TELL ME THE TRUTH

Chapter Twelve

"Bloody hell," I breathed out, my eyes reading over the last paragraph of the entry.

It pains me to know this, that I will not live to see my daughter grow. I have always understood the inherent dangers of my role, but never have I imagined that it would actually kill me. Camden was unable to give me details on my death, other than that it would happen within the year. I can only hope that Jeanne's Guardian will take good care of her during her training years, even though I know that she will not have the luxury that I had of waiting two years to take over. No, Jeanne will have to become the Consulere's ostensor as soon as she possibly can.

I will do my best to stay alive, but I've yet to see a vision of Cammie's not come to pass. 

I closed the journal softly and set it beside me. I couldn't read anymore right now. She had been so calm, so meticulous in her writings, and I couldn't comprehend how.

How could she be so calm, knowing that she was going to die?

Wasn't she afraid?

Part of me wanted to be angry at her. She knew that whatever she was working on would kill her, but instead of making her stop, it just made her pursue it even harder. She could've left it alone, stayed here with me and Papa, and lived.

That's not what she did, though.

I knew it wasn't fair of me to have those thoughts. After all, my mother had done the right thing, even though the cost was great. She was a hero, and I had to remember that.

Ryan's arm tightened around me as the tears began to fall. He tugged me into his chest and held me while I cried, murmuring soothing words and sending sparks of comforting energy into my skin. I didn't push him away. I needed to be comforted and held.

I don't know how long I cried, but at some point, I began to feel a bit lightheaded. I pulled away from Ryan, nearly vacating my stomach in the process.

"What's happening to me?" I asked.

The symbols on my arm had lit up in vibrant green. Pins and needles marched up my arms and legs; my head pounded with the beginnings of a migraine. The room spun around and around in nauseating circles.

Ryan's warmth left me. I wanted to reach for him, but my arms were useless. I heard him speak, but I couldn't understand the words.

Darkness was beginning to cloud my vision. I called for Ryan, but before I could feel his warmth return, I was falling.

When the darkness faded, something felt very wrong. I was no longer in my bedroom. I was in a room similar to my mother's athenaeum. This one was much smaller than my mother's, with two small rooms barely lit by blue flames. The room I stood in was around the size of my bedroom, the walls covered in bookcases filled with leather tomes similar to the ones I now possessed. A few chairs crowded the center of the room, one lantern flickering on the side table. It was dreary, to say the least.

Evil seemed to fill this place.

I rubbed my arms as gooseflesh marched across my skin.

Where am I? I wondered, circling the room and peeking at the books. Most of them were the same grimoires that every pythonissa and ostensor kept, but there were a few that were titled in foreign languages. Cold evil seeped from those books, and I reached out to take one from the shelf.

My hand passed through the book without disturbing so much as a speck of dust.

I looked down at my hands. They looked normal, and I tried again to take a brook off the shelf. The same thing happened this time.

"What is going on?" I muttered to myself.

I closed my eyes, pulling my magic into my veins. What I planned to do, I didn't know, but I was running off of pure instinct at this point.

My magic sampled the air around me. That calm ocean appeared behind my eyelids, drawing the atmosphere of this place into its depths. It rolled the air around, pushed it here and there, and finally released it.

This athenaeum had been constructed by familiar magic. It reeked of raspberries and decay, the scent of my mother's magic. There was a hint of reality there, too, and it dawned on me that was probably a vision. My mother had probably created this vision and tied it to her journal so that whenever I read it, I would be sent here.

Geez, Ma, whatever happened to just writing a letter? I thought sarcastically.

I lost my grip on the magic then, that green flame extinguishing behind my eyes. I came out of the trance I had been in, my heart pounding from the experience. What had I just done? Was I going crazy?

Yelling from the other room caught my attention, and with my heart still beating out of control, I crept to the door to investigate. A deep breath, a whispered prayer to whatever god was listening, and a curse later, I pushed open the scarred door and took a look inside.

This was a workroom.

A cauldron sat above a roaring fire in the center of the room. Shelves of potions, powders, and roots lined the back wall. A lectern stood beside the cauldron, holding a single volume bound in blood red leather. The metallic stench of blood rode the air, coming off of that book in waves. It was opened to a page somewhere towards the end, and I considered trying to get a closer look.

"You cannot stop me!"

There was a woman behind the lectern. Her dark hair floated around her head, affected by the magic that rolled off her skin. Her eyes glowed a bright blue, as did her mark.

She was a pythonissa.

A bolt of emerald magic flew towards her. She deflected it and sent back to where it had originated. I followed the magic to its source, my breath catching in my throat. My mother stood against the opposite wall, her eyes shining with magic and anger. The magic pinged off of a hastily constructed shield and disintegrated.

The woman by the lectern cackled, shooting a bolt of azure magic at my mother. It bounced off the shield. My mother swore and started shooting green flames at the pythonissa, who built her own shield to stop the flames.

A shimmering bow carved with ancient runes materialized in my mother's grip. An arrow flickering with green flames appeared. Mama was precise. She pulled back the arrow, let her breath out slowly, and released the arrow. It pierced the pythonissa's chest, dark blood mushrooming across her shirt.

My mother pulled back another arrow.

The pythonissa only faltered for a second. Her eyes changed from a brilliant blue to a soulless black. Her pythonisse mark faded, replaced by a black rune.

Evil.

That was all I could feel. The stifling breath of pure evil filled the room.

Mama released another arrow, this time aiming for the pythonissa's head. She laughed.

"It's too late, Antoinette," she said, her voice echoing around the room.

She lifted her hands into the air and flicked them in my mother's direction. Black tendrils of vile magic seeped from her palms, rapidly seeking out my mother's wrists.

Mama was bound in place by the magic.

She mumbled spell after spell, and while I could feel the evil magic weakening, it wasn't fast enough.

The sorceress stumbled over to my mother, the arrow still sticking out of her chest, and touched my mother's face.

"You will make the perfect sacrifice," she stated.

She withdrew a dagger that had been strapped to her thigh.

The room started to spin.

"You are weak, Antoinette."

The coppery scent of fresh blood filled my nose. I heard the pythonissa speaking, the sound of something being dragged, and then nothing.

I was falling through the darkness again, hurtling towards something I couldn't predict.