Page 150 of The Firebrand

Crawling, Morgana dragged herself to a wall, struggling to sit. “Yes. We carved out Scath and Darque from Earth.”

With the air heavy from the potent spell, I tugged on the neck of my black robe, nodding. “I call forth the witch Niviane and the warlocks Stian and Noor.”

The three mages took their places and drew daggers across their palms, sacrificing their blood to the flames, connecting palm to palm as those before them had. They flowed in a slow rhythmic circle around the roaring, hungry fire ignited by the energy of the first spell.

In deep, commanding voices, Stian and Noor spoke. “We call forth the elemental power of the Celtic Gauls. Dividite mundi per saepta.” They pursed their lips as if preparing to kiss. Instead, they exhaled. Fog permeated the cavern, circling the blaze and twisting toward the ceiling.

“Et factum est.” Niviane, pushing off her hood, her raven hair tumbling down her back in tight coils, cupped her hands around her mouth and blew the cloudy mist from the cave. “The three realms are now separated from one another, the obscuring Whorl between them.”

Eirene, Faelan, and Engel swept forward, their cloaks scratching spidery patterns in the dirt. Each mage, in imitation of the two groups before them, drew blood and linked hands.

The witch Eirene cast out her arm to open a portal. Faelan mimicked her action, his words slipping over his tongue like smooth whiskey. Another portal. Engel formed one more. Their creations became catalysts as gateways opened across the world.

The three mages summoned each Aeternal breed to the realm of Scath, compelling their kind to travel through the created portals between tomorrow’s sunrise and the full moon’s setting a month later. To Darque, they also called the magical creatures too dangerous to remain on Earth.

I took a deep, prolonged breath as my coven neared the end of the ceremony. “I call forth the final exhortation.”

As the others before, Eydris, Xanthe, and Solemnia drew blades across their palms, dripped blood into the fire, and joined to produce a bond.

“Akkadian Coven, hear us. Lend us your power, your strength,” beseeched Solemnia, drawing energy from the ancient mages.

As ghostly shadows drifted along the cavern walls, their faces skeletal, their eyes boney sockets, Xanthe chanted, “Somnium. Somnium. Somnium.”

“Humans,” Eydris added, “as you dream, you will forget that in olden times magical creatures and Aeternals shared Earth with you. Remember us only in myth or legend.”

The coven’s role complete, I withdrew a pearl-handled dagger from my cloak, adding my blood to the fire. When it crackled, blazing higher, I pulled forth the scroll of the Prophecy of Karma, casting it into the flame.

An oppressive silence hung in the cavern, the kind that settles at the conclusion of an arduous task when you are exhausted but hopeful of success.

My gaze settled on my mentor Ohngel, the OneCreator’s assassin. He crouched on a shadowy ledge, observing the rite. His feathers shimmered as he soared from his perch, fading from my view.

At the same time, crimson smoke as bright as blood arose from the fire. Twisting upward like strands of ribbon, it shattered, sparking brilliant shards of purple, gold, red, and blue, turning into plumage, becoming the great Phoenix. It beat its wings against the air, creating a breeze that extinguished all light, rising and circling the cavern once before soaring out through the entrance with the prophecy clutched in its talons.

As I had asked, Ohngel granted me a symbol of our success.

Inky darkness swallowed us, the mages of the Blood Coven. The spells had been cast.We had created the realms of Earth, Scath, and Darque. The salvation of two species lay in their separation.

Closing the book, Jace whispered in Celene’s ear, “I agree. We have to find a way out of here.”

“Damn straight, roomie.”

The End