“Veragi?” she whispered.
The goddess smiled in what looked like relief.
Roman moved to block Vaasa, but before he had the opportunity to stop her, Vaasa gripped the iron bars. Veragi’s hands closed over hers, and faintly she heard Roman hiss her name. But his voice was drowned out by the sudden onslaught ofmagic. It ripped through Vaasa, unforgiving, down her spine and through her limbs, tearing and pulling. Mist wound around her neck and then plunged down her throat and nose, the sensation muddling her mind as it wrapped around it and squeezed. Pain seared through Vaasa, but just as quickly as it came, the agony abated. Behind her eyes was the image of something that started blurry and then took perfectly clear form.
Vaasa stared at her mother.
Vena Kozár paced in a hallway, staring down at her hands as Veragi magic consumed them. She twisted her fingers into fists, holding them close to her body, trying to breathe. Vena’s head whipped to the side, and Ozik approached. He looked around them as if checking to be sure they were alone.
He took Vena’s hands in his.It hurts, Vena whispered.
I know, love, Ozik whispered back.
The images Veragi sent shifted, turning in on themselves until Vaasa stared at the greenhouse. It spread out in front of her as if she were standing there herself.
Ozik led Vena into the structure, the olive tree towering above them, the stone statues all around them. Vena graced Ozik with a smile the world had rarely ever looked upon, one Vaasa herself had hardly seen. The two exchanged words Vaasa couldn’t hear. Vena turned and lifted her hair, and Ozik fastened something around her neck, whispering to her all the while.
The black stone necklace.
On his hands, small black veins writhed. Ozik closed his eyes. His face contorted in pain. When he opened them again, red flashed until gold bled through the crimson in a smothering wave. The black veins on his hands snapped back, leaving the youthful skin of the advisor Vaasa knew. Ozik paused there, holding the necklace, staring down at Vena as if he looked upon his entire world.
Once again, the images shifted and turned. Fear pounded through Vaasa, fear that wasn’t entirely her own. It was a miserable kind of adrenaline as Vaasa’s vision leveled out. She stood in the hallway of the emperor’s quarters, her mother fleeing down it. Her hand lifted to her neck, but there was no necklace there to hold.
Ozik lifted his hand and twisted his wrist, and in front of Vena, the Miro’dag took shape.
It struck.
Vaasa swore she screamed as she watched it all happen—watched her mother sink to the ground in a pool of jade fabric, watched the life dim in her eyes. Watched as the Miro’dag feasted upon Vena Kozár like she was nothing but a soul to consume.
Ozik turned, and his eyes glowed bright red. There was no sign of gold any longer.
The vision spun. As it all leveled out, Vaasa stared at… her brother.
He clutched the necklace in his hand.
Vaasa was a mere ghost, a fly upon the wall, as Dominik slid back the lid of their mother’s sarcophagus. Located in the grand mausoleum that sat sturdy in the center of the city, Vaasa remembered the day her mother’s body had been laid to rest next to her father’s. She had just learned of her impending marriage to Reid of Mireh. Fury had shadowed the entire ordeal.
And now, there was Dominik, his fist clutching the necklace’s iron chain as he stared down into the sarcophagus. Vaasa couldn’t see her mother’s body, but she remembered the etchings of snowdrops the makers had carved into the sides of her coffin. Their mother’s favorite flower.
Rage simmered in the harsh tug of Dominik’s features. He placed the necklace in the sarcophagus and then grimaced. All of a sudden, his eyes went wide, and he reared back—
His gaze snapped up, and even though consciously Vaasa knew this wasn’t real and that he couldn’t see her, fear flooded her veins. It was as if he stared into her soul, as if he were still alive and crawling toward her with a knife again.
Vaasa was thrown back into herself, the vision disappearing on a snap. Veragi released Vaasa’s hands, and Vaasa lurched backward, stumbling into Roman as he wrapped his arm around her waist and tried to tug her away from the cell. Nausea swept over her in a roiling wave. She fought to keep her magic settled, to prevent it from leaking onto her hands. Vaasa doubled over, curling in on herself as Roman tugged at her shoulders to try and get her to stand. Loss and anguish made a home in every crook within her.
“Let me go,” Vaasa croaked, fingers still clinging to the bars.
The bright white of Veragi’s eyes drained, and Vaasa gasped as her best friend’s body crumpled into an unconscious pile on the dirty prison floor.
CHAPTER
28
No!” Vaasa cried.
“Quiet,” Roman commanded in her ear. He tugged on her body and hauled her away from the cell. Feet slipping on the slick floors, Vaasa fought as he dragged her down the corridor, kicking her legs like a toddler. “Get ahold of yourself!”
Everything she had just seen played in her mind, wicked and strong and seemingly unending. Over and over, the vision swirled.
