“Here you go, Lady Elwyn.” Cade passes me a cup of tea. “Something to warm you up.”
“Thank you.” I take a long sip, savoring the notes of cinnamon and something spicy I can’t quite place. “Finish up your tea and get dressed, a storm is coming and if we’re to do this, we’re to do it quickly.”
Elora hops to her feet and sprints to our small room but as she passes by, she kisses the top of my head. “Thanks, Mum,” she whispers. Then, she’s off.
The snow squalls make it difficult to see up the mountain. Even more worrisome, an odd feeling has settled over my body. My hands, typically tingling with magick, have calmed. My head and vision cloudy. I rub my temples and attempt to whisper to Corbin through our bond, but there’s no answer.
Elora and Cade chatter while the other Enchantresses set up for the Ceremony. There are only a handful of us left, but we make every body count up here. Everyone has a job. A purpose.
“Are you ready,susi?” I ask Elora, and her smile widens. “Let’s begin.”
The Ceremony lasts only a few moments. It’s a risk, using this magick, and one I don’t take lightly. Rumors of hunters trained to seek Enchantresses have been filtering around, but with Elora’s determination and the weak ward I’ve placed, all I can hope is that it’s enough. Elora holds the Stones in her hands, her brows pinched together. When the Ceremony is complete she glances at me, then back to the Stones.
She frowns deeper. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Sometimes it takes a while,” I lie. Knowing very well that until her spirit guides find her, she won’t understand her Dyrsjel magick.
And it hits me.
Right then.
That I have made a grave mistake.
All these years I have guarded her from knowing her lineage. From anyone else knowing her lineage for fear they’d use her to get to the Awakening Stones. Use her to take what was never meant to be theirs but now I see my error.
All these years instead of shutting her out to keep her safe, I should have been teaching her.
Training her.
Panic rises in my chest, my lungs burn against the strain I’ve put on them. “Elora there’s something?—”
Shouting sounds from just outside the wards.
Cade steps forward. “Hunters?” He looks nervous, his hand trembling as it wraps around the hilt of his blade.
“What can you See, Mum?” Elora asks, standing to join Cade and I.
I close my eyes, calling on my magick, hoping it will somehow respond and show me what I need to See.
But it’s not there.
Just as I open my eyes, it hits me. A swatch of navy blue against the pure white snow.
My stomach drops and my fists clench, because what I’m seeing now, I am certain I’ve seen before.
White and blue and crimson.
The same vision I had the day Elora was born.
This is it.
Save the girl!Corbin’s voice is muffled in my mind. I trace the skies, but through the thickness of the snow, I can’t find him.
“Go,susi!” I yell, pushing Elora forward. “We have this handled!”
Her eyes look curious for a moment before more men in Valebridge uniforms swarm out of the trees just below Nevek Peak.
They’ll be here any minute.
