“The dagger is connected directly to the Hawthornes. Formerly Cicily, and now Sebastian. With the magic we are about to perform, you will have a direct line to Sebastian. You may feel the things he is feeling. You may even see some of the things he is seeing,” Venay replied as if the statement was nothing new to her.
“How will that help us find the journal?” Pia raised the question that I was already thinking.
“It's like a map. The journal is directly linked to Cicily, who is linked to Sebastian. The both of them are linked to the dagger. I can use the dagger to momentarily tie myself to their bloodline, which should allow me to trace the journal. In the process though, we may break through to Sebastian,” Venay explained it all so fluently, that it almost made sense the first time I tried to process it.
“I don’t get it, but I’m not the enchanter, so I’ll take your word for it,” Sawyer retorted, his muscles flexing when he crossed his arms over his chest.
Venay held her composure. “I need one of you to volunteer?—”
I didn’t let her finish. “I’ll do it.”
She shook her head. “No. Your new power is too unpredictable.” Her silver eyes roamed over the others. “Which one of you has the strongest mental stability?”
Sawyer tried—and failed—to fight back an obnoxious laugh. “Okay, so you wouldn't have been able to use Maeveanyway.”
I flipped him off.
“In all seriousness though, and no offense to anyone, but probably Kohen or myself. We're the most experienced with our magic, and have years of soldier-hood under our belts,” Sawyer added.
Kohen agreed and thus offered himself. “I’ll do it.”
“Very well,” Venay approved, ushering him to follow her. The rest of us stayed back to watch as the two of them took a seat on the patio residing in the center of the courtyard.
Pia brought a hand to her mouth, chewing her nails. “I don’t want Kohen to be in pain.”
Sawyer placed a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever pain he’ll feel won’t be nearly as bad as what Seb is going through.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she scoffed, a disgusted glare stuck on her face as she brushed his arm away.
“Not really. I’m just saying.” He shrugged innocently.
Venay and Kohen sat on their knees across from each other. I couldn’t hear, but she appeared to be explaining the process to Kohen, who gulped as he leisurely nodded.
Venay pulled a peach-sized stone from the pocket of her robe, placing it on the ground in front of her. She took one of Kohen’s hands and without hesitation, used Cicily's diamond dagger to slice through his palm. Blood trickled free from the gash as Venay balanced the blade on the stone between them.
Kohen made a fist, holding it above the knife and squeezing blood out onto it. At Venay’s nod of approval, his eyes sealed. She took his hands back, closing her own eyelids and chanting something in a language I did not recognize. The moment thewords fled her lips, a shimmering glow was drawn from the sky. It sank into the dagger, the luminescence lingering on top of it in some sort of viscous substance.
Moonlight.
“Woah,” Delani whispered in total awe.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Sawyer muttered.
“Looks like some sort of rite,” I replied through tight lips.
“It looks like dark magic,” Pia corrected, apprehension wrapped around her words.
“Wait. Is anenchanterjust a nice way of saying someone who practices dark magic?” Sawyer inquired with a tilted brow.
I shuddered. The things Venay had shown us thus far—her integrity testing and now this—were not in the realm of natural god-gifted power.
“I guess? Maybe that's part of it? I dunno what exactly an enchanter is. I always thought it was something you were born with, like being a seer, but maybe I was wrong,” Pia answered.
“How do you even learn such a skill?” Sawyer added with undisguised curiosity.
“I don’t know. But can you really call it askill? Surely you remember what they taught you in primary school?” Pia responded sharply.
“Dark magic is a horrific sin in the eye of the gods and may prevent you from being allowed beyond the veil after death, instead forcing your lost soul to wander the planet forever—though only if the gods determine that you used unnatural magic for the wrong reasons,” I sputtered out the answer as if I had just learned of its truth from the lines of my history textbook.
