Chapter 43
Dominic’s POV
“You’re playing with fire, Dominic,” Olivia said as the old woman lit another bundle of herbs, releasing a thick, pungent smoke into the air. “But I think you already know that.” She did not mean the literal fire in front of us, but the truth that would arise after this.
However, I was not sure if it was the smoke or her words that made my stomach churn. My instincts were screaming at me to stop, to leave, but the nagging doubt Olivia had planted refused to be silenced in my head. I needed answers.
The old woman — “the seer,” Olivia called her, was crouched on the floor of a dimly lit room at the back of Olivia’s house. The space reeked of aged wood, dried herbs, and something metallic, like blood. Candles flickered from every corner with their flames casting eerie shadows that seemed to dance with a life of their own.
“What exactly are we doing here?” I asked.
The seer did not look up, her attention was fixed on the symbols she was drawing on the floor with what looked like charcoal mixed with ash. They were intricate and unfamiliar, looping together in a pattern that made my skin crawl.
Olivia leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and her face calm, almost smug. “We are uncovering the truth. You want to know if those twins are yours, don’t you?”
My jaw clenched. I hated the way she spoke, as if she already knew the outcome and I was just catching up.
“And this... ritual of hers?” I gestured to the seer, who was now muttering something under her breath in a language I could not understand. “How does it work?”
Olivia pushed off the wall, stepping closer to me. “She will summon the connection between you and the children. If there is any bond, blood, specifically, it will show. Think of it as... forcing the truth to reveal itself.”
I did not respond. The logical part of me wanted to walk out, to call this what it was: insanity. But another part of me, the part that had spent sleepless nights wondering, questioning, kept me rooted to the spot.
“Sit,” the seer rasped, her voice gravelly and ancient, like it had been pulled from the earth itself.