Ascended (War of the Covens 3) - Page 84
“Are you ready?” Penelope asked softly as they stood inside the humid space, waiting as the torches were lit around the area.
Caia nodded, shivering with nerves. Or cold … she was completely naked beneath her blue robe.
“We’ll be out at the elevator. Waiting.”
She nodded again and watched silently as Penelope and the two magiks who lit the torches fumbled their way out of the dark caves. Taking a deep breath, she turned back to gaze at the almost-circular room. In the middle stood a tripous, a three-legged sacrificial altar with a large stone basin upon it. Carved into stone were the names of the living gods accompanied by a prayer for them to hear her.
With great trepidation, Caia removed the dagger from her robe, and then removed the robe itself. She stood shivering and as naked as the day she was born. Thank goddess she got to perform this one alone. She actually blushed, even though there wasn’t anyone else to see her.
Except the gods, Caia, she reminded herself.
Tentatively, she approached the altar, wincing at the gritting sand and stone beneath her feet. And though she knew it wasn’t possible, she swore she could hear the rush of the ocean in the distance. It was so weird.
Standing before the tripous, Caia raised her hand over the bowl. She was using her other hand this time, the one with the annulet. She took the dagger and sliced deeper than before, cutting through the silver symbol on her palm, ignoring the searing pain. Her blood trickled into the bowl. Once there was enough, she morphed her hand to wolf and back again, regenerating her skin so only a faint red line was left. Exhaling, she then placed the tips of her fingers into the blood and pushed a flow of her magik energy into it.
“Mother Gaia, hear my plea. I ask that you take back the gift of trace from your children and let us live liberated in a new world … forever your undying servants, forever loving.”
Over and over she repeated the words the Council had advised her to use, and for a while, it seemed as if their endeavor was futile. But on the tenth round of the rite, Caia felt the beginnings of an inexplicable shudder jolting through her. At first she thought the ground was moving, but as she looked down, she found it still as glass. A fierce jerk knocked her back from the altar, and she shook uncontrollably. Panic suffused her as her teeth chattered and her brain jiggled in her skull. It grew fiercer and more painful, feeling as if her very organs were smacking against her bones and muscles.
And then the eye-watering pain began. If felt as if someone had grabbed hold of her insides and were pulling them out of the top of her head, the energy encased in her body shunted upward and out with supreme force. She thought she might be screaming but the chaos of her body left her ignorant to anything else. She writhed helplessly on the floor of the cavern … until a sudden stillness drew the pain to an abrupt end. Caia sucked in a deep breath, air rushing into her panicked lungs with joy and relief.
She nudged around with her energy. A giant, exhausted grin spread across her face. Caia would never have thought she would ever be this happy to be so alone inside.
The trace was gone.
Jaeden shot up from her chair at the exact same time Lucien did, at the same time shocked exhalations poured from the pack gathered together in Lucien and Caia’s suite, waiting for the rite to be over. An electricity had tingled through her nerve endings in one sharp, smooth maneuver, and an instant understanding thrummed in her being. It was like an instant message from the gods explaining in one concise note that Caia Ribeiro, half magik, half lykan, existed as Head of both covens and had given the trace back to the gods, unbinding them all.
“You felt that?” she gasped around at them all. Everyone nodded.
Reuben glanced between them and Laila. “There is no longer a hum in your energies to tell me who is Daylight and who is Midnight.”
“Yeah, ’cause it’s gone,” Jaeden explained. “And it came with a message about Caia and her giving up both traces … telling us we’re free.”
“Which means the Midnights probably felt it too.” Lucien shook his head in amazement, gazing at Laila for confirmation. She nodded her head slowly.
“They’ll know about Caia?”
“Yeah, they’ll know about Caia,” he confirmed.
Jaeden trembled and lowered herself to her seat. What did this mean? Now the supernatural world understood with perfect clarity that there was no trace and no longer any Head for either coven. Was the war teetering on the edge of the end … or standing on the precipice of a bloody disaster?
Source: readsnovelonline.net