Lost Seraphine (The Seraphine Trilogy #2) (14 page)

Gia

Cori inhales sharply, covering her mouth.

“Ye chose wisely, daughter of Poseidon.” The Seer bows down before us. “I served ye father, asinine as he may be. I will honor his daughter as well, for our quests are one and the same, yessss?”

“How do you know what I’m here for?”

“I smell yer fear. The curse of insanity makin’ its way through yer body, eatin’ it away... away bits and pieces each day. Not much use for a Seer who doesn’t foresee things, now is it?” She tilts her oddly intriguing head to the side.

“Can you ask her to speak in an easily understood people’s English?” Cori whispers.

The Seer’s gaze snaps toward Cori, her nostrils sniffing the air around her and the tentacles moving her skyscraper tall body forward. “Interestin’, indeed.”

Cori takes a step back and I take one forward, placing my body in between them, wondering who sent this sudden burst of courage my way. “You acknowledge me, not my friend. I’m the one making this bargain. Not her,” I announce.

Her nose turns up. “Speak quickly, we’ll be a doin’ then. Yer friend’s inexperience in traveling the veil has attracted the children of the shadows.”

“Oh crap. She means the fallen, doesn’t she?” Cori asks, her voice shivering. Something about this place affects her in a negative way that I don’t understand.

“I need to know how to find the Wanderer.” I turn back to the Seer.

“Ambitious and pretty, lil’ daughter of our king. I s’ppose yer father never told ya the full extent of the prophecy, did he?”

“No,” I answer. Father had only told us there would be a war someday, a battle among the three groups of celestials and ownership of the human lands would be the prize.

“Then listen and hear me well. For the answer to what yer heart desires lies within these words.” The Seer moves to a squatting position, grunting as she does so, her strangely deformed features level with our faces now. I steal a quick glance at Cori, our eyes exchanging silent fears.

“On the first night of the next full moon, the son of a man who can permanently tear down the veil between the worlds will be baptized in blood, ignitin’ the prophecy. War is comin’, lass, surely as my mother belonged to the most powerful line of seers that ever lived. Destruction will follow in the wake of what Bernael and his heathen crew intends to do. All three of the TriGate thrones will fall, the oceans will turn black, the earth’s core will rumble and the Seraphine will be lost like its princess, destined to become nothing more than a race torn apart as the survivors sing the songs of a dead sea.”

The mural behind her fades to darkness. I’m horrified as visions of my beautiful home are consumed by a blackness in the sea which rushes through my head. The TriGate thrones were created by Archangel magic, a way to keep the balance and peace alike, and I’m pretty sure they’re about as close to being invincible forces as anything touched by the Archangels would come. “I won’t let that happen,” I whisper furiously, meaning every word.

“What can ye do, lass?” the Seer asks, her sarcastic smirk mocking me behind the black glasses as she speaks in her strange voice that has the same effect on me as nails scratching across a chalkboard. “You’ve given up yer claim to the white throne, yer immortality, as if ya had a purely immortal side to begin with.” I don’t like the way she has said the last few words.

“What are you talking about?” A stab of unease creeps through my body. I don’t think I really want to know the answer to my question, but I can’t leave. I’ve come too far, risking Mabry’s anger.

A sickening croak of a laugh rushes out of her mouth, making me think of a frog. I don’t like her grin. I don’t like her.

She removes her glasses and focuses her milky colored eyes on my face as she stands and shuffles toward me, her back is humped and her gray skin sags. “How badly would ye like to hear the answer, pretty princess?”
What will ye give up to save him this time?
She’s speaking in my head

Everything,
I answer.

Boring answer. How far will ye go?

“As far as the love in my heart carries me,” I say aloud. “Now give me my answers.” Hurricanes form inside the mural on the wall. The image of my castle fades, replaced by a silver chair sitting inside a white throne surrounded by darkness. The temperature drops and my breath comes out in puffs of smoke.

“Gia, we should go,” Cori says, coming to stand beside me, but stopping as though a shield is preventing her from coming closer.

I can’t move. I’m caught up in the Seer’s gaze, her milky eyes clearing up to a normal shape with sky blue irises.

“Gia! Back off, witch. Stop whatever you’re doing.” Cori’s voice fades along with my vision.

A strange, white haze creeps in on us, consuming my side view of the room and Cori. The circle closes in on me. The white, gauzy appearance around the sides blocking out the view of everything except the white throne, which is now bleeding from unknown cracks.

“Princess, you will wither away like the humans fade with age, now that yer immortality is no more. Only time will move slower in yer days, yes. More agonizin’ as ya watch the ones ya love die before ya. Have ya considered why Poseidon would let his favorite daughter do such a thing?” Her empty eyes sparkle with delight at my ignorance. I shake my head.

