Peri gave a sharp nod and motioned for Serapha to continue.
“Close your eyes and relax. I am going to remove the blocks in your minds,” the draheim told them.
“How can you remove them?”
“Because I put them there, Nissa. I think I know how to undo my own magic.”
Peri should probably have been surprised. But at this point, it wouldn’t surprise her if a squirrel and birds started singing to her while they made her a dress. She closed her eyes and relaxed the barriers that she naturally kept erected around her mind. She sent a mental message to Lucian letting him know that the draheim would be entering her consciousness. Her mate, the man, understood and didn’t mind. The wolf, however, was perturbed to share any part of her.
Suddenly, a sharp pain ripped through her skull. Her head felt like it was going to split open as the pain radiated inside, seeming to bounce off the walls of her head. Peri squeezedher eyes tightly, and her hands curled into fists. She gritted her teeth. It was taking every ounce of control to keep from screaming because of the pain.
“You have to allow me in.” Serapha’s voice was like a bellowing shout.
“You don’t have to yell at me,” Peri snapped.
“I’m not yelling, Perizada,” the draheim said gently, her voice much softer. “You’re fighting me, and it’s magnifying everything. Relax. Let me work through the magic. It’s going to take a few minutes. You both need to understand that when the block dissipates, you will relive the memories that are revealed. Though your physical bodies will remain here with me, a part of your spirit will return to that period in time.”
Peri let out a slow breath and forced her shoulders to relax. She opened her hands and rested her palms against the tops of her thighs. Relaxing her face, she asked the Great Luna for a calm that only the Creator could give. Waves of warmth flowed through her. Then she felt her mate’s hands on her shoulders, the silent support that he always gave so freely.
The pain receded, and then there was a spark of light behind her eyes. The black void in her mind was suddenly filled with shimmering gold that parted like a curtain. She was standing in front of the curtain, and Peri could see a forest on the other side.
“Go through,” Serapha encouraged.
Peri obeyed, stepping from the darkness in her mind into the warmth of a forest with sunlight casting down through the tree branches. A light breeze rustled the leaves, as if nature were applauding her entrance. Movement from her right grabbed her attention, and Peri saw Nissa. Her eyes widened. This Nissa was much younger. This was the Nissa she grew up with and trained with to become a warrior fae. They were little more than teens, practically babies for their race.
“Do I look as young as you do, Nissa?”
“You look like you did 2,985 years ago.”
“Fifteen?” Peri breathed out. “I was fifteen, and you were thirteen.”
Nissa nodded. “You’ve been short a long time.”
Peri snorted. “Like you’re so much taller.”
Both females turned back to the forest and began walking forward. Peri’s feet seemed to move on their own, as if they knew exactly where to go. “The hidden memory must involve something that happened very long ago.”
Nissa nodded. “But why cover up something that happened when we were in training?”
Peri’s mind flashed with images from her time in the fae academy. She’d been enrolled at the age of eight. As soon as it became clear that she had strong magical gifts and natural fighting ability, she was recruited. It was an honor to be invited by the high fae. Not every fae was offered a place in the academy. Nissa had joined her a couple of years later. They’d been friends. Wait, there was something more to her memories she couldn’t access, something still out of her reach.
“Don’t try to force it.” Serapha’s voice reached through into the memory. “Let it move naturally.”
“There’s nothing natural about this,” Peri muttered. “Natural is having your memories left in your head where they belong.”
The farther they walked, the more Peri recognized. The forest opened up to a road that was lined on either side with a tall stone wall.
“The academy.” Nissa pointed down the road.
Peri nodded as their feet continued to move them forward. The closer they got to the huge, intimidating castle-like structure, the faster her heart beat. There were so many memories of how she’d sweat, bled, and even cried while she’d trained, hoping to become one of the best warriors the fae had ever seen. And maybe, if she had the power, even a high fae.It had been Peri’s dream. She wanted to make a difference in the supernatural world. Not just in the veil of the fae but in the others as well. She’d wanted to see the supernatural races as comrades. She’d been so full of hope then, untainted by war, death, evil, deception, or pain. It was a time when her eyes saw her superiors as inspiring, and the future held endless possibilities. “I can’t remember the last time I thought about this place,” she said to Nissa. “Despite how many years we spent here, it doesn’t cross my mind.”
“You have millions of memories, Peri,” Nissa said. “Why would one so far back even breach the recesses of your mind?”
“Because this is where we were formed and molded into who we would one day become.” Peri was filled with emotions that had long been buried. “Don’t you remember the thousands of hours we trained, the many nights that we laid in the warm grass and stared up at the star-filled sky talking about all our plans? We’d been so unjaded, Nissa, so inspired by a world that we knew nothing about.”
“It’s good for the young to feel that way. It helps ground the older, cynical adults who have lost sight of their purpose.”
“You mean like us now?” Peri chuckled.
