AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Will you take me to her?”
He led me through the twists of the castle—there had been some changes necessitated by the quake. I could sense souls around me, almost like shimmering lights in my mind, but at the moment, they were indistinguishable from one another. Others reacted to my reappearance in a similar way as Hector had. At first, I thought it was just the time passing but maybe there was more to it.
“Why do they all look like they’ve seen a ghost?”
He didn’t glance at me as he answered, keeping his posture firm. Aside from that initial stumble, Hector was a steady presence. I could see the appeal Daphne so obviously found in him. He was clean-cut, a solid, square jaw unobscured by so much as a scruff. His looks were that of a simple soldier, fair-skinned with blond hair cropped close and bulging muscles that were obvious even in armor. He smelled like steel. It wasn’t exactly my taste—I preferred dark, threatening looksin a lithe yet powerful body—but I was glad she had him.
“You look like the old queen.”
“Aren’t they used to that by now?” I prodded.
He shook his head. “Not simply your visage. Your entire appearance; the way you carry yourself, the way you clothe yourself.”
I frowned. I hadn’t noticed myself moving differently at all, but there was some merit to what Hector said. I’d mimicked the style Persephone had worn in the lava lake. The magic had changed me.
I just wasn’t sure how, exactly.
Hector led me into the courtyard where I’d trained with Hecate before. The ancient, petrified tree she’d set me against, time and time again stood proudly at the center. It had survived the damage, or as much as a dead tree could. Not unscathed entirely; branches had snapped off and the tree had no life to regrow it, but it stood there all the same.
“Avery!” Daphne broke off from her conversation and ran to hug me. My arms wrapped around her, tightly embracing her.
Hecate gave a regal nod. “You’ve returned.”
I mirrored the movement. “I have.”
Hector moved away, but I didn’t miss the shared glance between him and my best friend.
“What happened?” she demanded, returning to face me.
“As I told you, child. The mantle takes as long as it needs to settle,” Hecate answered for me. “I don’t suppose you could be dissuaded from your foolhardy quest, now that you have earned the mantle? The people of this realm have been without a leader for too long.”
I stepped away from Daphne, stiffening. “Tell me you didn’t send me to claim the mantle in hopes I’d be convinced to abandon my planto rescue him?”
The mantle wouldn’t be given to me unless I was willing to give myself to the realm. I did plan to serve them. Had burned the promise on my soul.
“I did not,” Hecate replied in an unhurried tone. “I serve you, Soteria. I have never done any less.”
“And Iwillserve the realm. Starting by rescuing its king.”
I stepped towards the petrified tree and laid my palm on it, as I had a hundred times before.
Then, there had been something buried, the seed of something my life magic couldn’t quite grasp. I’d sweated in frustration at the impossible task.
Impossible—the word had a different meaning now. I shut my eyes and concentrated on the thread connecting me to the roots of the tree.
Dead. Petrified from age.
My life magic could do a lot, but it couldn’t undo death itself. Surely not.
Yet this tree… it reflected my magic back at me. It wasn’t only one kind of magic, but two. Sometime, probably hundreds of years ago, it had grown from my own magic. The tree was massive; growing something like this would’ve been well beyond my abilities before.
I focused. My magic was life, but taking the mantle had given me something else.
A greater understanding of death.
Death is not the end.
It was not just my own magic of green sparks I summoned when I pushed my energy into the tree. Black, death sparks drew around the trunk as well.
