“For starters, why didn’t you seem fazed by the news of these other continents and the heart of all magic for Eguina being in Zomea?”
“I’m the one who told you I believed all the magic was held in Zomea,” she replies, not defensively.
“I know, I… I didn’t think you meant it so literally,” I say, and she gives a slight shrug.“What about the other continents? Why don’t you want to find out more?”
“Lyra, did you know I was once in love, a great many years ago?” she starts, and again I have no idea where she’s going with this.
“No, I didn’t. I always assumed you and Soren had something going on,” I admit.
“Yes, Soren,” she says, her gaze drifting across the room as if looking out a window that doesn’t exist, as if she can see beyond the hive and recall a memory from the past. “Soren is young and human. I may care for him, yes, but love is something else entirely.”
“I thought all Lamia only mated with humans. There are no male Lamia,” I say, voicing the common knowledge of our realms.
“That is true, but what if I told you I came from another time, another continent long ago where I wasn’t called a Lamia at all.” She still gazes into the distance.
“I’d say, have you been drinking tonight?” I joke, incredulous.
She flashes a fang again with a smirk. “You see, I’m not surprised to hear about these other portals to places in Zomea, because I come from one of those very places. A place where men and women alike could feed off blood to survive and have extraordinary strength, could live together forever. We were called vampires, and I used to go by Cilla,” she explains, and suddenly a lot of things make sense.
Drew is thousands of years old, no one knowing exactly how old, and she oddly knows things about, well, everything, and very little is known about Lamia. “Vampires...Cilla,” I repeat, absorbing it all.
“Yes, my full name is Drewcilla. Once I had to leave that life behind, I dropped the end and started anew here as Drew,” she says, revealing a past shrouded in mystery and a life far more complex than I had ever imagined.
“Why did you come here? And is that how my father knew of these other places? Does anyone else know? I thought you had never been to Zomea before?” I fire off a barrage of questions, my curiosity peaking as I try to absorb her revelations.
“So many questions, but my story is a tale for another time. What’s important right now is you and the future of this continent,” Drew says, her voice calm yet commanding. “I tell you this because I want you to know that you will know the right choice to make when it’s time. When you love someone, not only who but that you are truly in love, you’ll know.”
She stands and moves closer to me. I fight the instinct to step back as she extends her hand and places it gently on my chest. “You will know in here,” she says, her touch firm yet reassuring. “Use the echosphere, take your time, do what you need to do to come to terms with your decision. But in here…” She taps my chest lightly. “…the decision has already been made.”
She moves her hand to the side of my head. “It’s everything up here that’s getting in the way. Now go get cleaned up. You have a long road ahead of you and some choices I don’t envy. We’ll speak again, in time,” she concludes, offering me a smile and a dismissive wave.
I want to continue the conversation, to delve deeper into her past and extract more answers, but I realize the moment for questions has passed. I take my leave without another word
Chapter 6
Lyra
It must beclose to morning now, and given the scant sleep I’ve managed over the last few days, it’s a wonder I can still walk, let alone think straight. I don’t channel back to my room. Instead, I take my time walking through the quiet halls. Through the tether, I can sense Colton is in his bedchamber. As I pass by, the urge to see him, to confront him is strong, but I stifle it.
He’s been hiding the fact that he and Nyx are brothers from me all this time. He knew about my internal struggles, understood that my hesitation stemmed from not knowing if Nyx was the one I was destined to be with—the one destined to save me from myself. How could he keep this from me?
I want to confront him, to hear his explanation, but the pain is too sharp, the betrayal too deep. After everything we’ve been through, after all the nights he held me while I cried over Nyx’s lies, to discover he harbored his own secrets cuts deeply. My heart aches with the realization.
I pass by Nyx’s room next, and although I’m furious with him too, part of me is curious about how he’s handling theserevelations about his father, considering Colton has been deceiving him as much as me. My pace quickens, fueled by a mix of anger and a desperate need for answers.
I need to see whatever the echosphere is going to show me. If I wait and think about it for too long, I might have second thoughts. I head down the staircase to the ancient library, where a familiar red glow hums through the room, confirming the orb’s presence. I follow the light source and find the echosphere sitting on one of the dusty bookshelves in the back of the room. Its inner light pulses slightly, and I feel the urge to touch it.
I think about the last time I was here and what the orb showed me—my dark eyes and shadow magic that I wasn’t ready to accept then. I check my shields and completely block Colton out. He doesn’t need to know what I’m doing or what I’m feeling when I touch this thing. I don’t need him to save me from the orb this time.
I extend my hand toward the crimson glow and swear the room darkens in anticipation of my touch. This time, I don’t bother grazing my fingers against it and eagerly grasp the orb with both hands. As the chill spreads up my arms and everything goes black, I let it take me.
I feel myself dissolving into the void, enveloped by an abyss so deep and dark it consumes me entirely, leaving nothing but the sound of my own heart thundering in my chest. I command my racing heart to steady as the darkness shifts, morphing into a scene of…beauty. I find myself—or rather, a spectral version of myself—standing on a grand terrace that seems woven from the stuff of dreams.
The terrace stretches vast and splendid before me, lined with towering marble pillars that gleam under a celestial sky. Below, the relentless sea crashes against jagged cliffs, sending sprays of white foam into the air, as ifapplauding the scene above. All around me, a crowd of figures clad in exquisite garments of velvet and silk, their faces indistinct and blurred as though veiled by mist, sit in rapt attention.
As I drift closer, the focus sharpens on me and Nyx at the center of the terrace on a stage. We are in the midst of completing our bonding ceremony. The air is thick with the scent of salt and blooming nightflowers, mingling with the subtle perfume of incense. I observe our expressions—there’s genuine joy, a radiant happiness that lights up Nyx’s features and mirrors my own. But my spirit feels restless, my eyes roving over the sea of faces for a glimpse of Colton, seeking any touchstone of familiarity in the blur. My search is futile. The figures remain elusive, their features shifting so I can’t make anyone out.
Suddenly, the earth trembles beneath my feet—a low, menacing rumble that escalates into a deafening roar. A pillar beside us fractures with a sharp crack, its fragments tumbling toward the ground in slow motion. As I panic, the scene shifts abruptly.
