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Still, the din continues. So many crashes and clatters. Too many ominous thuds that visibly shake the walls, even from our view out here.
“Ohmy.” Circe doesn’t mess around with the reiteration. “They’re not wasting any time. Or perhaps…Rerek isn’t.”
I startle. “What?”
But my wrenching belly already confirms that I’ve squandered breath on the word. I already know exactly what she’s saying, and I hate it. Rerek is many things, but a lax idiot isn’t one of them. His sleek white walls probably hide a hundred booby traps.
For all we know, Jaden or Kell could be taking the brunt of those blows right now.
Or Maximus.
“No. Ohhh no, no,no.” But as I wrench back and then pivot around, more words tumble out of me. Syllables no longer drenched in dread and protest. They take me to a place of wonderment and power.
Of surrender…
“Fax accenditur superiores. Hecate declarat. Ego sum unus cum Hecate.”
And of flight.
The lightness that comes from the words, pushing through me with their forceful familiarity. Now, as Circe translates, even more so.
“The torch burns higher. Hecate declares it. I am one with Hecate.”
“Yes,” Hecate exclaims from behind me. And then…from beneath me. “Yes, youare, Kara! I knew you could do it. I knew it!”
“That’s…that’s…” Circe gasps out.
I don’t blame her for giving up on the words. I can’t find any either. I’m rising beyond the villa’s vestibule, up and over the top of the structure, until even the indigo expanse of the Pacific is like an endless painting before me. Astonished air spills off my lips as I extend my arms a little, experimenting with the air currents. I’m not exactly swooping or going prone, but learning some control is good for a needed confidence boost, especially as my speed ticks up.
“Okay, okay, okay,” I mutter anxiously. “Get your shit together, Kara.”
The crazy throbs inside my head and stomach are on the verge of dizzying. As fun as all this is to consider, I wonder if my lunch is preparing its second appearance for the day. Maybe I should’ve been more daring during Kell’s birthday party at that trapeze place on the Santa Monica pier.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t handle this. Hecate and Circe are still down there, flowing their energy and faith. Arden and Maximus are still inside, needing me to fulfill my part of the mission. And my siblings…
Arethe mission.
I just have to take this chance. Commit and continue.
That also means…asking again.
“Okay, Jaden,” I mutter as best I can. The wind is crazier up here, and the sea salt dries my throat. “Now it’s your turn. I need another sign, brother.”
There it is already.
The light beneath a double set of skylights goes out and then back on again. Once more. A third time.
I giggle in time to my leaping heart rate. “Thank you.”
I coast in closer, to the point that I now feel his adrenaline. The sound of my name reaches me firsthand after I pull up on both vented skylights. In a tandem arm motion, I rip the latches free from their mountings.
Logically, that should plaster me with a gape to match those of my siblings, watching from the luxurious den below.
But not now.
Not with enough energy rushing my veins to charge Alameda’s whole computer lab. It’s like the force that zapped me in the library at Hades’s castle, only more so. So much more.
There, I was surrounded by darkness, damned souls, and the ongoing weight of my spirit’s dread.
