Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,20
end. One day it would overcome the world to swallow it whole and end all existence. Terrifying and dreadful.
Aida fed the twigs and scrawny branches into the fire as they huddled near it, both watching the flames. Worrying at her lower lip, Aida tumbled the wealth of information Marilsa had imparted over in her mind, teasing out every morsel.
“Are there others like me?” Aida asked in a faraway voice, still sifting through her bounty of knowledge, sparse as it was.
“Perhaps, perhaps not. No two were ever exactly the same, each with their own power.” Marilsa’s sigh was the raspy chatter of dead leaves swirling in the wind. Poking at the small fire with a sturdy stick, her shoulder rolled in a shrug.
“But if they had eyes like mine…?”
“Haven’t heard tell of one with those in a long time. Not since your birth, any road. They are not all so obvious. Most look no different from any other.” Marilsa’s lips twisted up in a snarl of amusement as she slid her vivid green gaze to Aida without turning her head. “Not near the power, though. You’re marked for it, so all may see. Magic always has a price.”
“I don’t want it.”
“You have no choice.”
“I’ve never had a choice.” Startled by her own vehemence, Aida pulled up her knees, hugging them tight to her chest to ward off the bitter chill of her words as much as the cold.
“You had choices aplenty, girl. Each time you bowed to him was a choice. Every time you did nothing, kept your silence, or begged their forgiveness was a chance to change things that you did not take. Choosing the path of least resistance is a choice, whether you like it or not.” Cruel as Marilsa’s words were, there was no malice in her tone. It was tired, weary, but not vicious.
“He would have killed me—”
“Not you, not until he was ready for it.”
“He would have killed more of them,” Aida snapped, scrambling up to her feet to pace a handful of stilted, bitter strides away from the fire and back. Hand whistling through the air in the general direction of Aeslomor that she could feel at her back even now, streamers of icy azure feathered into the darkness as she whipped around to look down at Marilsa. “He killed them, hurt them, because of me. Everyone suffers because of me!”
“Oh, shall I weep for you? Do you want so much pity, to be swaddled in condolences for your plight? Pah! You foolish bitch.” Marilsa’s snort faded into low grumbles as she shook her head hard, the ratted strands of her iron-sky hair tangling over her shoulders. Snatching up her leather sack of food, she began lumbering her way to her feet. “I’ll not sit here and listen to this horse dung.”
“Why are you so mean to me?” Aida stomped her foot, sending a rippling thunder through the earth. The trees swayed and groaned under the assault, their roots clinging to the fresh earth to keep them upright.
“Pah! Mean, she calls me. As if I didn’t tell her the truth, her past,” Marilsa snarled, lurching to her feet with the aid of her staff as the ground dipped and swelled.
“What good does that do me?” Aida shouted, stomping her foot again, her hands in creaking fists as she stared unblinking at the old woman. “I can’t do anything about what’s happened. I can’t save my parents. I can’t change what Otaso did. I can’t even protect myself from Er’it!”
“You have a choice now, girl, and if you stick your head in the sands, ignore everything calling to you in this very moment, you’re more a fool than I thought you were,” Marilsa snapped, stumbling away from Aida and the sputtering fire. Using her staff for balance, still scarce able to keep her feet, she made it to the sturdy oak that had held true while Aida’s magic ran wild before.
“I don’t know what to do!” Aida’s wordless scream of frustration spiraled into the canopy. The shriek of birds followed, along with the rustling rush of other hidden creatures of the forest. All of them bolted for some safety in a blind race away from the surging power that lit up the clearing. As if the full moon of winter hung just there, its light held tight and close around the young woman glowing from within.
Power arced from her fingers to the ground, shimmering over her skin in jagged lightning bolts. Her eyes were inky wells