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Mountains turned to forest which turned to rolling planes. The scene grew familiar.
For a moment, I expected to see a castle of black stone appear on the horizon, a moat around it threatening all visitors to stay away.
But Cole had destroyed that castle, and everything in the pocket realm, when he’d returned to his seat of power in order to find me.
The familiarity went deeper. A sense of déjà vu spilled over me. Iwas on the right track. The pull grew stronger and stronger until I reached my target at last.
The mantle of Hell.
The enchantress hadn’t described it, hadn’t told me to go by anything more than feeling, but I had no doubts. There was a pool of lava, maybe thirty feet in diameter, that seemed to have sprung out of nowhere. The surface boiled, glowing bubbles of flame popping along the surface, yet there was no heat emanating from the pool.
It was familiar. So familiar.
I had come here in a dream, with Cole. The night of the Choosing, the ceremony where I’d been doomed to find my moon-matched mate.
“What if you’re fated to someone in your pack?” he had asked.
“Fate wouldn’t be so cruel.”
How little I had known. I thought I’d known cruelty before, but nothing had prepared me for the shock of finding out my bully was my predestined partner.
A stab of memory hit me, a vision of the lake as if looking through a different set of eyes. I’d been here, not just in my dreams, but… another time. A memory tugged and tugged, threatening to rise in my consciousness.
But nothing came. All I was left with was a migraine.
I shifted back to my human form.
And then, guided by an instinct I’d only begun to trust, I walked into the lake.
The lava didn’t scald me, nor did it smother me. I stepped forward until I was fully submerged, yet I was able to breathe and open my eyes.
“You’ve come for the mantle,”a voice said.
The voice was neither male nor female, neither weak with age norstrong with youth nor raised like that of a child. It echoed outside my ears and in my head at the same time.
“I have.” Speaking was difficult under the lava. Not for a physical reason—it didn’t drown me—but as if an oppressive magic was pushing down on every part of me, testing my mettle.
“Strength, courage, and selflessness. A ruler must have all three,”the voice intoned. “Do you agree to face the trials?”
“I do.” I wasn’t sure I possessed any of the qualities, honestly, but turning back now wasnotan option.
There was no warning before what happened next.
Chapter IV
One moment, I’d beenstanding, submerged in the calm lake of lava, able to speak and breathe.
The next, the lake was a violent mess. Waves pushed against me, assaulting me on all sides. The temperature heated. The very magic of the lake came alive. If I’d thought all it had to offer was a spooky voice, I was very, very wrong.
The magic of the mantle was ancient. Potent. It had been cloaking itself, allowing only the barest hint of itself to trickle to the surface, as a way to guide any who sought it out.
Now?
Now, that hold was unbarred.
It flooded me with the magic. More than the waves or heat of the lava, the magic itself was nearly unbearable. I gritted my teeth, tensing my muscles, but there was no way to strike back at an enemy that surrounded you on all sides. Not physically.
I summoned my magic, green sparks lighting around me. First at my fingertips, then slowly spreading over my body. I tried to build a protective layer around myself, but each time I tried, another wave, each stronger than the last, slammed into me at a different angle and sent me stumbling.
