Page 17 of An Empress of Fire & Steel

The realisation of saying it out loud smacked into her, making every single piece of food she had just consumed travel back up her throat. She was the granddaughter of Theodora Clearwater, Theodora of House Air, the previous Supreme of all witches.

Her head buzzed and her heart scrunched again. Waves swirled like a riptide in her stomach.

Naya must have noticed, because suddenly, Emara felt a calm pour over her body before the earth witch spoke. “I am not really sure if this will help soothe your fears, but with all of the empresses who have lost their lives, it won’t just be you who will ascend on the next full moon. Every coven will have a new empress. You are not alone.”

Something about that did make Emara feel a little lighter, even though it shouldn’t. Perhaps the other witches felt the same way she did.

“I won’t be the only one?”

“No, my love, all the new empresses must ascend.” Naya took her hand and squeezed it again. “Most of them will have been primed in witchcraft from birth, but that doesn’t matter. I saw what raw talent you have, the burning power that soared from you and the unyielding winds that whipped around you. You have magic, girl, strong magic. You must talk to it, your air, and tell it what you want. That is the key.”

She could feel it now, stirring and urging for release, but that scared her more than it comforted her.

“I don’t know how to control it properly, or even summon it.” Emara let out an exhale that was almost followed by tears.

Ascend.

Witches had to ascend to become the empress of their House. Emara had read about the ascension of a witch from all the resources in the library. But all she really knew about it was that it was a ritual to connect the witch to the crown and title of the House. She had sought out that information after learning who her grandmother had been.

Naya leaned in further. “I am here for you. I will guide you. We have some time before the Cold Moon reaches its full potential; I’ll teach you the basics. We can't possibly cover everything with the time we have, but I won't let you go in blind. I know for certain that my boys won’t either.” She smiled and rubbed her thumb along Emara’s hand. “I have a feeling they are rather fond of you.”

Emara looked back to Naya. A burning rose in her chest that caused a hot flush to cascade down her back and neck. Another dreaded, almost suffocating question arose. “What will happen to me if I don’t want to marry Torin?”

Naya looked down at her hand but didn’t let go. “It can be seen as a betrayal to the clan, a rejection.” She caught Emara’s gaze. “The coven might also see it as a betrayal to them. After all, you are doing it to strengthen and unify the magic community, to ensure that your coven will always have an alliance should they feel attacked or need protection.” She swallowed. “Like now.”

“Oh Gods.” Emara pulled her hand from Naya’s and stood. The air in the room felt sparse in her lungs and they tightened. “Oh Gods.” Her heart rate doubled, pounding in her ears. She could feel the vomit rising again.

Naya stood too. “Listen, sweetheart, don’t worry about your alliance to the clan or any sort of marriage proposal. Not yet.” Emara studied Naya as she spoke again. “With everything that is going on, Viktir won’t push it just yet. He’s too busy. What you need to do now is much more important. You need to search your heart for an answer on what you want.”

Emara stood still, her lips parted, unsure of what to say.

Naya swept a loose curl back from her face. “Do you want to be the Empress of Air? Do you want to be in the magic community? Because if not, I can arrange right now for you to hide when the time comes.”

Like her grandmother had hidden.

But what kind of life would she have?

Emara bit into her lip a little too hard as she thought over the question. “Do I have a choice?”

“Everyone has a choice, Emara.”

A smoky silence fell into the air.

After a few moments of thought, she admitted, “It doesn’t feel like I have a choice. I am inexperienced. I am new to this. I don’t know what I am doing.” Emara’s breath left her sharp and quick. “I mean, I am damned if I do marry Torin, and I am damned if I don’t. If I don’t become the Empress of Air, the Gods that oversee this world would shun me just as much as the magic community would. And if I do, I am promised to marry someone who doesn’t even love me, who will probably never love me. But because of an ancient alliance that was probably carved in stone by the first hunter and witch, I have to.”

Her heart punched against her ribs and she blew out a breath.

Naya’s face was surprisingly distressed, and she was quiet for a while. “I think you would be surprised with how things could change for you.”

“What do you mean?”

Naya paused before her authority crept into her posture. “Torin is not who you think he is. He isn’t like his father, not on the inside.”

“I know he is not,” Emara agreed.

Naya took a step forward. “Then if you are scared to let him in because you think he is incapable of love, then you are wrong.” Naya lifted her chin. “He is more than capable. He has loved me fiercely since he was born, and he has protected me from his father in every part of his life. A child shouldn’t need to protect his mother.”

Emara flinched, and a vision of a young Torin standing in front of his mother, protecting her from a violent commander, inched itself into her mind. She did all she could to hold back the emotion that travelled up her throat and into her eyes, but the tears fell. They fell for Torin and Naya; they fell for Kellen and Gideon too. They fell for how much protection and unconditional love was there from Naya, and she wondered if her own mother had felt the same.

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