Vale’s session had been empowered by my light that day in Seawatcher Territory when she first seized, but now she’d fixed that ailment. Now, we had to find out what else she could read.
I squinted against the light as it brushed against my skin like a harsh wind. It was effervescent and euphoric, the way the power used to always be while under my control. It fulfilled all those searching, hollow pieces inside of me.
And it burned like an Angel’s cruel heart.
But it didn’t sear painfully. No, this was restorative as I called up the strongest essence of it I could. It lit the candles and licked across Vale’s skin.
Beyond the barrier, Jezebel sat safely beside the pool between her khrysaor. Relief swooped through my stomach. It wasn’t harming her this time.
Gold ether wrapped around Vale and me, and I nodded to the Starsearcher, her eyes falling closed as she reached out to the Fates. And after a moment, she gasped.
And in the tunnel of Angellight, her reading unfolded. As it had in Seawatcher Territory when the frames of Angels seem to appear above us, pieces of what Vale saw came to life.
There were flashes of tempests and lightning streaking the skies, fires raging through the lands and beasts bounding, untamed. The stars whirled, those iron doors slammed shut, and even the mountains cracked.
As I watched it play out, Vale spoke, tone breathless in disbelief. “The gods…they’re walking with the Angels.”
“I see them,” I said, but I wasn’t sure where they were, only seeing a blank canvas surrounding their forms. They laughed, though. The six with features obscured and seven with wings beating at their backs, all seeming…amicable.
“Do you know where they are?” I asked.
“Wildflowers,” Vale said. Behind her closed eyes, in the depths of her readings, the trails of starfire and her nine Fate ties were showing her more. “They’re overflowing like an explosion of fire. All oranges and yellows across the rolling hills.”
There was only one place I knew of that fit that description. “Keep reading,” I urged, smearing more blood across the emblems. The tunnel flared around us.
On the other side, Tolek paced, his hands locked behind his back to stop himself from interfering. I kept my focus on Vale.
“They’re exchanging power. It’s like the magic I saw earlier, but tamed. The winds and creatures, the heavens and mountains…everything is docile.” Her eyes shifted back and forth beneath her lids. “Peaceful. But something is being…traded, I think? And—no!” Her lips pressed together, eyes clenching tighter.
“What is it?” I leaned forward, dug deep inside myself and the emblems to pull up as much Angellight as possible to help her strengthen the reading of the Prime Warriors.
“The gods and goddesses, they’re—they’re hurting the Angels.” And I saw it as Vale narrated. The Angels were on their hands and knees, grabbing for their throats. The power was everywhere, exploding all around them.
“I can’t hold on to it,” Vale said, her hands tightening into fists, words rushing. “The magic they’re trading, it’s harming the Angels, some sort of sacrifice. And they’re?—”
Lightning cracked across the image, Angellight sparking, and Vale’s eyes flew open. “They’re gone,” she panted. “A burst of light and they were gone.”
I released a breath and dropped the Angellight tunnel to the cavern floor. Vale and I both slumped, our gazes locked as we tried to interpret what she’d read. Her eyes still swirled with silver stars.
Cypherion and Tolek dropped beside each of us.
“Dammit, Alabath,” Tol said. Taking my bleeding palm in his hand, he began cleaning the wound. “You truly are trying to send me to the Spirit Realm.”
I gave him a small, flirtatious, and hopefully forgivable smile. “If I do, perhaps I can travel between the worlds again and find you.”
“You’d fucking better,” he said and kissed my forehead.
I quickly healed my hand with Angellight and tucked the emblems away, but as I was finishing up, Vale voiced the question gnawing at my mind, loud enough that the entire cavern froze. “Do you think that was the Ascension?”
I bit my lip. It was exactly what I’d thought of when she described the scene. “It might have been.”
“But then, how were the gods involved?” Jezebel asked.
I worried less about that than about what Vale asked next, “And why was a process that was supposed to be thrilling and harmonious displayed as a brutal trading of magic?”
“I don’t?—”
“Quiet!” Erista’s voice cracked across the cavern. Slowly, her gaze drifted toward the entrance. “Something is wrong.”
