Page 88 of Anomalies

Laverna’s face is unreadable, but her head bobs once in approval, so subtly I almost don’t catch it. Delia’s lips are pressed in a tight line, that sharp chin tilted up, and her eyes are bright. Almost like she’s proud.

Ceres, on the other hand, looks thoroughly unimpressed. “That’s it?” she huffs, her red painted lips pursed.

“Did you expect something more?” I grit out.

“From Esme Van Reenan’s daughter? Yes.” Ceres looks around like she’s expecting support from Laverna and Her Grace, but everyone else remains silent. “I mastered illusions and light manipulation by the time I was sixteen—almost four years younger than you are now.”

I look at Callan, and he quickly notes the lack of patience in my face, then his gaze slides slowly to Ceres. “Lucina’s magic has different… bounds than yours, Ceres,” he says as if he’s bored. “The more there is, the longer it takes to master.”

My jaw slackens, and Delia snaps her head to the Captain, but he only shrugs.

“Be as it may,” Ceres hisses. “I expected more than a silly little party trick.”

My temper rises, I feel it swelling within me.

Rarely do I play with the entirety of my magic because I fear it has the power to consume me until I’m nothing more than a speck of dust, but…my stubborn pride doesn’t want to be a party trick. I rip open the cage I keep my magic in, and the pressure in the room plummets.

“Lucina,” Callan warns, but I ignore him, keeping my eyes on Ceres as it all pulsates through my body, pulling and pouring from that well inside me in a bright crackling river. My hands feel hot, and my skin begins to glow a warm golden bronze as I empty my reserves until all that’s left at the base of my spine is a deep, black void.

All at once, I let it go, and the room goes dark—no, the windows go dark, night falling over Pirn like a blanket.

Night in the middle of the day.

Ceres’s face drops, and all three women slowly turn toward the window. The early morning sun is gone, along with the bright blue sky, and in its place is a galaxy, just like the one I’d cast on the ceiling. Planets, stars, nebulas, and an inky blackness so dark it makes the stars shine like beacons. It looks as though all of Pirn is now on the moon, floating through space with no atmosphere to separate it from the endless void beyond.

All along the dirt paths, people freeze, gazes shooting upward as they clutch the arms of those nearby. I give all I have to the illusion, the power flowing unhindered from my hands, alarmingly fast and dangerously potent. Only when my head starts spinning do I realize how close I am to burning out⁠—

The blue sky reappears at my closed fists, casting the room back in rays of sunshine. I clasp my shaky hands behind my back before Delia can see the way they tremble. I’m empty, like a hollow shell, forced to sway on my feet until magic replenishes.

My knees wobble, and I can’t bring myself to look at the Captain. But even without meeting his stare head-on, I know he’s angry with the risk I’ve just taken.

I do my best to hide any tremor in my voice. “Have I met your expectations now?”

Ceres’s eyes widen, but she doesn’t respond.

“You have, Lucina. You have exceeded them,” Laverna replies, her rounded cheeks pinched in a quick smile, then her eyes dart to Ceres in warning.

Delia clears her throat, gently closing her journal, and I blink a little too slowly for Callan’s liking. He steps around the couch as the Dame starts speaking, eyes pinned on me. “Next week, I’d like to see your illusions mastered and some progress with light manipulation.”

I nod, widening my stance to keep me upright, and Callan makes his way to my side, scanning my body as if he’s trying to pick which part of me will give out first.

Delia’s navy eyes flash with an emotion I can’t quite place. “It’s time we start thinking about your place here in Pirn,” she says, readjusting her robes. “After you finish training, I’d like you to join our coven.”

Ceres chokes, and the room spins.

I will not fall, I tell myself.

And I sure as fuck will not join their coven. Regardless of my bloodline, I don’t picture myself next to them. I don’t picture myself with a pressed tunic and a golden diadem woven into my hair, stuck here forevermore.

“Someone is trying to kill me, and you want to announce to camp whose daughter I am?”

The Dame rolls her lips, setting her journal down before she replies, “Lucina, do you know what the most sought-after and fought over desire in the world is?”

“I don’t know,” I clear my throat, and Callan stiffens beside me. “Money, love, time⁠—”

“Power.” Delia’s voice is sharp as it cuts through the air. “Everyone wants it, everyone craves it. Lucina, your life will always be under threat because you have copious amounts of the most sought-after and fought-over desire in the world. You should let that sink in now, because you are the daughter of the most potent and pure power line our kind has ever known. You bleed what everyone else desires, and that will never change.”

I force my spine straight, fear spreading through my body like wildfire. The power I was born with was never something I desired; I shouldn’t have to suffer for a life I didn’t choose.