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“Next time you decide to body-snatch a bitch? A heads up would be appreciated,” I muttered as embarrassment rushed through me the moment realization of what I’d done with Zyion decided to fully sink into my brain. Stepping back, I felt him pulling farther away as well. “It wasn’t me…before? It wasn’t me in control.” I needed him to understand my interest in him was entirely platonic.
“I’m aware of who attempted to kiss my lips, princess.” His words were sharply issued, and tightly clipped. They forced my regard to him, forcing my forehead to crinkle at the anger simmering in his stare. “I wasn’t sure you’d ever reappear, my queen.”
“I am no longer your queen, Vicious.” Scylla’s use of the name he didn’t enjoy responding to, caused a deep crease to form on my forehead. “My time here is very short. If we’re to win this war, then we must begin planning for what happens next. As I was saying before Aria began screaming inside her mind. Hecate coming to our world wasn’t by accident,” she explained, slowly moving throughout the chamber, which forced everyone else to snap out of the shock of seeing the dead queen in the flesh. Or as close to the flesh as she could get.
“Wow, is that yourdeadgrandmother?” Esme asked, recovering first. “Holy shit. Well, I’ll be damned. You aren’t insane after all. Or am I insane, too? Is this insanity you told me, contagious to others?” Esme stepped away from me, her eyes slowly narrowing suspiciously. As if I’d given her insanity from being around her. At my soft snort, she shrugged her shoulders with a matter-of-fact look tightening her delicate features. “Hey, I hadn’t even known a person could be inflicted with this ailment of insanity, or that there was such a thing. You are the one who told me about such things, Aria.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she eyed Scylla, then flicked her hair over her shoulder. “For the record, this is why we can’t be best friends. You make me insane, then I end up seeing your dead ancestors too.”
“I am not making youseeanything. You do know the entire realm can see her as well. Right? I mean, unless we’re all insane, we’re all looking at my dead ancestor,” I whispered back, knowing it was heard by everyone inside the room. Eva stepped forward, which caused my attention to shift to her.
“Scylla?” When Scylla turned, facing Eva, a soft, heartwarming filled smile curved her at the corner of her lips. “My Queen,” Eva whispered, then dropped to her knees, bowing.
“Correct me if I’m wrong here, but she is dead. Right?” Acheron asked, which had Basilius nodding his head, as his narrowed gaze mirrored mine. “I swear, I did not eat any of those mushrooms this time, Basilius.” Rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms, he blinked rapidly, as if it would reveal the truth. “I am not hallucinating because of them, for the record.”
“I’m most definitely dead. While you are most definitely of the Karnavious bloodline.” Scylla’s tone held aversion embedded deeply in the tone. It caused discomfort to rush through me. Turning toward the other princes, I noted they were also on edge.
“Why are you here?” Basilius asked, his fingers flexing as if he prepared to defend his brothers from her if need be.
“To tell you what is about to unfold. Aria is about to begin the war which will decide the fate of the Nine Realms. If she intends to win, then she needs to know the rest of the story of how she was created, and her purpose in the fight to come.” Scylla’s hand extended, touching mine with a heartwarming smile. “Before Hecate entered the realms, I’d been shown a vision of the destruction her presence would create. She would become a disease, which would then spread throughout the land. It would send the realms into a downward spiral of utter chaos. The magic Hecate houses, it caused an unbalance of power within the realms. As you all know, the land requires balance to remain stable, but without that balance?” Scylla left the question open, knowing we knew the result of the unbalance she spoke of.
“Once it destabilizes to a certain point, it will return to nothing but a maw of darkness.” Zyion’s words had tension cutting through those inside the chamber. “Which means the Nine Realms is slowly deteriorating until it won’t exist anymore.”
Zyion’s words caused a buzzing to blare in my ears. If the realms were becoming unstable, it meant we’d all die. Right? How the hell had I missed that?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aria
“Yes,that’sexactlywhatwill occur, and Aria’s presence has sped up the process. She unknowingly removed the runic pentagram. It is what carried the mana throughout the kingdoms, dispersing it through each land. Hecate did, however, rearrange them for her own personal use, weakening the people. So, you’d have to have collected them, anyway.”
