Page 66 of Morning's Light

“I’m sure.” Astix held out her hands for the box.

“I’m the one who should give out orders. I’m the oldest.” Aisanna bristled at the way her sister took charge. She hadn’t been the best at coming up with a plan, true, but she still wasn’t sure this was the right idea.

Astix rolled her eyes. “Grab the book.”

Aisanna could feel the simmer of power in the room when they got down to business. When they gathered the ingredients, placed charms around their necks, and readied themselves.

“Place the book in the center of the circle. We’ll use it as a focus with this crystal.” Astix took off her pendant and placed it next to the spell book in the middle of a ring of salt.

She respected her magic, the organized ritual. There hadn’t been much opportunity to practice over the years. She’d taken her banishment seriously and tried to stifle her magic to the best of her ability. Quash it under a façade of normalcy. Yet here she was with a ceremonial blade in her palm, preparing to work big magic, back in the house she’d been exiled from years ago. Life certainly took some odd turns.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

The three sisters held their hands out to their sides and cleared their minds.

When they spoke, their words were weighted. Waves of energy shimmered red and gold in the air in front of them. Aisanna threw in the last handful of herbs and held her breath. Waiting. In the depths of the spell, she saw figures. Like looking through water.

The words on her arm and chest burned, their outlines shining red and gold through the material of her clothing.

She saw a circle in the woods. Shadows bouncing off of trees. Eyes burning in the darkness and the light of a full moon pouring down. A fire. Flames licking at bodies, silent screams filling the night air. Monstrous shadows dancing and cavorting joyfully, as if the terror brought ecstasy for them even as it brought death to their victims. And as Aisanna was filled with horror to realize she recognized the people in the fire, a dark shadow darker than the others appeared, grew, enlarged until it blotted out everything, engulfing Aisanna in its torturous embrace.

And then suddenly it stopped. The image shattered like a fragmented mirror and a force struck the sisters like an out of control freight train of power, a full-body blow sweeping all three of them off their feet and sending them flying back away from the ritual circle.

Aisanna slammed against the wall of the solarium and a thousand stars burst to life in her head. Her eyes rolled back and she clawed at her throat. Choking.

She believed then. Believed pain and death were coming. For her. For everyone.

The spell dissipated with a snap, and at last she could breathe again. Aisanna drew in a hacking breath and clutched her throat and chest. The script on her arm flashed a final time, painfully, before she felt nothing.

“I’m out.” Karsia scrambled to her feet. Blood dripped steadily from a slice on her cheek. “You can continue whatever tomfuckery you’re doing, but this isn’t getting us anywhere. You know what we should really be focusing on, you assholes? Zee. We should be finding Zee.” She wiped at her eyes as tears spilled down her cheeks. “Damn. I didn’t want to cry.”

Astix crawled forward on her knees, with hair obscuring her face. “Did anyone…see anything? Hear anything?” she asked slowly. She worked her jaw to clear her ears.

“Not enough to go on.” There it was, her voice. At least she still had one. Aisanna breathed deeply a few more times before attempting to sit up. “I didn’t hear anything. The translation spell doesn’t work.”

Before she could finish the sentence, Astix slammed her hand down onto the tile with a scream. A shockwave rose from the contact and the after-effects shook the walls of the solarium. “This is bullshit!”

“I saw death,” Aisanna said with a cry. “Death, and fire, and it was my fault. It was my fault.”

“Nothing is your fault.” Karsia hurried over to wrap her arm around Aisanna’s hunched shoulders. “Something went wrong with the ingredients, that’s all. I knew the sage was too dry but I said we should use it anyway.”

“We need to get out of here. We need to go somewhere safe and buckle down.” Astix shook off the malaise and scrambled to her feet. “Get everyone, pack your bags, and let’s go. It’s not safe here anymore.”

Aisanna struggled to stand. “We can’t just run.”

“It’s not running,” Astix answered fiercely. “It’s survival while we pray to the goddess that we can find a way to stop The One Who Walks in Darkness. Because I don’t know what the rest of you saw, but I saw the end. Meet me tonight at my place and we’ll go.”

“I’m not running,” Aisanna insisted. “There’s a better way to do this.”

“You never listen, Aisanna.” Her façade of apathetic cool collapsed and she looked furious. “If you won’t run, then think of it as buying time. Because if you’re too wrapped up in whatever you’re doing with Elon to care about your own personal safety, I will do it for you.”

Astix strode out of the room, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve. Karsia spared a glance over her shoulder at Aisanna before following.

**

Monday night, Aisanna sat in the bathtub letting her skin prune with water nearly hot enough to melt the skin from her bones. Having a moment alone helped her mind and emotions calm. Not to mention soothe her swollen feet, her aching bones and joints… She was old before her time.

She glanced down and rubbed the spot on her wrist where the death rune had sapped the magic from her blood. She’d thought that was the worst she’d suffer during this time of upheaval, having a curse put on her and her family and managing to beat it, with a little help from her sister. Okay, a lot of help from her sister. Astix was the one who’d broken the curse.

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