Hellim.
I knew the change as soon as I saw it, the Dark God's marks oozing ruby red.
As disturbing as it was to watch, I knew there was no danger here. After a moment, Elijah reached his hands up and scrubbed the blood down his face, leaving his white skin a mask of red.
A few seconds later, our hair and clothing settled and the glow around the queen dissipated as she reined in her magic, leaving me trembling and confused, the Light Goddess a heavy weight inside my chest.
The runes from Elijah faded, so did the blood … and then so did he.
My mother pushed the vellum across the table.
“This is a spell of resurrection,” I repeated as the queen's eyes twinkled and I got some idea of what we were dealing with here. Her entire family was dead. Here was a resurrection spell, a promise to bring her dead lovers and her dead daughters back to life. Who wouldn't want such a thing?
“It is,” the queen said as I read the runes. There were explicit instructions—how, when, why, words to speak, gestures to use, and then … feelings. An entire page of vague prose on how to interpret the spell itself. “And it's the only magic Hellim and Haversey have ever agreed upon.”
“How has something this valuable stayed hidden for so long?” Jasinda asked, leaning forward and making her chair creak as Elijah groaned and sunk to the floor, fading almost completely from sight. I could see a vague outline, but that was it. “I mean, the scholars at the Royal College will—”
“This isn't for the scholars or the nobles, not for professors or students or …” The queen paused and gathered some of her usual poise back around her. “At least for now … this is only for Brynn.” Everess paused, nostrils flaring as she exhaled. “I want you to make the spell work.” She held up one, delicate hand and gestured in Elijah's direction, like she could still see him. That surprised me. I was pretty sure even I wouldn't be able to see him if I hadn't been entertaining a little piece of Haversey herself. I could feel her there, inside my chest, wanting and waiting, listening.
If this was important to her then it was definitely supposed to be important to me.
“For now, you'll use Elijah as a test subject.”
“Test subject,” I breathed, my brain scrambling to make sense of it all, my eyes reading and re-reading the runes, putting together a rough idea of what this spell might entail. And it was a lot. It wasn't something that could be put together willy-nilly, nor was it something that would come cheap. Just to attempt it, I'd have to spend thirty exorcisms worth of pay—a whole month of taking on spirits like the Grandbergs.
“You'll have whatever supplies you need, whatever support. But nobody is to know about this. Brynn,” the queen leaned forward and tucked two fingers beneath my chin, “this is a project I'm entrusting to you and only you.”
“But why?” I asked, so many emotions crashing down around me. Why me?! I wasn't the best spirit whisperer in the country. Not even the city. Not even the castle. This was a task for someone much more powerful, much more experienced, not for someone who could barely—if at all—get accepted into the Royal College.
“Because, there are few and sometimes no whisperers on this planet who have a blessing from both Haversey and Hellim.”
“I don't have a blessing from Hellim,” I said, but I could already feel my skin getting feverishly hot, the Dark God crashing into me like a lightning bolt, making my breath choke out in a wheezing gasp, blinding me as a third set of eyes joined mine and Haversey's.
“But you do,” the queen said as I curled forward, my fingers gripping the edges of the table, a strange dichotomy of power and emotions swirling around inside my chest. It felt like I was going to explode from the inside out. “And not just a minor blessing either.”
“Brynn?” Jas was asking, alarm coloring her voice as she reached out and rubbed my upper back in small, soothing circles. The touch didn't help ground me like usual. Instead, I could barely feel her long fingers on my spine.
“Nobody has two major blessings,” I gasped out, but as soon as I said it, I knew it wasn't true. The dichotomous powers inside of me tumbled together in a dangerous swirl, emotions crashing into my heart like bricks.
Love, hate, sex, light, dark.
It was both awful and wonderful at the same time.
