I took a deep breath, relishing the plethora of sensations rushing through me. I gave Lumi a warm smile, then shifted my focus to Hunter. He didn’t move, but he didn’t take his eyes off me. I took it as my cue to step forward and drop a kiss on his lips. He tasted like honey and jasmine; he smelled of rumbling oceans and lazy summer afternoons in the wild. What an experience this was, living with the Word embedded in my very soul.
It was incredible. I experienced everything at a different, vastly superior level. I could smell the tiniest changes in the air. I could feel the molecules on everything I touched—vibrating, working hard to keep the object or the body together. This was truly an extraordinary time to be alive, as far as I was concerned.
The Word thrived inside me, and I loved it. I also feared it. The seconds prior to my awakening had compressed centuries’ worth of teachings from the Word itself. The final stage of my apprenticeship was, indeed, over, and I had been tasked with power like I’d never had before. Part of me was overwhelmed and downright terrified, but I was eager to explore it, to understand my limits, and, if necessary, to go past them.
I was surrounded by people who loved me. And I’d come back to them because I was determined to save each and every single one of them.
“Don’t worry, babe,” I whispered against Hunter’s lips, losing myself in his blue eyes. “We’re going home soon.”
Lumi put a hand on my shoulder, prompting me to turn around and face her again. “Seriously, now, how are you feeling? Any pain? Any feeling of heaviness? Any physical discomfort whatsoever?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m perfectly healthy,” I said. “Don’t worry, Lumi. Everything will be okay from now on. You’re not the only swamp witch anymore, and that matters. I now understand how important this step I took was, not just for me but for everyone else. You see, if the last swamp witch dies, the Word dies, too.”
Dmitri gasped. “Whoa. Hold on, isn’t the Word like… I don’t know, the energy that keeps this world together? I mean, this and all the worlds, for that matter?”
“Yes,” I replied. “The more swamp witches there are, the more powerful the Word is, and most importantly, the more balanced the universe becomes.”
“That’s new information,” Ben murmured, frowning.
“I didn’t know that either,” Lumi mumbled, looking alarmed and aware of how truly important she’d been until now, and how valuable the both of us were to everything and everyone. “The Word told you that?”
“Yeah. I had a crash course just seconds before I woke up. I was told that time is running out, and that I’m finally worthy of becoming a swamp witch and serving the universe. So, here I am,” I said, and chuckled softly.
Draven exhaled, shaking his head slowly. “And to think how close Azazel once got to destroying the Word. He butchered all of Calliope’s swamp witches. Even he probably didn’t realize how important they could be.”
“Mm-hm. Thankfully, I was out of town at the time,” Lumi said, raising an eyebrow. “That insolent fool. Thinking he was above the creation forces themselves…”
“Speaking of which,” Elonora chimed in with a shy smile. “I think we need to get a move on and teach our Stravian insolent fool a lesson.”
Just then, the urgency of it all came crashing back into me, much like it had done during my dream state. Elonora was right. We’d already been on a tight schedule, prior to my blackout. Looking around again, I found myself feeding on the prisoners’ hope. It beamed out of them like milky moonlight, and it made my senses tingle.
Hunter squeezed my hand. “I’m here if you need me.”
“Make sure everyone gets out,” I told him, then looked at Lumi and my grandparents. “You guys ready?”
“We were waiting for you to finish your beauty sleep, cupcake,” Grandma Corrine replied.
I laughed lightly. It was good to see her good spirit back. She was probably adjusting to this new version of me, much like everyone else—including myself. But, like most of my apprenticeship, our current circumstances didn’t allow for a smooth transition. I was to adapt quickly and take everything the Word gave me.
This time, however, every spell I learned would stay with me. The words would never escape me again. The incantations would forever be seared into my memory, and so would the face of every single creature in this diamond dome. Their lives depended on me.
“I’ll take the north,” I said. “You need most of the energy output for the bilocation spell there, and we all know I now have the juice for it now.”
Lumi grinned. “That’s the spirit. I’ll take the south, then. Corrine, you do the east. We need a mother where the sun rises.”
“I’ll take the west point, then,” Grandpa Ibrahim quipped.
Seconds later, Rose disabled our collars with the first code she’d gotten from Amal—it kept them on, but they no longer prevented us from doing our magic. The second code was meant to take them off. We took our positions on the edges of the diamond dome. Just like they’d practiced before, the prisoners scattered around the hall, making sure to obscure the floor drawings to any outside views.
I took a couple of deep breaths, the words of the bilocation spell already echoing in the back of my head. I knew what I had to do. My gaze wandered around the hall for a moment as I brought a hand up to the back of my neck.
With my fingers resting on the tiny keyboard mounted on my shock collar, I prepared for the next stage of our mission.
“I’m sorry I was late,” I said, making sure everyone heard me. “This is it, guys. The point of no return. From the moment we get this started, we cannot linger; we cannot falter; we cannot look back. Is that clear?”
The crowd gave me a collective nod. My chest filled with pride and my heart swelled with determination, as I found Derek and Sofia smiling at me. Their nods of approval were my signal to press the deactivation code on my collar.
Freedom was within our reach again.
Elonora
Nevis, Varga, my grandparents, and I stayed together. Vesta, Ben, Taeral, and several other fae took their positions under the hung sheets that had been tied to a couple of bunkbeds, ready to drill into the diamond floor, using the earth abilities.
We were all ready.
Lumi, Corrine, Ibrahim, and Kailani took their cardinal point spots. Lumi had taught Corrine and Ibrahim the spell’s verses. They put their arms out and closed their eyes.
“Everyone, be ready,” Lumi announced. “Once your copies appear, you’ll have to be quick and coordinated. First, all prisoners will remove each other’s collars at once using the second code we gave you, then place them around the copies’ necks. With a bit of luck, the disconnection on the Perfects’ central screens will last a second, tops. A glitch, at best.”
“Fire it up,” Ridan replied, eager to get out of here and to reunite with Amane.
We were all pining for our freedom. Our crew, however, could only imagine the anguish that GASP’s founders and the fleet prisoners had been feeling, cooped up in this place for almost two weeks.
“Word of life, giver of light and darkness,” Lumi started, swiftly joined by Ibrahim, Corrine, and Kailani in a perfect unison. “We summon you. A body is one, but a body can also be two. Where one stands, the other may sit. Where one smiles, the other may cry. We are one, yet we are none. Make it so that instead of one, we become two. Give us our golems, mirrored by ourselves. Give us two, instead of one. Make us two. Make it so!”
The chant itself was a mere call to action, reaching out to the Word. The symbols on the floor were the true formula, each circle and triangle and swirl combining into a precise recipe to create solid copies of ourselves. In the ancient tongue of swamp witches, the copy created through a bilocation spell was called a golem. I looked forward to finding out what a golem was, exactly.
It didn’t take long for me to find out.
