I take a blind step back and then crash down onto my bed. Three separate bodies move towards me but I hold my hand up.
“I’m so, so sorry,” I start, my voice sounding a bit far away. It took so much strength, more than I should have used, to stay upright and strong. Even holding my hand up shakes with strain. I drop it immediately. “It’s never happened before when I was awake. I didn’t think. . . “
God, I’m so tired.
How was I able to stand for so long? How was I able to sound so confident and self-assured?
I can feel pressure on my physical body, but it’s like my mind is under water. Voices speak but I can’t hear the words. I just need sleep, I think. I need to rest after all the shit that happened. Marks are never left, but my body remembers anyway.
Sleep, my body tells me. My mind, my conscious, my spirit.You have been through enough.
Ahh, and yet it’s never enough.
Someone says my name. A voice that makes it past the barrier of water that’s clouding the other sounds. It almostsounds like a prayer on their lips, a begging to be believed.My name. A wishing to be remembered.
Oh, you poor ancient right of divinity. How far you have fallen from your throne of righteousness.
As long as something has one of the five pillars of structure they can be killed. Bone – which symbolizes the body – Breath – which symbolizes the spirit and/or soul – Stone – which symbolizes the mind – Wood – which symbolizes the balances of nature – and Blood – which was the first physical sign of life created.
Which means it was always possible to kill the gods. You just had to know how to do it. Not that they’d let you remember. There’s a reason history gets twisted even with beings who can live for thousands of years.
He says it again. My name.
Then I sleep.
Twenty-One
Jullia – Septmust 1
New moons are always notorious for beginnings. Especially when it’s an equinox. We should all be thankful none of the solstices fall on any new or full moons. The energy – magic, aura, vibe, luck, karma – would be indescribable.
That has to be the reason for everything that has happened today. All the. . . impossible things that have happened.
First, the Willow of Lore flooded the grounds with flickers of blue aura. The spirits of the Willow of Lore zipping through the area readying it. The ceremony isn’t even supposed to happen for another two and a half months – on the Winter Solstice.
Second, a single bolt of black lightning struck somewhere deep into the Hinterwood Forest. Anything to do with theHinterwood is never a good sign – but black lightning? Asher said black lightning hasn’t been seen since the first years of Syngenia.
And now this.
Too many thoughts are racing in my head as I watch Callahan-fucking-Armani hold Mavyn. His father is the devil chairholder of the Mage Board. He’s higher than royalty and he is in my dorm room – holding my friend – crying.
And he had seen her scars too.
The last thirty minutes have been. . . impossible. That’s really the only way to describe it. How else could you explain all these things happening that have never happened before and shouldn’t happen.
Mavyn disappeared into ashes. As if she had been hit by the sun and disintegrated.
Asher had pulled me off the floor before, but I feel like I could slide right back down. She’s lying unconscious on her bed with Callahan – her fucking fated! That’s what Professor Asier had said, I can’t believe I forgot about that.
A new wave of panic and adrenaline and anxiety hits me and my legs wobble. Asher grips my waist and pushes me over to the bed. I’m sure he’s probably prickling with every thought about how befriending Mavyn was going to be a shitshow. He had been fine after the blood oath, but I know deep down he wished I was never roommates with her.
Except I like Mavyn. She feels different to all the other bratty girls from my tutoring classes and schooling before coming here. The ones who would talk about me behind their backs and whisper about me and make snarky comments to me.All they ever cared about was wealth and power, and my family is far from the elites, but at least I was able to enroll in the University and they weren’t.
But none of them matter because Mavyn doesn’t care about that. She doesn’t care about how poor my family is or how low on the hierarchy scale they are. She doesn’t care about status or what other people think.
And I’m sure there are a hundred other girls like her. I’m not delusional enough to think she’s the only one. I’ve made lots of friends here so far, but there’s somethingrealabout Mavyn. Something gravitational.
I shut my eyes and take a deep, calming breath. I feel every droplet of water through my body and in the air and outside in the dark clouds. Then I release and it causes the temperature to drop. Prints of frost form over my skin as I open my eyes.
