A Court of Light and Fire (ACOTAR)

Chapter Two

Hello, my lightling, a soft voice cooed around Celeste, as though speaking to a young fawn. You are a precious one, sweet angel. Celeste was floating in the endless abyss, a comforting light beginning to glow around her as she was lifted by a cool wave. A light like freedom, an easy breath of fresh air that broke through the darkness.

My princess, the light echoed, strands dancing around the girl as she hung in the expanse between space and time and worlds beyond. They seemed to be playing with her, twirling around her frame, captivating her with their childlike dance.

It is your choice, my light bringer, a woman's voice spoke. It sounded like her mother, a voice she could only recall from early childhood - but this voice held an ease Celeste had never felt around her mother. The one figure she so desperately wished for as a child, that she had found slivers of in each of her sisters to form that missing whole.

Do you want to come with me? It was so tempting, that voice. Celeste could feel her heart tugging towards it, to meet any inkling of the promise with her being. To come home, my precious lightbringer?

Yes, she wanted to say. The voice was all she could focus on, the only tether keeping her soul and body aligned as she begun sinking deeper into the liquid. I want to come home.

She could see the figure now, glowing with a white sunlight so similar to that surrounding her. She could not inhale a breath as the black water of the space engulfed her being, but Celeste was not afraid. All that filled her chest was a sense of peace, of clarity as an unscathed hand extended towards the child, that promise of home just a fingertip away from her now.

That's it, my princess, the voice lured, and the breeze drifted her closer and closer, until her own hand floated a breath from the woman's grasp. Just a little closer, my firebringer, master of the light. The woman's eyes became visible now, pure and bright with that white light shining through. Just a little closer and we can go home together, lightbringer.

The word clattered through Celeste. Home, home, home. A lullaby and a melody and a chant all at once in her mind. Yes, her thoughts flowed. It would be so easy to go home with her, so free from the worry and fear she had grown accustomed to, that left ruins inside of her each night. All she had to do was reach out her hand, reach a little further towards that promise, and her soul, shredded and torn and ruined would be made whole at home once more-

Celeste, a sharper voice cut through her mind, and the girl's hand halted only a light's length away this time. She glanced up at the murky gloom before her, dread beginning to grow in the pit of her stomach as the wide eyelids shifted closer together, the softly upturned lips spread into a vile gleam of canines that had her instincts recoiling. The streams of light floating around her flickered away, one by one, shifting into dark swirls of shadow and loss and terror encompassing every strand of her consciousness.

These creatures weren't dancing with her, tickling her and laughing as the light had been; this darkness was teasing, taunting, whispering in her ear in hushed, fleeting voices that left her mind reeling.

Darkness, shadowbringer, light, light, light, they squealed, voices raising higher and higher, pitch by pitch as the remaining rays of light shuttered out completely. She tried to cover her ears, to find where her thoughts ended and the creature's began, but the taint of the darkness sept through every inch of her mind, screaming and pleading and laughing as she cowered in their presence.

The only light to flicker back to life glistened from the chest of the dark beast before her, its blurred face crafted from the endless pit mere inches from her own. A ravenous gleam in its eyes met a strand of her soul, but it wasn't the same touch as earlier, innocent and welcome and warm upon her skin; this sense was red, and orange, and purple and dull as it thrummed against her spirit.