I close my eyes as the truth crashes over me like a cloud of volcanic ash. “That’s what the ceremony was about before we arrived in Karra.” I test my memory of the name. “The Medheela Ceremony?”
He nods.
I thought Mildred was just rambling while I watched Hector and Cenric spar. Instead, she was saying origin. It’s one of the words engraved into Hector’s tattoo.
Why didn’t I remember?
“Magic couldn’t have returned without you, me, and the black book.” Hector spreads his hands wide. “And Mildred, of course.”
The strong urge to screamenoughburns through me. To make him stop telling me all of this. If he stops, I will not have to face the truth about Bloodstone magic and the real reason the gods burned the serpent into my flesh.
But I cannot ask him to stop. It would be cowardly and weak to not face this. To not face him. To not face my past.
He continues talking. “For the rising sun is the origin to which the soul ignites a spark in all of us.” Firelight teases his features as he takes a sip of tea. “I never knew what the words meant until the Medheela Ceremony, even though I had heard the prophecy since I was a boy.”
“What do they mean?”
“You are the Soul igniting the spark, and I’m the origin from a powerful lineage of magic users.” His eyes meet mine, locking. “Our paths were always supposed to cross.”
I stare down at my hands as the truth stabs my heart. The moment Mother was slaughtered everything was put into motion. The serpent mark burning into my wrist. My need for vengeance taking me to Astarobane. Hector marrying me because of my mark. Healing Praxis and sparking the return of their magic.
After a while of stifling silence, I ask another question. “What does the black book do?”
“It has every Bloodstone spell ever written on its pages. Mildred engraves the magic into people. But it only works on the people who would have been born with Bloodstone magic.”
“Does Mildred choose what magic each person will have?”
“No. It must be in their lineage.”
Is that why I’m like this? Some faceless people conceived me, and now I have their cursed magic flowing through my veins?
I couldn’t face that truth before. And now, the thought of Mother keeping that from me makes me want to vomit.
“Do a lot of you have magic now?” I lick my bottom lip and continue. “I mean…other than Everly?”
“Not many, no.”
“Cenric? Luc?”
Hector takes another sip of tea and nods.
“They have magic?”
“My lineage has always had a lot of magic.”
“Praxis?”
“No.”
A question burns my lips, so I ask, needing to know. “Do you, Hector? Do you have magic?”
“Yes.”
I rip my eyes from his and pray to Olah it’s something simple. “Tell me about it.”
“I can call on the shadows and use them to conjure things. I can also use those shadows in battle to fight with me.”
“Did your grandfather choose that for you?”