My jaw dropped, and I barely restrained myself from slapping my forehead. I’d never even considered it could be something else. In fact, I’d felt brilliant for discovering the shape of the pentagram. Of course, I’d assumed it had been Hecate who’d placed it since the pentagram was so closely aligned with her magic.
“You are not at fault, Aria. But you need to return them in order to stabilize the land. Plus, you’ve already begun doing so, which shall offset the balance, per se. Aurora didn’t realize what she’d asked of you in her need to gather power because she didn’t understand that they can’t be held after removal. Had she removed them, Aurora would’ve perished instantaneously. That part she was very aware of. That’s why she had you attempt to steal them for her.”
“How do I put them back?”
“Unfortunately, in order to replace them, you’ll need to finish collecting them. Once you’ve done so, you will need to release them where you feel the pull to do so. The land will guide you to where it wants them. The elements will do the rest for you. They don’t need a body or vessel to house them. That was Hecate’s way of punishing rulers who’d refused to bend the knee to her claim for the throne over all of the realms.”
“That’s something, at least,” I muttered as some of the pressure I’d felt dropped off my shoulders. “If I don’t release them soon enough, what happens to this realm?”
“Well, considering you carry the flame within you, that is the heart of this realm? It dies, then the walls deteriorate. It was never created to be a permanent home to our people.” My breath stilled in my lungs because the thought of displacing that many people all at once was unsettling.
“It isn’t your responsibility to carry the weight of that burden. As queen, your only responsibility is to ensure they have a kingdom to go back to. The majority won’t mind returning to the home they fled from in order to survive. A kingdom is nothing without a heart. When you leave here, you will take it with you.” Scylla’s fingers touched beneath my collarbone, pushing against my heart. “You are the heart of the kingdom. Our people will feel it once you ascend, which will draw them back to the place they call home.”
“How is it possible that it will cease to exist by Aria leaving, who just arrived, mind you, leaves?” Eva questioned, her head cocked to the side, as if she were trying to understand what Scylla had disclosed.
“Freyja created the Kingdom of Fire around seeds she’d brought here with her. Those seeds became sentient beings. Once they’d put down roots, it sealed the creation of the first realm within the nine. Aria now carries those seeds, as well as the most of the elements.”
Scylla’s explanation sparked memories of things I’d learned during a time of forced imprisonment in the basement as a child. Sabine had brought down books on Norse mythology and the cosmos. In that moment, the bits of information were a hundred tiny puzzle pieces, meeting to create the perfect picture.
“Yggdrasil? Your mother didn’t bring you here to avoid conflict with those opposing seidr. She brought you here to hide what you were. She brought you here because she’d stolen seeds from Yggdrasil, which she then planted in the void.” My mind spun with the facts being slammed against the blackboard in my brain. “She consumed them, didn’t she? Freyja swallowed the seeds from the world tree to create you, her daughter.”Take that, scholars!My grin was almost manic, but Zyion and Scylla looked at me as if I’d lost my marbles. The longer they both stared, the stupider I felt, and my smile slowly faded.
“I warned you she’d be incredibly intelligent if you forced my blood to be added to the mold,” Zyion murmured, eyes sparkling with pride that caused a flurry within my belly. Not one of lust, but of worry. Had he just stated his blood had been used to mold me? Because that shit wasn’t strange at all?
“Which means Aria now carries the mana of the world tree inside her. As did I and my mother before her. The seeds attached only to daughters born from mothers who swallowed them, and my mother was uncertain about the spreading process. Not all of the girls in our bloodline were born with the mana of the tree inside them. There is also the fact that many before my mother had stolen and swallowed the seeds, but only a few ever came to fruition. The seeds are selective of whom they flourish within, as well. Aria will return to the Nine Realms, which means this one will cease to exist without the mana of my soul to keep it living.”
“You said they gave you a vision?” Basilius’s interruption forced my eyes to snap up before sliding to where he’d leaned back against the wall. “A vision of what, exactly?”
Scylla’s head turned, which caused Zyion to tense with apprehension that I keenly felt.
