Prologue
Doyou know what it’s like to leave a dream and tumble face first into a nightmare? Because I do. One moment everything is warm and happy, and the next, it’s stark, frigid, and daunting.
Just like Constantine Nacht’s golden irises. They remind me of icy, hard metal. Whirling with power. Sucking me deeper into his web. And grounding me in a reality that isn’t mine.
He smiles. Callous. Cruel. Cold.
And then he begins to chant.
An ancient rhyme. A hum I don’t understand. Magic swirls through the air, calling to my Quandary Blood heart. I memorize the words. I study the patterns. I hold on for dear life. I drown beneath the wave of foreign energy engulfing me from head to toe.
He said he wanted to talk.
He lied.
No shocker there. He’s a wicked old Midnight Fae with a black soul, and it’s swallowing me whole, dragging me down, down, down…
I shiver.
I scream.
I freeze.
Then I burn. So intense. So bright. So insanely dark. Earth weeps inside me, my spirit fracturing beneath the onslaught of energy threatening to consume me.
And on he chants.
Chants. Chants. Chants.
My name is a whisper on the wind. An ascension is brewing. Consuming. Lighting me on fire from within.
Wrong,I think. This is wrong.
My roots are dying.
My flowers cease to bloom.
The sun turns to night.
Darkness. Death. Blood.
It’s overwhelming and bleak and ripping me in two. Inky lines crawl up my arms like poisoned ivy, slithering and purring and captivating my focus. They remind me of snake-vines, hissing and daring me to play.
This isn’t real, I tell myself. This is a nightmare. I’ll wake up soon. I have to wake up soon!
“You’re ascending,” a deep voice says.
Constantine Nacht.
“Soon they’ll see you for what you are, Queen Aflora. An abomination in the truest form. A monster. A being consumed by power, both Elemental Fae and Midnight Fae in nature. And I can’t wait to watch you burn.”
He cackles.
I scream.
Then silence engulfs us both, his final words a threat on the breeze, swathing my being in a kiss of obsidian. “Welcome to your first ascension trial, future dead one. May it forever destroy your soul.”
Power rolled through the paradigm,electrifying my senses as the Source Architect.