Merith stared at him for what felt like an eternity. In that heartbeat, I saw a storm of emotions swirling within her dark eyes, but the current pulling hardest was pure hatred.
“She has everything to do with it, Alasdair.” Her finger remained leveled at me, an accusatory spark dancing at its tip. “I warned you that you would pay for your sins. But, as always…” the corner of her mouth curved in a cold, humorless smile “…you waited too long to do the right thing.”
The air shifted, turning thick and suffocating. A low, droning buzz filled my ears, swelling until it nearly drowned out the sound of my own frantic breathing. My mind began to fog, as if someone were smearing my consciousness with shadowed fingers.
The tingle started in my fingertips before racing up my arms. My knees buckled. Part of me—the rational, terrified fragment that remained—understood the gravity of the moment:
This is the end. On the very day my life was supposed to change forever. The irony tasted like ash.
An invisible pressure shoved me to the ground, my legs giving out. I braced one hand on the floor to keep from collapsing, but even that felt like too much effort.
Merith’s voice reached me muffled, distorted by the rising hum:
A new destiny was forged
for her whose legacy
was bathed in blood and treachery.
With only a pledge of pure love
shall her curse be undone.
O daughter of the war
and neglect,
whose fierce defiance will reject
the one for whom her soul still cries,
for whom her eyes,
like a spring, run wild with tears.
To save the one she loves,
within her heart
a newborn spark
must rise and burn.
And only with a touch
of magic
shall the curse fade through.
My stomach knotted, and fire bloomed under my skin. At first, it was a dull, suffocating heat, then it flared into living flames, licking and scorching every inch of me. My lungs seized until I could barely draw a breath.
Then the screams began, bursting through the hall like a storm.
Some voices cried out my name, high and shrill with horror.
I ran my hands over my arms and torso, frantic, trying to smother the invisible flames devouring me from the inside out. My nails scratched at my own skin, drawing blood, but it was useless—the fire wasn’t on me, it was inside me.
“No… no…” I whispered, my tongue heavy in my mouth.
