Morgan Rhodes - Rebel Spring

Fine. If she was stuck here, she needed to talk. She needed answers to questions that bubbled up in her throat-about the strange and alluring Alexius, about everything.

“How old are you?”

His brows rose, as if he hadn’t expected this question. “Old.”

“You don’t look old.”

“None of us do.” His amused expression had begun to enrage her. There was nothing amusing about this. “You can put out the fire, princess. I mean you no harm today, I assure you.”

Her hand continued to burn. With a focused thought, she made the flames higher and brighter. She would take orders from no one, especially not some imaginary boy from her dreams.

It only made Alexius’s smile grow. “Very well, have it your way. Perhaps if you see for yourself-even in the confines of this dream-what I am, you might begin to believe it. This is only our first meeting. There will be others.”

An unbidden shiver of anticipation slid up her spine. “Not if I have anything to say about it. I will wake soon and you’ll be gone.”

“Perhaps. But mortals need to sleep every day, don’t they? You won’t be able to escape me quite that easily, princess.”

Lucia glared at him but had to admit it was a point well made.

“Watch me.” He stepped backward and raised his hands to his sides. There was a swirling around him, blurring his image for a moment, the air shifting, shimmering, turning.

The next moment, his arms were wings, his skin sporting golden feathers that shone beneath the sunlight. With a flap of these wings, he took flight.

He was a hawk, one who soared high into the clear blue sky. Amazed, Lucia shielded her eyes from the bright light, unable to look away-and noticed her fire had extinguished without her even realizing it.

Finally, he came to perch in a nearby tree, laden with golden apples. Both hesitant and fascinated, she drew closer and studied him, surprised that his eyes had remained the exact same shade of dark silver.

“This proves nothing,” she told the hawk, but her heart pounded hard and fast. “Anything can happen in a dream. It doesn’t make it real.”

He let go of the branch with his sharp talons, but before he touched the ground he had shifted back into the form of a young man. He looked down at himself.

“Usually when we shift form, we don’t retain our clothing-feathers become flesh, flesh becomes feathers. It’s the only difference you would note in the waking world.”

Heat touched her cheeks at the suggestion that he would currently be completely nude if she was awake. “Then I suppose I should be thankful this is only a dream.”

“You know this is real because you know who you are, what you are. Your destiny is tied to the Sanctuary, princess. It’s tied to the Watchers, to the Kindred.” He boldly drew closer, his gaze intensifying. “Your destiny is tied to me , and it always has been.”

His nearness disturbed her and, for a moment, made it impossible to concentrate or speak.

She realized there was substance and truth to what he said. Her body might be lying unconscious in a bed, but her mind, her spirit. . they were here.

“You’ve watched me because of the prophecy,” she said.

A frown creased his brow as he studied her, as if memorizing her features. “Yes. You are the sorceress I’ve been waiting a millennium for.”

“That you’ve been waiting for?”

Alexius nodded. “Many didn’t believe, but I did. And I waited until you came into your magic before I could talk to you. To guide you. To help you.” He was silent until she, again, looked up to meet his silver eyes directly. “Your magic is far too powerful for you right now and it’s only growing stronger by the day. You don’t even realize it yet.”

“Oh, believe me,” she said quietly, “I’m very aware of how powerful it is.”

Her father, King Gaius, had her use her newfound magic to break down the protective warding on the entrance to the Auranian castle after a bloody battle outside the City of Gold’s walls. It rose up like a fiery dragon before her, and the combination of the warding’s magic and her own elementia had caused the explosion that killed so many people.

“Will I ever wake?” she whispered. “Or will I die in my sleep as punishment for what I’ve done?”

“You were not meant to die in your sleep. This much I know for sure.”

Relief rose within her at his words. “How do you know?”

“Because we need you. Your magic will make the difference to us, to the Sanctuary.”

“How?”

Alexius tore his gaze from hers to scan the meadow, his expression growing strained. “The elemental magic that exists here, that has been trapped within my world like sand in an hourglass, has been slipping away ever since the Kindred were stolen from us and lost. Ever since the last sorceress ceased to exist-the sorceress who had the exact same magic as you have. Her name was Eva and she was also an immortal Watcher.”

“Eva is my middle name,” Lucia said, surprised.

“Yes, it is. And it was Eva who gave the prophecy with her last breath before she died-that the next sorceress would be born in a thousand years-a mortal girl who would wield elementia as she could. It is you. King Gaius knew of this prophecy all this time. He knew what you were to become. That is why he raised you as his own daughter.”

Lucia’s mind tripped over itself in an effort to keep up with him. “What happened to Eva? How could an immortal Watcher die?”

“She made a mistake that cost her life.”

“What?”

A sad smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “She fell in love with the wrong boy-a mortal hunter who led her astray and away from her home and those who protected her. He destroyed her.”

Lucia realized that she’d drawn even closer to Alexius without realizing it, so close that when he turned to face her again his sleeve brushed her arm. Despite this being a dream, she swore she felt the heat of his skin against hers.

She took a shaky step back from him.

Lucia had always been one to soak up books and information, her mind hungry for more than her tutors wanted to teach her. And no one seemed to know much about elementia , since magic was mostly considered legend, apart from some accused witches. Even Sabina, who proclaimed herself to be a witch, had shown no true sign of magic to Lucia-at least, not enough to defend herself when Lucia had protected herself and Magnus from that evil woman.

You didn’t have to kill her , a little voice said inside of her. The same voice that had tortured her ever since it happened. The memory of Sabina’s lifeless, charred body dropping to the floor flooded through her mind yet again.

“Tell me more, Alexius,” Lucia whispered. “Tell me everything.”

He raked a hand through his bronze hair, his expression growing uncertain. “It was a long time ago that Eva lived. Memories of her grow unclear, even for me.”

“But it was a thousand years ago that she gave the prophecy with her last breath. Didn’t you say that?”

“Yes. The same time the Kindred were lost to us.”

Her breath caught. “You have unclear memories of a sorceress who lived and breathed a thousand years ago. How old are you?”

“I already told you, princess. Old.”

“Yes, but exactly how old?”

He hesitated, but only briefly. “Two thousand years.”

She stared at him in shock. “You’re not old. You’re an ancient relic.”

He raised an eyebrow, a smile tugging again at his lips. “And you are sixteen mortal years. A mere child.”

“I’m not a child!”

“You are.”

Lucia groaned with frustration. Such arguments were getting her nowhere, as were thoughts of how it was possible a two-thousand-year-old Watcher could appear so young and attractive-more so than any other boy she’d ever known. She had to focus on gaining more knowledge, more information that could help her. She pointed toward the city. “I want to go there. I want to talk to someone, someone whose memories aren’t unclear about what exactly happened with the last sorceress, who she was, what she did. . anything!”