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Her body calmed, and a sweet languor came over her. The warmth in her belly began to spread. It was a strange sensation, a tingle traveling down her limbs to her fingertips. She shivered.
He held her closer. “It’s all right, my Grace. This is exactly what’s supposed to happen. Blood magic will spread throughout your body so it can change you. Your starved aura will be very glad to have it.”
The warmth blossomed into heat that raced through her veins. Something vast and far more powerful than her was taking control of her. Fear flashed through her.
“I know it’s always difficult for you to relinquish control,” Lio said, “but I’m here to guide you through. Surrender to the Gift, Cassia Komnena.”
She knew this power. The magic overtaking her was so familiar. It had kept her safe and given her hope on all the worst nights of her life. Hesperine power. Blood magic.
And now it was inside her.
Lio’s blood and Hespera’s magic were inside her body. There was no turning back now.
When the magic reached her eyes, her vision blurred. Lio’s face above her began to fade.
“I’m here.” His voice was so sure and steady. “Your Divining is starting. I will experience the visions with you in Grace Union, and my thelemancy will enable me to help you even more. We’ll do this together.”
The fear sank in and did not let her go. Her past was coming for her, and she must face it.
Please, Hespera. Forgive me. Redeem me.
That prayer was her last coherent thought before her memories rose up to drown her.
Cassia stood up, her spade in hand, and surveyed the rows of pea seedlings. The sun shone on their little green leaves and warmed her aching muscles. Knight lay stretched on his side, sunning himself at the edge of the garden.
She was proud of this, she realized. People all over Paradum would eat her peas. And they would know she had grown them. For the first time in her life, she had…created something. Something that mattered to others.
She wasn’t sure what this feeling was, tiny and new, poking up out of her like the little plants out of the soil.
“You were happy.” Lio stood beside her in his veil hours robe, his bare toes digging into her soil. He held up a hand to shade his eyes. He looked so handsome in the sunlight.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “You should get to see my good memories, too.”
Cassia knelt down again, measuring a pea seedling with her hand. She would grow the people of Paradum the best vegetables they had ever tasted. She was determined. That sense of purpose filled her.
It seemed to build into a force of its own and flow out of her. Something else she couldn’t see swelled up from the ground to meet her. The world shifted, and she dug her spade into the ground to steady herself, clinging to the handle.
An exhilaration she had never known coursed through her. Before her eyes, the pea seedlings began to grow. She watched in frozen wonder as her vegetables sprang up to her shoulders.
She was still staring at them in astonishment when motion in the kitchen doorway caught her eye. Miranda was standing there, a knife in her hand and a slice of apple halfway to her mouth.
The strength rushed out of Cassia suddenly. Lio caught her as she tumbled over onto her side.
He rested her head on his lap. “Cassia, what just happened? Did you use magic at Paradum when you were fourteen?”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
“The Gifting is restoring your missing memories. Your visions will reveal to us what really happened.”
Miranda rushed to Cassia’s side and helped her up. She put Cassia’s arm around her shoulders and guided her to the kitchen door. “Don’t worry. We’ll tell Agata. She’ll know what to do.”
The memory blurred. Cassia found herself sitting at the kitchen table with Lio and Miranda on either side of her.
Agata was across from them, her eyes shining. “Kyria bless, my girl. Do you know what this means?”
“I…I have magic.” If Cassia kept saying it aloud, perhaps she would believe it.
Agata smiled. “Garden magic, to be sure.”
