Dance of Fate

Chapter Twenty Four

Asteria, someone whispered, the voice so familiar it could have been my own. I didn't know where it came from. There was no one around me, nothing around me, aside from bright light, and it.

On the outside, it could have been a regular bathtub made of dark iron. But even though I was feet away from it, I could feel what was inside- feel some of it inside of me. Dark, endless power.

Asteria. Come.

I wanted to run from it, run from the way it said my name, the way it made my blood thrum- but I couldn't. My body only wanted to get closer to it.

Every cell in my being was pulsing with the need to move towards it, devouring my every thought, until I could no longer remember my name, no longer remember who I was or where I had come from. There was nothing else. Only it.

I took a step towards it, then another and another. There were no thoughts in my head. I had become a part of it.

We are the same, it whispered.

I finally reached the tub filled with death, agony, and everything in between.

We are one.

I reached out my hand, and slowly lowered it into the pool of darkness.

And then I heard nothing.

Saw nothing.

Felt nothing.

Only death and darkness.

I gasped, clutching my throat as I sat up. Velaris- I was in Velaris. In the Town House. In my room, in my bed.

My entire body trembled, every inch of my skin slick with sweat. Gods, I could still feel it, still hear it whispering to me in the back of my mind. I shuddered so violently it hurt.

A dream. It had only been a dream, caused by my obsessing over the slight possibility I might be able to nullify the Cauldron.

It was still dark out, which meant I had a few more hours before I was to meet with Cassian, to go to the Prison in search for answers regarding this very matter.

I couldn't stop trembling, and I didn't know if it was because of the dream, or the horror I would soon have to face.

...

It was like standing in the middle of one of my own nightmares as I stood a few yards away from the large rock mountain where I had spent the worst six years of my life.

The only things that assured me that I wasn't dreaming were the sharp wind that bit at my face and played with my hair, and the male who stood beside me, eyeing me warily.

"Asteria are you sure-" Cassian asked for the hundredth time. To be fair, I had been standing in the same spot for half an hour. I hadn't even considered the General might agree to accompany me to the Prison to ask the Bone Carver if I had the ability to nullify the Cauldron. But to my shock he had said yes, and even gone as far as to swear he wouldn't tell anyone.

"I'm fine." I said, but I was assuring myself more than I was him. If Cassian knew, he didn't say anything about it.

I closed my eyes.

Take my hand, child.

I shuddered, the image of my father's pained violet eyes as he had led me into the Prison flashing too vividly in my mind.

I'm sorry.

I snapped my eyes open. "Let's go."

We hiked the slope of the Prison in silence. My hands wouldn't stop shaking, either from fear or from the cold, I didn't know. With each step that we neared the bone gates, more memories of when I was in the Prison swarmed my mind.