by K. A. Linde
She whirled. Fury getting the better of her.
And then something else.
Something like light in her gut.
She felt strong. Stronger than she’d ever felt before.
She reared back and punched the asshole in the face. And watched as he flew out of his chair and landed a dozen feet away from where she’d hit him.
“What the…” his buddy began to yell.
And suddenly, she was glowing.
“Quickly, Isabylle,” Rita demanded. “Hurry to the tent with this. The healers will need it.”
“Grandmother, can I be a healer one day?”
“Yes, of course, child. Now, hurry.”
Isabylle fled at lightning speed. The girl could move when she wanted to. When she stopped asking questions.
Rita stared at their dwindling supplies with real fear. She had no idea how they were going to get through this war with so little. They needed more. They needed to send someone through one of those portals to get more supplies. Because the supply train they’d sent ahead of them hadn’t reached them.
It should have been here already.
Should have been here a week ago.
But they must have been stopped somewhere.
And if it didn’t make it, then not only would there be no healing…but the soldiers would go hungry.
And hungry soldiers was a recipe for disaster.
Cyrene had put her in charge of this. She would make do. Start cutting the supplies in half. Only using the pain medicines for extreme cases. And try to not burn her most valuable resource—the healers themselves. There were so few to begin with, and they could do ten times as much as any regular medicine woman.
Isabylle flew back in. “Delivered. What was my mother like?”
Rita sighed. “She was wonderful, strong, and beautiful. Just like you.”
“And she had magic.”
“Yes.”
“And they killed her for it?”
Rita nodded.
“That’s why we’re fighting.”
“Yes, child. I’m going to need more supplies.”
They all were.
She touched Isabylle’s shoulder for reassurance. And then something happened. Something within her. Deep, deep within her. A feeling she thought she had known a long time ago, but it had disappeared.
“Grandmother, I feel funny,” Isabylle said, touching her stomach.
And suddenly, they were both glowing.
“Shh,” Roby whispered against her mouth.
“You’re going to get me in trouble,” Nandina said, not pulling away for a moment.
She should have been taking a water jug to the dowager queen. And Roby should have been reporting for duty, getting ready to fight again. She didn’t like the blank look on his face when he came back. The emptiness that seemed to permeate him more and more each day.
He’d proposed only a week ago. Right before the fighting started. Right after the king and queen wed. He’d claimed he’d wanted to make it official for a long time. And she’d stupidly said yes. She loved him after all. She didn’t care that they were at war. This was forever.
He pressed his lips to hers again. His hands working to push her skirts up higher. She giggled and swatted at him.
“After the wedding.”
“Nan,” he groaned. “We’re engaged. And I might die today.”
“You won’t,” she assured him. “You can’t.”
“We shouldn’t even be fighting this war. What the other side is saying isn’t wrong.”
“Rob!”
“What? It’s the truth. Everyone is saying it. I’d defect if I could. I met Cyrene once, you know. Had a detail on her hallway.”
“You did not,” she said with a laugh.
“I did! And she’s not so bad. King Edric made her Consort for a reason.”
“That’s true.”
“I just think we can change things,” he muttered.
“I think we can, too.”
Then, she felt something in her stomach. A weird…light. Like she’d never felt before.
“Nan, what’s going on with you?” Roby asked with wide eyes.
“I think…I’m…sick?”
And suddenly, she started glowing.
Elea stood before Kael. “You can’t do this! I won’t go.”
Kael turned away from her with a shake of his head. “You have to, Elea.”
“I do not. I’m here to stay. You married me. You can’t just give up on this.”
“Give up?” he bit out. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”
“What else is it?”
A door opened. The maid froze with a bundle in her arms. “Am I…interrupting? I was told…”
“Yes, yes, bring her here,” Kael said irritably.
The woman hurried forward and placed the child in Kael’s arms. He stared down at Alessia. His daughter. It was hard for Elea to believe that he already had a child. One with Kaliana at that. That Alessia wasn’t Edric’s, as everyone had believed.
She observed him as he held his sleeping daughter. It was this moment that she was sure that she loved him. His madness had evaporated. He was just hers. Just as she had always wanted.
“Take her,” he said, foisting Alessia into Elea’s arms.
She took the child on her hip in surprise. Alessia just groaned at all the movement but curled into Elea once she was held again.
“Why am I taking her?”
“Because you’re leaving. You’re leaving tonight with Alessia.”
“I am not.”
“Elea,” he snapped, his patience worn thin. “She told me to kill you. To kill you and the baby and Kaliana. She said to do it before summer solstice.”
Elea froze in place. Her mouth went dry. “Malysa?”
Kael nodded once sharply. “And…I won’t do it.”
“You’ve…killed before.”
He narrowed those beautiful blue-gray eyes. “Not you. Not her.”
“And Kaliana?”
He shook his head and didn’t answer.
“Just go.” He threw a dark cloak over them both. “Now. Before she returns here and asks me to kill you in front of her.”
“Kael,” she whispered, stepping up to him.
He cupped her jaw and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Go.”
She nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek, and scrambled out of the room and through the hidden tunnels. She had to go. She knew she did. But she hated leaving him. Leaving him to Malysa.
Something settled into the pit of her stomach.
Something light and airy that gripped her with pain.
Tightened around her. Soothed. Eased. And gave her the strength to keep moving with the baby tucked into her arms.
No one seemed to notice her.
Even as her body began to glow…
54
The Summons
Cyrene held the attention of all those she had awakened for a moment longer.
“I am the Domina Cyrene. And your magic is a gift from your bloodline. An awakening to the person you truly are. A war is brewing in Byern. The goddess of destruction is set out to kill all those with the potential for magic. Her name is Malysa, and she will stop at nothing to end you and everyone like you.” She swallowed back her anger and her own power brimming brightly within her. “Come to me. Fight for me. And I offer you a new world. A free world. Where magical and non-magical people can live in peace.”
She pushed herself to do one more thing. To reach out even farther. She turned her hand and forced the portals open. Then she used the strength of the Dominas and her circle to build a new portal. One that hadn’t been created in thousands of years, but she put one directly in the middle of her circle of friends. A beacon.
“I have opened all the gates that lead you to me. Only those who are loyal can pass through them, unhindered. Follow the thread that brings you to the closest portal and help us win this war once and for all. We need you. I need you. Welcome to the rise of the D
oma.”
She pushed one more time. Asked for one more thing from her energy. And then she opened her eyes.
Sera pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m proud of you.”
“Will I see you again?” Cyrene asked.
Sera shook her head. “I don’t think so. But I will be here.” She touched the diamond. “And here.” And then her heart.
“Thank you for everything.” A tear fell before she released Serafina.
“Thank you for being everything I knew you would be and more.”
Cyrene stepped back, curtsied to Selma and the other Dominas, took one last look at Sera, and then stepped through the spiritual plane. She released all of her magic at once when she dropped heavily back into her body.
The link shook and then shattered.
All of her friends slumped forward, exhausted and yet…radiant.
They still glowed.
Everyone glowed bright golden.
Believe in those whose honor doth shine.
The Doma motto had never been truer than this moment.
Her eyes skimmed farther out across the camp. And she jumped to her feet. Her eyes round. To find that half of the camp was alight with the glow of the Doma. And not just that…more even on the battlefield were glowing. So many. All the ones that she had awakened.
“You did it,” Avoca whispered.
They all stared forward at the portal that had sprung up in the center of their circle. It shimmered iridescent. She couldn’t believe that she had created that.
“I guess I did,” Cyrene said.
“And created a portal,” Quidera breathed.
She still couldn’t believe that she’d been capable of it. But there it was.
Sarielle touched the bond. Malysa never stood a chance at getting through. I’ve never…ever felt anything like that.
Haeven took a step forward. “Can you…can you do that again?”
Cyrene shook her head. “I think only in times of great need.”
“It was incredible. I didn’t know that was possible.”
“Neither did I,” Cyrene said softly, dazed.
Dean rose to his feet. “You did an amazing thing. I have only seen the likes of it once before.”
She turned to him in surprise. “You have?”
“It felt the same when I received this.” Electricity brimmed in his palm. “My gift.”
“It was an awakening?”
“Nothing so magnanimous. Mine came with strings attached. Yours did not. But, in a sense, yes. It felt like a god bestowing a gift.”
Cyrene shook her head in disbelief. She had done something only a god was capable of.
They all continued to look at the portal. Waiting for it to do something. For someone to follow her summons and appear at its center. But it just continued to shimmer and otherwise do nothing.
Perhaps she had gifted magic to everyone with a potential bloodline, and none of those people cared about the safety of the world.
“We need to station troops at the gate in case anyone actually does come through it,” Cyrene said. “The rest of us need to eat something and get some rest if we can. That was incredibly draining, and I am certain it did not go unnoticed by Malysa. We need to replenish our magic before it comes time to face her.”
Cyrene thanked them over and over as each of them filed out of the circle. She watched them disappear until it was just her and Dean. Even Avoca stumbled back to her tent to recover. Sarielle had immediately taken to the skies, heading for the mountains.
“You’re going to stand here all night in hopes that someone shows up, aren’t you?” Dean asked.
She frowned. “Maybe.”
“I’ll get you some dinner,” he said, kissing her forehead and then disappearing.
She stared at the portal and willed someone to walk through it. She had done all the hard work. She just hoped that someone…anyone believed her enough to follow her.
Cyrene crossed her arms and vowed to wait it out. People needed time to get to a portal. They needed time to make a decision.
She couldn’t think about what it would mean if no one showed up.
She was ready to curse the newly erected portal when it began to change. Cyrene jumped back a step in shock. The iridescent swirled around and around on itself. And, instead of showing the other side of the portal like the normal ones, this just plopped a person straight out of the shimmer and onto the ground.
Cyrene gasped as the figure stumbled forward and tried to get her feet under her. The woman was holding a child in her arms. Then she raised her head, and Cyrene gasped.
“Elea?”
