“I was hoping you could tell us that,” Blythe says with an irreverent tone.
“Something special indeed. Turn her,” the old man says, still looking down at his legs and nothing more. Is he an animated corpse? How long has he been dead? “She should be controlled before it gets out of hand.”
Blythe bows her head. “It will be done.”
“I would like a word,” Haze says. His eyes are black. Dark flames flicker up his forearms.
The dead man—the Ancient One—turns slowly to look at him. “Very well. Leave us.”
“Alone?” Blythe asks, her brow pinched.
“Take the girl and begin the ceremony.”
The priestess sucks in a breath and pouts, but without another word she turns and grabs me by the upper arm. “You obey or the girl suffers. Do you understand?”
I nod quickly.
I stumble over my feet down the steps, keeping the priestess’s quick pace. As we come close, Astella scrambles to her feet and grabs my free arm. She clings to me as we rush out of the room. I don’t even have the chance to tell her I love her. My mind is spinning. My feet moving out of fear. We’re pulled along in this wild stream, barely able to keep our heads above water.
We leave them behind, the Ancient One and Haze.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to Astella. “I’m sorry.” My voice breaks.
“Don’t be sorry,” she tells me, her fingers lacing with mine. “Think it through.” She presses her face into my skirt, muffling her voice. “This isn’t over yet.”
63
Lina
Think it through.
Think what through? My lungs burn as I heave in breaths. If Astella is afraid, she isn’t showing it. Does she know something I don’t? Of course she does. She always knows more than anyone else.
There’s more to this than it seems. Okay, so I need to figure it out.
They used my blood to… I swallow down the nausea. They used my blood to wake him, the Ancient One. What does that mean? That my blood has some hidden power they need?
You came in here weak,a voice purrs in my mind. Amora.
God, did that really happen? It feels like a dream. All of it. Most of it has been a nightmare, but a few moments are bright. Amora feels unreal.
They called you nothing. But you are not nothing anymore.
Haze implied I had some hidden power. Was it more than just my blood? They brought in Astella because he needed to find a way to control me. That means?—
They can’t control me without her.
He implied it was simply that they wanted to turn me Nihilian and they needed me to consent, but what if thereis more to it? Ivar had trouble keeping me contained when previously I had been utterly at his mercy.
Right now, I am alone with the priestess. She is powerful too.
My body feels so small and weak. I have never had the power to protect myself, let alone fight someone.
But is that what they’re telling me? That I need to fight now, before it’s too late?
A set of skull-masked men march down the aisle and grab Astella. They rip her from my arms and I watch with wide eyes and a helpless spirit. “Don’t hurt her!” I call.
I can’t fight, right?
