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The three priestesses dipped their heads, chanting and moving their hands, looking like they were creating a spell. That was the closest thing I could relate it to. A burst of water sounded, and we all turned to the pool below. Two cages emerged from its depths, floating above the surface, and dissipating once they were over the stone dais.
Two wolves lay prone, and Pan rushed to their sides. Their bodies were lackluster, drenched, and unmoving. Until he touched them. In an instant, the wolves took on an effervescent quality. Pan’s skin shimmered in a way it hadn’t before. The misery and exhaustion on his face melted away. They stood, nuzzling his neck. They were whole again, the three of them, and Pan’s power looked as though it had stabilized and returned.
He'd given me up for them. I wanted to hate him for it, but I knew how my sister and her wolf were bound to each other’s souls. He did what he had to do, and I understood that through the deepest part of my anger. My shoulders sagged, and I took a painful breath.
“The Arcadians,” I said softly, waiting for him to acknowledge me. When he did, I continued. “Will they become normal again? Proper shifters? Your magic ... your power ... If I stay here, will the madness that everyone has fallen into stop?”
He hesitated, his gaze shifting to the mosaic behind me, then he nodded slowly, and I understood what I had to do. My desire to leave this place, to fight my way out—I had to let it go. An entire realm suffered, and if I could save them from the nightmare they’d been living, I had to try. But this wasn’t what I’d expected to find in my search. I never realized this would be my purpose. Noble as it might be to sacrifice oneself, it still sucked.
“Pan,” I called out, and some of the sadness he’d worn returned when our eyes met. “Find my family. Tell them I love them and that I’m with other peacocks again. Tell them I’m okay so they never come looking for me. Do you understand? Lie to them like you lied to me. Don’t let them cross into Arcadia. They canneverknow the truth.”
“Adora, I—”
“Say you understand. Promise me this one thing. You owe me that much.” I needed him to protect Danni, Nova, and my moms. They’d search for me, and I didn’t know what they’d find. My heart ached when I thought of them, but it would shatter into a million pieces if I thought they’d get hurt looking for me. I’d almost lost Danni once, and it nearly destroyed me as I watched the life drain from her eyes. I needed to know she’d be okay. “Say it, Pan,” I yelled, blinking furiously through my tears.
He set his jaw, his lips pressing into a thin, hard line. His nodded once, closing his eyes as he did. “I understand.”
He turned, disappearing into the water with Flora and Fauna, and I stood unmoving until the water’s surface settled again, not a ripple in sight.
A priestess laid her hand on my shoulder, and I flinched, disgusted by the contact. When her skin touched mine, it didn’t elicit the electric buzz I felt with Pan. It wasn’t tender like my mothers’, or gentle and reassuring like my sister’s. The touch was cold and sinister, causing me to pull away and sneer at her.
The priestess in gold walked to the mosaic, pressing a stone deep into the wall like a button. A loud groan sounded before a split appeared down the middle, parting into two door panels that swung inward.
Torches came to life on the wall, illuminating the hidden room.
Dark and rotted tree roots had broken through the ceiling. Black vines crept up through the cracks in the floor, wrapping themselves around the pillars that surrounded a large basin. Between each pillar, a curtain of water fell. A stale odor hit me, and I recoiled, coughing to the side.
“You’ve really kept up the place. Honest, it’s the warmest welcome I could have imagined when I dreamed about what my long-lost family would be like.” I walked forward, knowing full well they were going to tell me to go in anyway. “Nothing like eau de mildew and decay and ... a tub filled with blood.” I stopped dead in my tracks.
Horror filled me as I realized what the source of the rotting stench was. The contents of my stomach threatened to make an appearance, and I turned to the side, dry heaving as I doubled over, clenching my midsection.
“The fuck is wrong with you?” I choked out.
“It is time for your rebirth, Kali,” the green-clad priestess said.
“My re-what?” I repeated, taking a step back, wiping my face with my forearm.
“Soon you will remember.” The three peacocks pointed to the basin, signaling they expected me to get in.
“Um, there’s no way in all the worlds and realms that I am getting into that.” I continued taking steps back. I knew I’d just had a moment of realization that I could save the tortured people of Arcadia, but that was before three psychos wanted me to get into a bath of blood. I had no intention of staying. There had to be another way to save them. Not to mention I’d rather drown in water trying to swim away than drown infucking blood.
The priestess in blue robes chuckled, and the sound made my veins ice over. I couldn’t move, and to my horror, I understood it wasn’t a reaction. It was her using her magic on me. She was holding me in place while chanting, and the two other priestesses approached me and stood on either side and again, nausea washed over me.
My mind went to the finger bone in my pocket. I wouldn’t become that. I couldn’t. What that goddess had done ...
Before I could process what that meant, the spell that held me lifted my body into the air, dragging me toward the sacrificial basin.
“Let me go!” My screams echoed off the walls, shaking the room as bits of sand and dust fell from the cracks. The gold priestess pulled a dagger from her robes and approached me as I hung in the air above the red expanse. I eyed the weapon, and then her. Hatred tore through me. “I will kill each and every one of you the first chance I get,” I said, seething.
The peacock priestesses laughed in unison.
“You will forgive us when you return, Kali. You always do.”
Chapter11
Pan
I saton the edge of one of the floating stone steps leading to her temple. Flora and Fauna rested next to me, quiet and calm. They could feel my every emotion, though I imagined anyone could at this point. They didn’t have to be the other half of my soul. The turmoil inside me was so intense, I was sure it radiated off me in waves.
