Chapter 14: You'll Learn To Like It

My room embraces me like an old, familiar friend, though I don't plan to stay here long. I have no idea who Liander is trying to harm or control, though if she's at Harvard, it can't be one of my people. Whoever it is, I have a feeling Piers needs to know. I could wait, try to have a vision, but the world outside the sanctuary is a mystery to me in many ways. If I can tell Piers what I know, maybe he can help me figure out what Liander is really up to.

That Hayle bitch. At least I know who she is. And that she's a friend of Piers and Charlotte. And though I owe her no allegiance, I now understand she's not the evil Dark One I've always thought. In fact, if she's Liander's enemy, I'll gladly call her friend. If I can give her a fighting chance, I'll do it.

The flames hug me close, but don't hamper my journey, leaving me alone on the beach. Is it my imagination or do they feel sad, as worried as I am? Surely not. The fire is elemental, pure and untouched by emotion outside the capricious feelings of pure energy. And yet, I'm certain they whisper their fears to me as the flames release me.

I call for Piers, not caring who hears me, standing there in the late evening, waiting for an answer that never comes. Something huge looms, perhaps is already begun. It's possible he's wrapped up in it. This Steam Union he mentioned, that he asked me about. Are they friends or foes? From the sounds of things, they are the enemy, though when Piers first asked me if I was one of them, there was hope in his voice.

I'm so confused, things are moving too quickly for me to process and I have so few answers to a million questions about a magical world I know nothing about. The visions I've trusted my entire life have been corrupted by my grandmother, by the beliefs of Liander Belaisle. If I'm to truly understand, I must examine them with this new, open honesty in my heart, my doubt now certainty something is terribly wrong.

My attempts to reach the fire, to see the truth, amount to nothing. No visions come to me, no fresh awakenings and awarenesses. It's possible either the control Liander has over Gaia is keeping her from showing me anything new, or there is simply nothing new to see.

I refuse to consider the third option. That I can no longer call up the future thanks to my actions. I know better. Gaia would not abandon me now.

Time passes slowly, though I wait only another ten minutes or so, calling out at intervals. No reply. I can't wait here forever. Instead, I embed fire into a stone and leave it where Piers will see and feel it, the glow of the rock softened by a hint of my sorcery. He'll know I was here, at least, looking for him. For now, I have another job to do.

I step out of the fire into the portal room, surprised not to find myself in my quarters. When I raise my eyes and meet Kayden's eyes, I stare in shock as he approaches.

"You've been traveling outside the protections." He doesn't even try to hide the pleasure he takes in catching me. "You're lucky I felt you coming and diverted you to safety."

The bastard. I want to lash out and claw him, pound him with flames and darkness, but he's faster. He pins me with his arms, backing me into the wall, his sorcery smothering me before I can push him back. My fire fights valiantly against him, but he's already surrounded me and every attack I try is absorbed, making him stronger and draining me.

"Let me go." I pant against his chest, keeping my head down. A tendril of black tucks under my chin and forced my face upward. His lips hover over mine, a sheen of sweat on his skin, cheeks red, eyes blazing with the need to hurt.

"You were promised to me." He kisses me roughly, fighting to hold me in place while I thrash in his arms, a tang of blood against my teeth as he cuts me with the pressure of his mouth. He pulls back, licking at his lips, grinning at my distress. "And I'll have you. With or without your consent." He chuckles, deep and angry. "Don't worry. You'll learn to like it if I have to beat it into you."

His lips descend again. I can't let him touch me, not like this, not ever. A massive eruption cracks at the base of my power and fire and fury rush out and upward. The fire bursts free in a raging ball of flame. He staggers back with a cry, batting at the smoldering blaze licking up his cloak, sorcery slamming against me. But the fire in me won't be denied. I feel it swell to fill me, spilling outside me, flooding the room, devouring everything. This is the power I feared, the fire I saw in my vision with Gaia. But it's mine to control and it will not be stopped until it has what it's come for.

The whole world swirls in oranges and reds and sparks of blue, my breath smoke and flame, my hands red-hot. Kayden scrambles away, eyes huge and afraid, but I don't care. Compassion is nothing in the face of my heated rage.

Something hits me hard, and I turn with cold fury to see Aunt Ash, a curtain rod in her hand, the tapestry at the back of the room on the floor, smoking. She stares at me with real fear, but her hands are steady on the rod she's struck me with.

There is no pain. I barely felt the attack. But the distraction is enough to cool the fire, to force its retreat, until my vision clears and I wobble with the release.

Kayden runs away before I can say anything or stop him from leaving, though I'm happy he's gone. Ash swears, the sound of metal hitting stone echoing in the room as she runs for me, the rod dropped and forgotten. She catches me the moment before I keel over, keeping me upright and moving me forward when I'm sure my feet won't move.

"You stupid girl," she hisses at me. "What have you done?"

I'm almost myself again by the time Ash unseals the locks on my door and pushes me inside. I want to ask her how she managed to get past my personal protections when she slams the door and spins on me, temper making her whole body shake.

"What were you thinking?" She runs both hands through her blonde hair, stomping two steps forward in her heavy black boots before grasping my arms and shaking me.