“You do, Brynn,” the queen said, reaching out and taking one of my hands in hers at the same moment Elijah seemed to recover himself, flickering into focus and rising to his feet, fully dressed this time. The ghostly images of his star necklace and Haversey blade were clearly visible, making me wonder that happened to the real things. Were they in the wild tangles of blackberry back at Grandberg Manor along with his skeleton? Or had they disappeared the moment he died? I honestly didn't know the answer—usually gifted items faded at the time of death, but what if the spirit they belonged to was still around?
But that thought didn't last long in my head.
No fucking thought managed to last.
I yelped as a feather tore from my skin and floated lazily through the still air.
“How?” Jas was asking, leaning in close and wrapping her arm around me. I really did have the very best handler in Amerin. Probably the best handler on the continent of Europia, really.
“Layna,” the queen continued, glancing sidelong at my mother with a strange mixture of emotions in her gaze. I saw love, lust, respect … but also wariness, sadness, disappointment. My mother was a good woman and a good lover … but she wasn't who Everess really wanted.
She wanted her lovers brought back to life.
And it was going to be my job to do it?!
That was madness. Complete and total madness. I wanted nothing to do with it.
My insides squeezed painfully as the hands of the two gods tussled, fighting and then … caressing. It was an uncomfortable sensation, like there were two butterflies swirling around behind my rib cage … mating. Oh flubbing gross! It felt like they were doing the naughty—inside of me!
I tried my very best not to throw up in front of the queen.
“Layna,” the queen repeated as Elijah moved over to stand next to me, kneeling down and letting his white wings unfold behind him in glorious stretches of snowy white, catching what little candlelight there was in the room. When he shifted them just right, they glowed gold. With the queen's shutters closed tight, there was no hint of the morning sun anywhere but in the beautiful shimmer of a ghost's wings. “Had the love of a dark angel and a light angel at the same time.”
My eyes were as round as saucers. I could see them reflected in Jasinda's wide eyes when I turned to look at her, finding it suddenly hard to speak, like the souls of both gods were lodged in my throat and choking me. Of course, Jas's gaze almost immediately brightened from fear and confusion to sheer academic joy. Ever the scholar, my friend.
“Both of whom were blessed and beloved by their gods.” The queen smiled, and this time, there was just a hint of selfishness and desperation in it. “They gave their love—and you—fully and completely to her.”
“Brynn is a Triad?” Jasinda asked, trying not to squeal as both my mind and body reeled with the strangeness of the situation.
Here was a recap: I had both the Goddess of Light and the God of Darkness inside of me—at the same time. Somehow, even though it was metaphysically impossible, I had a major blessing from both of them. And on top of it all, I had … two biological fathers?!
One egg, two sperm, but a child that did not result in twins.
One baby between one woman and two men.
It really wasn't that uncommon in Amerin—one of the reasons most women had harems of lovers—but … not me. I'd only ever known one father.
“Brynn is a Triad with a double blessing,” Everess repeated, and I could feel her greed and eagerness tainting the air in the room. “One in a million.”
She reached out and touched my chin with gentle fingers.
“One in a million and my chances at a once in a lifetime miracle.” The quee
n's sea green eyes filled with tears and she glanced away abruptly, leaving me feeling full to bursting (and not in a good, sexual sort of way like Vex probably would've if I'd let him take me out dancing) but … this awful twist inside my heart.
Not only did it feel like those two gods were getting it on inside my chest.
It felt like they were making a bet.
On the table in front of me, a black steel necklace and a knife folded in the forges of Hell landed with a clatter.
Hellim's star and Hellim steel.
No mother flubbing way?!
As soon as the items were given to me, there was a sucking sensation inside my chest, and I felt both immense powers drop away, leaving me gasping and choking for air, shaking as I felt a sense of heaviness collapse onto my shoulders.
The weight of new responsibility.
Flub.
And I could barely handle the weight of my own wings!
What was I supposed to do with the heavy weight of a queen's miracle?!
“I thought those black wings were a sign of Hellim's favor,” Elijah murmured, reaching out a hand and just barely teasing the softness of an ebony feather. If I hadn't been choking and shaking and trying to recover from the weight of two massively powerful gods, I'd have punched him in the mouth.
