Except I’m not sure it can really be called a body at all. It’s nothing like the vessel of skin and bone I inhabited before.Everything is different—each cell rearranged to experience the world as I never did before. My muscles are coils of raw strength, ready to propel me forward with the slightest encouragement. My eyes see everything, all the minute details, from the smallest cracks in the earth to the singular hairs on a passing fly’s back. I hear it beat its wings as it passes, as well as the air filling my friends’ lungs before it whistles out of them again.
I don’tfeelmy physical form like I did before: the weight of my clothes on my shoulders, the twinge in my limbs from fighting. Everything brushes against me as inconsequentially as air, and there’s not a whisper of pain to be found from my head to my toes. I lift my tunic to see the scars across my stomach are gone, along with every mark and blemish. I hadn’t realized how tired and sore I was until now, when all of that has lifted away.
Stratton strides toward me and takes my hand, lifting my palm upward. He must move fast, because the others don’t stop him, yet to me it seems like he’s taking his time as he lifts a dagger and presses the tip of it to my palm. There’s no sharpness or pain to it—I feel a light pressure against my skin, but nothing more, and when he lifts the blade away, my hand is unmarked.
Invincible. Immortal. The reality of it swells in my veins, making me feel limitless.
But that’s not all I’m feeling. There’s more power than I’ve ever had access to before. Where once I felt my magic as a deep well, now it’s a massive river. I don’t know its source, but I can sense it flowing through me, constantly replenishing.
I’m bursting with divine might. Boundless with ultimate power. The force of it is unstoppable. And so am I.
“Careful, my love.”
A voice cuts through that power, tense with warning.
I look up and meet Leon’s gaze, his gray eyes silencing some of the heady sensation flowing through me.
“Remember what you did this for,”he says.
I nod, pushing the rush of my immortality down, trying to keep my head clear enough to consider what comes next. I pick up the bow dropped to the ground beside me and walk past my friends back into the temple. There I fasten Caledon’s belt around my waist, hooking the scythe’s handle onto my hip. I even take the cup. I won’t make the same mistake he did and assume these tokens are of no use to me now.
I may have gone through the same ritual he did, but that doesn’t make me the same. We only know of one other person who’s walked this path: Ethira. A god famous for protecting the vulnerable, for traveling to all the corners of Tiearland and embracing all its cultures. It’shispower that partly flows in my veins, and I know what he would want me to do. To fight for this land. To protect its people.
I step out of the temple, ready to fulfill my divine purpose.
Chapter 36
Morgana
Isprint through the forest, following Caledon’s path of devastation.
I’m fast now, outrunning the birds flying overhead and the swooping branches of the trees, which have been further disturbed by Caledon’s presence. The Miravow should be a blur around me as I speed through it, quicker than an arrow. Yet my eyes take in every last spot of contamination he’s left behind.
Black sludge oozes across the forest floor, leaving the ground barren and tree roots withering away. I pass more than one dead animal and avert my gaze, not wanting to see their corpses in the gruesome detail my new eyesight affords me.
“Be careful, my love,”Leon calls to me again. I answer with a pulse of warmth across the mooring, but I don’t slow down.
The others pointed out I need to find Caledon before he reaches the armies—that’s where he could do maximum damage. My head is filled with my friends’ advice—how to strike and when, what tricks to watch out for—but by now, I’ve left the others to follow me. Even if they do catch up to us before I kill Caledon,this fight needs to be one-on-one, and I’d prefer that they keep their distance. The contamination Caledon’s dripping all over this forest could easily spread to them.
For once, Leon can’t protect me from this fight. He can’t even stand by my side, ready to step in if needed. I’m on my own.
The ground disappears beneath me, closing the gap between Caledon and me until the pools of darkness get wider and thicker. Eventually, I see him ahead, moving through the Miravow like he’s out for a stroll, his white cloak now stained a shade of midnight. This part of the forest is empty aside from the trees. We’re still far away from the fighting, an eerie silence enveloping the space, so all I hear is the wet squelch of Caledon’s feet.
“Caledon!” I shout to him.
He turns, taking me in. If possible, his black eyes have gotten darker. Now I can see the black hole clearly within them, his pupils stretching back into a bottomless void. His face twists, first in confusion, and then in outrage as he takes in the tokens I’m wearing and the hum of power around me.
“Blasphemous scum,” he hisses, and I know he understands what I’ve done. I close the distance between us in a blink, satisfied when I see him back away, leaving us five feet apart.
“That’s a little rich, isn’t it, coming from a man literally dripping in filth?” I say. Slowly, I take a step to my left, aiming to circle him. He moves as well, pulling us into a dance where we shift around one another.
“I always said you were a thief,” he continues. “And now you’ve actually gone and stolen the gods’ power.” He looks appalled, disgusted even. “Oh, I’ll punish you for this. To think a wormlike you could possess Ethira’s magic.” He spits on the ground between us, the grass shriveling under the black globule.
“Or maybe the gods just don’t think you’re all that special, Caledon,” I say, goading him. An angry person is a careless one. I’m not here to get Caledon to see the error of his ways, I’m here to kill him before he can murder everything in his path.
I draw the scythe, feeling the weight of it and giving it a few experimental swings. It’s not the easiest thing to use as a weapon, but Caledon eyes it warily, nevertheless. He understands how dangerous it can be in my hands.
He reaches beneath his cape, and I tense, watching him unsheathe a sword I didn’t see before. Interesting. Even with his invincibility, Caledon still had a backup plan. I tilt my head, wondering if the blade can hurt me. It’s no token, but itisbeing wielded by Caledon, which means it must pack a punch, even against my immortal form.
