“You will be fine,” he assured me.
I stared into his eyes.
“I know,” I answered.
“I am not concerned- you are.”
He smiled.
“That’s true,” he admitted.
“I am concerned about you. That is my job as your husband.”
“Hmm,” I pondered with a smile. “I seem to recall that I saved your hide in the not so distant past.
Perhaps I will be saving it again- I am the Chosen One, after all.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “You
are
a cheeky one,” he chuckled.
“It’s one of the reasons that I love you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I told him seriously.
“We all will.
Let’s just get this over with.”
He pulled me closer and kissed me soundly.
I melted into his strong body for a scant moment before pulling back.
“I’ll see you soon,” I promised.
“Not soon enough,” he mumbled as he disappeared into the dark.
I watched the outline of his tall shape for as long as I could until he was completely gone before I turned and studied my surroundings.
There was simply nothing here.
The rushing sound of the river drew me to it and I decided to choose a spot close to the water.
There was a little horse-shoe shaped inlet filled with sand and rock and I dropped onto it from the banks, allowing my bare feet to sink into the cool sand.
It was still and peaceful here and I lifted my face to the night breeze.
It smelled of damp earth and river water.
I tossed my pack onto a nearby rock before I conjured a small bonfire.
Curling up next to it, leaning against a boulder, I allowed myself to become mesmerized by the flames.
Ever since I had learned that I controlled the Phoenix, fire had become such a fascination.
It was almost like I was drawn to it.
Unbidden, the words of the prophecy returned to me.
Will she perish in the flames of the Phoenix,
Never to rise to the land of the living once more?
What in the world did that mean?
I shook my head, trying to shake the troublesome thoughts.
I was supposed to be clearing my mind, not muddling them up with worries.
So once again, I stared into the flames.
I startled awake.
I had fallen asleep without even knowing it.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard an owl hooting into the night.
And then there was no other sound but for the rush of the river.
My campfire had gone out, so I conjured it again.
Soon, orange flame lit the night and warmed my skin.
I was also surprised to find my vision just a little blurred.
Since assuming my true goddess identity once again, I had become accustomed to the startling clarity that came with that.
Normally, my vision was perfect, my mind was sharp and my body was agile and strong.
But right now, it almost felt as though I had had too much to drink.
I staggered to my feet and leaned against the river bank. The prickly grass poked me in the back, but it didn’t matter. I scarcely felt it.
The rumble of the river had turned into a vague hum in the back of my consciousness as the inky blackness of night enveloped me.
Help me.
The whisper hissed from the shadows and I spun, clumsily losing my balance and tripping in the wet sand.
I righted myself and shoved the hair out of my face with shaking fingers.
Help me.
I felt warm breath graze my ear and I spun again.
The young woman from my dream stood in the moonlight directly to my right.
She was beautiful in a fragile, ethereal way.
Her skin was pale, her hair dark, her eyes a clear gray.
But her face… her face is what grasped my attention and held it.
It was delicate and lovely, but the expression was so tortured that it wrenched at my heart.
What was causing her so much pain?
“Who are you?” I whispered.
She stepped toward me with one slender hand outstretched.
“Save me,” she murmured. “Please.”
“Who are you?” I cried again.
She shook her head sadly and stepped from the bank into the river.
Wading away from me, she looked over her shoulder one time before she faded into the night.
I was shaken and I slipped to the ground in a crouch as I tried to catch my breath.
Who the heck was she?
Why was she asking for my help?
“Mama?”
A small, thin voice rose from the darkness, interrupting my frantic thoughts and causing the breath to catch in my throat.
“Raquel,” I answered in a whisper.
“Mama, I don’t like it here.”
My eyes flew to the horizon and I found her small body hunched over.
She was scratching at the wet sand with a stick, her hair a dark curtain hiding her face.
I scrambled to my feet and rushed toward her, but when I was three steps away, she lifted her sweet little face to me.
“Don’t come here, mama.
You won’t like it, either.”
And she was gone.
I stepped closer to where she had been and stopped short as I saw the word that she had etched out in the sand.
