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She raised her hand and said, “Aye.”
The rest of the large circular room had been silent through the woman’s speech. But at the raising of her hand, the other women all followed suit, raising their hands and agreeing with her.
Cyrene came forward then with a knife in her hand. “To bind.”
Kerrigan looked down at it wildly, her emotions on the fritz. “What do I do?”
“You bleed.”
Before Kerrigan could even move, Cyrene sliced across each of her forearms. Kerrigan cried out in pain as red blossomed on her arms. A bowl appeared where the book had once been, collecting the blood. She remained stoic as she watched it fill. Even as she felt woozy from the loss.
Cyrene hefted the bowl into her hands and over Kerrigan’s head. Kerrigan’s eyes went wide with alarm. She wanted to protest, but then Cyrene was dumping the blood over her head. The sticky substance soaking through her red hair and down her clothes and over her milky skin.
“Reach now,” Cyrene told her. “Take back what is yours. We’re here to ground you.”
Kerrigan opened her mouth to ask her what the hell that meant. Then, the tang of blood hit her tongue, and her head snapped backward. The room was open to the sky now. Stars filling the void above them. Her pupils dilated until she felt as if she could hold the entire cosmos in her mind. All the stars shifted into pretty constellations. The placement aligning ever so slightly until she could zero in on the precise point of focus.
The lights danced in her irises as she grasped the knowledge of the whole world. Her mind couldn’t possibly contain it. Everything was too massive. There was no way for her to ever understand the enormity of the universe, and yet she was still grasping, still reaching for more.
She wanted to stop and break away. She had enough. She had too much.
And yet she couldn’t stop.
She couldn’t bring herself to release all of that knowledge. Surely, she could expand to encompass it all. To become more than she was.
“Child,” a woman’s voice interrupted her, “this is not for you.”
Kerrigan turned her star-crusted eyes to the woman. She was magnificent in a gown of celestial light with galaxies in her all-black eyes and shining tattoos of all the stars upon her skin.
“I can’t stop.”
The woman glided toward her, radiating power. “You can. Release now.”
Her hand came to Kerrigan’s head, and it was like being touched by the heat of the sun. It burned through her from head to toe. She opened her mouth to scream, but all the came out was starlight glowing from every orifice.
And then there was nothing.
46
The Bond
Kerrigan gasped as she crested the surface of the pool. Air stung her burning lungs. Her body ached and sang, all at the same time. Her mind was reeling from what she’d seen. Who had the celestial woman been? What had the woman’s touch done to her? Had any of it even been real?
Then, there were voices.
“Kerrigan!” Fordham cried. He splashed into the star-lined pool to get to her, uncaring about why there were stars in the pool. His black clothing clinging to his hardened frame.
He grasped her around the middle, holding her up. “You’re okay. You’re okay.” He repeated it as if he could make it true.
“I’m okay,” she breathed. “We’re in stars.”
He brushed her matted red hair out of her face. “Only you could conjure stars into a pool such as this. Only you.”
It had been real. The water was no longer the clear blue of daylight, but the inky blue of midnight. White stars glowed in their depths, as if she had plucked the heavens from the sky and deposited them into the water. She’d never seen anything like it.
Her mother stared down at the banks of the water warily. “What happened? How is this possible?”
“It’s a miracle,” Vera said.
Cleora was on her knees with tears in her eyes. Danae stared agape at the entire scene. No one else moved to touch the water. As if they were afraid it was tainted and would infect them. Fordham was heedless of any danger.
“I released the stars,” Kerrigan breathed.
“Your magic?” Fordham asked hopefully.
She closed her eyes and reached down into that empty pit in her stomach. Except it was empty no longer. She barely had to brush the surface of the well, and there it was at her fingertips. The magic as bottomless as it had ever been. Just as perfect as she always remembered it.
Tears ran down her still-wet cheeks as she lifted her hand and let light shine from her palm.
“It worked,” Vera said.
“But how? The ritual …” Keres said, trailing off.
Kerrigan’s light expanded until the pool was fully illuminated. Her control on her magic back to full power. All the fears about it had disappeared with the ritual that Cyrene had helped her through. She didn’t know when she would be ready to talk about it, but she had her magic back. It was back.
