Page 71 of The Curse of Ophelia

I nearly choked on the sob that tried to escape my throat, but I looked up at him. Those chocolate eyes were heavy with truths, and I was not sure I was ready to face them.

“And you, mine, Tolek.”

His hand stroked longingly down my back as if imprinting the feel of me into his skin. I clenched my eyes, memorizing the caress of his fingertips through my leathers. When he released me, it took every effort to step away from him. He locked his hands behind his back again and watched me go.

The volcano shook behind me, calling to me. Reminding me that it was time. There could be no more delays.

I threw my shoulders back, shook my hair from my face, and raised my chin, forcing the tears to stop falling from my eyes. “Right.” I took a breath. “When I go in the volcano, I don’t know how long it will take me to get out. I probably won’t have any concept of time. Do you guys remember the plan?”

Cyph spoke first, “We take the footpath to Damenal.”

Jezebel continued, “To the temple where the flame pool waits.”

“That’s where warriors emerge after the Undertaking,” Rina confirmed.

“That is where we will wait for you,” Tol whispered, eyes still rimmed with tears.

I took a deep breath. “But stay out of sight,” I reminded them. “Do not let anyone see you until I’m there. We don’t want to raise suspicions of what we’re doing.”

They nodded in unison, and my heart shattered with each motion. But I had no more room for goodbyes in me, so I turned to the slope of rock behind me, took a breath, and climbed.

Here, unlike the ascension of the volcano, the ground was smooth from years of stray flames melting it. It made for a quick, steady final few feet of climbing before I reached the entrance. The rock around the mouth was so thin, I felt as though it would break beneath my weight. Ash rained down on me.

With each step I took along the ledge, the Curse inside my wrist throbbed. It felt alive, like a pulse of its own quickened. It knew. It knew something transformative was happening, and it burrowed deeper into my skin. This parasite that was killing me thrashed in fear of whatever waited for us below.

I took a deep breath.

Thick smoke clouded my lungs, but it didn’t hurt. The ash here was sweet, as if once it left the volcano, the magic surrounding the mountain range changed it. The same magic that kept the smoke over the volcano and tundra, not allowing it to saturate the rest of the fresh mountain air. I let that power embrace me as I turned back to my friends, mere shadows in the smoky night.

I extended my arms at my sides, closed my eyes, and fell backward into my fate.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The fall was…grueling. Like setting my skin on fire and diving into the heart of a storm, unsure which way was up but feeling the hot agony swallow me. I waited for it to boil my blood, to melt my flesh until I was nothing but scraps of bone and the lingering drafts of a tainted curse.

Flames. There were so many flames. Blinding flashes of orange and red and yellow. Heat licked up my limbs. I thought I screamed, but any echo of my voice faded into the roar of the volcano. Embers singed holes in my leathers, leaving blisters on my flesh in their wake.

This heat was like living in the heart of a star.

In the distance below, a blue glow emanated. It was a speck from this height, barely visible through the tears streaking into the air around me. My eyes stung, the sweet-smelling smoke turning putrid again, but I would not close them. Despite the pain, I wanted to see every moment of this pivotal experience.

My heart tumbled through my chest, knowing that growing blue speck would be the hottest point of the volcano. The central stage of the fire that created this monstrous show.

The descent felt endless, the cavernous rock walls around me streaking past in flashes of gray and brown etched with veins of fire. Like the volcano was a living thing, the flame its blood. And that made me its foolish meal.

Though I had little concept of time, it seemed that minutes stretched. I thought of the height of the exterior and panicked. The structure was high, but the fall at this speed should not have taken so long. Had something gone wrong?

With a wave of doubt, I thought back to the night Damien appeared in my room. His words flashed through my mind in a rush, all blending together, nearly indiscernible from one another. The task ahead will try thy spirit. Not once did he explicitly claim the Undertaking as that task. Oh, for the love of the Angels, had I misinterpreted his Spirits-damned message? Had that ass of a First Warrior not thought to stop me from a grave mistake?

If after the brutal journey I put my friends through, I was not supposed to complete the Undertaking after all, I’d kill that Angel. The heat around me matched my anger at the thought that I had foolishly—willingly—given myself over to the Spirit Volcano. That I sacrificed myself to a ritual that had somehow malfunctioned.

I had a sickening feeling that this jump would be the end of me.

Oh, Spirits. This was what had happened to Malakai, wasn’t it? The Undertaking was faulty, a fatal flaw claiming any warrior who attempted it. And I dove headfirst into that death like a reckless fool.

A plume of smoke rose up around me, and I choked on the soot. I coughed over the ash in my lungs, my chest seizing while the organs worked feverishly to dispel the poison. I continued to plummet through the air. This was it. This was the end. I’d curse Damien if I saw him in the afterlife.

The blue pool grew larger, its light radiating around me. I would land in it, and I would die at the heart of the flame. The irony of my death at the hands of the Undertaking—the future I was never afraid of—when I carried a deadly Curse in my blood was not lost on me. I’d made my peace with that fate days ago, but I hated that this was how it occurred. All I could do was tick off the list of goodbyes, sending each out into the universe with one final burst of love. My sister, my friends, my parents—

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