*Isla*
Seth’s body swings from the noose, the rope around his neck taunt as he body drifts in a soft breeze. I didn’t want to come back here after the hanging took place. A day has passed since the hanging, and I spent most of the morning in the castle, alone, waiting for Maddox to return.
He’d stayed out here all night.
I watch as my mate walks toward me, his face drawn and flooded with an emotion I’ve never seen behind his eyes. I can’t describe it, even if I try to put myself in his shoes and imagine what my grief and despair would be like had Poppy ever betrayed me like Seth did to Maddox. I adjust Isaac’s weight in my arms, smiling empathetically as Maddox nears, his expression softening as we step out of the shadow of a towering oak tree to greet him.
“You didn’t have to come all the way over here to find me,” he says, brushing a kiss over my forehead. “I was going to come home.”
“I was worried about you,” I reply, leaning into him. Isaac stirs between us, cooing as Maddox’s hand comes to a rest on his chest.
“I’m fine, Isla. It’s done now. I feel like… like all of us can finally move on.”
And what a relief that is.
I’d attended the hanging, of course. I’d watched as Seth walked up to the rope, his hands unbound and steps sure and confident. He didn’t look Maddox in the eyes, not once, and said not a word as the rope was secured around his neck.
There was no drama, no fanfare. The crowd that had assembled was silent.
And then Seth fell, the rope snapping into a tight line, claiming his life.
I’d forced myself to keep my eyes open, to watch, to be brave for the man who I desperately loved who was hurting beyond what he could put into words as he watched his Beta, his best friend, die.
Then I’d gone home, my chest tight with grief, to find another one of our friends closing in on death.
That’s why I’d come to find Maddox. Mystica was dying.
“She is really struggling, Maddox,” I say as we take the long, winding path back to the portion of the castle where Mystica is currently staying, walking between through the trees. It’s cool in the forest, the forest floor shaded and damp. I needed a long walk to help clear my head, and heart, for what's to come. “She’s been struggling for a while, I know. But this is different. I feel like she wants to die–but can’t.”
“What do you mean?” Maddox takes Isaac from me, patting the infant’s back as we walk.
I tilt my head, going over what had happened earlier in the morning. Poppy and I had set out to fetch Mystica for the daily morning walk we’d come into the habit of taking but found her laying in her bed, unmoving.
I’d been sure she was dead. I’d dropped to my knees in front of her and grabbed her hand, but she’d startled, gripping my hand so tightly her nails had left marks on my skin.
“She said… she told me something was missing,” I choke out, finding it suddenly hard to swallow. “She said the diamond needs its counterpart, and I have no idea what she's talking about.”
“She’s been speaking in riddles for weeks, Isla. I think her mind has gone–”
“She told me I’d need my powers for something greater than healing her,” I cut in. “This morning, when she said something was missing and that diamond… Maddox, what if we missed something about the Diamond of Faith?”
“I put it in the temple. I saw the altar of the Goddess absorb it, Isla. It appeared in her crown–”
“But was anything else missing?” I stop walking, facing him.
Maddox stops walking as well, looking at me with an expression of marked concern. “Isla, I don’t know. I don’t think so, and I find it highly likely Mystica is losing her mind. She's so, so old, and I know you love her. But she’s been on the brink of death for weeks. She might not have any idea what she’s saying to you.”
I fight back tears as we start walking away, the outer walls of the castle growing taller as we near the entryway. Maddox rests his hand on my lower back as we reach one of the guarded gates leading onto the back castle grounds. We step through the gate into the back garden, the sun beating down on us as we walk toward the castle.
“Go to her, all right? I’ll find the nanny and meet you in the infirmary,” Maddox says with a kiss to my cheek before he strides off, trying to get Isaac out of the unforgiving glare of the sun. I stand in the grass for a moment, wringing my hands together.
Maddox is probably right. Mystica is old, dying, and speaking in riddles.
But what if those riddles hold weight?
* * *
“A boy,” Mystica whispers, her fingertips grazing over Poppy’s belly. Poppy sniffles, turning pleading eyes to me as I pace back and forth in front of Antony and Maddox as the four of us wait for her to die at her bedside.
“It’s far too early to tell, Mystica,” Poppy whispers, a weary smile touching her lips as she brushes back Mystica’s hair from her forehead with her fingertips.
“The Goddess knows all things,” Mystica replies, her eyes closed. “She’s here now, beckoning.”
“Mystica,” I whisper, stepping toward the bed. Maddox shifts his weight behind me like he’s wanting to interject as I kneel at her bedside. “You can see her?”
“The veil is thin when you’re dying, Isla,” she whispers. “I’ve seen her for weeks now. She doesn’t speak, but she watches. She wants me to say… to tell you….”
I close my hand around Mystica’s fingers, feeling that they’re cold to the touch. “Shhh…” I coax. “Mystica, you can go… you can. We’ll be okay.”
“I can’t cross over,” she chokes, trembling. “I’m tethered, Luna. I don’t know why–”
Electricity shoots up my arm from where our hands are joined, and my vision fills with stars. I try to pull away, but the room around me and everyone inside of it seems to be moving in slow motion as the stars around me grow brighter through a soft blue haze.
