Page 196 of A Tribute of Fire

I swallowed back what I was feeling. “What connection?”

“You know what I’m speaking of. I’ve never had this happen with anyone else before. Like we were fated to be together. Like the goddess herself ordained it. As if you were made for me. I feel so much that whenever I see you, I forget myself and all I want is to touch you and kiss you and let the world fall away.”

I wanted the same thing, which was why we should stay away from each other. “It doesn’t matter. None of this matters. I don’t even know if I believe this tale you’ve told me.”

He lifted my hand up near his face. “The next time I see you, I’ll kiss your hand. Like this.” He pressed his warm mouth against the back of my hand and my fingers tightened in response, wanting to reach for him.

“You’ve never done that before.”

“Correct. That is how you’ll know that this is real and has been the entire time.” He kissed my hand again and then placed it back on the bed. “Because I will see you. There will be obstacles in our path, but we are fated. Destined. I know us and what we will be. I know you.”

I shook my head. “No one really knows me.”

“But I do.” He paused and then asked, “How do you feel about me? Do you love me?”

“I don’t know.” It was the only answer I could give him. It was also the truth.

My non-answer didn’t seem to bother him. “I think you do. You might need time before you realize it, but you’ll see that we belong together.”

I tried very hard not to let his words affect me. He was painting a picture that I wanted desperately to be a part of, even if my plans made it impossible. “If all of what you’re saying is true, and you’re actually here, then what did you mean when you told me to say yes? Were you talking about the festival?”

He opened his mouth to respond but he was suddenly gone and I was alone in my dark bedroom.

“Jason?”

The ground beneath my bed gave way and I was falling. I landed with a thud in a meadow of wildflowers. I spotted him in the far-off distance. I called his name but he didn’t move or respond. I ran toward him but I didn’t seem to be making any progress. He never got closer, no matter how hard or how long I ran. I couldn’t reach him.

The landscape swirled around me and I was back in Locris. But not the Locris I knew. It looked like Ilion. Everything was green. Trees, flowers, plants of every kind, blooming and growing all around me.

I smelled the irises first and then I turned to see the goddess standing not far away from me. Again I was overwhelmed by her love for me, one that went beyond human understanding. She was so beautiful and radiant that for a moment I couldn’t speak.

But I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass by.

“Is this what’s possible?” I asked her. “Can Locris be restored this way? Will I be the one to save my nation?”

There will be a time when you have need of me. When you do, call on my name.

What did that mean? Call on her name? I would just say Damara and she would appear? And what, point me in the direction of the lost eye?

“I don’t understand,” I said, but she vanished by turning into a shimmering golden and green light.

When I awoke for real, I lay in my bed for several minutes, listening to my sisters sleeping around me, contemplating what I had just seen in my dreams.

Call on my name.

I had need of the goddess now. She could tell me precisely where the eye was located.

With my heart clanging in my chest like a bell, I breathed out the word.

“Damara.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

Nothing happened.

Frustrated, I sat up and immediately regretted the decision. My head hurt so much it was like someone was banging on it with a hammer. I let out a small groan and put my hands against my skull, as if I could push the pain away.

The second thing I noticed after the headache was the flood of regret I was currently feeling.

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