Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,92

the shock of electricity that coursed through her at the contact. Distantly, she heard Ramses’ shout.

But the landscape around Eveline suddenly changed. Ramses was no longer there. Instead, she was standing on top of a furiously erupting volcano, explosions of lava shooting into the skies, rocks and debris falling everywhere. And the flames…

Everything was on fire. The heat was unlike anything she’d ever known. The surface of the sun might be the only comparison.

The good news was, though she was right there on the mountaintop, in the middle of the volcanic eruption, she didn’t feel the effects of it physically. It was as if she was in a waking dream, there but not really there.

She looked around her and could barely see for the fumes, ashes and scalding heat that liquified the air into wavy hallucinations.

Then, suddenly, she saw him. A broken body on the jagged, crumbling ground.

It was the giant eagle that lost the Challenge to Ramses.

Somehow, despite the blazing flames and red-hot lava, he didn’t burn, though the fiery red in his feathers gradually turned black. At the same time, the eagle began to shift into a man, until only the humanoid form remained.

Moments later, though Eveline recognized that time in dreamland passed differently (it was probably hours or even days later in real time, back when it really happened), the mountain finally quieted. The lava flow slowed to a trickle, thin streams of orange-red that traveled through the crevices of the mountain like blood flowing through veins. Ashes floated through the air and coated the ground like dirty snow.

Eveline looked around for the eagle-man, but everything was buried under ashes and debris. If it weren’t for the faint glow beneath a thick layer of dirt that caught the corner of her eye, she would have missed him completely.

She followed the glow until her feet stood next to the back of an outstretched hand. Symbols throbbed on the blackened skin of that hand like dying embers.

Eveline crouched down and instinctively reached out to the hand. The moment she touched the symbols, the words made themselves known to her:

A King falls in flames

A winner loses in games

A Champion reborn

A King transformed…

And an old woman’s voice spoke directly in her ear.

Destiny is naught but the footprints of choices made. But sometimes, those of us who have the Gift, can’t help but interfere just a wee little bit.

Who? Who was talking to her? Eveline asked in her mind, but no answer was forthcoming, though the old woman carried on.

The young Elemental made his choice that day, and in doing so, set in motion not one, but many destinies. The Queen who conquered. The Slave who suffered. The King who fell. And the children…the children is another story.

What children? Eveline was so confused.

I enabled the Elemental to make this choice even though I knew which wheels it would set into motion. But it was his choice, and I could not stop him from making it. I did, however, bespell the warrior he fought as well.

The symbols glowed brighter on the back of the hand.

A spell to protect him from the fire’s burn. But it could not save him completely. The Eagle King died that day.

But he’s alive, Eveline thought.

Only by half, the old woman’s voice immediately corrected in Eveline’s mind, as if directly answering her.

His soul needs to be Awakened. His body needs to be transformed.

He needs to be reborn, Eveline thought at the same time the voice spoke the words in her ear.

Yes, child. You must help him. Only another fire witch can complete the spell. Only the Elemental can finish the cycle.

What do you mean?! I don’t know how! Eveline flailed.

But there were no more answers.

Suddenly, the blackened mountaintop in her waking dream receded, replaced by reality.

Eveline barely had time to draw in a breathless gasp before she was knocked to the ground by a massive, muscular boulder.

Eh? Could boulders be muscular?

It was Ramses, she saw, when she gathered enough wits to look up. He was already on his feet again and shouting something down at her.

Why had he knocked her to the ground? Why couldn’t she hear anything?

All at once, as Eveline lay disoriented in the dirt, sound exploded all around her.

The screeching whistle of jets overhead. Exploding rocks all around her, some aimed at the fighter jets that circled above like vultures, some blasted by the missiles—missiles!—that the jets shot down at them.

What in Goddess’ name…

Eveline blinked as realization dawned.

The resolution of the Challenge and Eveline’s disturbing vision