“Cyrene.”
“You…you’re glowing,” Cyrene said. Of course she was glowing. Cyrene knew that Elea had magic now. She knew every Doma whom she had awakened. “You have magic. Oh, Elea, this is wonderful. I’m so glad that you’re here.”
“Kael sent me, Cyrene.”
She took a step backward and dropped her smile. “He sent you? Here?” She glanced behind Elea, wondering how this was possibly a trap. If she hadn’t changed the portals correctly. If perhaps Kael could walk out of that portal and destroy them in some way.
“Well, no,” Elea said. “No, he just sent me away. Malysa came to him and told him to kill me and Alessia and Kaliana. He refused to do it and sent me away with Alessia. Kaliana is still in the castle. I don’t know what is going to happen to her.”
Cyrene looked away. She knew exactly what was going to happen. “Why send you away?”
“Because he’s not all evil,” she told her. “He hasn’t succumbed fully to Malysa’s madness. The blood magic has its hooks in him, but I know that he has the capacity for good still.”
“If he does, then he wouldn’t have killed literally thousands of people, Elea.”
Elea nodded, tears streaking down her face. “I know what he is. But he’s that because of her. He didn’t choose it.”
“And you came here, why?”
“Because…you are my sister.”
“I cannot spare him,” she told her truthfully.
Elea bit her lip and hoisted the child higher on her hip. “I know.”
“But I can make it quick because he spared you and Alessia.”
“Thank you,” Elea said, her lip quivering.
Cyrene stepped forward and brushed the tuft of hair off of Alessia’s forehead. “Poor thing. Having to survive in this world.”
“What are we going to do with her?” Elea asked.
Cyrene had a strong sense of déjà vu as she stared down at Kael and Kaliana’s child. She remembered her first Bbound ceremony in the rose garden on the castle grounds. The visions that she’d had. One where Kaliana took her baby. The last living successor to the Dremylon throne. It was flipped entirely on its head here, but it was still the true. Its own truth.
“Protect her,” Cyrene said simply. “There is nothing else we can do.”
Elea’s eyes widened, and Cyrene whirled around. She smiled when she saw Dean heading toward them with a meal.
He arched an eyebrow. “It looks like someone came through?”
Cyrene nodded. “Dean, this is my sister Elea and Alessia Dremylon.”
“I believe that’s Queen Elea,” Dean offered with a short bow.
Elea flushed but held her chin aloft. “I suppose I am.”
Cyrene looked at Elea’s sumptuous gown for the first time. The sapphires in her ears and the intricate hair design. She was a queen. Had somehow become one in her own right while Cyrene was off, adventuring. Elea was not a young girl anymore. She had seen more than her fair share without leaving the palace.
“And the heir to the throne of Byern,” Dean added.
Cyrene gestured to Dean. “And this is Prince Dean Ellison of Eleysia.” She swallowed and added, “My betrothed.”
Elea’s mouth dropped open. “Oh.” She glanced between them. “Congratulations! I didn’t know.”
“It’s recent,” Dean said with a small smile for Cy
rene.
“I believe we should get Alessia to Rita,” Cyrene said. “Lady Cauthorn is in the healing tents, figuring out the supplies.”
“Let me,” Dean said, taking Alessia from Elea. “You two might need more time to catch up.”
Elea frowned. “I should probably go with her actually. I would hate for her to wake up and know nobody.”
“We should call Aubron, Reeve, and Cal back,” Cyrene said. “It would be good for her to see familiar faces.”
Dean nodded. “I can do that. Reeve would also like to see his sister, I assume.”
The sisters watched Dean walk away with the sleeping baby in his arms.
“How long have you two been together?”
Cyrene laughed and reached down for the food. “Technically, like, three days. Actually, he proposed when we first met in Eleysia right after I left Byern.”
“I’m happy for you.”
Cyrene began to devour the meal Dean had left for her as she watched the portal. “What does it feel like?”
Elea glanced at her. “What?”
“The magic.”
Elea clenched her hands into fists and then released it. “As easy as breathing.”
Cyrene smiled. Years of torture for her to even move a drop of water and what she had given everyone else was the ability to use magic freely. She could sense Elea’s strength. Nowhere close to Cyrene’s, but not nothing either. More than most people had had prior to this moment. It was encouraging.
“I hope it’s like that for everyone from now on.”
“Why did you do it?” Elea asked, her hands shaking.
Cyrene stared up at her sister. “Because, if we don’t win, then Malysa will kill everyone who had the ability anyway.”
“Thank you,” Elea whispered. “But…there’s one more thing you have to know.”
Cyrene took a deep breath and prepared herself. “What’s that?”
“Kael said…it happens on the summer solstice.”
“That’s in two days.”
Elea nodded. “I know.”
“All right.”
“That’s…it?” Elea asked in surprise.
“We must face Malysa one way or another. That it happens in two days is irrelevant. Either the Doma I awakened show up or they don’t. I do think it’s a bit arrogant to risk the longest day of the year,” Cyrene said with a smirk. “That’s my day.”