Towering over me like the spires of the palace in Serevalen was a woman, but not just any woman, a goddess.
Ellira.
Blending in with the shadows and highlights of the sea, the very thing she commanded shaped her motherly frame. Her cerulean hair swept around her as if it had a mind of its own, ebbing and flowing with the natural push and pull of our surroundings. Not an inch of clothing adorned her frame as she fully manifested in front of me, her Prussian blue lips curling into a smile as she caught my irrefutable attentiveness.
“Rohen Levitte,” she spoke.
Her voice was beyond ethereal. It was otherworldly, enchanting, and… familiar.
How the fuck did she know who I was? A mere mortal. A violated vessel. A sinful executioner.
She craned her chin, a highlight catching her cheekbones as it filtered in from the surface above. My gaze remained downcast, and a symphonic laugh left her. “Look at me, Daughter.”
Swallowing, I did as she asked, my eyes meeting what I presumed would be two hollowed sockets shrouded in the same darkness that birthed her from the abyss below. Instead, an entrancing turquoise glow greeted me, her stare seeming to penetrate the depths of my soul and heal every wound littering it.
“I’ve waited for this moment for a while,” she hummed, her smile refusing to falter.
“I… H-How… How do you know who I am?”
Raising her arms, which were as expansive as a ship, she brought her hands to rest against her chest. “Oh, darling, you are an extension of me. A manifestation of the gods’ love for humans, and the intricate connection the Damned share with this world.”
An extension?
This was a dream. It had to be.
“In a nuanced way, yes, it is,” she answered as if I’d vocalized my thoughts. “With the division of my essence, I am not able to manifest outside of the deep waves that exist within the subconscious mind. So yes, you are meeting me while you slumber, but our reconvening isn’t stemming from your imagination.”
“Why am I here?” The query came as a pathetic croak, my timbre wavering as I failed to understand what a goddess as powerful as her would want with someone as minuscule as myself.
“First and foremost, to meet the woman whose essence slithers through your veins.” She reached out to touch a passing fish, her mouth parting into a grin as it nuzzled against her fingers, which were longer than I was tall. “Secondly, as a warning.”
“A warning?”
She nodded. “For the state of Wraelira and those who walk among it, as well as those who traverse its sister lands.”
“And what?—”
Before I could finish, an onslaught of visions funneled into my line of sight, tearing me away from where I’d found myself and thrusting me directly into them.
Chandeliers glistened overhead, a blend of chatter and music mingling as I glanced around the space. Attendees danced, laughing as they indulged in the offered wine and a spread of food spanning the tables lining the back wall. But it wasn’t them I was fixated on; it was the man who stood in front of me, raven curls falling to rest just past his nape. The hilt I held gleamed with malicious intent, but as I lifted it, everything faded, rippling into a new scene.
Resting my hands on a ship’s banister, I gazed at the land beyond. The mingling of oranges and yellows foreshadowed the discernible destructionthat awaited. Creatures from a realm far beyond our own tore flesh from bone, devouring the lives of those who struggled to escape. The silhouette of a woman came into view, the cloak she wore doing nothing to hide the horns that spiraled from her head. Her ember-infused eyes met mine, their glow intensifying as if the fires beyond encouraged their bloom. The sudden illumination of her irises cast her ashen skin in a dark crimson, deep carvings etched in the varying layers of her flesh.
The edges of my vision burned, curling inward until my surroundings changed once more. Standing in an open field, I stared at curled talons burrowed into lush green grass. Scales, a cushion of ebony and scarlet, traveled up from each point of sharpened onyx, undoubtedly belonging to a creature that’d been deemed nothing but fairytale—a dragon. It blew out a puff of heated breath, and as I averted my gaze past it, a male slipped from its back. His booted feet collided with the ground, and as I scanned him for any threat, I fixated on the tight-fitting battle leathers that conformed to his muscular frame. His white hair glistened beneath the sunlight, but it was his eyes, rainbow with no specific color, that caught my attention, and his ears…
“Rohen,” Ellira’s siren song tore me back from where I’d traveled.
My lids fluttered as a shuddered breath escaped me. “W-What… What was that?”
“The current trajectory of the future,” she replied with a melancholy sigh, her throat bobbing as if some emotion choked her. “If the evilness polluting each mirrored realm isn’t eradicated by the end of the next season’s cycle, then humanity will become chained to the vile shadows who’ve infested the minds of thousands.”
“Are you speaking of the Others?” The question tumbled from me, every assumption I harbored for the gods we were expected to follow reigniting with an intensity that burned brighter than it ever had.
“My words are bound by fate, but you are the one destined to rewrite it.” Her gaze seemed to pulsate with the words. “You walk among Children just like yourself, those who harbor the blood of the true gods—the Damned. It is pertinent that you remain near them, for that is the prophecy. As there are five of us, there are five of you here,and five just beyond this realm with god-like counterparts.” She reached forward, her large fingers brushing against my cheek. “After what unfolds, you must reconvene with the pirate, Rohen. Gather his friends, study the worn texts, and do whatever it takes to shatter the mirror.”
“You want me to work alongside Caspian Vayne?” I snarled, my brows narrowing to hold my shifting glower. “The piece of shit who bought me as if my body were for purchase?”
“You crossed paths for a purpose.” Her reply came with a nonchalance that made my blood boil.
