Spinning on my heel, I stared at him with confusion tightening my face, but his mouth tugged into a boyish smile. “How can I be feeding them power?”
“According to my mother, only the females from our lineage who’ve been blessed by Freyja to rule, have a special connection with the land. They’re linked in such a way that they share power with each other. Freyja’s domain included the natural world, and similarly, you feel a connection to the land that reciprocates. That’s the soul of it, crying out to you, which only a few have ever truly felt.” A quick glance at my face made his eyes sparkle with mirth before he continued his explanation. “As it comes from the land, the crystals are also a part of the world. However, the largest, hollowed cylinders are connected to the Queen of Witches.”
“Hecate is the Queen of Witches,” I emphasized. Griffon’s silvery head tilted as if he were awaiting me to figure something out.
When I offered nothing more, he spoke with patience. “She is, but so is Freyja. They condemned Freyja for being the Queen of Witches. Hecate was the Goddess of Magic. One Greek, the other Norse. One helped forge the Nine Realms into a world while the other is a parasite exiled here for crimes committed against vengeful gods. The power you feel from these cylinders is the same magic that your grandmother and great-grandmother carried. I believe your birth was a true blessing.” For a moment, we watched a group of children playing before he continued.
“I’d like to believe it brightened this blighted land. If you decided to do so, I think you’d be able to change the world for the better. Even with your hands bound behind your back, blindfolded if you chose to, Aria. Some people are born to brighten it, while those like you are born to set it ablaze from the fire burning within. I didn’t know why my mother desired for me to couple with Aurora, or sent me to the ruins where I found her the day of your conception. I thought she was going mad from seeing too much war, or aging. But I still went and I’m glad I did. Not as a father, who’s biased about you, but as a king, I’d still choose you to save us all.”
“No pressure, right?” Esme’s chuckled response was faint, her bluish-purple eyes lingered on a group of men, then roamed around us with curiosity.
“Go big or go home, right?” I asked before lifting my hand to the large, hollowed-out cylinder.
“Aria, I wouldn’t—” My hand touched the crystal, and a sense of falling rippled through me. Then pain tore through my abdomen, legs, and arms until it felt as if my skull was being cleaved in half. Spots dotted my vision. Then everything went dark.
Chapter Two
Aria
Pain forced my hands to my forehead, where I applied pressure. The groan that burst from my lips had my eyelids lifting. Bright, staggering light forced my hand lower, to shield my eyes. What the hell had happened? I felt like someone had beaten me up, stomped on me, and left me on the side of the road to be eaten by scavengers. Forcing my limbs to work, I struggled into a seated position. I’d either fallen through the cylinder or I’d just become Alice, and stepped out of reality, into the fantasy that was Wonderland.
I’d done a lot of stupid shit in my brief life, but I’d never thought I’d add falling through a quartz cylinder to my list.
The marble floor I’d awoken on was moving, and sparkling silver orbs were sliding across it. Shifting my hand, I captured some of the sediment material. It sent a burst of pain into my palm, and a yelp of surprise escaped, echoing down the length of the moss-covered hallway as the silverish material sent pain into the fleshy part of it.
“What in the Alice-fell-into-an-acid-trip shit is this?” Rising to my feet, while avoiding touching the strange orbs, I squinted at the hallway as it slowly widened until I could see light at the far end. “I better get a Cheshire Cat. That’s all I’m saying,” I muttered crossly.
The moment I stepped forward, the silver that covered the marble floor merged, forming several mirrors. By the time the orbs had finished, they lined both sides of the hallway with the reflective surfaces. Then I looked into one, and instead of my face reflecting back at me, a scene was unfolding.
A couple was dancing gently, his arms were covered in dark, inky tendrils wrapped around a woman, with platinum hair past her hips. Stepping closer, I paused as amber eyes drifted to me. Thinning, they drifted down my frame before the purple-blue eyes of his companion slid toward me as well.
The moment she did, he spoke. “That doesn’t look like Destiny.” His raspy timbre had my head tipping to the side, sliding my eyes over his massive build.
“I have no idea who she is. Definitely not her though, Fairy.”
Fairy? Not sure what she’d meant by it, but I dismissed them to look into the next glass. A woman was within it, her body covered in a strange meat suit. My face scrunched up as she opened a fridge, shoving lush, red curls over her shoulder.
“I’m back early, Fred.” Was she speaking to the freezer? Cerulean eyes landed on me, even as mine turned as round as saucers at seeing what was inside the freezer.
“Pity, I had prayed they’d successfully skewered you with a blade.” The talking head said from inside her freezer.
“Hello,” the woman called, even as she moved toward the mirror. The blood drained from my face as I realized she was wearing flesh like a sweatshirt, the head still attached, like a hoodie.
Horror rocked through me as I darted forward, glancing through the silvers lining the hallway. In one, a man with huge, ink-colored wings slammed into a woman, who was bent over a desk. His angry thrust caused her whimpers to reach my ears. Turning at the sound of my gasp, sapphire eyes locked with mine, glowing. Dark, thin tattoos slithered over both arms, then down his torso. Lowering my gaze the moment he moved, I watched a massive cock pulling from the woman he’d been railing. Shooting forward, I shivered as the sound of people’s hushed voices slipped from multiple portals.
In another, a redhead was placing what looked like steel into a press. The entire room around her looked like an armory. Frowning as her ample belly was exposed, I began moving forward once more. The next had a dark-haired male, who was holding a tiny baby with horns poking from his head. Smiling at the cute little demon, I flicked my eyes to who I assumed was his father.
“Hello, lovely. Are you lost?” he asked, his darkening eyes filling with curiosity.
“He’s adorable,” I whispered, not sure he’d hear me.