Page 205 of Sigils & Spells

THE HARBINGER

Rebekah Lewis

PROLOGUE

Thessaly,Greece, 687 B.C.

Nobody created a curse like an Olympian. Apollo, the god of music and sun, prophecy and truth, was especially good at it. He was as wrathful as he was beautiful. As quick to kill as he was to fall into infatuation. Those he loved rarely lived long lives, and those who did, regretted it. Ask Daphne, forever bound to the laurel tree for refusing to return his love. Ask the princess of Thessaly, fair Coronis, for her time was surely at its end.

Here, hidden in the trees beyond the city, Artemis wiped a tear as she nocked her bow and took aim at the mortal man, Ischys, now a prince by marriage. She closed her eyes and let fly her arrow. She didn’t have to look to know it struck true—straight to the heart. Coronis screamed as her new husband dropped to his knees before her, sputtering his last breaths. Dead for merely loving another. Dead because her brother couldn’t handle rejection.

Dead because she owed her brother a boon and he had called it in.

As goddess of the hunt, Artemis often relished a successful kill. This time, she didn’t. This time, it left a sour taste in her mouth. Overhead, the white crow cawed and circled. Part of her wished to shoot it down for the trouble it had wrought. It was the bird who’d doomed this man, that woman. The unborn child in her womb. Apollo’s child. Artemis’ very own niece or nephew.

The bird had alerted Apollo to Coronis’ infidelity, sealed her fate.

“Thank you, dear sister,” Apollo said as he appeared at her side. She looked at him. Where her coloring was pale and silvery, her twin brother was golden and tanned. The moon and the sun.

“You do not need to do this. Wait until she gives birth at least.” Artemis knew it was hopeless. Her brother would never see reason.

“They always betray me.” The bitterness in his voice and hardened expression made her heart ache. While she didn’t approve of most of her brother’s choices, he was her twin. She loved him. It didn’t help that their own father, Zeus, had never shown Apollo what a loving relationship looked like.

“Please, let this stop here. The man is dead. Let that be her punishment.”

“Draw your next arrow, sister.” He didn’t even look at her.

“Apollo…” she pleaded. “She is with child.”

“Strike her in the heart, or I will do it with my bare hands.”

That would be so much worse. The princess had cared for Apollo too. To have him kill her… She couldn’t allow it to happen. With a sob, she nocked another arrow. The mother-of-pearl inlays in her bow caught the moonlight through the trees, and Coronis looked up from where she held her dead lover in her arms. The woman was beautiful, with hair as black as ebony and skin kissed by the sun. It was no wonder Apollo was drawn to her. Coronis stared right at Artemis, blue eyes awash with grief. As the mortal’s lips parted, Artemis let fly the arrow, not wanting to hear pleas that would only go on deaf ears.

The deed was done.

Beside her, the white crow landed on a low branch of a tree and cawed. At the sound, Apollo threw his head back and roared. Flames exploded in the clearing, surrounding the dead lovers. It spread to the tree and engulfed it and the crow instantly. The bird screamed and burst outward, landing in the stream nearby to escape the heat. When it emerged, its feathers were no longer white, but solid black, and then, unbidden, the crow shifted into the form of a woman with waves of brown hair and green eyes. She stood before them, naked, but she did not cover herself in shame. Instead, she kneeled before them, head bowed. No words were uttered from her lips, for she knew, as Artemis had, that Apollo would not tolerate excuses while in his current mood.

“You should have clawed their eyes out instead of coming to me,” Apollo said angrily. “You are just as guilty of what occurred this night as I am, Corvus.” His voice deepened and the ground shook. “From this day forward, I curse your kind. You and those like you are harbingers of death and destruction, doomed to change form only to alert mortals of coming woe.” He paused, kneeling to lift her chin and force her to meet his gaze. “Understand that any hapless mortal you love will die if they see what you really are. Those of us touched by magic can never hide their true nature. Not for long.”

Corvus sobbed silently but didn’t dare move away.

Artemis placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “You still have time to save your child.”

He looked at her as though he hadn’t understood, and then his gaze drifted to the clearing, still burning. The flames were closing in on the spot where Coronis and Ischys lay lifeless and cold. As though he only remembered his former lover had been with child, he shouted, “My son!”

Vanishing, he swiftly reappeared next to the bodies. Artemis looked away as he worked on removing the child from the dead woman’s belly. If the infant was truly Apollo’s child and not Ischys’, then it was a demi-god. It still had time to live, but not even immortals could survive fire.

Corvus reached out to Artemis’ white robe and drew her attention back to her. “Help me,” she whispered, “Undo his curse. My family…”

Anger swelled in Artemis’ gut. “You brought this on yourself. By trying to gain Apollo’s favor, you only brought his wrath down on all of you. Because of you, these two are dead, and for what?”

“I didn’t want this.” The woman trembled as tears stained her cheeks. “What can I do?”

“Hide yourself. Your daughters too.” Only the females in Corvus’ family had the ability to become birds. “If you wish to end the line with you, hope your daughters only have male children. Demand they never marry. The curse cannot be undone.”

If Corvus was lucky, over time the trait of shape-changing would fade and no longer burden them. It would die out all on its own.

A baby’s cry broke the air as Apollo returned beside her, pride mixing with sorrow as he stared down at the bloodied child. “It is…a male. A son. I will name him Asclepius.” He smiled, but it quickly faded. “He has her eyes.”

---