Page 5 of House of Gilded Nightmares

“Tonight, we welcome nine new coriata into our ranks to offer their lives in service to the goddess. With this sacrifice, each of you ensures that Eldare will continue to be blessed with magic and that never again will dark days fall upon us.”

He gazes out across us, his eyes blue, startlingly so.

“And for one of you, an even greater honor awaits. This night, one of you will be Chosen as High Priestess. By my side, the Chosen will bring even greater blessings to our land. Our union will feed the people of Eldare with healthy and bountiful crops and livestock, keep plagues at bay, and hopefully, if we are lucky, spawn enough magic to pass along to those outside the Amethyst Palace.”

I shiver at his words and the way his eyes seem to linger on mine again.

“As you know, use of magic can only be performed here, in the cathedral, and only with an offering to the goddess. Tonight, we offer her this goblet and ask that she help us in the Choosing. Tomorrow night, we will offer her the union of High Priest and Priestess and the magic created therein.”

The High Priest lifts the goblet high above his head, and this time, I don’t imagine the hum that fills the air. There is a vibration and a heat. I taste the tang of the magic on my tongue, charged and frenetic. A glow pulses from the goblet and into the High Priest, illuminating his eyes, making them look even brighter, manic almost.

Another pulse, and magic bursts out across the domed room. It’s so bright I can’t help but turn my head and squeeze my eyes shut. My heart races in my chest. I’ve never felt anything this powerful before. The weekly blood rituals I’ve witnessed my whole life never produced even a fraction of this magic.

Is the goddess really here, lending her vast power to the Choosing?

I’ve never seen any evidence of her existence. I’ve trusted, on blind faith, just like we all did. Just like we were supposed to. And I’ve wanted to believe in her, I have, but until this moment, I’d always wondered if she was nothing but a fireside tale.

Now, as I feel the blaze of power washing over the room, I am frightened and exhilarated in equal parts.

When the glow finally begins to fade, I blink, trying to see again through the afterimage of the brightness. My head turns to Lilette because I have to know if it’s her, if she’s been Chosen, if the dearest part of my soul is lost to me forever.

But when I can finally see clearly enough to make out the details of her face, she’s staring back at me just as intently. She doesn’t bear any sign that the goddess has Chosen her. And further, she’s wearing an expression of pure shock as she looks at me.

That’s when I realize the others are staring at me, too. My heart pounds even faster as, very slowly, I cast my gaze down the length of my body.

I don’t make it farther than my hands.

Because I see instantly that my fingers are enveloped in a soft lavender glow. A glow like the moon on the astherium blossoms in the palace gardens.

My gaze whips to the High Priest, and even before he speaks, his gaze confirms the wave of horror that has risen in my gut.

“You, Sarielle, are Chosen as High Priestess.”

Chapter Three

I’m not exactly sure how or when I make it back to my room in the palace.

The minutes that followed the Choosing ceremony are a blur that continues to play in my head over and over again. Two of the coriata leading me forward to the altar to stand beside the High Priest. Anointing both of us with a single bloody thumbprint between the eyes, their fingers stained crimson from the contents of the silver goblet. Words spoken by the High Priest that I cannot remember. Someone escorting me back to my sleeping quarters.

Through the open window that overlooks the gardens, the moon rises high over the mountains. It stares at me, as surprised as everyone else in the cathedral earlier. Except for the High Priest. He’d been the only one who seemed unruffled by the goddess’s choice. Sarielle, the one with pale skin and strange silver hair, Sarielle with the golden eyes, Sarielle who had been abandoned when she was not three days old. I have always been as opposite from the others as I possibly could be. I have never belonged here.

How did this happen?

The moon has no answers for me.

I’ve just climbed beneath the silky covers of my bed when I hear the door creak, opening and then closing again softly. Footsteps across the smooth tiled floor. Lilette’s earthen-rose scent hits me as she climbs into bed, and the smell brings the painful prick of tears to my eyes like tiny daggers.

I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to do this again, slipping into each other’s rooms at night, something we’re far too old to be doing. I’d been so worried that she’d be taken from me. We’re getting split apart, after all, just not in the way I’d envisioned it.

Lilette pulls me against her shoulder when I sniffle. “Shh,” she says, her voice a soft susurration.

We don’t say anything for several long, aching moments. We just lie here, in the dark, in this stolen bubble of time. One more night only.

Finally, she speaks. Her voice cracks the tiniest bit. “We both know you never paid attention to any of the lessons about the Choosing or the role of the High Priestess. So, you must have questions.”

I giggle in spite of everything, punctuated by another sniffle, so that it comes out a strangled, smothered sound. “It’s true.” I fall silent again as my mind spins. I have so many questions I don’t even know where to begin. “I don’t suppose…” I stop, try again. “I don’t suppose anyone has ever turned down the offer.”

Lilette squeezes my shoulder. “No. And I don’t think it will go well for you if you try.”

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