The black waters sucked me in, and I concentrated on the spring with tunnel vision in a way that was like using my eyes to milk a fleeting escape.
I remembered the spring as it used to be when it was an iridescent blue hue.
Once upon a time, it sent spotlights into the windowless chamber and spoke to me. Though no matter the color, each time I came to the chamber, I could not avoid its call. I believed to belong in the water as a sparrow belonged in the sky.
Dad once said that I was born in the ocean and was surprised I didn’t have scales for skin or fins for limbs. When I was younger, I thought I could have been born a mermaid because two of my toes were mended together on both feet. As it was, I still found myself one with the sea and always searched for her salty, shapeless arms. The adoration she teased me with, the bottomless love she took. Cold and cyan, silky and strong. But nothing was ever enough for her.
Yet this spring no longer swirled an enchanting blue shade.
All that lay on the other side of the glass were black, cloudy waters.
Its haunting effects were not the same as they once were.
It now pulled on different heartstrings—told a different tale.
One that consumed all my attention and put me into a trance.
Unable to pull away, pain pierced my chest, and I found myself overcome with grief that wasn’t my own. A sorrow that wasn’t for Lena, either. I felt this pain in the deepest parts of me.
Ivy moved my hair off my shoulder, her blue eyes speaking to me in a way that commanded my attention to the front of the room, where Kane and Cyrus stood before our High Priest.
Lena had been taken away. The grand show of her punishment, and an example of what would happen should we use our magic, was over. She would be taken to the cell, then to the Wicker Man, where she’d burn on the border of Weeping Hollow.
“Adora,” Ivy nudged into my ear.
Augustine, our high priest, must have said my name. He was studying me from the front of the room, prompting me to break latency and come forth. He stood sickeningly still, his thoughts at ease with deceivingly comforting creases cornering his eyes.
Cyrus nodded, a silent invitation to join him, to stand by his side.
Why did Augustine call my name?It was rare for me to be nervous, yet a foreboding still crept along the back of my neck.
“Step forward, Adora,” Augustine said with impatience.
Dad watched me from the end of the aisle with both pride and guilt in his eyes. His mixed look confused me as I joined the sons of Sacred Sea.
Cyrus was the firstborn of the Cantini family, and the man Ivy was in love with. He stood taller than me with hair as black as a velvet night and the color of the ocean in his eyes. Perhaps that was why I felt entirely safe standing beside him. Since Adeline’s death, he’d become my best friend, and I held him close as I held the sea. But like the ocean, the color of his blue irises changed depending on his mood.
Cyrus had seven shades like the seven seas, and this was his curse.
The Cantini line had the ability to know your every emotion, whether you were lying, horny, crushed, or desperate. Hyper-sensory, is what he’d call it, and in return, their eyes were a direct window into their soul. But one would have to know him well to decode the shade.
At this moment, his eyes were cobalt blue.
Cyrus was nervous.
I clutched the empty setting hanging from the chain around my neck, and Cyrus took my other hand in a comforting manner. As everyone else, we faced forward and awaited the reasons for being here.
I closed my eyes, imagining Augustine telling me it was time to start my initiation. In a few short months, my magic would ascend completely.
I remembered as if it were yesterday when Ivy stood in this very spot just last year, with Cyrus on one side and Kane on the other. Only this time, Weeping Hollow was under attack by the Shadows—and the Hollow Heathens from our rivalry coven, Norse Woods, were no longer cursed. Perhaps starting my initiation early would show Sacred Sea hadn’t surrendered to the dangers our home faced.
Before, when the Heathens had been cursed, my coven was the best choice and the only means to keep the town safe, balanced, and in order. Though Norse Woods Coven was dying, with the curse broken, there was a possibility the balance could tip in their favor. This stirred a thick tension in the chamber, and it had been on Sacred Seas’ minds since the curse broke.
To be frank, I hadn’t expected this to be the day my initiation would be announced until Augustine had said my name. I’d been waiting sixteen years for this day.One step closer, I thought. If the moment had arrived, I couldn’t wait a moment longer.
I contained my excitement, anticipation coursing through me with every passing second. Cyrus’s thumb brushed mine, and I gripped my necklace tighter and stroked the metal prong. An iota of pain from the splinter shuddered through me, and I found myself at ease.
“Adora,” Augustine began, and I opened my eyes, fighting back an all-knowing smile. “With recent events, we must convey that we remain united through this and that we are stronger together as one. It has been decided to announce your engagement at the Founder’s Day Ball. You will have a winter wedding in January, and your betrothed will lead your initiation in February.”
