Page 79 of The Legacy of Ophelia
“My body is my own,” I whispered, trailing a finger across each visible scar. “My mind is my own.”
I was not a puppet to be wielded by Echnid. I was not a funnel for his poison, meant to pour magic at his behest. I had regained my autonomy. Though, after being unaware I’d even lost it in the first place, I wasn’t sure I knew what that meant anymore.
The girl in the mirror—the body who had committed atrocious acts at a god’s influence—looked the same as she had weeks ago. I knew her. I felt her pain like the roots of my soul.
And yet, I was utterly changed.
And while I feared that old innocence would never return, I looked forward to what crimes she would commit in revenge.
Cypherion wasoutside when I finally found the strength to dress and leave the room.
“Playing guard?” I asked as I shut the door behind me and took in the hallway. The curtains in my room had been pulled tight, but the wall opposite the door was entirely glass.It overlooked the dunes, the thin veins of spirit-woven water running between them.
It could have been my imagination, but I thought the blood of the Soulguider demigoddess in my own veins beat harder at the sight.
“Just here to see if you needed anything,” Cypherion answered, tucking his hands into his pockets. Though he tried not to, his stare bore into my wings. I held them aloft, strong and proud, but I cast him a wary look. Awaited the questions.
My body is my own.
My mind is my own.
Cyph sighed. “Ophelia, I’m sorry.”
My brow furrowed. “For what?”
“For sending Tolek away. He should be here with you now, but I did it for his best interest.” A shrug. “Ididthink maybe he could assist Barrett, but truthfully, I was mad at him.”
So that was why he’d been outside my door. Guilt for sending Tolek to Banix—for the fact that I suffered in Damenal and didn’t get to come back to the man I loved—layered his every word. And with it, I recognized the stark pressure of leading a clan you never asked for. Of worrying you were making the wrong choices.
Cypherion had truly been trying to hold us all together this past month.
I tucked my arm through his and flared my wings behind our backs, doing my best to adopt a facade of my normal self.
“Why were you mad at him?” I asked as I followed his steps down the halls.
Everything looked wrong. The walls too bright. Bronze fixtures too shiny. Voices trailing from the distance too unburdened. My chest ached in answer, the slimy sensation of Echnid’s influence over me echoing down every bone, but I forced myself to focus.
“Because I told him not to go to Damenal. I asked him to just listen to your messages from Rina and stay fucking put so we could work as a team despite you guys being so far away.”
A sharp breath sliced through my chest, my eyes stinging. I’d known he was there. Had felt him more than once. But I hadn’t realized they wereallwarning him against it. Fighting over it.
Tolek had come for me despiteeveryone’swarnings.
He’d refused to leave me.
And while it was reckless, and I would certainly have to discuss it with him, that knowledge alone was enough to burn away another small sliver of the lingering, tainted echo of Echnid.
“We shouldn’t be surprised,” I muttered as we turned down another corridor, my gaze trailing over the maze of cactuses in a sprawling stone garden outside the window.
“No,” Cypherion agreed. “We shouldn’t. I wrote to him as soon as you were in your room, but he hasn’t answered yet.”
My heart quickened. “Do you think something’s wrong?”
Cyph had explained what was happening in Engrossian Territory while I clung to consciousness. Why they’d sent Tolek. Thoughts of heretics and rioting enemies flashed through my mind, of him caught in the center of it. Tol was a strong fighter, but everyone could be outnumbered. What if?—
Cypherion stepped in front of me, gripping my shoulders as if my fears were plain on my face.
“He’s okay,” he comforted, but the way Cyph watched me with such caution confirmed he could tell I was different. Changed. “Letters have been stalled in Banix for weeks. I don’t know if it’s Echnid’s doing or just the magic being stifled with their palace closed up and an influx of correspondence. That’s it, though.”