“Should Brynn be Initiated into Hellim's Favor?” Jasinda asked, speaking aloud the thought that was at the forefront of my mind. Well, the second foremost thought, right after why is Elijah of Haversey curling cold but somehow still comforting fingers around my arm?
All whisperers underwent an official Initiation ceremony after their chosen god gifted both their symbol and whatever weapons were on offer. It was a great big fanfare that involved getting dressed up, bathing in a sacred pool, and a whole lot of chanting that was, if we were all honest with ourselves, a complete and total load of shi—. Of poop. A complete and total load of poop.
It didn't mean anything, and it didn't do anything.
Once a goddess or god had chosen someone, they never let go. There was no switching professions or choosing a new deity and there certainly was no need for gauzy outfits and priests and priestesses dipping you into a magic pool.
If a deity chose you, you were theirs no matter what you thought about it.
“No,” the queen said, and I tried not to weep tears of relief. The thought of another Initiation ceremony so soon after my last made me feel nauseous. Or maybe that was because I'd been possessed by two gods? Oh, and by so soon after, I meant sixteen years after my last Initiation Ceremony. I'd been four-almost-five when Haversey took me under her wing, so to speak. And I'd attended dozens and dozens of ceremonies for friends and family since.
No thank you.
“No?” Jas echoed with a slight smile playing around her lips. She'd never been much for fanfare or pomp, and she knew as well as everyone else that the Initiation Ceremonies were just silly excuses for parties. But she also knew that the queen had a thing for ritual and tradition.
“We don't want anyone knowing about her double blessing. Keep it hidden.” The way Everess looked at me, Jas … and Elijah? … made it clear that that was an official order. “The last whisperer to have double major blessings was assassinated within weeks of the news going wide.”
She was right, too. A woman from Vaenn had found herself adored by both the fire and the water gods, giving her access to magic unimaginable.
She was promptly murdered, of course.
I didn't much want to get promptly murdered.
“Although you'd still have your magic,” Elijah mused, tapping a long finger against his full mouth. When he caught me watching him, he smirked and I scowled. The queen cleared her throat and I flicked my gaze back to her with a bright blush staining my cheeks, as red as the copperberry lipstick that Jasinda was still somehow wearing. I bet she'd reapplied it when I wasn't looking. “I wonder if you could resurrect yourself from the dead with that spell?“
“A problem for another day,” the queen said, which gave me serious goose bumps because it meant that she could see Elijah with or without my help. I guess it seriously paid to be a demigod, huh? “For now, all I want is you and your handler focused on this spell.”
Queen Everess tapped her fingers on the edges of the curled vellum page and looked me straight in the eyes. I could feel both her power and her position, boring into me with burning force.
“You'll be on retainer with the castle and you won't have to worry for a thing. I'll have accommodations set up on the Royal College grounds and—”
“The Royal College?” Jas squeaked, literally interrupting the queen. As soon as she did it, she realized her mistake and shoved her chair back from the table, prostrating herself on all fours with her head pressed to the wood floor. It overlaid the stone in shiny, rippling patterns. Most of the rooms in the palace had been left with the plain stone floors of the original castle, but not this, not the queen's chambers.
“Oh, that's bloody rich!” Elijah chortled as he stood up and ruffled my hair with his long fingers, adjusting his uniform and making me wonder why he had a hint of royal accent. Was he nobility? I should probably know these things, but court intrigue had always interested me less than the dirt on the bottom of my boots. I remembered the scandal when Elijah of Haversey and his handler went missing, but if he was part of some high-ranking noble family, then I'd already forgotten. “Your friend here sure is an interesting character,” Elijah said as the queen gestured for Jasinda to stand, and his heavy-lidded eyes took her in appreciatively.
I did my best to ignore the metaphorical bee stinging my insides.
