“You have no idea! I’ve been kidnapped, thrown into a prophecy I never asked for, and now a goddess tells me I’m supposed to restore balance? I don’t even know what that means!” My voice cracks. “And all of this after my mother... after she?—” I swallow hard, tears blur my vision. “After she died. I didn’t even get a moment to grieve, not a single moment!”
Theron’s expression softens, his hazel eyes filled with sympathy. It only makes me angrier.
“Don’t look at me like that!” I shout. “Don’t act like you understand! You weren’t there. You didn’t see her die. You don’t know what it’s like to lose everything in a matter of days.”
Theron’s massive body is shading me, but I don’t care how big he is. I glare up at him. I refuse to back down.
As soon as I felt I could finally take control of my life... it all crumbled.
“Remember when I told you I felt the blue rose within you?” he says, his voice so calm, soinfuriatinglycalm.
I grit my teeth. “Yes, and what does that even mean?”
He drops to his knees beside me, reaching out to take my hand. Even when he kneels, I’m not as tall as him. “The blue rose is a symbol of power. It’s been with you all along, guiding you, giving you strength.”
I yank my hand out of his grip. “Strength? What strength?” My breath comes in short bursts. “The only thing that happened was that I had my mother’s handkerchief. It had a crystal in it??—”
Theron dips his chin. “The blue rose has been with you all your life. It’s more than a symbol. It’s part of you. The goddess spoke of it because she knows how important it is.”
I can’t take it anymore. His calmness, his explanations, his talk of destiny and blue roses, it’s all too much. I feel like I’m drowning, and no matter how much I fight to stay above water, I’m still sinking.
My body shakes with frustration. “I don’tcareabout the blue rose! I don’twantit! I don’t wantanyof this!” I turn away from him, trying to breathe, trying to calm myself down, but it’s useless.
“Thousands of years ago, humans, vólkins, and spirits lived in harmony. Nature provided for us, and we nurtured and respected it. There were no wars or hunger, and no suffering,” Theron says, pointing at the flora and fauna around us. “Then something happened, and the balance in nature was disturbed.” He sighs. “For a reason we do not know, we have been trapped behind a strong barrier that didn’t let anyone escape. For four centuries.”
Why is he telling me all this?
“A barrier? What do you mean?” I didn’t see any barrier.
Theron looks into my eyes, his expression serious. “It was an invisible wall that surrounded Ávera and its forests. No one could pass through it, not vólkins, not spirits, not even the goddesses.”
“I walked into the forest just fine,” I say, but the words feel wrong even as they leave my lips. When I ran into the woods, I crossed whatever invisible threshold Theron’s talking about. I didn’t feel anything. No force. No barrier. And yet... When I was running through the forest, I did notice changes in mysurroundings. I thought it was normal, given the fact that I’ve never been in a forest before, but now that I think about it, the berries Theron and I gathered were sweeter than the berries I ate in Tárnov. Even the apples were rounder, and their color was deeper.
A four-hundred-year-old curse, undone in an instant. Because of me?
I don’t know whether to laugh or be sick.
“That was when you started restoring the balance,” he says, giving me a flower that he just picked from the ground near me. “I believe the moment you crossed it, the barrier lifted.”
It can’t be so simple. But also... Why would he lie? And... a goddess appeared. I don’t know what to think, truly. “Why would that happen?”
“I think because you are the blue rose, my Noël. Blue roses are sacred, and the ones who carry them in their blood are very powerful.”
For generations, women couldn’t leave the villages . . .
A woman who is born in Tárnov, dies in Tárnov.
That’s what we were taught since we were little girls. Whenever I looked at the main gates, I always saw the sad gazes of the village women. No one dared to question it. But now I know why.Of course.
If we couldn’t leave the village, and I was the one who lifted this barrier... It can only mean one thing—the barrier is known, and the tsar and the army didn’t want it to be destroyed. And yet...
I was a soldier, a commander. But never a leader of prophecy. Never the kind of woman Theron’s talking about.
I glance up at him. “How do you know all this?”
“Every spirit, every vólkin, and all the goddesses know it. A woman is born, radiant like the dawn, a beacon of light. She grows with the essence of the earth and sky. Her spirit is tied tothe soil, and her soul dances with the winds.” He looks into my eyes with a kind of awe that both confuses and terrifies me. “You are a child of nature, Noël.”
Something stirs within me, something buried so far down I didn’t even know it was there. The warmth of his words, his gaze—it’s all too familiar.
