by Kate Kelley
“Yes I do, very much,” Lyra said, anticipation building. She peeked past Gaia into the white fog. She wanted to go. Soon. She tore her gaze away from the fog.
“I just wanted to vouch for Terrin. I want you to know he didn’t want to kill Techni. Well, he did, but he wasn’t going to. He has an iron will. Did you know his aura is pure white? His soul, I mean.There isn’t an evil bone in his body. Please, let him go free.”
Gaia stared at her a moment longer. “You know, most people fall flat on their faces when they first see me. If they speak--and that’s a big if-- it’s to ask after their own fate. The thought of anyone else is the furthest thing from their mind. Sometimes mothers and fathers ask about living children, or vice versa. But you aren’t related to Terrin by blood.”
She snapped her fingers, and another woman appeared next to her. She was shorter in stature and slimmer than Gaia. Pale yellow hair, medium in length, flowed like starlight from her scalp. Her skin was an inky black with cool undertones. Her eyes, a ghostly cerulean. She had no pupils. Draped in black silk, sweeping across her body and cinching at her waist with a matching sash, she was formidable in her strange beauty, to say the least. Lyra jumped when violet wings spread on her back and folded back in. Her deep purple lips quirked up at the corners.
“She’s not yet dead, Gaia,” the new goddess said, her eyes roaming Lyra’s face. Lyra blinked and looked down at the knife wedged into her heart.
“This is Blessed Death,” Gaia said politely in way of introduction. Lyra nodded her head hesitantly in greeting.
“Call me Macaria.” Her voice was more normal than Gaia’s. But it still sent a chill down her spine for a reason she couldn’t place.
“You take soldiers from the battlefield,” Lyra said to her.
“Or heroines, like yourself,” she returned with a smile. Her teeth gleamed white. “I can take you beyond and make sure no other gods try to pull you into their afterworlds. Yours would be a righteous death, a blessed one. You’d be protected.”
Lyra stored that confounding information away for later. “You said I’m not dead?” Lyra asked.
“That’s right. That’s why your earth memories are still intact. You remember Terrin and details about your death. You still see the knife in your chest, don’t you?” Macaria said.
Lyra nodded.
“They’re trying to bring her back. Terrin’s trying to split his soul,” Macaria murmured to Gaia.
Gaia bristled. “Yes I know. He is too weak at present. The earth is almost desecrated. His powers won’t last.”
Macaria gave her a look. “His mind mage is using crystals. Lyra’s crystals--a ring. And the spectrolite.”
Gaia’s nose twitched. Her eyes swirled. “Terrin can’t do this. He’s still king of Terra and a bonded soul can’t govern the earth.”
“Bonded?” Lyra asked.
Gaia stared at her before throwing up her hands.
“Fine. I’ll let you go. Don’t let him bond you. Ever. He has work to do.” Her voice was on edge, the deeper tones rising to the surface. Lyra trembled. It occurred to her suddenly that Gaia probably made the earth and all the inhabitants in it.
The Macaria waved jovially. “I’ll see you again soon.”
Lyra fumbled with her thoughts, then found her voice. “Other gods. You said other gods would try to take me. Why?”
Macaria raised her eyebrows. Black fog rose like steam from her feet.
“My Father isn’t an amiable one. You’re powerful. You could be used in certain capacities for certain gods here. Techni will know all about that,” she replied, shrugging. Lyra furrowed her brow in confusion. She opened her mouth to ask what she meant but Macaria was gone, as if she’d never been there. Lyra wondered if she’d imagined her.
Gaia plucked a white hair from her own head, the strand wiggling in her pinched fingers like a tiny glowing worm. She released the hair over Lyra’s head. Something stabbed her scalp and wormed it’s way deeper. Lyra clutched her head, a cry stuck in her throat. Her body expelled the knife, and it clanged to the floor before falling through it and disappearing. The blood rewound it’s steps, sucked back into her heart as if through a vacuum, and the wound glued together, a bright red ridge the only evidence of her near death. The pain in her head ceased. She looked up to thank Gaia, but she was gone.
Everything went white before she fell through the floor, and landed on hard ground.
She smelled honeysuckle.
Opening her eyes, her vision struck pitch black. She attempted to sit up but hit her head on hard, smooth wood. She was in a small space. A very small space. She pushed on the roughly cut wood inches from her face. It didn’t budge, and her palms stuck with splinters. A man’s voice, thick with grief, drifted to her.
“...my sister deserves a proper burial.”
Alec!
Lyra’s heart thumped loudly. It skipped a beat, then continued.
“She does,” Terrin spoke quietly, his voice raspy, desperate, “Give Oriel another day. He just needs to rest. She lays in her coffin now, she’s ready to be buried. Let him try one more time to finish the bond. If he can’t, then bury her.”
Huh? I thought Terrin was trying to bond me, not Oriel.
Panic and confusion tore at her. She didn’t know what bonding did to people, but she didn’t think she wanted to be bonded to Oriel.
She felt for her wound, her hand bumping into the feathery petals of honeysuckle flowers. She brushed them aside and stuck her hand down the front of her dress. She wore a new dress. Maybe something of Iris’s? The skin over her heart was bumpy, but closed over. She had a scar. She would take a scar.
She tried to think of a delicate way to pop out of a coffin. She didn’t want to give anyone a heart attack, or get blasted by magic, or killed. She wasn’t sure how they would react. She could wait until they left...
“Once more,” Alec said, “That’s it, Terrin. I mean it. It’s too painful, the hoping.”
Lyra’s heart lurched. She couldn’t wait any longer.
Surprise or no, they’d just have to be a little startled.
She beat her fists as hard as she could on the coffin, and waited.
The End
Next in Series:
Diadem, Gem Kingdom Series Book Two
Paragon, Gem Kingdom Series Book Three
✽✽✽
Connect with Kate Kelley on Facebook to see series updates, discuss books, and stay in the loop!
Thanks for reading, and please do leave a review before you go!
✽✽✽