Sure, I’m lying, but I don’t want the Seer to know how much this answer means to me. I’m caught up in her spell. Something pushes at my throat. Fear of the unknown, maybe?

“Old Neptune has lost control of his empire, has he not? Told him this day would come ‘round... eventually. Didn’t listen, that stubborn one, no. Warned him ‘bout the Wanderer, I did. Refused to listen to me that day, too. Chose to banish me, instead. All because of what I know about ye mama. The curse of the Wanderer will come to pass, no matter what the sea king does.”

“What are you saying? What curse? Do you mean the prophecy?” The room spins around me now. In the distance, I can hear Cori’s worried voice calling out to me, but the wind rushing by my ears is highlighted by the old woman’s voice and drowns them out. Blue and red lights, with a splash of gold, swirl around me.

My hair blows into my face, covering my eyes, blending in with the lights that have now blocked my view of Cori. For a short moment, I can feel the tingle of the ancient power flowing through my veins, a mixture of chill, heat and knowledge, a teasing reminder of all the things I’ve given up.

Glancing into the old woman’s dark eyes, I see a slither of youthful glow inside her irises. She no longer seems as old as I originally thought. Wisdom seeps off the woman’s body. There’s something off about the way she looks at me, a sadness that makes me curious about how such young eyes have come to be entrapped in such a hideous and twisted body.

Thunder booms around the two of us as we stand there staring at each other. I glance toward the place where the noise is coming from. It’s not thunder. Someone’s banging on the outside of the ice wall. Cori.

“Listen up, lass, and hear me well, for ye will only be given this one chance,” she says in a strong voice, a clear one that matches the strength radiating from her eyes. “The prophecy will be when the king falls to his knee, but the curse will always surround him. As all has been written; only one of the three shall lift his name up in the true kingdom. Wisdom and time shall meet face to face and the darkest one shall believe. When all’s said and done, and the three become one, in the land of the angels, the red one shall fail.”

Okay, um, yeah, I get it, really I do.

Yeah, right. I so don’t understand her words.

She laughs, the ear-piercing sound echoing all around me, making me think I’m going even more insane than her riddle has made me feel.

“I don’t understand.”

“Course you do. Your mother was a Seer, the same as I.”

“Can’t be. My mother died in childbirth.”

“Lies,” she hisses. “Her name—”

“I don’t want to hear anymore,” I interrupt, slamming my hands over my ears.

“Her name is Leezra Konkrin and she is
not
dead. You, my dear lass, are a product of both the sky and the sea, a forbidden union between a child of Gabriel and a mer-god. Just as it is forbidden for yer kind to become the mate of a human. Even one who may be confused about his true heritage. Consequences, there will be. Always the consequences.” She pauses and studies me carefully as though she’s considering the effect her words have on me. “Find yer mother, ya find the Wanderer.”

“What? I need answers, not riddles!”

“No more clues, daughter of Poseidon,” she says in the old woman’s voice again this time. “Too much has been said already. Tell no one of these words or I shall find ye and collect me payment. Won’t be a pretty thing fer ya to see, either.” Slowly, she hunches back over, her eyes clouding up with the haze of age. The wall of smoke and ice fades away, allowing Cori access to both of us now.

“Princess! You scared the light out of me. I was so worried.” Cori rushes over to where I’m standing and throws her arms around my neck, squeezing me so hard I can barely breathe. She releases me and whirls on the old woman. “Don’t ever do something like that again or I’ll have you arrested or something.” Her words fall on an empty room.

There’s no Seer. No images of a castle or bleeding white throne. Only two confused girls, gasping and trying to make sense out of what we have just experienced.

Tearing my gaze away from the spot where the Seer has vanished from, I glance at Cori and frown. The next night of the full moon happens on Friday. What better way to baptize the son of the Wanderer in blood than to have him participate in a boxing match? I have to find a way to stop Caleb’s fight.

I don’t know if the Seer was telling the truth about my mother. A part of me hopes that she wasn’t. That would mean Father has lied to me my entire life. Why would he do that?

I don’t want to see my people hurt or divided because of my inability to accept what my mind doesn’t want my heart to feel.

“I know how to find Caleb’s father. That is, if the Seer wasn’t lying,” I announce.

“She’s a trickster, Gia. Just a crazy, old, dried up witch.” Cori follows my gaze, studying the area in front of us, her nose turned up with a disgusted look on her face. Glancing back at me, she asks, “Are you all right?”

“No,” I whisper, fighting the urge to scream. “Caleb can’t go through with this fight on Friday. I know how to find his father.”
And my mother.

