Above me the stars swirl and I know it’s my fear that’s making the sky move the way it is. I can be afraid. That’s perfectly normal but I won’t show these losers that I’m scared. The night sky spins again around me and this night melds into the last time I was almost sacrificed. I can see the stone circle, the Founders’ Circle, the way the moon hung heavy and low in the sky is much like tonight. It’s all so much the same that when the head mage goes on talking, I don’t hear him. I hear Mister O’Hare’s voice. The head of the Founders, the man that had made certain my fate was sealed as a Blossom.
I don’t know anything about this head mage, or their doomsday show tune cult, or what they’re calling forth. I also don’t care.
The only thing I care about is my friends, so I think about them. I imagine what I want to have happen. Manifesting is what Nina called it I think. I manifest Charlie finding Buffy in time and stopping her before she walks into a trap. I manifest Roy getting kicked out of Sweet Tooth and I manifest Buffy beating the brakes off these mages.
None of that happens though.
What does happen is the head mage lifts the knife high in the sky. The flash of metal comes into my field of vision even though I’m trying my best not to look at it.
“Accept this offering, Lord of War, Bringer of Chaos. Jaakobah the Destroyer!” I should be thinking of a way to get out of this, maybe considering the pros and cons of a getaway by rolling away versus just laying here and being sacrificed but I’m not.
The ground beneath me moves. At first I think it’s like the stars that still dance above me courtesy of my anxiety, but when the ground shakes again with a rumble that genuinely makes my teeth clatter together I know it’s not in my head.
It’s real. The ground is shaking.
“Jaakobah!” The mage yells. “We invoke thee! We call you forth now.”
There’s a low growl and the ground trembles. I turn my head to look in the direction of the growl, because I know exactly where it came from.
The boulder.
I gasp when I see the boulder. It’s glowing. Through the crevice a light shines but it’s not just there, it’s all around it. Under it, around it, the light is golden and warm, it illuminates every crack in the rock. It looks like when I blasted it with my magic but the light is so much warmer than the silvery hue of my magic. A spiderweb canopy of golden light spiderwebs out across the rock and shines out into the night like the sun. Around me,mages drop to their knees and shield their faces while I keep staring. The light burns my eyes but I don’t look away.
If that’s Jaakobah then he’s going to kill me. I’m not going to turn my face from it. I’m going to see it coming. I refuse to be scared.
“We invoke thee through this most holy offering. Come forth and accept your bride.” The head mage comes closer, he brings the knife down so that’s hovering above my chest. All it would take is a jab from him to have it pierce my heart. I ignore the knife and keep looking at the bright and shining rock.
I should be scared but I’m not. The knowing that I had in my dreams is here now.
“Even if you left, the dreams would plague you still…”
The demon, Jaako-lantern or whatever it is, was right. My dreams do plague me just like they always do but I don’t fight it now. I let it come to me and settle. I relax in my bonds and stare unblinking into the light ahead of me. My eyes start to burn and water. It’s not just a matter of wanting to see my end that keeps me staring. I want to look now.
I have to.
“Accept Jaakobah the Destroyer or perish.” The mage’s knife drops closer, the tip of the double blades slices through my shirt and I feel the cool metal of the blades press to my skin. “Now, which will it be Bride of the Hell Maw? Do you accept our Lord of War and Chaos?”
A tear slides out of the corner of my eyes and then another joins it. My tears hit the dusty earth and I feel the ground shake. Around me mages moan in fear and cower low to the ground, the ones that don’t stumble and fall from the force of the quaking ground.
The head mage stays steady. He doesn’t notice the world around us and neither do I. “Will you be his anchor in this life and in the next? Do you accept Jaakobah?”
“I do,” I whisper. Everything goes still for a second, even the wind stops blowing. Silence heavy and whole falls down around us. The mage pushes the knife down and everything goes white.
Chapter
Eleven
Ithink the rock blew up.
At least that’s the first thought I have when I open my eyes. There’s a ringing in my ears, high-pitched and tinny, just the way everything sounded when I got too close to the speakers at assemblies or had to pass beneath the fire alarms at school. Those moments made me feel light-headed and disoriented. It’s like that now.
It’s worse, really.
I roll onto my side and bring my hands up to slowly push myself into a sitting position. I freeze the second I’m sitting up. There’s snowflakes drift down onto my hands.
“Snow?” I look around in confusion. It’s October, which means snow isn’t out of the question but there was no sign of a snow storm tonight. I look up at the sky, it’s hazier, the moon hard to see with the snow falling. Around me the clearing is dark on account of the light from the rock being gone, but there’s still enough light for me to see the rock isn’t the same. It’s been blown in half.
“What the hells?” I whisper and push up to my knees to get a better look at the boulder. It’s half as big as it was before, the side of the rock that had the crack in it is gone. It's likesomeone came and chopped it right in half. Neat as you please, just like Ms. Donna when she’s dishing up cake. Something isn’t right. Beyond the whole this rock was glowing just a second ago business though. There’s no debris from the missing rock. I look around the clearing to see not a single chunk or piece anywhere of it. There’s not so much as a pebble. The ground is turning white with a light blanket of snow. It’s not cold enough for the snow to stick, though.
