CHAPTER 3 : THE GODDESS'S EYE
1119 Words
Liora pov
They drag me through corridors that smell like old stone and something darker. The torches flicker as we pass like they're afraid of what's down here.
My heart pounds so hard I can feel it in my throat.
"Where are you taking me?" I demand, trying to pull free.
"Lower chambers," the guard says, won't look at me. "Alpha Rowan's orders."
"Rowan's not the Alpha."
"He is now," the guard says quietly. "Your Alpha can't lead if he's dying."
The bond pulls at my chest, I can feel Darius somewhere above me, his pain bleeding through the connection making it hard to breathe.
We descend stairs that get narrower with each step, the air turns cold enough to see my breath…. finally we stop in front of a massive door carved with symbols that writhe like living things.
"Open it yourself," the guard says, steps back.
I reach for the handle, the moment my fingers touch metal the symbols flare bright silver, the door swings open on its own.
Inside is a circular room with a pool of glowing water in the center.
Rowan stands beside it, when he turns his smile makes my skin crawl.
"Liora," he says like we're friends, "thank you for joining me."
"I didn't have a choice."
"None of us do," he gestures to the pool. "The goddess sees to that."
The guards close the door behind me, I'm alone with Rowan and whatever's in that water.
"What is this place,?" I ask.
"The goddess's eye." Rowan walks around the pool…. "she uses it to watch you and Darius, she's been watching for centuries, watching you destroy each other is the only thing that makes her feel anymore."
He touches the water and it explodes upward, silver light fills the room, when I open my eyes I'm somewhere else.
A bedroom, candles everywhere, a woman who looks exactly like me but older sits on a bed, across from her stands Darius, younger with no silver veins.
"We can't keep doing this?" the woman says with my voice.
"Every time we try to break the curse it gets worse."
"Then we stop trying," Darius sits beside her, takes her hand.
"We accept it."
"That's not living, that's waiting to die."
She pulls away, starts pacing…
"The goddess said there's a way, blood sacrifice, one of us has to die by the other's hand."
Darius stands, "absolutely not."
"It's the only option."
"No," he grabs her shoulders.
"I'm not killing you and you're not killing me."
"There is no other way," tears stream down her face, "this is how we break free."
"By murdering each other."
He pulls her close, "I can't lose you again."
"You're going to lose me anyway," she says against his chest. "at least this way one of us survives."
The vision shifts, the same bedroom but covered in blood now.
The woman lies on the floor, Darius kneeling beside her with a knife in his hand.
"It's not working," she gasps, blood on her lips.
"Darius the bond won't break."
"No no no," he drops the knife, tries to stop the bleeding.
"Stay with me."
"I'm sorry," she whispers…. "I thought this would save you."
"You were supposed to survive," his voice breaks.
"Plans change," she touches his face, leaves a bloody print on his cheek.
"Find me again, promise."
"I promise," he watches her die in his arms.
Then his body starts glowing silver, the bond mark burning bright, he screams as the curse consumes him, within seconds he's dead too, collapsed over her.
The vision shatters, I slam back into the fortress gasping….my knees hit stone.
"That was the fourth lifetime." Rowan says above me, "they thought killing one would save the other….they were wrong."
"That's not possible," I choke out.
"The goddess designed it that way," he crouches beside me
"Fight it and you suffer, give in and you die, try to break it and you die faster."
"Then what are we supposed to do?
"Nothing," Rowan stands, "let the curse run its course, let Darius die, when he does the bond will release you because you'll have fulfilled your purpose."
"What purpose?"
"To kill him," Rowan says simply… "that's why the goddess created you, to end the Blackthorn bloodline."
"I won't do it."
"You won't have to," he walks to the door. "The curse will do it for you, all you have to do is stay close, keep trying to save him."
"You're lying."
"Then explain why every time you touch him the silver spreads faster." Rowan opens the door, guards wait outside…. "take her back."
The guards pull me toward the door.
"Wait," I call after Rowan. "That woman in the vision, who was she?"
He pauses… "she was you, three lifetimes ago, before the goddess stripped your memories and started the cycle again."
My blood goes cold, "started what again?"
"The game," Rowan says, "she's playing with you both like dolls….watching you fall in love, watching you try to save each other, watching you fail, over and over until she gets whatever ending she's looking for."
The guards drag me back, when we reach my room they shove me inside and lock the door.
I press my hand against the wall.
"Darius can you hear me?”
Silence, then his voice comes through faint.
"Liora."
"I'm here, what did Rowan show you?"
"A vision, we tried to break the bond by sacrifice, it killed you both."
"It always does," he says quietly.
"Then maybe we're trying the wrong things," I say.
"Maybe the answer isn't breaking the bond, maybe it's accepting it."
"Accepting it means accepting our deaths."
"Or finding a way to live with it," I say, my mind racing.
"What if we just let it exist instead of fighting."
"The curse will still spread."
"Then we slow it down." I say, "we figure out how."
Silence….then.
"Liora there's something you need to know, Rowan's been poisoning me, speeding up the curse."
My hands ball into fists, "how long have you known."
"Weeks, Kael confirmed it tonight."
"Who's Kael?"
"My wolf," he says, pauses, "or I thought he was, lately he sounds different, says things a wolf shouldn't know."
A chill runs down my spine, "what kind of things?"
"Things about you, about past lives I shouldn't remember." his voice gets quieter, "sometimes I think he's something the goddess put inside me."
Before I can respond, glass shatters in his room….. I hear him cry out.
"Darius," I slam my fist against the wall, "what's happening?"
No answer, just something heavy hitting the floor.
Then Rowan's voice echoes through my door.
"Sleep well Liora, tomorrow you get to watch him die.”
- Writer
