Page 68 of Godsbane
“I don’t have a choice.”
Tears burst from my eyes, no longer able to dam the flood that sweeps through me. Fate requires that I journey forward no matter how fast I want to run back to Emerald and retake my region from men who have no right to rule it. The Amethyst Throne burns in my nightmares, and I know in the depths of my soul that I am the cause of it.
I wanted to stop Marks before, but now I want his head on a fucking platter.
“You will always have a choice where I’m concerned. Marks deserves every ounce of your revenge and more, but I will never think you’re a coward for choosing to go home instead.”
“I can’t go home, Cal,” I confess, pulling away from him. Confusion tugs at his features as I extract Kieran’s book from the leather bag and toss it on the floor in front of him with a resounding thump. “And I think you know why.”
He trails his fingers over the embossed title in a way that feels eerily similar to my own movements hours ago. Cal opens the book, fanning through the pages in silence. A thousand questions and demands form on my tongue, but one stands out, more important than all the others. This first truth has to be shared so that all the others can be revealed.
“How many elements can you wield?”
Cal stands from the floor, gently placing the book on the desk before turning to me. His eyes close as he takes a deep inhale, physically bracing for what comes next.
“Three,” he says. “Water, air, and fire.”
Three. Cal can wield three elements. I knew he was powerful, could sense it in him, but this level of power …
“Last night … the blood … how did you do it?”
“Blood is eighty percent water. If you isolate the element …”
“Holy gods,” I curse. The legend of the Captain of Corinth taking down an entire legion of Synalian troops must be true.
“No one besides you can wield the earth, princess,” he adds.
“Take your shirt off,” I command.
Cal’s mouth pops open in surprise before pulling up in a playful smirk. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that to me since the first day I saw you.”
“I’m not playing, Cal.” I rush towards him, angrily jerking at the straps of his leather armor as I fumble with the buckles. “Show me your tattoo right now.”
“I know, I know.” He removes my fingers from his chest as he speaks. “I just wanted to take that look off your face even if it was only for a second.”
He undresses from the waist up, stepping towards me until he stands side-by-side with the open book in my hands.
The drawing of the beast and the one inked on Cal’s chest are a perfect match. Whatever pitiful glimmer of hope I had that they wouldn’t be disappears.
Cal pulls a dagger from the sheath at his side and sits it down on top of the desk. My breath hitches at the sight. Running back to the bag, I extract the found dagger from the leather satchel. It’s a perfect twin, from the runic carvings along its alloy blade to the polished ivory hilt that shines in the dim lantern light. Two identical blades further cementing the cosmic connection of this moment.
Using the pointed tip, I prick my finger. The runes glow a brilliant shade of blue as the crimson drop rolls down the carvings.
“The sea beast is Arcasia,” I mumble, still clinging to a pathetic shred of disbelief that evaporates in my hands. “She touched me. She left this magic in my veins and she tied me to you.”
“The magic is yours,” he starts. “She may have connected us, but what I feel for you ... I see you in my fate, Ivy. There is no life for me without you.”
Fire burns in his smokey eyes, the flames incinerating me without touch.
It’s one thing to accept your fate, but another entirely to choose it. In a world that has denied me choice after choice, how can he be so brazenly resolute?
He steps closer to me, pulling me against his broad chest and into the inferno of our conjoined power. I breathe him in, the scent of leather and salty air clinging to him despite being more than a week’s ride from the sea. I barely know him and yet my soul has always known his. His lips brush against mine, lingering only a second before he breathes against them, “When I meet Death, I’ll do it at your side.”
There’s only one path forward for me, only one future that awaits me. I don’t want to be the cause of Cal’s death, but it’s his choice to make.
“I have to kill Marks,” I declare against his warm skin.
“I was wondering when you were going to say that out loud,” Cal teases, pulling back to look at me fully. “I will help you, of course, but there will be innocents in the crosshairs.”
