Chapter 32

32

LECTURE NOTES FROM SPELLCASTING AND CURATION:

The success of a spell depends on the will of the witch. Phrases may hold importance, but intent speaks to our powers beyond words themselves.

I vy removed nettle and thyme from her leather pouch of herbs, dumping a generous portion into her mortar. “Do you need a blade?”

“No,” Thessa replied, reaching for the dagger she’d crafted before her life shifted into a bundle of chaos. She swiped it through the flames then sliced through her palm.

She was thankful the Celestials had snuck her into their room for a bath, and for the clean clothing they’d given her. She wasn’t surprised they said yes when she asked for their help with a Guidance Spell. Thessa needed to reverse the mindset of an entire population and wasn’t sure how to start.

While black-flecked blood pooled into the bowl of crushed herbs, she looked to Beatrix and Ivy for any sign of hesitation or regret—there wasn’t any .

“Are you ready?” asked Beatrix.

Thessa nodded, wrapping her hand. After stripping off her borrowed tunic, she swiped her finger through the bloodied paste and drew the five-pointed star across her chest.

Joining hands with Beatrix and Ivy, she said, “Thank you,” before closing her eyes and reciting her spell.

The swirl of Celestial magic grew around her like a bubble of moonlight.

Drawing in her focus, Thessa went to repeat her spell, but everything went dark.

This was not the In-Between.

Thessa knew this place.

Darkness swept around her, caressing her cheeks as her hair swirled with the wind. She was surrounded by her magic … her depthless black sea of magic. It wasn’t simply her soul that was dark, it was her .

“We’ve made progress, Thessa.” The feminine voice without a body boomed.

“Hello, mother . Why couldn’t you have told me all this without a riddle?”

“Thessa, child , you must walk the path of your own existence. I may be the blood from which you’re made, but only you can see the truth. You weren’t ready then.”

Thessa agreed but wouldn’t admit that. She still yearned to know who her true birth mother was. “You have to tell me everything.”

The sigh of an ancient goddess rumbled through her. “When black-flecked blood splattered across the midwife’s apron, she screamed in horror. Her shrills were louder than your laboring mother, who’d tried to hush her, promising her it would be okay.

It was of no use.

Infirmary guards—Elementals—barged into the delivery room. They saw the midwife coated in my blood and knew. Your mother had her arm raised, prepared to fight for you, but the guards threw flames down her throat before she could try. Her body convulsed until succumbing, and her final shudder delivered you.”

Thessa was horrified.

The goddess continued, “But what the guards didn’t know was I’d prepared for that moment for the past two hundred years. The womb which held you would have never survived your birth, with or without fire, and that sacrifice I will always carry with me.”

Unable to speak, Thessa swallowed.

“I harvested enough energy from a thousand Shadow Moons, the funnel from which our magic transpires, to come back to life. The first time was to conceive you, but the last time was to protect you.”

“How?” was all Thessa could ask.

“A Resurrection Spell paired with a Possession Spell. I traveled through the meshwork of souls and made the jump into your mother’s body for conception, and then the midwife’s for birth. I used her arms to cut your cable, her mouth to declare you stillborn, and her legs to rush you away— to the furnace, I told the guards.

You were not stillborn, Thessa, but you were listless. I pressed a borrowed finger into your heart and gave you another wisp of my energy. Truth be told, I gave you all I could manage.When you opened your eyes, they were so rich, like the sea. Just like your mother’s. Her given name was Thessaly, so I named you in her honor. That was my final respect for her sacrifice. Then I wrapped you, tucked a piece of parchment with your name and the date of our moon inside, and bolted to the Central Divinity.

Your blood runs pure and potent, Thessa. The energy may overcome you at times. I suppose that’s my fault, for giving you a gift I’ve given none of my other children, but you have the power to steal an element no sorcerer ever has.”

“And what is that, exactly?”

“ Oxygen , of course.”

Memories of her magic consuming flame and air resurfaced.

“We are running out of time.” the voice of her goddess-mother faded.

