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Since I’d found out I had a bit of magic, I’d been too scared to use it. I’d been careful with everything I touched, but it hadn’t shown up again. When I’d trained with Dex and the other warriors, I’d been myself.
Nylah beckoned for me to follow her through a door I’d never noticed before. The wood was so old, it had slivered with time, and when we stepped in, the room was dark. Candles sprang to light as we walked in. They were packed all over the room, on surfaces, on the floor, in chandeliers against the wall, and hanging from the ceiling. Dried wax littered the floor where it had dripped, and it looked like it had been here for centuries. The candles had melted down, standing on bases thick with wax, the bases of candles that had burned down before.
In the middle of the room stood a low stool with a pillow on top.
“Kneel there,” Nylah said. “Close your eyes, and don’t worry. I’ll do the rest.”
I did as she asked. Although she’d said not to worry, I tasted my heart in my throat. The idea of a ritual scared me.
Nylah started packing candles all around me, creating an intricate design I couldn’t make out. She walked a few steps in certain directions, counting them off before muttering words in a language I didn’t understand.
Eventually, so many candles surrounded me, if I moved in any direction, I would catch fire.
She mumbled under her breath. A breeze picked up in the room, making the flames dance on their wicks, causing shadows to flicker on the walls. The more Nylah mumbled, the more the wind blew, and the candles threatened to go out. But they didn’t. We were surrounded by light.
Suddenly, we weren’t alone in the room. A warm burst of energy joined us, another presence. I shivered. I was hyper-aware, feeling thisbeingand the power that came with it. It was warm water pouring over my body.
It was only there for a moment before it disappeared again.
I watched as Nylah’s face changed. She took on a surreal expression. Her skin became almost translucent, and it was clear she wasn’t quite with me anymore.
She continued to mumble, and her face went through an array of emotions as she had what I assumed was a conversation with the Goddess Terra.
Finally, Nylah opened her eyes and looked right at me. The golden hue of her eyes glowed as if they were jewels, set alight by some divine inner flame.
“A human born with the light—” she started in a strange voice, but darkness swirled into the room and cut her off. The candles went out. One by one, as if they were being snuffed out by something moving past them.
I looked away from her, breaking eye contact, and suddenly, the shadows were everywhere. Darkness wrapped itself around me, and the Conjurite magic was so powerful, I couldn’t breathe. With the last candles out and no windows in the room, we plunged into blackness.
It wrapped tighter and tighter around me. My ears started ringing, and it felt like my blood vessels were going to burst. My head pounded.
“Nylah,” I croaked.
I couldn’t see her. Couldn’t fight back. Couldn’t move.
“Ellie!” I heard her scream.
But the darkness won out, and I sank into oblivion.
28
Icame to, lying on a cold hard stone. I shivered but kept my eyes closed. I listened to my surroundings. A dripping faucet was somewhere in the distance, and howling of the wind around corners filled my ears.
When I heard nothing else, I opened my eyes. The dim lighting was enough to pierce my skull with a stabbing headache, and I groaned. I clutched my head and curled into a ball on the stone, trying to breathe through the pain.
Slowly, it subsided enough that I could bear it, and I pushed up.
I looked around. I was in a cell with a stone floor and walls with nothing but a pile of rags in the corner. A window close to the ceiling was protected with metal bars, far too high for me to reach to look out of. Toward the front of the cell, there was a metal door with nothing more than a narrow slot carved in the center, which I assumed food could be passed through.
Where was I? How had I gotten here?
This situation was reminiscent of how I’d come to the palace. I prayed to the Goddess that I wasn’t about to face another beast.
I shivered and rubbed my arms, trying to remember what had happened. When I tried to think, the stabbing headache returned, and I groaned, trying to find memories around it.
Dimly, I flashed on Nylah, mumbling.
Candles in a dark room.
