Back in Ciaran’s—now their—room, she was about to lie down again. A door violently slammed open down the house, followed by running steps as Nina shouted, “Hope, Hope! Hope, where are you?”
Adrenaline filled her veins as Ciaran and Hope started running towards the sound of Nina’s voice until they found her in the middle of the corridor. Ayla was right behind Nina, her lips pursed tightly as her smooth yet messy hair covered her torso. Lenna appeared at the end of the corridor, her arms closed tightly, her face shell-shocked and unrecognizable. Indianna appeared from her room, rubbing her eyes as if she had finally fallen asleep not long ago. Stevian walked until he reached Nina’s side, placing a kind hand over her shaking forearm.
“What’s the matter, dear child?” he asked, his brow furrowed.
Hope couldn’t process what she was seeing. This couldn’t be happening again.
Nina’s bottom lip trembled, her whole body shaking as her widened, ocean-blue eyes stared at Hope.
“I have a message for you, Hope,” she said.
A wave of terror was threatening to overthrow Hope as all she could focus on was Nina’s pure white hair. The hair that now had a black strand amongst the whiteness.
Flashbacks of Nina’s white-haired brother rushed through her mind, of every time he had a nightmare infiltrated by an unwanted goddess, waking with blackness inking his hair. Of how the nightmares became more frequent, his mind and body taken over by the goddess who moved him between islands, eventually killing him.
Hope walked to Nina and lifted her hand slowly, touching the black ink on her hair, hoping it would be a mirage, hoping it would disappear, hoping it was only her mind playing tricks on her.
Not again. Not to Nina.
Nina swallowed, her small fist whitening while it shook. “The Cardinal Queen was in my mind last night.”
“What did she tell you, Nina?”
She inhaled sharply before speaking, her voice barely recognizable as she quoted the Queen. “I could smell your blood and your dreams from afar, Snow Child. Your sibling smelled just the same. Tell the Daughter of Red that the red era is over. It's time for the Black Queen to rule the world.“
11
Ayla
Her blindness had never made her feel guilty before.
She had held Nina closely in her arms all night, while she moved around, fighting her nightmare, trying to console and reassure her. She made uncomfortable noises all night, and yet, when Ayla had tried to gently wake her up, it was to no avail.
Hope was in front of Ayla, and she could feel her touching Nina’s hair. Was there a black strand, like Raoul had every time he woke up from his Queen-invaded dreams? Would Ayla have been able to see the darkness progressively inking Nina’s hair if she weren’t blind? Would she have been able to stop the Queen from bothering the woman she craved to protect? Shefelt useless, impotent, frustrated. What was the point of having powerful magic if she couldn’t protect what mattered most?
“Do you remember the beginning of the dream?” Ayla asked.
“Sort of,” Nina said. “I was a child, and I was playing with a black bird. I thought it was a crow, but perhaps it was a black cardinal. It looked very familiar, as if I had seen it many, many times before. I was hiding behind a white curtain, and I could hear it chirping, teasing me to come out. It didn’t take long to find me, and when it did, it ripped the curtain with its beak, and from the hole came the Cardinal Queen herself, in her female form, with a dress made of black feathers, beautiful black-feathered wings, and a black crystal crown atop her long, black hair. She was majestic and frightening.”
The way Nina had trembled in her sleep, holding on to Ayla’s arms and neck unconsciously as if she needed firm ground to survive… Frightening was short of what she probably felt.
“Majestic,” Lenna snorted. “Majestic she’ll look when we rip her wings off. How do we kill a fucking Queen?” Lenna asked, and a rush of profound pride swam through Ayla. If Nina’s life was at risk, they needed to eliminate the Queen from the playing ground as soon as possible.
“Would killing the Queen of Cardinals not destroy the land?” Ayla wondered. She couldn’t have been the only one wondering this.
“She was captive for two hundred fifty years, and the land managed just fine,” Hope added. “I want her out of my throne and off of our island, and if she has infiltrated Nina, that only adds urgency to the case.”
“I get you, but what if getting her off the island, in whatever way or manner we manage, if that is even doable,endsthe island? What if there is no island after?”
“Too many questions and too few answers, sister,” Lenna said, shaking her head. “As far as I’m concerned, the only questionthat matters here is: do we allow these goddesses to do what the fuck they want with everyone’s lives, and ruin us all? Or do we stop them, however we can, and take back some control over the lives of panom, courtrades, and humans?”
Silence followed, and Lenna didn’t take more than a heartbeat before continuing. “All I know is these rotten birds have stolen my man, and have killed my best friend and her boyfriend. What is next? My sister? Nina? The bloody Organ Mandor or Darkness Commander? Ciaran, Hope, you are meant to be blessed by the Core Cardinal and Llunal himself, are you not?” She scoffed. “Whatever choice you all make, I will respect. Or I will try. But I am very much not going to fucking sit around until they also steal or kill any of you. I am going to get my man back, and if I need to kill the damned East Cardinal to do it, then I won’t stop until I succeed or I die failing. So, if the land breaks in half when I kill the Harming bitch, kindly accept my apologies in advance.”
“Is that what you plan on doing, Lenna?” Hope asked.
“What part? The part about getting Jake to be able to love again, or the part about killing the Cardinal asshole?”
“The part about killing the East Cardinal.”
