Page 50 of Secrets of Avalon
Kellan's gaze softens as he turns to me. "Try to sleep, Domina. You're safe here. I'll be right next door if you need anything."
I manage a small smile, the exhaustion of the day and night finally catching up with me. "Thank you, Kellan. For everything."
He nods, a flicker of green fire igniting warmth in his eyes, before he exits the room, closing the door gently behind him.
Alone again.
The tattoo wriggles around my wrist, purposefully proving my thoughts wrong. Never alone, Domina.
“Thank you, Siva,” I whisper up at the ceiling. And she’s right. I have her. I have Kellan. Even Nimue, regardless of her own motives, is trying to help Hawke and I end up together.
Tonight I don’t want to dwell on my cursed magick. Tonight I want to dwell on the glimmer of hope, the tiny flame in my heart that refuses to be extinguished. Maybe, just maybe with Hawke by my side we can find a way to break the curse and build a future together.
I turn in the soft blankets and pull them up to my chin. I can still smell Hawke’s scent on the blanket wrapped around me like his arms had been only minutes ago.
Sleep claims me swiftly, pulling me under into a peaceful and dreamless darkness.
The creak of the door rouses me from my slumber. I blink, my eyes adjusting to the sunlight streaming through the windows. A figure moves in my peripheral vision, and I sit up, expecting to see one of the friendly maids from the previous night.
Instead, I'm greeted by the sight of an unfamiliar woman, her features sharp and her eyes cold. She regards me with thinly veiled contempt, her lips curling into a sneer.
"Well, well. The prince's little Olympian whore, awake at last. Hawke thought he could hide you as one of Ares' little trollops." Her voice drips with venom, each word a barb designed to wound.
I bolt upright, my heart pounding in my chest. A wave of panic crashes over me. The room spins as I struggle to comprehend the hateful words spewing from the stranger's mouth. "Who... who are you?" I stammer, fear making my voice tremble. "Where are the other maids? What's going on?"
I frantically scan the room, desperate for any sign of Elen or Lydia, but find only the malicious gaze of the woman before me. My hands clutch at the bedsheets, trying to anchor myself against the rising tide of terror.
She laughs, a harsh, grating sound that sets my teeth on edge. "They're not here. It's just you and me, darling." She takes a step closer, her gaze raking over me like a predator sizing up its prey. "His ploy would’ve worked too, if we hadn’t witnessed Hawke visit you and stay most of the night."
My heart hammers in my chest. This woman is no ordinary maid. She's here with a purpose, and that purpose is to kill me.
"Darkwood sends his regards." She reaches beneath her skirt and pulls out a wicked-looking dagger. The blade glints in the sunlight, its edges razor-sharp.
Fear and adrenaline surge through my veins, and I back away from her, toward the wall. "Please, you don't have to do this."
Help me hold it back. Please. I whisper the prayer inside my mind while my magick billows inside me. Siva is straining to do as I ask. She knows I’m terrified of hurting everyone in this tower much more than I am of being hurt myself.
The stranger stalks towards me, her eyes gleaming with malice. "Oh, but I do. Darkwood's daughter will be queen, and you? You're nothing but a threat to be removed." She lunges forward, dagger raised, and the world slows to a crawl. Each heartbeat thunders in my ears, stretched out into an eternity.
In that frozen moment, something inside me fractures. The magick is freed and roars to life. The surge of power that courses through my veins is electric and alive. It responds to my desperate need to survive, and with it, Siva emerges too.
The dragon guardian detaches from my skin, a shimmering veil of green light that swirls around me in slow motion. Through the haze of fear and adrenaline, I watch as she guides the explosion of my magick, focusing it into a controlled strike that inches toward the assassin.
The world snaps back into focus as my magick slams into the woman, sending her flying backward in a not-so-graceful arc to the stone wall. Time catches up with itself, and everything in the room follows suit, crashing against the wall with a deafening roar. The dagger clatters to the floor, the sound sharp and metallic. Bits of pottery and shards of mirror rain down, tinkling like wind chimes. The assassin's body slumps to the ground, her eyes wide but vacant.
I kneel there in the center of the bed, trembling, staring at my hands in disbelief. The magick was aimed, at least a little. Because of Siva. But I killed someone–again. Who else did I hurt? What damage did I do?
“I should’ve held back. I shouldn’t have let it out.”
You would have died. Fighting to survive is honorable, Domina. The ethereal green dragon leaps back toward me and I absorb her light until she’s back to being just a tattoo swimming around my wrist.
No. Not if it cost innocent lives.
The door bursts open, and Kellan rushes in, his eyes wild. He takes in the scene before him – the lifeless woman, the dagger on the floor, broken furniture everywhere, and me, still in the center of the bed.
"Domina!" He crosses the room in two strides. His hands grip my shoulders gently, searching my face for any sign of injury.
I nod, my voice shaky. "I'm okay. She... she tried to kill me. Darkwood sent her." I look up at Kellan, tears pouring down my cheeks. "Did I hurt anyone else? Are you okay? I tried not to let it out."