A low vibration hummed through the water. The ancient voice that was warm as flame but cutting as frost reverberated in my mind. “Serafina, I have been waiting for us to talk again.”
I swallowed. “So you can ask me to walk the earth in place of your lost bride?”
“Later, Little Ember. You have to come to the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun before we can finish what we started.”
“Why did we start it?” I hissed. “Your bride sacrificed herself for you and you think I can take her place? I am a damn snake. What in the high halls of hell makesmeworthy of this gift?”
The water lapped around my shoulders, the magic within thrumming with energy.
“I never asked my bride to give up everything for me. I wished she hadn’t.”
A flicker of light stirred in my chest. Never had the Man of the Mountain sounded more like…a man. Not a legend, but a human.
“But Death does not listen to matters of the heart, her only justice is balance.”
I had heard of Death being like a woman before, but it was odd to hear the Man of the Mountain speak of her like she was merely on the other side of a negotiation.
“When my bride gave me her powers, giving her life for mine, I became eternal. But for what? My grief had pulled me down to a place between the living world and the halls of hell so I could be as close to my beloved as possible. I could no longer walk the earth and use the power she gave me, so I searched for someone to shine with her light—never to replace her, but to let her live again. So, I chose Fraleigh and invited her to drink from the well of my tears. Her soul was not ripped from her body and thrown into the chasm with me like the others, but instead she was filled with magic, ready to receive the gift. But as soon as her father sacrificed himself for her and she chose eternity…I saw her future. I knew then that she would never walk freely like my bride. I saw a new path and let everything fall into place.”
A new path…that led to me.
I always thought my resemblance to the bride in the old song was a fun coincidence. Riyan blood-bonding with me had already filled my body with magic so I could receive the flaming diamond in my heart. Riyan having that magic inside him in the first place was because of Ganora.
Did the Man of the Mountain really bend centuries of history just to let the circumstances end up as they were?
“I only fight Death and arbitrate bargains and the twists of reality as people make them. Though I may interfere through a whisper to those who carry my gifts, I cannot dictate the will of a mortal heart. Each choice made in love or sacrifice was a stepping stone in the path that led to you. From Ganora and Daigen all the way down to the young Duke and Riyan…everything was a choice.”
The magnitude of carrying a gift made from the sacrifices of so many souls weighed in my stomach.
“Over a millennium, thousands of young women carried my bride’s likeness, hundreds carried her spirit, and dozens could have walked the earth in her stead, but very few had the opportunities of circumstance that fell into place like footsteps leading to where you stand now—ready to receive her power of deathless wonder in its entirety.”
I kicked my legs limply in the water. “So it was all based on circumstance—hapless luck?”
“Is it not always hapless luck when we meet a person our soul sings for? You can manipulate the circumstances all you like, but you cannot force an ember to awaken.”
In response, the tiny ember within my heart burned bright red.
I ignored the ember and hissed out a breath. “And I am still a monster, remember? You knew I wanted power above all else, and you still gave me your gift?”
“Your winter has passed yet you still prefer the cold,” he said with what sounded like a sneer. “The love you still deny is more powerful than any gift I ever gave you.”
When my brothers left, I had thrown stones at the innocence of love until it shattered within me. I hardened my skin into scales. I manipulated everyone I could.
After cutting my tongue with so many lies it became forked, why would anyone ever love me?
Both my white flame and my red ember went quiet. I could not even feel the linen beneath my palm as I gripped the edge of the pool. A tear dripped off my lashes.
I deny love because I do not deserve it.
I deny love because Istillhave not earned it.
“A lie so heinous you cannot even speak it!” The Man of the Mountain was angrier than I had ever heard him. “Do you think I earned my bride’s sacrifice? You have the gift of sorcery because I knew Riyan Bloodstone’s heart. When I kept you with me in the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun for two days, all he did was wish that you would awaken…”
Suddenly the crystal on my neck warmed. The white light from my neck grew brighter and brighter until I had to slam my eyes shut.
Even though my eyes were closed, darkness could not touch me.
“Please wake up, Serafina! It’s been two days! Wake up, please!”
