A Promised Prophecy

Chapter Seventy-One

"I mean, Cybill's found out about the Vault and it's no longer a safe place for you...Neither is Silverleaf because, even if they don't believe Cybill, people are scared to have you in the city in case Eris does want to come kill you. But, you know, we care about you." The cadence of her voice maintained the joviality that we had been having, but the actual meaning behind what she said were too dark to mask the reality of the situation.

I am no longer welcome in the place I considered safe.

Even worse than that, the people who had been keeping me safe had to keep up appearances. It would be foolish to openly trust and support me and I wouldn't let them try, even if they wanted to. That's why I wasn't angry at James and I hoped they understood I didn't blame any of them. Yet, while I felt that way, it still hurt. It was scary to be alone. The only thing I could do to better myself and my position within this fucked up situation was to read through these books and hope that something, literally anything, was helpful.

"I didn't mean to," Est started to apologize once she realized I wasn't responding.

"No, I know." I stopped her before she said anything else. I picked up the book in front of me and waved it in the air. "I think we should get back to these bad boys, though."

It felt reminiscent of studying under Celeste. There were moments of pure silence, where everyone focused on reading every inch of the books. Then, there were moments of chaos—James clicking a pen as he took notes, which annoyed Est, who yelled, only to have Callisto snap back with a quick jab about her humming. James was in and out of the room, connecting with the other leaders within our alliance and Est left to check on some of the people back in Silverleaf, leaving myself and Callisto alone. We continued to work side by side for so long before I was done. My brain had been fried from reading the book for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few hours.

"Thank you," I said aloud to him. He nodded his head without looking back at me. I wasn't just thankful for helping me now, but for helping me retrieve the books from the Vault when there was an obvious curse on them. So I continued, "For earlier too."

"You do not need to thank me," Callisto answered, still not looking at me.

"Of course I do." I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. I focused on creating a small fireball in my hands. It felt more natural than before. Maybe I had been practicing enough, or maybe I was remembering more of my training. Whatever the reason, the ball of flames sitting in my hands made me smile. I threw it above me, letting it fall back down, catching it as if I were playing catch with myself. I felt the energy as I pushed and pulled away from my body, focusing on each and every action to better understand what part of me, or my control, even my commands, adjusted this ball of flame.

"I appreciate the words, Rhea. But I stand by the fact that no thanks are necessary."

"I can go back and forth about this all day, Callisto. I probably didn't want to live out that curse, whatever it was, and you chose to take it on for me. That's amazing and completely unnecessary for someone you barely know."

"Est knows you and would've wanted me to do so."

I wondered how much of his statement was accurate. Not in the sense that he wouldn't choose to do something on his own, but in the sense that he had so much loyalty to Est that he'd put himself through pain to see her happy.

"You really care about her, huh?" I offered.

"I owe her my life. She rescued me from being enslaved and killed by a group of powerful magicians stealing my people's powers."

I dropped the ball of flame and it fell on my chest. I swatted at it as I stood up before taking a moment to calm myself, focusing on the magic, and dissipating the ball into a small cloud of mist. His story sounded so similar to my own with Ophelia and, yet, something about it seemed darker than what I had gone through.

When I finally looked back at him, he smiled before pointing down at the book he was reading as if he found something. "You've been looking in the wrong places."