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Her smile widens. “I can read all that in youreyes.”
“Which means we should all concentrate onclosingour eyes again,” Hecate interjects. “Give it another go, Kara. Shoulders back and down. Hands on your knees. Chest full and vibrant. And now…air all the way in. All the way out. Once more. Be present for every molecule of atmosphere that fills you. The atmosphere that speaks to you and your power.”
To coin my own paltry phrase, I try again. This time, I glue my thoughts to everything they’ve both said. To make friends with the air instead of blaming it. Getting permission to let everything go… It’s like the days when Mother threatened to cancel my horseback riding lesson if I didn’t clean my room. Suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about the stable, or even my beloved pony, anymore. The freedom I craved from the rides across the foothills…it came from the work instead.
Now, I’m even more free.
I gasp from it, no longer caring about the knowing hums from the women beside me. To be honest, I’m barely aware of them. The forces that flow around me, taking over me, are more demanding. Overwhelming.
So daunting…
“Keep breathing, Kara.”
I almost bite back a retort—isn’t that what Iamdoing?—until realizing that I’m nearly choking to reclaim oxygen. But can I be blamed? The swirls across my vision, joined with the energy buzzing through my senses… If I had socks on, they’d be knocked across the room.
For once I’m glad about the chill in my toes, though now it’s not so much frost as fusion. The same vibrant, electric thrill that invades the rest of my body. The energy that has me shivering and fidgeting at the same time. Excited but conflicted. Ready to burst but tempted to cower. But fortunately, still capable of speaking.
“Wh-What’s going on?” I battle to keep the connection to my teachers by relocking my mind on the basics.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
“What do you see, Kara?”
That’s not an answer.
Somehow I control myself from whipping the retort at Circe. Not that I’m rewarded for the restraint, even after opening my eyes. What happened to the room I was just in? TheworldI was just in?
“What do youfeel, Kara?”
For reasons I can’t pull apart, Hecate’s question makes more sense. I turn, fully expecting not to see her on this new plane of bright-gold reality—or whatever it is—but there she is, appearing a lot like the first time I ever beheld her. Swirling and shimmering. Her skin aglow, a true match for the gemstones that sparkle around her neck. The hem of her gown is encased in similar colors, though the shards there are still like colored ice. Evolving, iridescent. An aura that leaves me no question about how to answer.
With my truth.
“Like I did when I first found the grimoire.”
“In the library in Hades’s palace?”
She sounds so fervent about it. Too much so.
But wouldn’t I sound the same way in a circumstance like this? Don’t I probably sound like it already? “Don’t you see all this too?”
The tiny indents between her brows are a clear enough reply. The same puzzlement is stamped across Circe’s face.
Until I try once more, releasing them both from my hold.
At once, my hands rise higher. I let them go, extending outward at the same time.
It’s not a protest. I tell them so with a soft smile. Inside, it feels more like an expression of…surrender. I hope they understand, but already jettison the stress if they don’t. If the goddess of sorcery and her most powerful emissary don’t intuitively get this, I can’t stop and write a term paper for it.
“Oh!”
I’m able to quell a grimace at Circe’s outcry for one reason alone. Joy that matches the warm wind that now lifts our hair, bringing a white-gold light that surrounds our bodies.
They do get it.
I know it as truth as soon as Circe lifts her head to return my stare. Her jaw is dropped and her eyes are wide. I almost emulate the look, but a soft chuckle tumbles from me instead.
“Well,” she rasps. “This is…”
