by Eva Brandt
“Let’s not get lost in semantics. I’m not here to talk about them, and you know it.”
He walked up to me and pressed his hands to my shoulders. The gesture reminded me very much of my earlier exchange with Adrian. I appreciated it even less in Octavian’s case. “Your Majesty, please release me. This is beneath you.”
“It’s not,” he insisted. “Eiar, you’re too powerful to give up or let anyone else take your place. You could easily capture Eranthe’s body. Simply banish her consciousness. No one will be able to stop you.”
I let out a slow, exasperated breath. “Your Majesty, we’ve talked about this before. It wouldn’t be right.”
“Right?” Octavian repeated, glowering angrily at me. “When have you ever cared about arbitrary notions of right and wrong?”
“I don’t mean it in an ethical way, and you know it. There needs to be a balance between life and death. I was created due to an anomaly in that balance and sooner or later, the magic of the world will want to fix the error of my existence.”
“Why are you deliberately being so stubborn?” Octavian tightened his grip on my shoulders so much it was almost painful. “It’s just your body that is the problem. If you take hers, no magic would be able to harm you. Your consciousness would be perfectly fine. Kill Eranthe and be done with it.”
Kill her. If I killed Eranthe, all my problems would be solved. I’d be able to continue living, just like before. The Voievodat would be safe, no longer in any danger of losing its Grand Lich.
I wouldn’t have to leave Octavian alone.
But Octavian wasn’t mine any more than Cezar, Adrian, and Baltasar were. “I can’t change the course of nature and life in such a way, Your Majesty. It’s not my place. You need to accept that and respect my decision.”
Octavian bared his fangs at me, and I knew what he’d reply before he even said the words. “I refuse. I will always respect you, just like I have from the day you came to Aeternum, but I won’t accept you throwing your life away for nothing.”
“You say that like I’m the one being unreasonable, when you know very well that isn’t the case.”
Octavian wrapped his arms around me, and his embrace felt both suffocating and so very right. “This isn’t your home,” he whispered in my ear. “The Voievodat is. You aren’t their soulmate. You’re mine. In your heart, you know that.”
“I know no such thing,” I answered, keeping my voice cold and aloof even if inside, I was screaming. “It would behoove you to not say such things. Your lady wife would have a problem with it.”
Octavian pulled me even closer to him, and even though I knew I shouldn’t allow it, I relaxed against him. It always felt so good to be in his arms. I rarely indulged, because I was much too aware of our respective positions and had no desire to make Octavian break his vow to his wife. But still, these stolen moments had anchored me for so long, giving me something real at a time when I’d had trouble processing what I was.
His familiar scent tickled my nostrils, and when he pressed his lips to my temple, his skin felt strikingly hot, almost feverish. His clever hands easily found their way into my shapeless, black robes, cupping one of my breasts through the dark material. “I don’t care about any of that,” he murmured. “I don’t care what Elodie thinks. My relationship with her was never like that and you know it. But I understand why it hurts you. Eiar, I’ve been thinking. If you were willing to give yourself to me, I would...”
I never heard whatever promise he had intended to make. All of a sudden, the world started to grow fuzzy around the edges. An image of my other self flashed through my mind, glaring at me with hatred and anger. My knees went weak and I slumped against Octavian. The last thought I had was that I’d definitely underestimated Eranthe, and then everything went black.
Eight
Protection
Eranthe
“Oh, dear gods, Adrian! Are you all right?” I rushed to my soulmate’s side, silently cursing my other self for her actions and cruelty. “What did she do to you?”
He blinked at me dazedly, as if he couldn’t quite understand what I was asking. “He needs medical attention,” Cezar said from behind me. “The magic of the Grand Lich is very dangerous, and even full undead can suffer long-lasting side-effects because of it.”
I didn’t have to be told twice. Taking Adrian’s hands, I threaded our fingers together and reached into him with my magic, seeking out his essence, his core. If I wasn’t mistaken, Adrian was suffering from an affliction very similar to what had happened to the unicorns. I could undo it and heal him, just like I’d done with Cloud.
As soon as my power connected with his, I knew I’d made a gross miscalculation. He was a strigoi, a user of the necromantic arts, and I was actively trying to avoid contact with such things. I might’ve been able to accept it and control it while I’d been in The Forest of Purity, but this was different. Adrian was my soulmate and his presence alone changed the nature of the healing process.
I gasped as I felt the tendrils of dark magic slide into me, already beginning to nudge the seals my other self had placed on my necromantic abilities. My head started spinning, and my limbs grew heavier and colder.
I felt like I was back in Hades, but not drinking from the Lethe. I was drowning, sinking into a river of death, and I couldn’t find a way out.
Adrian must’ve realized something was wrong, because he tried to shy away from me. His panic anchored me when nothing else could have, and I remembered my task, the reason why I’d chosen to reach out to him. He needed my help and I refused to disappoint him or let him get hurt.
Gritting my teeth, I sought out the familiar patterns of the Grand Lich’s magic. I’d felt it before, when I’d traveled into my other self’s mental space. Her power wasn’t identical to mine, but even then, it had been similar in a way that had made me both restless and overly trusting. It was probably part of the reason why the blocks on my necromantic powers had been so comfortable and reassuring, when every other block was, through its sheer nature, terrifying.