HELL.
But before I could process that, blood seemed to pour from the sky, raining onto me and coloring the river red. It soaked my clothes and washed away my daughter’s writing.
I shook my head in horror and whirled around, trying to see in every direction at once.
“It’s not real,” I whispered.
“It’s not.”
As if in contradiction, a trickle of blood ran across my foot, streaming down the wet sand until it dumped into the river.
“It’s not real,” I insisted.
I knew I was talking to myself, that regardless of my visions, no one else was here with me. Yet still, the hair on the back of my neck remained raised and the goose bumps still clung to my arms.
I blinked my eyes hard and when I re-opened them, the blood was gone.
Why had all of my visions of late involved so much blood?
I could only imagine that it had some significance, but what?
As I pondered that, a long, thick green speckled snake slithered out of the river and coiled itself in front of me.
I quickly stepped back, but before I could scream, two more had joined it, and then three more and then five.
Snakes were coming from everywhere…crawling from the river and dropping from the trees.
I could hear the smooth rustle of their bellies against the wet ground as they congregated around me.
Every reptilian head was pointed toward me, each slitted eye fixated on me.
The snake in front raised its head and hissed.
“Liessss.”
The rest of them raised their heads in unison, swaying in the breeze as they all hissed.
“Liesssss.”
It seemed to echo in the night, their hissing lisps resounding in my head as I backed away from them and tried to scramble to safety.
In my haste, I tripped on a fallen branch and sprawled halfway into the murky water before dragging myself back out and looking over my shoulder.
The snakes were gone.
Breathing raggedly, I propped myself against the bank of the Acheron and crossed my legs in front of me. I happened to notice that my foot was blood-spattered…evidence that my visions had truly happened.
I wasn’t crazy.
I wasn’t sure if that was a relief or not.
I might actually prefer to be crazy.
I leaned my head back against the spindly river grass and closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, it was daylight and I wasn’t alone.
A large owl, probably the one I had heard in the night, was standing a few feet away from me, watching me as I slept with sharp amber eyes.
I shook the sleep from my eyes and studied it.
From all appearances, it seemed to be a normal owl. But I knew from the rapt attention it was paying me that it was anything but normal.
“What do you want?” I asked impatiently. I had had it with avian messengers.
It blinked its round eyes at me, but remained silent.
“Well?” I demanded. “What do you want?”
It suddenly shrieked and unfurled its wings, startling me.
And then I was falling.
And falling.
And falling.
I hit the ground in a sprawl and looked around in confusion.
Blackness was everywhere.
People were crying and moaning and crawling along the ransacked ground.
It was a scene that could have been taken from a horrifying apocalyptic movie.
And then there was the blood.
A river of blood ran in the middle of the cracked, dry ground.
The rusty smell filled my nostrils and I cringed as I climbed to my feet.
A hollow-eyed, hunched over man stood in front of me as he grinned wickedly with yellowed teeth.
“You are betrayed,” he crooned eerily.
“You will be betrayed… You have been betrayed…. You are betrayed.”
He was singing in an evil voice as he crept away from me and I could hear him even as he disappeared from my sight.
“Betrayed.”
Icy hands from the bodies crawling along the ground gripped at my ankles and I swatted them away.
And then I was standing back by the Acheron in the same spot where I had been.
I was upright, on my feet, in broad daylight.
I looked around in disorientation.
I had never left.
I had been here all along- but now the owl was gone. What the hell was happening to me?
Dizziness consumed me and I closed my eyes.
It was just too much.
Even with my eyes closed, the world was spinning and I lost my hold on reality.
I fell onto the wet sand and my last conscious thought was of a hissing whisper.
“Betrayed.”
Chapter Three
“Harmonia.”
I could hear someone through a dark pool, calling my name.
I moved away, curling up on the ground.
I didn’t want any part of even one more crazy vision.
“Harmonia,” the voice was clear and melodic.
And vaguely familiar.
I reluctantly opened my eyes to find a white blur in front of me amidst a sea of blurred objects.
I blinked hard and tried again.
Still blurry.