Page 158 of The Cerulean Sister
"I did what I had to do to protect the three worlds," Crixa whispers only loud enough for me, the gaps of her teeth stained red. "I care for you deeply. I know you care for me too." She holds my hand in place with a clawing grip, her peppery tendrils snaking up my arm and weakly scratching at my skin.
But they cannot breach the green light radiating slowly from my hands, not to heal her but to keep her pinned.
She will hear my words. I will not let her bleed out until I am finished. "I came back . . . for my sister, not for your forgiveness. I want you to know that."
Her eyes widen with betrayal, the last of the color draining from her face.
"Now, I will haveyourconfession, Crixa," I grit at her.
She laughs at me, using her depleting strength to mock me.
"Admit what you have done, admit you killed our mother."
Leema's gasp behind me breaks my heart. I wish I could have told her gently, held her when I explained, but Crixa owes this to me.
"I, the Highest Priestess of Cosima, take an oath to usher . . . the priestess order . . . into the new age." She musters up just enough strength, not to spit her rage at me or give me and my sister closure, but to recite one last prayer before her mind truly fades. "I will lay down my life . . . in the preservation . . . of your divine daughters."
I close my eyes and little green vines slither across her body, holding and trapping her against the chaise. They undulate and keep her in place as she whispers another meaningless prayer.
"Calliape?" I join her where she stands protectively next to my sister. "Are there any others in this temple?"
Knowing she is the only one who can answer my question quickly, she leaves in a gush of wind, folding and searching the temple.
"Are you alright?" I ask Leema, afraid of her answer.
"You did not come back to Cosima for atonement?"
"No."
I can see how fast she is putting her thoughts together, how they seem to race by, and she cannot hold onto a single emotion on her face for more than a moment.
She thought she had done something unforgivable, something so horrible her and her child would die for it, but now she knows the true reason I am here.
The Albright said my sister was seeking balance. My past manipulated reality and circumstance made me believe a skewed version of what that could be.
But this is the true balance: the woman who made us this way succumbing in the same temple she murdered our mother in.
That is what the Albright foretold. Leema will have balance because I give it to her.
My hair sways as Calliape appears beside me, breaking my attention away from thinking of what else to say to Leema.
"No others, just the ones we have seen. They have succumbed," Calliape reports.
"Will you please take my sister out to the courtyard?" I ask her.
She nods and helps Leema to stand, and I turn my back on them, hoping they can leave without any issue . . . so I can finish this.
I wait until I cannot hear their footsteps anymore before walking back to Crixa.
"You will never leave this temple," I say, looming over her. "And I will make sure every book in the three worlds that has your name recorded as the highest also states what you did, how you sinned against First Mother, how many women you sacrificed, and how many children you orphaned."
She watches me take the nearest torch out of its mount on the wall, the orange flame the only life reflected in her eyes.
The highest cannot defend herself, too weak to put up any kind of ward or conjure her powers against me. She will not have an honorable priestess’s death.
She does not deserve it.
"They are outside."
