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It wouldn’t be long until Astor exchanged any information to save himself. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d done it. I was sure, even if Salenia killed him, she’d extract all the information about me to her beforehand.
We’d lost our element of surprise.
Erianna’s voice rang through the house and out into the gardens as she found her way back. “Olivia, I couldn’t find them.”
“We’re here,” Zach shouted back, but I couldn’t focus on what they were saying. The night air dropped a few degrees, the cold chilling my bones as I knew we were out of time.
Azia’s voice cut through me as he swiveled to face the house. “We have little time. Let’s not even wait until morning.”
TWELVE
Olivia
Aftersecuringthehousewith a boundary spell, which wouldn’t do much against another sorcerer, like the ones who came, but would deter any vampires, we got to work. “I am learning so much from this book,” I admitted, holding it to my chest. “I should thank Charles.”
Azia lowered himself into a tall wooden chair. “Not now. When it is safe.”
I nodded, then reopened the book, my magic purring as I read over the complicated spells. My fingers landed over one, giving the summoner the ability to freeze particles and create a wall of ice. I studied it for a moment, then bookmarked the page for later.
I landed the book next to me on the desk with a thump, then sighed. My eyes were drawn to an ornate oil lamp that sat atop the desk as I imagined the worst-case scenarios, a practice I’d done my whole life, as if it might somehow prepare me for what was to come. But each scene I formed in my mind only increased the nausea stirring.
A bright flame erupted from the wick, lighting up a map that had been carefully arranged between us. The light from the oil lamp flickered against the parchment paper, and the fireplace to my side crackled and popped, filling the room with a warmth that fought tirelessly against the cool drafts seeping through the cracks around the windows. Azia placed two paperweights on the corners of the parchment, then slowly dragged his long finger against the intricate markings. “This is a map of the realms,” he explained. “Tomorrow, we will have to leave here, before Astor arrives at the castle and tells them everything. I must hurry our lessons along.”
“If Sebastian lets us go,” I warned, shifting in my chair as I thought back to our argument earlier. “To the castle, I mean.”
Guilt nestled in my chest as I thought back to earlier. I wished I didn’t have to Sebastian to him like that, but his fear was smothering me. Ever since, I’d sensed regret in our bond, and everything in me wanted to go upstairs, to hug him, kiss him, and mostly show him that everything would be okay. But something lingered in his expression earlier, a darkness I hadn’t seen before, like an unspoken promise that he wouldn’t let me go after Salenia. “Whatever your sorceress told him, it’s made him worse.”
“You’ll need to manage him. We will need to be united if we are going to kill a goddess.”
“You think it’s still possible? We haven’t found a way yet. She’s immortal. There’s no weapon that can kill her.”
“Books,” he announced, “along with other artifacts, will lead us to the answer. There’s the afterlife,” he said, pointing at a map I couldn’t read. Hell, I was surprised anyone could. Hundreds of small sigils, symbols, and ancient lettering and numbers I couldn’t make out placed inside of large spheres took over the paper. “Then there’s the underworld. It’s not the same, see,” he pointed at a bunch of numbers as if it was obvious.
“Yeah, it’s clearly all right there,” I joked, but he nodded, not picking up on the sarcasm.
“It’s a place between worlds, a dimension Salenia manipulated into a prison for her and her victims.”
“Why is it all in numbers and symbols?”
“It’s the only way we can describe the realms. There’s our realm,” he said, his finger landing in the middle of a sphere at the end of the page. “I can see you, you can see me, and here we are, souls in bodies, separate from each other. When we die, we move into another realm, one where time, separation, and space don’t exist. That’s why it’s complicated to draw it. That realm is in the fifth dimension. We are in the third.”
My brows knitted together as I struggled to imagine it. “When I was with the gods, they were in mortal looking bodies.”
“It was for your benefit,” he assured. “I assume they also manifested some kind of worldly environment to make you more comfortable. We call them gods, but they are simply ethereal beings on a higher level of consciousness, one we can’t contemplate. At least not here, where there’s the veil.”
“Veil?”
“Yes. We didn’t materialize from nothing and became a person here. You know we have a soul; do you think it’s new?”
I rubbed the side of my neck. “I hadn’t thought about it.”
“We choose to come here and to other worlds too, for experience, growth, to serve. Whatever the reason it may be, each realm and world has its own uses. In this one, we don’t remember who we were before we were born. The illusion of separation does that. We don’t feel connected to the gods or any other ethereal being, our soul family, or anyone else. You and Sebastian would have known each other before this world. It’s why your connection to this one is strong.”
I scratched the side of my neck, tangling my hair between my fingers as my thoughts drifted to Sebastian. His pain echoed mine in the bond, the regret entangling until it was difficult to tell where mine began and his ended.
I cleared my throat, refocusing. We had little time left.
Azia continued, and I breathed in the scent of burned sage drifting from a nearby candle. “So, Salenia used a higher dimension to manifest her own prison,” he explained. “Using ancient magic that went wrong. The underworld is a representation of her, desperation, jealousy, anger. She trapped herself by allowing herself to become consumed by these worldly emotions. It is why she desires to be here more than her family. We come to this world to grow, to be in the illusion so we can learn the hard lessons.
