“Grandmother, I feel funny,” Isabylle said, touching her stomach.
And suddenly, they were both glowing.
“Shh,” Roby whispered against her mouth.
“You’re going to get me in trouble,” Nandina said, not pulling away for a moment.
She should have been taking a water jug to the dowager queen. And Roby should have been reporting for duty, getting ready to fight again. She didn’t like the blank look on his face when he came back. The emptiness that seemed to permeate him more and more each day.
He’d proposed only a week ago. Right before the fighting started. Right after the king and queen wed. He’d claimed he’d wanted to make it official for a long time. And she’d stupidly said yes. She loved him after all. She didn’t care that they were at war. This was forever.
He pressed his lips to hers again. His hands working to push her skirts up higher. She giggled and swatted at him.
“After the wedding.”
“Nan,” he groaned. “We’re engaged. And I might die today.”
“You won’t,” she assured him. “You can’t.”
“We shouldn’t even be fighting this war. What the other side is saying isn’t wrong.”
“Rob!”
“What? It’s the truth. Everyone is saying it. I’d defect if I could. I met Cyrene once, you know. Had a detail on her hallway.”
“You did not,” she said with a laugh.
“I did! And she’s not so bad. King Edric made her Consort for a reason.”
“That’s true.”
“I just think we can change things,” he muttered.
“I think we can, too.”
Then, she felt something in her stomach. A weird…light. Like she’d never felt before.
“Nan, what’s going on with you?” Roby asked with wide eyes.
“I think…I’m…sick?”
And suddenly, she started glowing.
Elea stood before Kael. “You can’t do this! I won’t go.”
Kael turned away from her with a shake of his head. “You have to, Elea.”
“I do not. I’m here to stay. You married me. You can’t just give up on this.”
“Give up?” he bit out. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”
“What else is it?”
A door opened. The maid froze with a bundle in her arms. “Am I…interrupting? I was told…”
“Yes, yes, bring her here,” Kael said irritably.
The woman hurried forward and placed the child in Kael’s arms. He stared down at Alessia. His daughter. It was hard for Elea to believe that he already had a child. One with Kaliana at that. That Alessia wasn’t Edric’s, as everyone had believed.
She observed him as he held his sleeping daughter. It was this moment that she was sure that she loved him. His madness had evaporated. He was just hers. Just as she had always wanted.
“Take her,” he said, foisting Alessia into Elea’s arms.
She took the child on her hip in surprise. Alessia just groaned at all the movement but curled into Elea once she was held again.
“Why am I taking her?”
“Because you’re leaving. You’re leaving tonight with Alessia.”
“I am not.”
“Elea,” he snapped, his patience worn thin. “She told me to kill you. To kill you and the baby and Kaliana. She said to do it before summer solstice.”
Elea froze in place. Her mouth went dry. “Malysa?”
Kael nodded once sharply. “And…I won’t do it.”
“You’ve…killed before.”
He narrowed those beautiful blue-gray eyes. “Not you. Not her.”
“And Kaliana?”
He shook his head and didn’t answer.
“Just go.” He threw a dark cloak over them both. “Now. Before she returns here and asks me to kill you in front of her.”
“Kael,” she whispered, stepping up to him.
He cupped her jaw and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Go.”
She nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek, and scrambled out of the room and through the hidden tunnels. She had to go. She knew she did. But she hated leaving him. Leaving him to Malysa.
Something settled into the pit of her stomach.
Something light and airy that gripped her with pain.
Tightened around her. Soothed. Eased. And gave her the strength to keep moving with the baby tucked into her arms.
No one seemed to notice her.
Even as her body began to glow…
54
The Summons
Cyrene held the attention of all those she had awakened for a moment longer.
“I am the Domina Cyrene. And your magic is a gift from your bloodline. An awakening to the person you truly are. A war is brewing in Byern. The goddess of destruction is set out to kill all those with the potential for magic. Her name is Malysa, and she will stop at nothing to end you and everyone like you.” She swallowed back her anger and her own power brimming brightly within her. “Come to me. Fight for me. And I offer you a new world. A free world. Where magical and non-magical people can live in peace.”
She pushed herself to do one more thing. To reach out even farther. She turned her hand and forced the portals open. Then she used the strength of the Dominas and her circle to build a new portal. One that hadn’t been created in thousands of years, but she put one directly in the middle of her circle of friends. A beacon.
“I have opened all the gates that lead you to me. Only those who are loyal can pass through them, unhindered. Follow the thread that brings you to the closest portal and help us win this war once and for all. We need you. I need you. Welcome to the rise of the Doma.”
She pushed one more time. Asked for one more thing from her energy. And then she opened her eyes.
Sera pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m proud of you.”
“Will I see you again?” Cyrene asked.
Sera shook her head. “I don’t think so. But I will be here.” She touched the diamond. “And here.” And then her heart.
“Thank you for everything.” A tear fell before she released Serafina.
“Thank you for being everything I knew you would be and more.”
Cyrene stepped back, curtsied to Selma and the other Dominas, took one last look at Sera, and then stepped through the spiritual plane. She released all of her magic at once when she dropped heavily back into her body.
The link shook and then shattered.
All of her friends slumped forward, exhausted and yet…radiant.
They still glowed.
Everyone glowed bright golden.
Believe in those whose honor doth shine.
The Doma motto had never been truer than this moment.
Her eyes skimmed farther out across the camp. And she jumped to her feet. Her eyes round. To find that half of the camp was alight with the glow of the Doma. And not just that…more even on the battlefield were glowing. So many. All the ones that she had awakened.
“You did it,” Avoca whispered.
They all stared forward at the portal that had sprung up in the center of their circle. It shimmered iridescent. She couldn’t believe that she had created that.