“Well, I’m not sure. He had wanted me to go, but I said no, then realised I should, so thought I could go for a few hours.”
“I think it’s a good idea. How old is he?”
“He’s turning 17; he’s in my year at the Academy.”
“Excellent, but maybe we should have the talk before you go?” Mama suggests.
“No, Mama! No.”
She laughs at my affronted tone, but I’m already shaking my head, refusing to linger another second. I spin and rush for the door, when suddenly the ground tilts beneath me, as if the world itself has shifted.
“Heaven!” Mama’s voice fractures across the distance, but it’s fading, drowning beneath the thunder that erupts inside my veins. My head whips back, vision blazing white, as raw power surges through me.
It crashes over me in waves, a feeling I have felt only once before.
The night the prophecy of the four rulers came to me.
The Gift of Sight
Raihana
“Heaven!” I shout, my heart pounding in fear as I rush to her, but then stop, realising what’s happening.
She’s having a calling.
Another one already? There is not a single witch who has been given more than three prophecies in her lifetime, and none survive past that third. Terror fills me as I can do nothing but watch. She’s only sixteen, and she’s already having a second!
Her head snaps back as she stares at the ceiling, her aura surging around her in brilliant green. Wind whips around her, but it touches everything but her. Her hair swirls around her as if defying gravity itself.
Her voice is distorted as she begins speaking.
“Hear now, the shadowed truth of the Adonai.
He shall be adorned in blood, for his path is carved in slaughter. Brothers shall turn against one another, and alliesmay fall to doubt, for the Adonai’s crown is forged not in peace, but in conflict.”
Ahren appears in the doorway in a puff, his eyes glowing red.
“The blood of war will run like a river, and in its crimson current his strength shall be tested. Should he falter, should his heart give way to despair, his hands will loosen from the destiny laid upon him.”
The others rush inside as Heaven continues.
“And if he fails, the Four Rulers will fall with him, and the world shall drown in the silence of their ruin.
But if he endures, if his will stands unbroken amidst betrayal and the tearing of kin, then, even the blood that stains him shall become his power.
Mark these words, for the Adonai’s greatest foe is not the blade before him, but the weakness within.”
The surge of power vanishes, and I rush to her side as she drops to her knees, her floating hair falling forward as a soft whimper escapes her.
Delsanra and Allie are beside me in seconds as I pull my baby girl into my arms, stroking her hair.
“What was the start of the prophecy?” Dante asks quietly.
“Hear now, the shadowed truth of the Adonai.
He shall be adorned in blood, for his path is carved in slaughter. Brothers shall turn against one another, and allies may fall to doubt, for the Adonai’s crown is forged not in peace, but in conflict. The blood of war will run like a river, and in its crimson current his strength shall be tested. Should he falter, should his heart give way to despair, his hands will loosen from the destiny laid upon him,” I say quietly.
“Well, I think the first thing we need to do is get Heaven to bed,” Mom says quietly as she comes over and checks her pulse. “She will be fine.”
