I should be freezing, my exposed body—because of course I was naked again—on display for the elements.
Yet I sensed nothing.
It was almost like there was a burning heat deep inside my soul that was keeping me warm.
Lucifer’s power,I thought with a frown.
Cami,a distant voice echoed, sounding eerily like my mother’s.
My eyes widened as I turned in the direction of the voice, only to find the vortex shimmering in the air again. Except it was bigger now, more intense and swirling with angry waves of power.
Um…
A lightning bolt jolted from the center in the next breath, hitting me straight in the chest. I screamed, the sound lost to the waves crashing against the stone.
Fuck!
Heat blistered through my being, pushing power to somewhere deep within my soul. I rubbed my chest, my heart beating far too fast. My veins burned. My breathing became labored.
Then it…settled.
Electricity hummed through my body as the ground beneath my feet fractured, the stones turning to pebbles.
What is this?I marveled.What’s happening?
Follow it,my mother’s voice whispered back.Follow the power.
I blinked.What?
Am I going insane? My mother can’t be here.
She was human.
And she wasn’t exactly the nurturing type, either.
Is this a dream?I started to wonder, my gaze searching the seascape for answers.Or is the voice contrived by magic within the trial? What’s the purpose of it?
Maybe Lucifer was trying to manipulate me into making a mistake? Trying to convince me to touch his source again so he could burn me alive with it?
Because this couldn’t be a trial.
I’m no longer a bride.
So why?—
The pebbles beneath me dissolved into dust, creating a grainy texture that engulfed my feet, causing me to sink into the ground.
A vortex.
One that resembled quicksand.
Another scream lodged in my throat as I fell through the stone with the sky looming ominously overhead.
No. Not sky.
Water.
Shit!