“You'll have access to most every room on the grounds as well as the Catacombs,” the queen continued, and Jas made an unintentional keening sound in the back of her throat. We often joked that for the right book, the right discovery, the right scientific fact, that she might just have a spontaneous orgasm.
She did seem to prefer research and studying over both men and women.
“But I'm not going to recommend you as students,” Everess continued as I locked eyes with my mother, watching as she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms under her full breasts. Nomaid women were famous for having the biggest, roundest, and perkiest breasts on the entire continent of Europia. And my mother, she certainly had a large pair. Yet somehow, even though I was only a half-breed, mine were even bigger than hers. I wasn't sure if I should be excited about that or not. I mean, they looked nice enough in a tunic, but they could be a pain in the … well, a pain in the chest sometimes.
“You'll have whatever supplies you need in whatever quantity you need them. I'll set you up with an assistant.” Everess rose to her feet and I could tell this conversation was winding to a close. “But, I highly recommend that you do attempt to become students at the college.” Her full, pink lips twisted into a wry smile. “I can give you access and ensure that no one stops you from your research, but I can't control the reactions of every individual. They won't like non-students, non-staff, and non-royalty living and working on the grounds. You'll have to apply to the college and be accepted on your own merit.”
The queen paused and lifted a hand in Jas' direction, giving her permission to speak since she was clearly bursting at the seams.
“I'll write up our report on the Grandberg Manor today,” she said confidently, raising her chin and reminding me that she came from a noble family, too. A minor one, sure, but nobility nonetheless. “Leaving out anything to do with the decree, of course,” she continued, sapphire eyes alight with a fire I hadn't seen in years, not since our first rejection from the Royal College when I was seventeen and she was twenty-one. “May I include the fact that Elijah is now bound to Brynn?”
“It'd be impossible to hide,” the queen said with a slight smile. But although it was somewhat rare for a ghost to be unbound and then re-bound to a person, it wasn't rare for them to be attached to someone. They were dozens and dozens of ghosts that lived in the castle, watching over former lovers or chi
ldren, parents or friends. I would not be the only person on the Royal College campus with their own personal haunt. “Go rest, enjoy the All Haunts' Eve celebration, and I'll make sure everything is ready by the beginning of next week.”
Everess flashed a tight smile, raised her brows, and flicked her gaze to my mother, a clear dismissal for the rest of us.
“I'll escort you downstairs,” Layna said, rising to her feet and belting her voluminous robes around her waist.
“My first day back at the castle and I've already had an audience with the queen. Won't my fiancée be surprised to hear about that?” Elijah mused as I rose to my feet and offered a half-hearted bow to the queen. It was the best I could do, given my level of exhaustion, but of course the asshole ghost had to go and show me up, giving a smooth, perfectly executed bow of his own. And all this while that crazy bee inside my belly stung me a billion times over at the mere mention of a fiancée.
My mother opened the door just as the queen's breakfast arrived, letting Jas and me into the hallway and closing the heavy wooden door behind the servant and in Elijah's face.
“Rude much?” he asked as I clutched the Hellim star and dagger to my chest, feeling the dark god's power awaken inside of me, stretching its arms and yawning as I moved. Now I was a walking dichotomy of spirits and shadows. Elijah popped the rest of the way through the wooden doors and took up walking beside me. Our wings bumped together and I felt my face heat, teeth clenching as I glared at him and he gestured at the narrow hallway like that was some sort of excuse for copping a feel.
“Men have been hanged for less,” I growled but he just grinned at me.
“Keep up, Brynn,” my mother said as I scooted around Elijah and took up a position on her right, Jas trailing behind all of us, absently braiding her long dark hair as she stared at the floor, either fantasizing about the Royal College Catacombs or else already halfway through writing up both our report on the Grandberg exorcisms and our last chance application at the Royal College.
“I have two fathers,” I said quietly, doing my absolute best not to knock one of the torches off the wall or burn my wings to a crisp in their flames. “Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?!”
Spirited: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Academy of Spirits and Shadows Book 1) Page 6