It didn’t take me long to find traces of my other self inside Adrian. The spell she’d cast on him wasn’t complex per se, but what made it more difficult to handle was the fact that it connected with a blessing of protection.
It almost seemed like Eiar had just dumped unnecessary amounts of death magic into that barrier, leading Adrian to crumble under the pressure of the concentrated power he couldn’t handle.
If I undid the blessing altogether, the results would be unfortunate. To make matters worse, my own spell of protection had sort of blended with the Grand Lich’s blessing due to the two having a similar caster.
I had no choice but to siphon out some of the magic in the enchantment and hope it would work.
It was a crude, unrefined method, and resorting to it felt like using a pickaxe to craft jewelry. I did it anyway. I willed my body to become a conduit for the black magic, to subtly extract it from Adrian without harming him.
Adrian’s voice sounded in my head, chastising me for my recklessness. “You really shouldn’t take such chances for my sake,” he said. “The effects of the spell will wear off on their own eventually.”
I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t see anything at all except a whirlpool of black magic that threatened to swallow both of us if I faltered. “That isn’t an acceptable option,” I replied stubbornly. I could do this.
Eiar might be more powerful than me, but that was only because she’d explored the potential of her magic more. If I stopped being afraid and allowed myself to embrace everything I’d been shying away from, I could help Adrian. Defeating Eiar would probably be a little too much to ask, but I hadn’t lost all hope for her, not yet.
She might not have wanted to admit it, but she was as afraid as I was.
As that thought processed, an image flashed through my mind, a glimpse of a distant village I both recognized and didn’t. It was Lillia, and the sight of the burnt down buildings and withered vegetation fil
led me with horror and disbelief. I’d known Lillia had been destroyed, of course, but that didn’t make the images any easier to take in.
To make matters worse, Eiar was there, with a man I didn’t recognize. They were embracing, and the obvious intimacy and affection between them drove a spike of anger and jealousy through me.
Maybe it was unreasonable, but I couldn’t forgive Eiar for this behavior. I didn’t really mind her having a relationship with someone. If anything, I was happy for her and even a little relieved. It meant that she might have a little more incentive to cooperate with us than she’d displayed so far. But on the other hand, she’d just attacked my soulmate, and then had gone to have a romantic meeting with her lover in the ruins of my former home. That was really insulting and I wouldn’t stand for it.
With an infuriated snarl, I jerked on the last strands of the spell Eiar had placed on Adrian. It dissipated underneath my touch, and I felt Adrian’s entire sense of self relax as the excess magic loosened its hold on him.
Satisfied that I’d achieved my purpose, I withdrew my powers from his body and returned to reality. Adrian hadn’t been wrong when he’d warned me about healing him, because I soon found that my vision was blurry and unclear. I couldn’t focus, and I felt colder than ever before.
I rubbed my arms to chase away the chill from my bones, but it didn’t work. Adrian did better. He hugged me close—much like that stranger had hugged Eiar—and his warmth made the lingering discomfort, both my own and his, fade away.
With Adrian’s help, I regained clarity and finally noticed we must’ve been there for quite a while. Everyone had gathered in the corridor. It wasn’t just my soulmates, my sisters, and my mother. Veggie had arrived, together with Cloud, Green, April, and March. Apparently, the unicorn had been successful in tracking my lieutenants down and bringing them to me.
I wanted to confront them about this whole business with my other self, but just taking a look at their guilty faces confirmed Veggie’s words. Green’s expression was harder to read, since he didn’t have a normal face at all. Even so, his withered, shaking leaves were a clear sign of his betrayal. They must’ve been aware that my mother had a plan, something that would involve a very questionable turn of events.
According to my vampires, my lieutenants had seemed shocked and dismayed when I’d been kidnapped, so maybe they hadn’t known every single detail. Still, they had schemed with my mother behind my back, and that just wasn’t something I could accept.
But potential confrontations with them would have to wait, as my soulmates demanded my attention. Cezar and Baltasar must’ve noticed Adrian’s concern, because they knelt by my side. When Baltasar reached for my hand, I happily accepted it. “Are you all right, Eranthe?” he asked. “We felt some backlash from your removal of the spell.”
I smiled weakly at him, still thinking about our earlier exchange and how many mistakes I’d made since I’d met them. I was a little surprised that he’d approach me in this way, but I wasn’t about to question it. “I’m fine. I might not be a necromancer or a lich, but healing is what I do, remember?”
“Of course we remember,” Cezar pointed out. “We just wish you didn’t feel the need to do these things yourself. When I made the suggestion for Adrian to see a healer, I didn’t actually mean you.”
“You’ve had a bit of a tough time lately,” Pandora added from behind him. “You shouldn’t push yourself.”
“Considering what I just found out today, I find that statement highly ironic and maybe a little hypocritical, sister,” I told her. “I can’t really be expected to absorb the power of the Grand Lich and not push myself.”
Pandora fell silent, staring at me with a grief-stricken expression. My sisters didn’t want a future of death and blood for me. But it was much too late to avoid that completely. Right now, I had to do some serious damage control.
