Equinox

fifteen

AN- chapter song: Born to die by Lana del rey

Rather than yesterday, when I found myself standing on the pedestal, Draco and I are separate. The Brothers have drawn a line with their bodies so I can just barely see him from beyond the robes draping on their tall frames.

I practically dragged Corvus here with us, but to my—unfortunate—surprise, only Draco and I could pass through the threshold of the cave. That still doesn't stop me from wishing he was here with me. He'd put in so much effort for me to get here, it doesn't feel fair that he isn't allowed to experience this with me.

My eyes drag their gaze everywhere except the four other beings in the room. I feel like a first year kicking rocks in the courtyards of Hogwarts because they're left out. I huff a breath of air and my loose strands of hair flop away from me before finding their spots scattered all around my face.

The strangest part of this whole situation is this weird tinge sensation that's been pulsating in my sternum. I noticed it the second I left Corvus and officially crossed the barrier. At the same moment, I noticed it, I needed to grab Draco's hand. I reduced it to fear or nervousness—It's not like I can distinguish the two emotions anymore. I'm lucky if I feel any normal emotion an acceptable amount. It's either nothing or everything at once.

Randomly, it felt like my brain reached out from my thoughts and smacked me across the face to focus. That's when I realised the brothers had been speaking. "Cum nox renascentiaw incidit in ultimum aestivalis tempus," The first brother echoes, but I couldn't even begin to guess which one.

"Duae fossae scissae," the next one continues.

"Pontem cum animo construent," goes the third.

All together their voices join in saying, "Semel separatus invenitur unio," I recognize the language as Latin, but only because so many of our spells are in Latin, this means nothing to me. "Sed cum abscissa nulla fit una."

"What?" I say blinking.

"Merlin," I hear Draco drawl with a sigh, "You didn't learn Latin?" Even though I can't see him, I can still hear in his voice that he's crossed his arms, pinched the bridge of his nose, and slowly started to shake his head. Why must I still know him?

"Clearly, I don't know Latin, Draco," I snap back, "Or else I wouldn't have asked."

I hear his shoes shift and his breathing pattern slowly shifts to be shallower. He certainly got annoyed quickly with that reply.

"Stop, Lewis," he says flatly and emotionlessly, "I can tell you're assuming my emotions even without seeing you."

The only reason I don't hate him more than I have is because I can't lay my eyes on him at the moment. But, if I could, I would be flipping him off by now. "If you're sooo good at reading my mind," I challenge him, "Then, what am I thinking about."

"So bloody childish," he says under his breath, "I could go on about how shallow your hate for me truly is, but that would take days since you're yet to acknowledge it yourself, and I'm sure you'd rather me tell you what the brothers here said."

I roll my eyes, "Fine," I grit out. "What did they say?"

He walks around the three brothers towards me. "It was a prophecy, Aspen." His voice is softer now, more tentative. I look behind me to make sure there wasn't an audience he was waiting to applaud before continuing. "No, stop, Aspen," he says staking my attention, "it was our prophecy. The tie can't be broken or else it will kill us and everyone in a city's range from us. The magic that created our tie is too strong, it can never be severed."