Kohen's mouth snapped shut. He gave me a quick glance before making his exit to follow orders.
Anxiety swelled within my core, mixing with my shock and creating an undeniable sense of trepidation as Blythe crouched in front of where I sat.
“Am I about to die?” I felt so weak right now that I must have been edging the veil of life and death.
She blessed me with a comforting smile. Her glass arm reached out to me, brushing the tangles of my hair over my shoulder. “No, my star.”
My head rocked side to side. “But…the sacrifice. The prophecy…I thought if I set you free, that it would be fulfilled. I don't understand.”
“I told you not to fear the sacrifice, did I not?”
“Well, yes, but?—”
“You let your mistrust of yourself and others get in the way of your excellence. I hope that with what’s to come, you are able to relieve yourself of that agony.” Her voice strummed something in my brain, creating a sense of tranquility within the layers of my soul.
“The fable I guided you to is correct, but you already knew that. I was banished centuries ago by my siblings—locked into that figurine for being toopowerful. There is some truth to that claim, but they were destroying everything. I had no choice but to undo the horror they were creating. They had gotten lazy. With each mortal they gifted to work for them, more havoc overtook the beauty of the world we had worked so hard at building. The balance of nature was unwinding beneath our very feet.” She paused to place a finger under my chin, tipping my gaze to meet hers. “I could not allow that.”
Blythe rose to her full height, which would tower over me if I had the strength to stand. “I knew my siblings' intentions for me, so I had an enchanter help me devise the prophecy. I needed a plan to ensure that when unbalance caused the world to cave in on itself, there would be a fix. Before my siblings fated me to my tomb of stone, I gifted one last soul a fragment of my power in order to keep my line of magic alive.” Her head shot towards me. “You.”
Her words didn't surprise me, as everything she told me I more or less had pieced together through the manuscripts and my visions.
“I knew you would be created before generations of your ancestors even existed. I was waiting for the right moment to give the world my last gift. Things needed to get worse before you could make them better.”
“How has the balance of nature unwound?” I asked, confused by her claim.
She spun in a circle, her palms opened flat towards the stars. “Don’t you see it? The very chaos we are standing in the midst of, flows throughout the entity of our world.”
“Sure, things in Caelestis are pretty catastrophic, but surely that’s not the case over the entire planet?”
“Horrific things are underway. You may not see it now, but you will.”
“But you’re free now. You’ve been saved, can’t you stop it?” Using all of my strength, I tried to push myself up from the ground.
The goddess came back for me, assisting my efforts by pulling me to my feet. Her touch was light and feathery on my skin. “There is no hope for saving me, my star. There never was.”
I stared at her blankly, studying her bittersweet expression. I had been following what she was telling me, but now I honestly had no clue what she was even talking about. “You mean I just destroyed a priceless statue for no reason?” Kohen was right. The king would definitely have a shit fit about this.
She caught onto my confusion, and breathed out a breath of starlight, though ignoring my accusatory question. “You will not be the one who dies tonight.”
A sigh of relief-coated air poured from my throat. My posture laxed where I stood, somehow steadier than I was a few moments prior.
Blythe dropped her hand from me. “The sacrifice is in regard to myself. When I am gone, you will take my place.”
My relief was short-lived.
Though it was a struggle, I formed a singular word of shock. “Wh…what?”
I shivered as Blythe made contact with my jewels, trailing a single crystalline finger over my cheekbone. “I could not have chosen a better soul to give these to.” A connection sparked between us as she touched me—magic flickering between our souls.
She’d been waltzing around a clear explanation, leaving too much up to my imagination. “Please, tell me what is going on,” I prompted the goddess.
Blythe’s eyes drooped with sorrow and a single drop of silvery liquid streamed down her skin. “I wish we had more time, but the clock runs short. We must be quick with completing the transition.”
“Transition?”
“Take my hands.” Blythe reached her palms out to me.
I glanced down at them, shaking my head.