Thessa had so many questions, but selfishness prevailed. “Why leave me in Gravenport? Of all places? It’s terrible there.”

“There are seldom redeeming qualities, yes, but caring for their supposed-own, is one they hold dear. And it was there, only there , that I knew you would see.”

Thessa gasped, popping her eyes open.

Ivy offered her a hand to sit up while Beatrix held a glass of sage water in front of her face.

After gulping it down, Thessa laid right back down. Shaking her head at the beamed ceiling of the townhouse, she said, “My magic stifles flame and air.”

“Woah.” Ivy’s deep voice rang.

“My magic stifles flame and air.” Thessa repeated it, over and over until air left her lungs in short bursts.

“Breathe, Thessa.”

That she could not. The thunder of a thousand storms tumbled through her veins.

She’d mourned the death of her mother, the one she’d never known, many moons ago. Hearing her name, Thessaly , and her birth story, reignited repressed grief. To be told that her mother had been some sacrificial vessel was unfathomable. Not to mention how she herself had been the product of some goddess-given seed.

Shock eddied its way through her bones. She wondered why an eighteen-year-old, with barely a handle on her forbidden magic, had been chosen to end the conflict between witches and demons?

Ivy hovered over Thessa, shaking her shoulders. “Breathe! I said breathe!”

“Vy, let me.”

Beatrix came into view next. “Tess, can you look into my eyes?”

Swirls of brown, green, and blue made up the warm hue. She’d lined her eyes in charcoal, adding a diagonal line along the outer corner. When she blinked, a heap of brown lashes sparkled with stardust.

“We’re with you. Just take a deep breath.”

She tried.

“A little slower …”

Thessa exhaled, slower this time.

“Good. Like that.”

I. Will. Not. Succumb. To. This.

Closing her eyes, Thessa reached for her magic. Not to conjure it, but to be with it. The sea of blackness that was once her enemy, had become her friend. So, she shared her relentless pain, ceaseless worries, and incessant thoughts to the current, letting them drift away.

She couldn’t carry it all, not anymore.

When Thessa’s eyes finally opened, the ones her birth mother had given her, Beatrix said, “I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about what you’re going through, but if there’s anything we can do to make it easier … ”

After a few steadying breaths, Thessa sat up. “You’ve both been more than helpful.” She rubbed the blood-crusted star off her chest and tossed her tunic back on. “And thank you for the clothing, my bag ended up burned with everything else.” She didn’t want to think about her Cheltz. She had nothing tangible to call her own, except Hades and her dagger.

“That’s what friends are for.”

Ivy nodded in agreement. “So, what’s going to happen tomorrow? The matron said we have to leave by first light.”

After a sigh, Thessa began. “The plan is to split. In the morning you’ll travel to Greenshire with Wayland, Emiel, and Leora. Soren said Wayland has set up countless camps and you’ll be safe staying together. You should arrive at the Temple of Three Moons by the third day. You’ll use your Celestial grace to spread our message there. Then you’ll trek another day north until you breach the forest. Soren said there’s an encampment that requires warning.”

“We can do that,” Ivy declared, squeezing Beatrix’s thigh in either nervousness or excitement.

Beatrix asked, “But where are you going?”

“Back south. Soren and I will leave tonight, it’s safer for us that way. You have to tell Leora goodbye for me, and that it’s not forever. Promise me you’ll say that?”

“We promise across the stars,” they proclaimed in unison.

Ivy and Beatrix eyed each other before sharing a small kiss. “Our adventure awaits.”

Thessa had one last favor to ask, “Do either of you have a spare cloak?”

Beatrix, the same size as her, sprang to her feet. After sweeping through the wardrobe, she pulled out a wad of black satin before unfurling it. “I have this under-cloak. Will it work? ”

“It’s perfect.” Thessa stood, swinging it around her shoulders and tying it under her chin.

Ivy smiled. “It shines like your hair.”

Thessa took Ivy’s compliment with a slight bow, thanked them both for all their support, and left under the privacy of her new cloak.