“Can someone please explain what you guys are talking about?” Odeyssa chimes in, and I’d almost forgotten she was there.
Disregarding her, my eyes stay trained on Aslan. “Wouldn’t you telling me what happens—or isgoingto happen—alter the future?”
Aslan chuckles lightly. “There are loopholes to everything, and nothing I tell you will change the trajectory, just simply push you in the right direction.” Eyeing her curiously, I have half a mind to get the hell out of dodge. Coming here was a mistake. Nobody told me the entire place was full of whack jobs.
“So you see the future?”
“Yes. There are a few avenues the future could hold. Things change, shift all the time. Different decisions can be made, and there can be unexpected…encounters. In this case, however, there’s a pretty clear picture on what will happen in the end.” I open my mouth to ask another question, but she beats me to it. “No, there is nothing that indicates you being here will change the way this plays out.”
My brows pull together at her admission. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”
Odeyssa leans over to the side. “The prophecy.” Although her voice comes out a whisper, she seems excited at the prospect.
“What prophecy?”
The queen walks around the stone pillar and rests her hand on my back, urging me to walk forward. Odeyssa follows close, eagerly waiting for something to happen, I guess. But before we get too far, Aslan turns to face her. “Odeyssa, I think this would be better if Kallie and I had some time to go over everything…alone.” A look of disappointment crosses over her face, but ultimately, she nods her head. “You can go see what Sintharion is up to. I’m sure he could use your help with something.”
Quickly, her somber expression morphs to annoyance. “I’ll leave, but whatever mess he has found himself in is on him.” As if she can sense my apprehension, she continues, turning to me. “You’re safe with her. There’s nothing to be afraid of. And I’ll be outside if you need me.” She pulls me in for a quick hug before disappearing back around the corner where we entered.
“So this prophecy?”
“I think we should have a seat.” She gestures to the small, dark-green loveseat resting against the wall I must’ve missed before.
“Before you start, you said that I should assume you know…everything.”
Her head hangs for a second, a pained expression passing over her features before her eyes meet mine. “I know you were held. I know what they did to you. I know you are the princess that this whole realm thought perished in that awful fire, and you are the daughter of King Ambroyss. Also”—she places a gentle hand on my knee—“I know you have experienced a lifetime of pain and betrayals that will haunt you.”
My mouth hangs open in shock. “I guess that’s one way of summarizing it.” But she didn’t mention anything aboutthe lab—the creatures or fae that were trapped inside those tubes. “Before I escaped, I stumbled upon a room full of…experiments?” How else am I supposed to put it? It was nothing I’d ever seen before—granted, that’s not saying much because when it comes to Siderium, I’m like a fish out of water.
“I’m aware.” That comment shocks me more than anything. Abruptly standing, I yell at her in outrage.
“What do you mean, you’re aware? You know about all of the crazy, sadistic, inhumane shit that’s going on there?”
“Like I said, the future changes. And I couldn’t do anything about it. I cannotinterfere.”
“That’s a copout, and you know it!”
“Your mother couldn’t do anything about it either.” Her eyes glaze over to somewhere far away, but with a shake of her head, they meet mine again. “There are things that we need to discuss. We can’t change the past, but with your help, there is still hope.”
I let out a loud, sadistic laugh. “Hope? How in the world do you see that in all of this carnage?”
“The prophecy,” she says earnestly. Her head tilts toward the seat I was sitting in moments ago, and although I feel the wrath of a thousand suns, I sit back down.
“Bear with me. This is a little lengthy.” She offers a soft smile before continuing.
“When flame and shadow meet as one, and lighting marks what must be done, the blood of kings, betrayed and damned, shall rise where light and dark both stand.
She’ll wear the flame but know no past, a crown of ash that cannot last. A tender heart will crack to stone. The storm she binds is not her own.
Chained by love and sweet deceit, he’ll fall where war and ruin meet. His soul was bent by unseen strings, a puppet taught to kneel to kings.
Two souls divided by the night, one cloaked in wrong, one seeks the light. But she who stirs the storm’s dark tide, shall draw the stars where shadows hide.
When Celestial weeps and Mortis Regnum stands still, power bends to sovereign will. The crown shall fall from bloodied hands, to grace the queen who takes his land.”
She lets out an exasperated breath, but I don’t look away, even as my mind trips over itself trying to catch up. All the information is laid out inriddles!My hands grasp the lower part of my face as I try to remember everything she said. “Does it all make sense now?”
I whip my head in her direction. “Oh yeah, crystal clear,” I reply sarcastically.
