Cyrene opened her mouth to respond, but then Byern dematerialized before her eyes. Vera had taken control. Gone were the towering mountains and elbow-shaped river of Cyrene’s home. In its place was an enormous throne room—two, three, ten times the size of any she had ever seen before. It was all made of polished marble with dozens of columns lining the room, which was open to the simple breeze beyond. Cyrene’s jaw dropped as she took in the magnitude of the palace and the enormity of the city below. She had seen some incredible cities before, but this one went on for leagues, even on into the soft, rolling hills beyond.
“Where are we?” Cyrene whispered.
“My home—Domara.”
Cyrene startled. “You’re from…the world of the gods.”
Dean had gone to Domara to gain magic. The dragons had come from Domara before they were banished. Domara was a legend so great, she hadn’t truly believed in its existence.
“Yes,” Vera said. “The gods reside on Domara. My father was one. Though my sister and I were not despite our talent. We were mere bargaining chips.”
She waved her hand, and the throne room filled as she moved into a memory.
Two young girls stood before the dais. They couldn’t have been older than Cyrene’s eighteen years. Though they held themselves with the self-importance that came with luxury. A giant of a man sat on the throne. He glowed from the inside out as if his skin were made of something more than flesh.
“I will hear no more of this,” the man bellowed. “It has been decided. Malysa, you will marry Camilan before the summer solstice. Benetta, you are to help prepare her. Now, go wait in the parlor until he arrives.”
“But, Father,” Malysa begged, “I should go to the academy. Why must I suffer this way?”
Their father narrowed his eyes in a manner that said he didn’t repeat himself often. “If you do not do this for me, daughter, I will banish you into the hinterlands. Then, I will no longer hear your tongue wag.”
Benetta stepped up, eager and soft. “We will do as you asked, Father.” She tugged on her sister’s arm.
And, with one more fiery look, Malysa followed her sister out of the throne room.
The scene shimmered and reappeared in a study full of papers, baubles, and jewels. It was resplendent with gold filigree in every corner. The wealth the likes Cyrene had never seen in all of her travels.
Benetta was holding an outrageously large diamond in her hand. It appeared that they had stepped into the middle of an argument with Malysa.
“Seventeen years of magic school was not, nor will it ever be, enough for me. If I’d gone to the academy at seventeen, like I was supposed to, then I’d know how to make this work,” Malysa said. She lobbed the priceless diamond at Benetta, who gasped and caught it in her hands.
“We all have a place in this world,” Benetta tried to reason with her sister.
“My place is ruling everything,” Malysa snarled. A flash of darkness appeared around Malysa’s otherwise golden glow. “I am so tired, Benny.”
Benetta sighed and then held the diamond out to her. “Come on. Maybe, if we practice together while we can, we’ll find our own place.”
“You really think so?”
“Anything is possible.”
Cyrene’s eyes were locked on the diamond as Malysa placed her hand over Benetta’s. This diamond. She had seen it before. She knew that she had. In one of her dreams with Serafina, the Domina had been wearing the diamond around her neck. It was the symbol of the ruler. What was it doing here, in this moment?
But Cyrene didn’t get to ask the question before both girls were enveloped in a shimmery gold magic.
“Lysa?” Benetta asked.
“Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
Benetta struggled against her sister, but Malysa just responded, “The humming.”
There was a flash, and then they were gone.
Cyrene blinked and reached out for Vera. “What happened?”
“Look around you.”
She shielded her eyes against the bright light of day and turned to find a very familiar mountain range and a rapidly moving L-shaped river. A village stood in the crook of the river. Cyrene put her hand to her heart, ignoring whatever the girls were doing beside her.
“Byern,” she whispered.
“As I first saw it,” Vera confirmed.
“But how?”
“The diamond is a dimensional portal. It transported us from Domara to here and never worked in reverse.”
“You were stranded here,” she whispered.
Vera nodded as she watched her younger self tramp down the mountainside toward the village. “They saw us as goddesses. See how we glow? People of Domara are called Doma. We were the first Doma of this world. We brought magic. Malysa sought to find her place here, away from our father and Camilan. Away from responsibility and duty.”
“And you? What did you want?” Cyrene asked, seeing the grief written on her face for the world that she had lost in her sister’s desperation for more.
“I’ll show you.”
They stood in the Byern village. Some time had clearly passed. The homes were better fortified. Boats moved through the river, bringing merchants and wealth. The women wore silk, men had rounder figures, and prosperity was evident everywhere. Goddesses or not, Malysa and Vera had changed the face of Byern forever by landing here and bringing their knowledge of Domara with them.
“What am I looking for?” I asked Vera.
“Wait for it,” she whispered. Her throat was tight and words soft as if she was going to shed tears at any moment.
Then, a man strode into the scene. Tall, broad, and carrying pelts over his shoulder. He had a kind smile and the eyes of a hunter—cunning and knowledgeable. People stepped out of his way wherever he strode. His presence held power without any of the magic or ostentatious displays of wealth she’d seen in Domara.
A woman appeared before him. She was small with wild, curly hair tied back into an unruly bun and plain clothing. Nothing to depict that she was actually Vera, a goddess to these people.
Cyrene’s eyebrows rose. “Are you in disguise?”
“It was Malysa’s desire to rule. I just wanted to live. We were the goddesses on high in Byern for fifty years when I first met Henrik.”
Vera’s face transformed in that moment. Seeing the man that she clearly still loved to this day. Despite the fact that this was several thousand years since she had first seen him, it seemed just as prominent now as then.
Vera sighed and waved the scene into nothing. “We spent a lifetime together, had a dozen children, and still, it could never be enough. It was a hard lesson to learn firsthand—that humans grow old and die while I stay young for eternity. It had never seemed so daunting in Domara, where most lived such long lives. Falling in love with a human was absurd.”
“And Malysa let you know it?”
Vera laughed softly, her body shaking from the exertion. “Malysa cared nothing for Henrik. It was what came next that upset her.”
The world shifted. The market gone. Young Henrik and Benetta disappearing. In its place was a cloistered room with the soft sounds of a baby’s cries filling the birthing chamber.