Helplessness flooded Aisleynne. She turned about the vast conservatory, seeing it die around her. No one was coming to save her. Her children would live, grow, and die, never knowing their mother or how much she loved them. The witches of Willow Keep had been instructed to look after them until it was safe and then quietly move them to two separate families–distant relatives in New Hayden and Little Ridge. In the end, they wouldn’t even have each other.
Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes as sorrow wormed its way from the deepest pits of her belly to the base of her throat. But a more heart-warming thought followed. Something her own father had whispered to her long ago when she was taken from him and brought to Calami Tower in the first place, ‘Marudas always find each other,’ he’d promised. There was hope for them, yet. Aisleynne only had to buy them a little bit of time.
Drawing her gaze up, she saw the sky beyond the glass ceiling that was slowly becoming overgrown with dead roots. The stormy veil had dissipated, giving way to a shroud of stars that twinkled against vibrant indigo, streaked with lavender and ink blue. They winked at her in turn, like plotting deities who approved of what was to come.
Aisleynne could already feel the stiffening of her legs. She was turning to stone, just as Atlas had promised, but her mouth and arms still worked for the moment, and that was all she needed. “I may not be able to break your curse, Atlas Darkmore, but I can cast one of my own.”
Aisleynne bent forward, snatching up his wrist in a vice-like grip and murmuring the words. Squeezing the omnis stone in her other hand, she summoned every last drop of magic that resided in her body to breathe the curse to life.
Atlas’s eyes opened wide in horror as the realization came too late. Aisleynne, even weakened, was far more powerful than he could ever hope to be. After all, she was the vessel. True and ancient magic lived within her veins, a mix of both witching and wizarding combined. Nature incarnate.
His scream of fury echoed in her ears, a satisfying symphony that she could have listened to for the rest of her days had the gods permitted it. His essence flooded her first and then the omnis stone glowed a blinding shade of silver, absorbing the dark wizard. When his form solidified to stone, the wraiths screeched and flailed before settling to dust on the floor.
Crumbling under the strength of her spell, Atlas’s empty stone body turned to dust with them. Aisleynne sucked in a breath of relief. Silence settled over the room. Though Atlas was gone, he was not dead, and his curse could not be stopped. Her skin hardened as it moved its way up toward her face. One arm was stuck, reaching out to nothing, while the other pressed the omnis stone into her chest where the curse encased it with her.
Tipping her head back, she allowed herself a final thought before the last essence of her soul was sucked away. Should she ever escape this prison, her revenge on the house of Darkmore would be as sweet as it was merciless.
Chapter one
Seren Marudas
Five-hundred years later
Thehedgesweredark,more black than green, with thorns ready to rip open the skin of any woman who made the mistake of running into one. With a whispered word and raised hands, the professors of Calami had grown the maze from nothing. It towered at least eight feet above them, with unknown threats lurking around every twist and turn. She would have been impressed if she hadn’t been focused on what was to come.
Seren faced the previous tasks set before her, annoyed that the prestigious Calami had given her such little challenge. From her sister’s letter, she had expected more. The fifty-nine other women that had joined her were now whittled down to thirty and with one more task before them, it was expected that more would fail and join a lesser institution or worse, their magic would be burned away at nineteen if another school didn’t accept them.
She eyed the maze with a narrowed gaze and clenched her fists. The unknown challenge she was to face sent a flutter of panic through her she quickly pushed down. Now was not the time to lose her head. Her future, no, her life, depended on making it into Calami. She would not go back to the life she had before.
The gray sky above rumbled with thunder as clouds gathered, moving fast across the sky. The air itself felt charged with electricity as women shifted from foot to foot and eyed each other. Seren frowned and started toward the maze, a dark-skinned witch with strange purple eyes followed just behind her. The sooner this was over, the sooner she could throw herself into her studies and forget the pain of last year. The misery of losing her father. The sting of her sister leaving her. The heartache of her mother becoming a shell of her former self. The other women followed them, relieved that someone had finally made the first move.
She felt the pleasant sensation of magic wash over her as she crossed the threshold. Her final trial had begun.
What had she heard about mazes? To keep one hand on a wall and follow it until the center appeared? She narrowed her dark eyes at the formidable walls. They would get no blood from her.
The witch close behind her had no qualms, reaching out and pricking her finger on the thorns, a sharp, metallic smell filled the air. As the crimson blood pooled in her palm, it created a compass, the needle of which was pointing at the path to the right of them.
Seren watched in fascination. “You’re a blood witch.”
The witch’s face became guarded. “I suppose you think my magic is an abomination.”
“No, I fell in love with magic the day I discovered mine,” Seren said as she walked closer, ignoring the other women streaming around them, giving the witch dirty looks. “All magic is natural. It’s how the person wields it that matters.”
“I’m Lilith Sinclair.”
The witch thrust her uninjured hand out and Seren shook it, amused by her formal demeanor.
“Seren Marudas.”
Seren realized that despite their head start, they were now alone. The maze broke off into four paths, each one as dark and foreboding as the next. Seren shivered and pushed away a memory of being all alone and surrounded by darkness. The suffocating feeling of being trapped and afraid. The heavy, humid air felt like a sticky film on her skin. She lifted her long dark hair from the back of her neck and braided it to the side.
“I suppose we should stick together,” Lilith said, her eyes darting around. “Although if push comes to shove, I will not hesitate to sacrifice you if it gets me into Calami.”
Seren’s eyes lit at finding a kindred spirit. “I would be disappointed if you did not.”
“I think we need to go right,” Lilith said, glancing down at the compass in her hand.
Her smile soon turned to a frown as they made a corner and found another dead end. “The professors have to be tampering with my magic.”
