“Are you alright?” Mom asked, her voice tinged with alarm.
“Something’s wrong,” Mathias said, his usual veneer cracking as he gripped the back of a chair for support. “The solar eclipse is coming, and I am losing my power. It’s fading away, and the pain is immense.”
His confession struck me as a stark reminder of the forces at play that threatened to engulf us all. The eclipse was a harbinger of change, a time when the balance of power could shift, not in our favor.
I clutched the wall, my mind racing. This was far beyond familial discord. It was a war rooted in ancient grudges, and somehow, I stood at its very center—a pawn in a game that spanned lifetimes. How could I navigate this labyrinth of deceit and danger when every step seemed to lead to ruin?
Slipping away from my hiding place, I vowed to uncover the truth, no matter the cost. But first, I needed to steady the storm within and confront whatever lay ahead with clear, resolute eyes. My family’s fate—and my unborn child’s future—depended on it.
Fury burned through me like wildfire. It was a trap—everything. My mother, Mathias—puppets in a grand scheme that had tangled me at its core. They had underestimated me, but no longer.
I stormed toward the study with every fiber screaming for action, where muffled voices rose and fell behind the closed door.
“No, Osman! We can’t risk it,” Reyna’s voice came through, tinged with frustration.
“But we must!” Osman countered, his tone calm yet unwavering.
I pushed the door open without hesitation, barging into their heated conversation. Their heads snapped toward me, shock etched across their faces.
“Osman, you must take me to the cave.Now.” My voice left no room for argument.
“Olivia, no. You’re with a child. The danger—” Reyna began, her words laced with the overprotection I could no longer bear.
“Osman,” I interrupted, fixing him with a glare that dared him to refuse, “I am going, with or without you.”
The tension hung between us like a blade poised to fall.
Finally, Osman sighed and nodded, his resignation evident. “Very well. But we proceed carefully.”
Under the shroud of night, we set out for the caves. Reyna and I sat on the wagon’s box seat while Osman rode horseback. The silence of the journey was broken only by the rhythmic clomping of hooves on the dirt road.
Strapped to my thigh, the sun dagger pulsed with a warmth that seemed to echo my heartbeat. When we reached the caves, we dismounted and secured the horses. Osman moved ahead, promising to return with light.
“Osman, wait,” Reyna called, her voice tinged with worry, but he had already vanished into the cavern’s depths.
“Olivia, please, stay here,” Reyna said.
“Of course,” I lied, eyes drawn toward one of the darkened corridors.
She hesitated, studying me with skepticism before hurrying after Osman.
The moment she disappeared into the shadows, I moved. Determination drowned out the whispers of fear that clawed at the edges of my mind.
“I don’t think I went this deep before,” I murmured, my fingertips grazing the rough stone walls as I ventured further. The cavern loomed around me, its oppressive darkness closing in like a living thing.
Each step carried me deeper into the unknown, the air growing colder and heavier with each breath. The silence was absolute, broken only by my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Despite the chill, my movements were steady, driven by an instinct that felt older than myself, as though I had walked these paths in another life.
“Stay focused,” I whispered. “You can do this, Olivia.”
I paused, pulling the sun dagger from its holster and clutching it tightly. The familiar weight of the blade grounded me, a fragile anchor in the sea of chaos swirling around me. The life growing inside me was my strength and vulnerability—a promise of hope amidst the shadows of loss that haunted my past. I had already lost so many, including an unborn child. Fear gnawed at the edges of my resolve, but there was no turning back now. The answers I sought were here, waiting to be unearthed.
Ahead, a faint light flickered in the darkness, pale and otherworldly, beckoning me deeper into the cave’s depths. Each step I took felt like crossing a threshold between the living and the dead, the echoes of my boots swallowed by the oppressive stillness.
Finally, I stumbled into the clearing. It was the same room from yesterday, illuminated by a light that had no discernible source. The old man stood beside the pit of writhing snakes, his presence as unyielding and enigmatic as before. The serpents twisted and coiled like a living tapestry of menace, their movements hypnotic and disquieting. Relief surged through me, momentarily displacing my fear. He was real. The vision had been real.
“Olivia,” the old man said, his voice resonating with a calm that belied the dread-laden air. His eyes, ancient and all-knowing, locked onto mine, their gaze heavy with unspoken truths.
I halted, panting, the remnants of anger toward my mother still burning. What other lies had she tangled into the threads of my life? How much had she kept hidden, and why?
