“What do you mean?” My words came surprisingly steady past my fear.
“You still do not remember who you are, do you? You do not know your origins?” He paused, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a knowing sneer. “You do not even know what language you are speaking.”
Until that moment, I hadn’t realized I was speaking the same ancient language as the mage. What did he mean? That I was someone else?
The mage’s gaze flashed like lightning, blinding me. I blinked a few times and gasped.
I was standing back in the rainforest. Damp heat pressed on my skin, pulling up beads of sweat that rolled down my forehead. The air was heavy with a scent like rust and earth. I glanced down to find blood in the cracks of stone beneath my feet. Screams should have filled the air, but they did not. I was surrounded by people, their faces a mixture of determination and fettered grief.
Every person who came forward, one-by-one, walked willingly to the blade in my hand as the mage behind me struggled.
“Sacrifice to surrender.” My reach arced forward, and I cut down the man in front of me. “Blood to bind.”
The image ripped away from my mind like a torn piece of paper. The mage stood in front of me once again.
Sacrifice to surrender. Blood to bind.
Was that how he was to be defeated? For a moment, I didn’t dare react. Had he meant to tell me that? Had it been a mistake? The mage merely stared at me and made no more advances. Something wasn’t right.
I told myself I was crazy as I pulled at the magic dancing across my skin. I formed it into a sphere and threw it at the mage with a yell. He dodged, and I ran straight at him. I wasn’t thinking, wasn’t questioning if I could defeat him or not. All I knew was that I had to try, so I charged toward him with my magic in one hand and my knife in the other.
Right before I got to the mage, a sensation like icy water splashed over me. I gasped and blinked.
The mage was no longer before me, and I found myself staring at the trio of druids once again.
“You have passed the test.”
“I…I did?”
“Yes, by confronting the mage willingly.”
In unison, they took a step back, the floor rippling fluidly beneath them. I walked toward the pedestal. My hand hesitated over the key sitting there.
“It’s not cursed, is it?”
No answer.
I drew in a deep breath and picked up the key.
It wasn’t gold like the first one had been. This one was smooth and a dull white in color. It reminded me of bone. It was carved intricately. I brushed my thumb over the relic.
A pulling sensation tugged at me, as if a string had suddenly tightened around my mind. I could have sworn I almost sensed something like poison trailing up the tether.
The mage .
I closed my hand around the key and turned to the druids. Now that I had the key, I needed something else.
“Who am I?” I asked.
The vision of the jungle and the sacrifices, the mage bound behind who I was certain had been myself , flashed through my mind.
“In some cases, it is necessary for the past to be reborn in the future. You have been reborn to walk the path to stop the dark mage once again.”
I should have known. All of the hints had been there, but hearing it aloud…I didn’t even know what to think. I wanted to deny it, to fight it somehow, but through my exhaustion, I couldn’t even muster up an excuse.
Knowing what I had seen in that fleeting image had been true, bile burned in my throat. I was a monster.
Sacrifice. Was that what it would take to stop the mage?
I shoved the thought from my mind.
“Where is Kael?”
The druids’s silence was deafening. Even the whispers had left, I realized. I began to fear the worst for Kael.
“What happened to him?”
Without an answer from them, the rippling floor beneath their feet swirled, and water splashed up at their robes. The swirling floor spread, and I took a step back too late. The stones beneath me grew unsteady, giving in beneath my boots. I sank in to my ankles as the water pulled me down. I could do nothing as the icy water splashed up.
Too fast.
I was being pulled in too fast .
My hand tightened on the key as the water rushed over my head. I barely managed to close my mouth in time as the strong currents wrenched at my arms and legs. Water filled my eyes and ears.
I was drowning.
Chapter 21
As I hurtled upward, light, crisp air hit me. But just as fast as I went up, I went down, slamming into the ground.
“Livvie!”
I spat out a mouthful of water and coughed. Kael?
A pair of firm hands grabbed my shoulders and gave me a light shake. Then, fingers brushed wet hair from my face. I wiped my eyes and blinked to find the shifter kneeling in front of me.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
I didn’t answer. I peered around. We were back in the clearing. To my right was the entrance. Had I been shot out of it like water through a whale’s blowhole? That was a first.
My gaze swept back to Kael. “How did you get out?”
His eyes were wide with worry. He shrugged a shoulder. “That tunnel led right back out here.” His gaze dropped to my chest, and his mouth popped open. “You got it!”
I followed his gaze to find the key now nestled below my collarbone on a fine chain. I lifted it up. “I did.” I smiled. “And I know where to find the mage.”
Kael pulled me to my feet. “That quickly?”
The sharp breeze of the mountain cut through my wet clothes like a shard of ice. I crossed my arms tight across my chest and nodded. “Yeah, it’s like this string is tied to him and I can lead us right there.”
The shifter’s sharp gaze studied me. “First things first. We need to get down from this place. Think you can make it all right?”
I arched an eyebrow at him and glanced back at the ruins I’d just survived. “Are you kidding?”
Kael laughed as we started our trek back down the mountain. “I have to admit, you are surprising.”
“Surprising how?”
“I’ve seen my fair share of archaeologists. Most of them were stuffy old professors who had hardly spent any time on actual digs. They live by the facts, and those who do spend time in ruins are only interested in digging up evidence to support the same claims that have been etched into the books throughout history.” He paused as we took the time to climb down a steep path of rock and thick roots. “You aren’t like that. You seem like the kind to dive headfirst into the unknown in hopes of finding something new and unbelievable.”
Wow. Talk about hitting the nail on the head. He had me pinned. “Well, I don’t see the point in delving into the earth if I’m not going to dig up long-forgotten secrets.”
“Yeah, and look where it got you.” Kael stared pointedly at the key around my neck.
I grinned. “Occupational hazard.”
I had to admit, even with the volatile countries, treacherous landscapes, and dust-laden tombs, I’d never expected to unearth anything like what I had found. I had gone from an ambitious archaeologist to a magic-cursed woman with the knowledge of shifters, fae, witches, and mages, one of which seemed to be some reincarnated ancient being .
Life had gotten way too complicated. Perhaps, this time, I had bit off more than I could chew.