Page 70 of Godsbane
“Instinct will tell you to reach for your blades. Remove them so they’re not a crutch.”
Cal doesn’t question my judgement or my motives, he just obliges me. I deposit the ivory-handled blade that I stole from Kieran into my saddle bag along with my cloak and the four other daggers I sheathed on my body before we left the governor’s manor.
Please don’t let me kill him.
I send out a silent prayer to Death—the only god I know for certain exists besides the one who has done a shit job at protecting me.
Power floods through me as I mirror Cal’s stance, locking and holding his gaze while earth magic gathers in my fingertips. I never break eye contact as two vines snake upward from the snow and encircle his ankles. Squeezing my fists, the vinestighten around him, a second set springing to life in cuffs around his wrists.
Cal’s eyes cut to the plants that wind around his extremities and back to me. His pupils dilate as the vines surrounding his wrists and ankles burst into flames. Green leaves turn to ash but the white-hot flames don’t burn his skin.
“Marks will incinerate your vines before they’ve fully grown. You want to take him down? You’re going to need more than party tricks.”
“Party tricks?” I scoff. “Until two weeks ago, I thought I was the only person in Corinth with magic. I haven’t exactly been to parties where people are growing vines from their fingertips.”
“Do you even know what you’re truly capable of?” Cal runs a hand through his black hair, tugging at the ends in frustration. “Ivy, you can cause the cliffs to crumble, the ground to tremble, and rivers to change their course! All you have to do is think it and the earth will obey, yet you doubt yourself.”
I shake my head in conditioned disbelief even as my power rises in agreement. No one has ever taught me how to summon or wield. When my magic manifested, I was a scared child. So afraid that I would be used, exiled, or killed if anyone found out that I snuck into the woods alone at night to practice growing flowers until my fingers bled. It took years to master what control I have … or had until yesterday.
“I felt your full power in that dining room, but I understand if you’re not convinced you can cause an earthquake yet,” Cal says, resigned but not defeated. “Let’s start small. Try something you’ve never done before. Why don’t you shake the snow off those branches without moving them?”
The pine tree he’s referring to across the clearing is massive. There’s no way I can move that, so this should be easy. Cal hovers, waiting for me to call to my power as I steady my breathing and try to focus on the individual pine needles. Like aburst of wind, the branches begin to shake, snow and pine falling to the ground in a quick blast.
“Stop.” Cal’s voice is commanding but kind. “You’re moving the branches. Shake the ground under the tree.”
Preparing to be embarrassed, I send my magic out quickly, half-heartedly shifting my focus to the base of the tree. My mouth falls open again as the large pine shakes at its roots. Cal plants his large hands on my shoulders, his breath tickling my ear as he speaks in a low, husky voice.
“Theground, princess.”
My primed power explodes at his touch. I don’t think about the snow or the tree or the ground. All I can think about is the heat that’s overtaking me. I barely catch my breath before every tree in the clearing begins to shake.
“Easy, princess. Control it.” Cal moves his hands down my arms in slow strokes, leaning down to punctuate each word with a light kiss. “Focus.” He moves to the other side of my neck repeating the motions. “Feel.”
Emotion and logic have been locked in a nearly two-decades long struggle for control over my magic.Feelisn’t a command I would ever give myself. Power rakes its beast-like claws against the underside of my skin and I’ll do anything to stop the agonizing pain, including following instructions that make no sense to me.
Resigned, I close my eyes and breathe in his heady leather scent. On the exhale, I focus on the threads of life that run through the earth and feel the ground tremble in reply. My eyes fly open to find the branches of every tree in the clearing now devoid of snow.
But I can’t stop there.
The rush of magic intoxicates me, begging me to use more and more until I’m consumed, burnt and remade in its image.Power seers into my skin, obliterating every ounce of self-control I have left.
Magic swirls around me in visible shimmering viridescent bands as I drop to my knees. Fingers splayed wide against the cold snow, I pour every emotion that I have yet to shove into the iron-clad box that guards my heart into the ground: the sorrow for my region, the grief for my father, the fear for my friends. The flat land around me transforms into small, rolling hills covered in lush spring grass and dotted with clusters of godsbane.
Unsatisfied, my power searches the clearing for more, finding a sparkling cerulean mass behind me. Cal’s magic—effervescent and brimming with potential, wholly invisible to me before.
The irresistible allure implores me to sample it. A single green band tugs gently at the blue, combining into a breathtaking shade of viridian.
The sky opens up, clouds releasing their watery contents in a sudden downpour. My magic flares out again, carving a serpentine trench between the newly-formed hills, a channel designed to hold his unrelenting rains. The riverbed cuts deeply into the new landscape, a reflection of what his power threatens to do to me if I give it the chance. Each aquatic plant I seed within its silty bottom is a symbol of possibility—beauty only able to grow if attended to with care.
Black shadows commingle with the bands of green. The certain, inescapable death that awaits all life. I lift my hands from the ground, muscles trembling as I attempt to physically direct the decaying magic. Tears pour from my eyes as the flowers covering the clearing disappear into dust.
Focus on life.
Cal’s earlier words are so clear that he might as well be speaking directly into my mind. I concentrate on the swirling colors, mentally separating the black until the smokey bandsretreat inside of me. Magic bursts forth from the center of my chest in a screaming crescendo that rings deep in my bones. In this moment, I am the most powerful woman alive.
I am reborn.
I am remade.