My teeth rattle together before I can pull away. "He attacked me."

She shakes her head, hair a lion's tawny mane, almost on fire itself as it flows around her like a living thing. "Zoe." Her voice cracks as she pulls herself together, hands fisted at her sides, feet braced wide apart as she breathes deeply and stares at me.

"Something is happening." I sink to the arm of the sofa, hugging myself. "Liander and his people are planning..."

"What?" She waits for my answer with clear impatience.

"I don't know!" I toss my hands in the air, stand and turn toward the fireplace. "But I do know he's been using us, Ash. All of us." I spin back to her. "Taking our power. Manipulating our visions. And stealing magic from Gaia." My throat tightens as I speak that truth out loud. "He's been draining our Goddess."

Ash doesn't react the way I expect. She grows calmer with each word I speak and I wonder whose side she's really on. "Listen to me." She exhales heavily before fixing me with her blue eyes. "I told you to keep your mouth shut. Have you?"

I nod. "I don't know who to trust." I jut my chin at her, so she knows she's included on that list.

Ash snorts a laugh, relaxes slightly. "Don't be a jerk," she says. And shudders, like an anxious dog shedding water. "Stay here." She reaches into her pocket, retrieves her lighter. "Kayden's little temper tantrum shouldn't cause you trouble. He knows if he says anything, he'll have to admit he attacked you."

I doubt that would stop him. "Where are you going?"

Her gaze flattens, tells me nothing. "Just stay," she barks. "And for Gaia's sake, don't do anything stupid. I'll be right back."

She flicks her lighter, jumping into the flame before I can stop her. Leaving me to pace my room, startled by every tiny sound, certain it will be Liander at the door, come to enslave me. But the seconds and then minutes tick by and I'm left to think.

Never a good thing. Not with so much left to be worked out. I have to talk to Piers, but my family has to come first, don't they? Once they know what Liander and my grandmother have been up to... I halt my pacing, cold fear running fingers over my flesh. What if they all know? What if I'm the only dupe? I shake my head and resume tracking across the carpet from the door to the fireplace. No, that's foolish thinking. There might be a few-like Ash, obviously-who know the truth, but I can't believe my entire family are involved.

Doubt whispers dark thoughts. What if my grandmother knows exactly what she's doing and I'm being led astray by the fire trying to consume me? Maybe Liander is trying to prevent a disaster from happening and is just a jackass on the outside?

But no, that moment of weakness dies when I remember the touch of Liander's magic siphoning power from my Goddess. Is she trapped, then, not sleeping after all? I believed she was with us by choice, but she's never spoken or opened her eyes or addressed us directly. We chose to accept Liander's explanation her mind is busy elsewhere, body trusted to our care.

Life here in the sanctuary was so different when I was a child. I remember being happy but focused, thrilled with my ability while some of the other girls were terrified. I'd always felt Gaia powerfully inside me, even more when Liander brought her to us-confirmation to me she was who he claimed. But the joy of my childhood died when he arrived, and since then I can only recall duty laced with anxiety and need.

If only we'd been permitted to commune directly with our Goddess. Perhaps things would have turned out differently. But the shielding keeping her from us has only allowed us to feel her power-not her soul.

At least, for me, until now.

My entire being aches for Gaia suddenly, the need to run from my room, to take the flame to her and free her from Liander is almost my undoing. I instead force myself to collapse into the soft cushions of the couch and deep breath myself under control.

I will wait for Ash. And together we will free our Goddess and our people. But to do that, I need answers, the kind of answers I might be able to gain from visions now that my mind is clear and open. But I must know if my grandmother is a full part of this manipulation, if she is complicit with Liander's plans or just acting out of a false sense of loyalty to him. And in order to find out, I must examine my most recent foresight, the one I experienced at Gaia's side.

I can only hope I'm wrong, that this investigation will prove Sibyl has nothing to do with the sorcerers and their plotting. It's possible, though not likely. Still, I have to know.

The lighter in my hand is heavy, like a stone, though I welcome the flames when I summon the spark from the wheel and descend with intent-

-Blood. Bodies. Fire. But wait, beneath that vision, deeper, the touch of one you know. Influencing you, throwing darkness into your path. Manipulating the outcome of the vision, to the worst possible result-

Sibyl's power ripples in subtle touches through the vision. And I'm proved right even as the flames pull me deeper. And at last, I know this isn't wrong, that challenging the lies I've been presented with is the only way I can uncover the truth and fully embrace my foresight.

I give in to the flames, let them burn away the false leads and misrepresentations of my visions. I see so clearly now, as I dive through the future-

-You sigh in sadness at the deception, the way you've been controlled and told for so long the one you're meant to trust is your enemy. She smiles at you through the rippling flames, her power as pure as Gaia's, her purpose your purpose. You must help her, the one named Syd, warn her of what is to come. You spiral forward, in darkness, flying on fire over the world, landing in a back yard where she waits, looking surprised, but not afraid. And you feel the heat of the flames engulf you as you rise again and burn up in a blazing flare-

I cry out against this death I see, the first true vision I've had in years, but the fire holds me tight and pulls me downward into its burning depths.

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