The prophecy pounded against my eardrums when the Truth Teller’s hands finally left me. My heart thundered in my chest, my pulse raced through chilled veins, and the breath seemed to fail to reach my lungs.
I staggered to my feet, half-expecting the cave to fall on us, but the earthquake was over. My eyes flew to the destroyed table to find it standing on four legs once again, all the food set on its surface just like I’d placed it. Whirling around, I realized no fallen rocks were scattered along the floor, and the cracks that fractured the walls and roof were no longer there… or perhaps, they had never been.
“Braxton, are you alright?” Kingston reached for me, concern marring his expression.
Was he really asking me that after what the seer just told us? Of course I wasn’t okay! WTF.
“I’m fine.” I cleared my throat as his hand landed on my arm and forced a deep breath down my lungs. When my attention returned to the seer, I found her still sitting on the bed, regarding me as though we were just discussing the weather.
“It is you who must decipher the truth, my king. No one else can manage.” She stood, walking past us to the entrance of the corridor that led to the foyer. “Safe travels.”
And now she was throwing me out. Great.
There was so much whirling through my mind, so many questions I needed to ask her, yet I settled for just one. “You wouldn’t have any idea where my father hid the Dragon Crown, would you?”
A sympathetic smile curved her lips, and she walked back to my side. “The hands that cover my eyes may not allow me to see, but they will uncover the crown if you can search through the flaws.”
Wonderful, another riddle.
“Thank you for your time.”
Patting my cheek, she turned and headed to the hallway; Kingston and I silently followed her. When we all reached the entrance, Kingston was the first to step outside, reuniting with Asher, but the Truth Tellerreached for my arm.
For a moment, I hoped she would explain what the words we heard meant, helping ease the burden and dread rapidly increasing within me.
“I was a mother once…” she said instead, looking to the outside as though she could see Asher through the rock. “A long time ago.”
My chest constricted with the longing in her voice. It was the first time since we arrived that I sensed sadness in her. I faced her. “Perhaps one day you can be a mother again. Return to live with your people.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed. “But I have not seen it yet…”
The biting winds slapped my body the instant I stepped outside, the snowstorm was getting stronger. Crossing my arms over the coat to conserve some warmth, I searched for Crystal, who was still perched to the side of the mountain several feet ahead. Asher and the chief stood under a flat rock that protruded from the mountain, providing them shelter as they waited for me.
“My king!”
The seer’s call reached me before I took my first step, and I turned to see her stopping before me. Still without a coat and barefooted, her hand landed over my heart.
“Do not forget tofeel.”
Her words echoed in my mind instead of my ears while her white eyes pierced me. What felt like giant forces crashed into me, knocking the breath out of my lungs. I fell to my knees, struggling to breathe but still held by her glowing eyes.
What did she do to me?
“Braxton!”
“What have you done to him?!” Kingston and Asher roared somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t see them, I could only see her.
The next instant, my body swayed in the middle of an endless and all-powerful sea…
No.
It burned in the center of a raging firestorm.
The rich soil of the earth engulfed me whole, arms turning to vines and fingers to leaves.
I shattered into a thousand snowflakes, swirling in the air, and scattering onto the unlimited snow mountains.
I was infinite. I was one. I was all.
