but worry still colors his face. The dark circles under his eyes are obvious signs of his refusal to sleep.
“That’s my cue,” Kieran says, as he moves to vacate the tent. “You should talk to Murphy.”
Cal quickly moves to take his place beside me, pulling my hands into his, squeezing them until they no longer tremble.
“Talk to me about what?”
I swallow, buying time while I decide my course of action. He patiently waits for me to continue, giving me the space I didn’t ask for but desperately need. I want to tell him who I saw, but the words dry up in my mouth like sand. If I’m right about who he is … if I’m right, it changes nothing. Our mission, our fate is still the same.
“Hey.” Cal’s voice cuts through my clouded thoughts. “Talk to me.”
“Your magic is limitless, Cal. Do you have any idea what you can do?”