Gia

I have one objective and only one; to keep Caleb from going through with this ridiculous boxing match. After suffering through Bernael’s lovely visit and hearing the Seer’s disturbing riddles, I’m certain this is the right thing to do.

“I don’t know, Caleb,” I begin. “I’m scared for you, for us. I—I just feel like you’re falling into a dark place. Somewhere I can’t reach. This match is a setup. Something to pull you in.”

He finishes putting his navy tank top on and then gives me a strange, blank look. His damp, dark hair clings to his face, giving him a dewy kind of sexiness that makes my heart flutter.

“Come on, Gia. Just get down to the juicy part of the meat here. Go ahead. Tell me how you really feel. You don’t think I can win. I don’t know, maybe you think Thorne is the better guy all around.”

He’s so wrong. I’m thinking the complete opposite of what he has said, but he’s so cute when he’s jealous that it almost makes me want to let him keep stewing this way.

“Caleb, look at me.” I step in front of him and turn his head toward me so I can stare into his gray eyes that are filled with doubt and questions as well as, yes, a little bit of fear.

I want to tell him the truth, that the Seer told us about three people who’ll somehow become one in order to break the prophecy and how I believe he’s one of those three. I can’t be sure, though. The Seer could’ve been screwing around with my head. Father didn’t exactly throw a farewell party when he banished her to the swamplands.

Raze and Father used to always say her words were tricky, a mind trap designed to fool the innocent. I need to verify the things she told me. If she’s right, then something’s set to take place tonight.

There’s no doubt she’ll make well on her promise to ‘collect her payment’ if I tell Caleb about the things she said. I can’t even bear the thought of him getting hurt, let alone watching it happen. Cori’s the only one who knows that something’s going down tonight. I had to give her a small taste of what I’ve learned. Plus, one of us needs to explain to Mabry if something goes wrong.

I don’t think that’ll cause any problems.

Focusing back on my mission, I don’t waste any time trying to use words to help in my cause. Instead, I lift up on my tiptoes and place my mouth against Caleb’s, teasing his lips with a soft kiss, my breath a whispery hint of the passion I feel inside me.

He pulls me into his arms, deepening the kiss and driving me insane while melting any willpower I might want to believe is my own when the real truth is that I’ll do anything and go anywhere he wants me to.

How can something like this be wrong?

Caleb’s hands entwine inside my hair. We stumble back towards his bed, but we’re still holding on to each other. I don’t know if it’s me or the room or what, but I think I’m suddenly on fire.

How far will you let this go?

As far as I need to go.

I run my hands across the skin exposed at his waistline. He shudders and groans, inhaling sharply as I run my palms along the skin underneath his shirt. In return, his hands leave my hair and find a way up under the thin blouse I’m wearing. The unnaturally hot skin of his palm travels up the skin on my back, past my bra and around to the front. His thumbs graze the outline of my underwire before his fingers finally slip underneath.

“Yes, touch me there,” I whisper against his ear, my voice ragged from all the raspy breathing. Again... how far will you go, Princess?
It is forbidden for your kind to become the mate of a human.

They’re only words. Don’t listen to them.

As though he has just heard the Seer’s voice speaking inside my mind, Caleb pulls back and leans his forehead against mine.

The longest moment passes and I find myself holding my breath, waiting, wanting more, but realizing this probably isn’t the best way to go about doing so.

“Yeah. I think I can breathe without needing a machine now,” he says, lifting his head and glancing at me, his eyes a shaded gray mist of indecision. His cheeks are flushed and standing out against his dark skin. “I don’t—I want our first time to be right.”

“Being with you is right, Caleb.” I lift up and kiss him again, heat rushing through me once he gives in, but still realizing this can’t last. Deep down, he can sense my intentions.

“Gia,” he mutters through kisses as our passion slowly begins to ease away, slipping through my fingers like silk. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

I release a long sigh and glance deeply into his eyes. “It’s not working, is it?”

“O ye of little faith,” he mutters, closing his eyes a short moment. “You kissing me turns me into little puddles of nothing and everything. It’s crazy. You can convince me to do anything.” He lowers his eyes and hesitates.

“But?” I ask, urging him to finish his silent statement.

“I need to do this. Please try to understand.” His eyes plead with me. I can’t resist the look he’s hitting me with anymore than he can deny my kiss. “Do I have my water angel’s support?”

“You don’t even have to ask,” I answer, meaning every word and still trying to get used to Caleb’s pet name for me. I may not be the same kick ass girl who rescued him from Paige all those months ago, but I’ll do whatever it takes to keep the boy I love safe from whatever underhanded thing Bernael has planned for him tonight.