Page 81 of The Half King
“As I said,” Kian went on, “we walked to the east until we reached the boulder at the head of the trail. We stopped there to watch the sunrise, and without warning, magic split the boulder in half and a spring opened up in the ground.”
“How do you know it was magic and not an act of nature?” Daerick asked. “Perhaps the boulder was already damaged and you just happened to be there to see it fall.”
“Because I tasted energy,” Cerise said. “I felt it, too. It came up from the ground and passed through me. And the spring was enchanted somehow. The water had special properties. Everywhere it touched, flowers grew—the same lavender flower that I sacrificed at the Blighted Shrine.”
“So the magic simply appeared out of nowhere, without a reason?” Daerick wrinkled his forehead. “Nothing happened to trigger it?”
“Oh…well.” Cerise looked to Kian, her shoulders stiffening. “I wouldn’t saynothinghappened. I was…uh…I was…”
“Overcome with the beauty of the sunrise,” Kian finished. “The experience moved her.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “I was moved.”
Daerick made a pained face. “Oh, gods, I think I understand.”
“And there was a warning of sorts,” Kian said. “Right before it all happened, before the boulder cracked in half, her skin began to glow. I thought I imagined it at first, or that it was a trick of the sun. But it wasn’t. She lit up from the inside out, as though—”
“—as though her blood were made of fire?” Daerick guessed. He glanced at Cerise and arched an eyebrow. “It would make sense. I thought the termumbra sangiwas more symbolic than literal, but perhaps I was wrong.”
“Is that what you think?” she asked. “That I’m like Nero?”
“Yes and no,” Daerick told her. “He’sumbra sangibut not like you.”
“You’re right; he’s not like me,” she said. “His skin doesn’t glow. I’ve seen him cast magic—you have, too—and nothing about him changes. He doesn’t light up.”
Daerick shrugged. “He might, if he had more flame in his blood. He told us you have more fire than he does. That’s not the difference I’m referring to.”
“Then what?” Kian asked.
Daerick pointed at Kian. “You’rewhat. Cerise can leave her mortal body and follow you into the underworld. Nero can’t. To my knowledge, no one else can. Her spiritual connection to you is what sets her apart from Nero.”
“So what are you saying?” she asked. “That I’mnotdescended from the goddess?”
“No, I’m saying you are,” Daerick told her. “But I believe you’re more than that.”
Cerise recalled something Nero had told her the morning after the titan hyena attack—that her blood would burn darker than usual. She decided to see if he was right. “Can I borrow your knife?” she asked Kian. When he handed it to her, she nicked the pad of her index finger and then held her fingertip above the edge of the fire. As soon as the first droplet fell onto the red-hot coals, a tiny flame leaped up, blacker than onyx.
“I think Nero was right,” she said. “I’mumbra sangi.”
“Any theories as to what else she might be?” Kian asked Daerick.
“Actually, yes,” Daerick said. “And I’d like to test my theory.” He licked his lips, hesitating as if to prepare them for a shock. “I’d like to see if Cerise can refuse a direct order from her king.”
Cerise blinked. “You think I might be a priest?”
“A priestess,” Daerick corrected. “But yes, the thought crossed my mind.”
“That’s absurd,” she said. There had never been one mention of a female priest in all of recorded history. There hadn’t even been rumors of it—at least none that she had heard.
“Is it?” Daerick asked. “Is it any more absurd for you to be a priestess than it is for a goddess of darkness and light to craft a world of mortal beings and then fall in love with one of her own creations? And then to take human form so she could impregnate her mortal lover and sire a race of beings with actual fire in their blood?”
“Don’t forget the goddess’s mood swings,” Kian added. “I find that rather absurd as well.”
“I have to agree,” Daerick said. “The world is full of absurdities, Cerise.”
“All right.” She couldn’t argue with that. “Go ahead and put your theory to the test.”
Daerick picked up a pebble and handed it to Kian, whispering something in his ear. Whatever he said made the king scowl.