I see a very young, dark haired woman–no more than a teenager–walking through tall grass. She pauses, her body going rigid as she turns, eyes wide. She points at me, her mouth moving but I can’t hear a word she’s saying as she begins to run toward me, frantic.
But then she’s grabbed around the waist, pulled down, dragged away, fighting for her life….
I fight against the vision, unsure of what I’m seeing as the grass turns to thick, rainforest floor and palm trees. I can feel the spray of the waterfall on my skin as I watch a group of women pulling the battered body of the young woman into the familiar water.
“Oh, Mystica,” I breathe, watching as the woman’s dark hair swirls on the surface of the water before disappearing. “You went in…. You were saved by–”
The woman breaks through the surface of the water, screaming. The vision speeds up, showing me what must be centuries of people being brought to the water. Years and years pass, decades, centuries….
I feel a presence beside me and turn, finding a silver haired woman looking in the direction of the falls. Her eyes are locked on the shimmering pool of water, eyes glassy with tears. She is watching a man trying to crawl out of the water, choking and coughing. She reaches up to touch the tiara on her head.
I can’t move. I can’t react.
The Goddess herself lowers her hand and reaches along her neck to a silver, crescent moon shaped amulet hanging there, then rips it from her neck.
The vision dissolves, and I collapse onto the floor, fighting for breath.
“Isla!” Maddox shakes me, hauling me upright.
“Oh, my Goddess,” I cry, turning to where Mystica is laying in her bed, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. I reach for her, bending out of Maddox’s embrace. I clasp her hand, tears streaming down my face. “Mystica, how old were you when you went into the water fall?”
“Fourteen,” she whispers, her voice sounding very, very far away. “That was… a time when the falls were guarded by her, Isla. The Goddess. Before the witch–before the witch stole–” she chokes on her words, then sighs, the death rattle leaving her throat echoing through the room.
“Stole the diamond?” Maddox presses, but Mystica softly shakes her head, the motion barely noticeable to the naked eye.
“She gave up the diamond to save the mortal man she loved, but it broke her connection to our world. He was dead when they brought him into the water. He wouldn’t have come back to life without the diamond, her powers, her immortality. She gave it to him, and he betrayed her. The amulet… that she gave to their… daughter….”
Mystica wheezes, arching off the bed. Poppy and I throw ourselves onto the bed, clutching her.
“Mystica,” I cry, my tears trailing over my cheeks and jaw.
“She thanks you for returning her diamond,” Mystica says, her fingers twitching as she tries to point at Maddox. “But there is still more–more that must be found–that has fallen into the wrong–the wrong hands. I–” Mystica’s chest heaves with effort before she stills, a single tear rolling from the corner of her right eye. Her eyes are fixed on something at the foot of the bed, like someone is standing there.
A chill runs up my spine as I turn my head, finding nothing but the stone wall.
But I know who’s there. I know who’s watching. I know who is beckoning her.
“Let her go,” I whisper to the empty space. “You showed me your truth. You showed me the amulet. You showed me what the waterfall used to be. You cursed those that used it after you were betrayed with powers outside of their control. I understand now. I’ll find what you seek. But you have to let her go, and let her rest.”
A hush fell over the room, a gentle breeze coming from nowhere, and everywhere, rippled over the room, rustling pages of books and our clothing as the Goddess passed through us.
I looked down at Mystica, seeing the light behind her eyes fading into nothing, and I knew that at the moment, the Goddess took her home.
* * *
“There’s nothing about this in any of the texts,” Ben says to me a few days later. I’m in the library with Poppy, Maddox, and Ben, all four of us having spent the wake of Mystica’s death trying to unravel what I’d seen and what Mystica had said.
“There wouldn’t be,” Maddox replies, looking down at the paper he’d written everything down on–what I’d said to what I believed to be the spirit of the Goddess, what Mystica had said, what I’d seen in the vision. “So, she gave up the Diamond of Faith to save a mortal man, a shifter, and then took off her necklace to… give to their daughter? How can that possibly be?”
“And I got the feeling she was betrayed. The look in her eyes when he came out of the water was… grief, yes, but something else. Like she was weary of something.”
Poppy rises from her chair, her expression pained as she looks between Maddox and I. “I’m going back to Maatua in a few days. I can see what I can find out about the amulet.”
“A few days?” I ask, looking from her to Maddox. “Did you know?”
“I did. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you–”
“I wanted to be the one to tell you, Isla. Don’t be mad at him, okay? I–” Poppy crossed the room to me, looking down at the picture I’d drawn of the amulet before looking me in the eyes. “If it’s real…if any of what you just saw was real… I’ll find it. I’ll figure out what happened, and why this was so important that the Goddess herself came to you in a vision to show you. I’ll find it, and you can return it to the temple, just like the diamond.”
“Can we talk in private?” I say, swallowing back my sudden anger as I look at Maddox and Ben. The men look at each other, then leave, and the room falls quiet as I turn back to my dearest friend.