I got up, with both Adrian and Baltasar helping me to my feet. A hesitant March approached me and asked, “Your Majesty, you wanted to speak to us?”
I nodded, suppressing the urge to call her out on her deception. “We’ll be having a meeting with Emperor Octavian of The Immortuos Voievodat. Cassia has agreed to create a neutral grounds for us to meet, in the waters of The Great Ocean. I want you and March to help her with that. Ice comes in handy, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some vegetation around our meeting spot. Now, where is May?”
“She’s assisting my lieutenants in The Realm of Eternal Sunlight while I’m here,” Tarasia answered in my lieutenant’s stead. “It seems unlikely that the undead will attack that region, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
So I’d been right in that assumption. Tarasia had more or less taken up the crown of Tis Ánoixis in my absence, and she couldn’t have done that and monitored every single thing in her own realm at the same time. Even for her, it was a little much.
“All right. We’ll have to speak to all of them soon if you haven’t already sent a message. For now, we’ll need to look at the wards once again. Perhaps we can do that before you go, Cassia.”
My sister nodded in agreement, although she was unaware of my secondary motives. She still believed that the corruption in the forest was just because of the undead, and I hadn’t gotten the chance to explain the possibility that I might have been a cause too. I didn’t want to mention it in front of everyone, so I’ll have to tell her about it later.
“While we handle this, secure The Gardens of Edenia,” I told Green. “I have a feeling our negotiations with The Voievodat will not go smoothly. Prepare for the possibility of an evacuation if you haven’t already done so. And Mother, do make sure not to stick your nose into our business any further. You’ve done quite enough.”
“I’ve only ever done what was needed to help you,” my mother tried to defend herself. “I just want to fix the mistake your father and I made.”
“There’s only one problem with that, Mother. In our case, that mistake is a person, and not someone any of us want to kill. But that doesn’t matter right now. Chronikos is more important.”
Without another word, I turned away from my mother and opened a path for me and my siblings, directly into the orchards. Without a meditation chamber like Cassia’s and with my lake still healing from the lamiae’s corruption, our best bet to connect with Chronikos on a deeper level was from here.
The Eternal Orchards had been created long before I’d become a queen. In fact, they were said to be the very first thing that had appeared on Chronikos when the gods had first created The Land of Time. The orchards represented life and its connection to civilization, whereas all the other forests in Tis Ánoixis symbolized and echoed the wildness intrinsic to our existence.
I guided my siblings into a specific part of the orchards, the very same one I’d picked as a planting plot for Veggie. My sisters, my lamb, and my soulmates were the only ones allowed inside, although Veggie chose to not join us and posted himself as a guardian in front of the entrance. My mother wouldn’t be able to break the wards, not without my father’s help, but I still appreciated the gesture.
“Do you really think you need to evacuate The Gardens of Edenia?” Pandora asked as the four of us knelt on the grass in a circle.
I thought about the man hugging Eiar and couldn’t help but wonder who he’d actually been. A suspicion niggled at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“I think we can’t rely on the undead to keep their word,” I told my sister. “I don’t know what will happen, but I doubt they’ll all give up on their Grand Lich so easily. They might turn on us. It’s a good idea to take precautions.”
I didn’t tell them that I also sought some answers about myself and Eiar within this ritual. Something was still bothering me about this whole story. I wanted to understand her and our strange connection. Was she right and our fate was sealed? For the sake of the bond I still hoped to have with my soulmates, I desperately needed to know.
I really shouldn’t have been sur
prised that the answers I found weren’t the ones I wanted.
* * *
Cezar
Having seen Queen Theros—Tarasia—engaged in her own ritual of strengthening the wards, I’d thought I’d been prepared for witnessing the moment when the four sisters all came together to connect with the core of their homeland. Having witnessed numerous rituals cast by the Grand Lich in The Voievodat, I’d thought I’d known what to expect. I was both right and wrong.
The four queens of the seasons gathered in a circle that mimicked the shape of Chronikos. They didn’t bother with intricate engravings or chants of any type. Instead they just knelt, held hands, and bowed lowly, pressing their foreheads against the ground.
For a few seconds, nothing happened—or so it seemed. Even if I didn’t have Adrian’s affinity for magic, I could sense the ground beneath my feet vibrate, responding to the touch of the four queens, eager to come to their aid.
The wind started blowing through the orchards, thick with the magic of each season. The perfumed breeze of spring mingled with the slightly chillier autumn wind, and winter’s icy blizzard clashed with the hot currents of air that summer brought forth.
As the four sisters all lifted their heads, a whirlwind of flower petals, fallen leaves, and snowflakes, surrounded their bodies. It came together in the center of their circle, where a bright light was already forming, mimicking the shape and location of the Axis Mundi.
The savage, intense beauty of the sight could only be matched by its cruelty. Even tamed, the power of the seasons was not kind, and when the four sisters were together, it was stronger than ever before.
Cassia’s lips were quickly beginning to turn blue due to frostbite. Tarasia’s skin looked burnt and inflamed. The ground beneath Pandora was starting to change substance, and it almost looked like it would swallow her whole.