Dominion 4 - Ascendance by Lissa Kasey

spotted red friend came back a time or two to dart at me, trying to get me to follow. I finally gave up on the play when he dive-bombed my ear and made it itch. After a good bit of scratching away the tickle with my back paw, I followed the little bug out of the stream, back into the woods, through a maze of trees and to a clearing. Then he vanished as if he’d never been there into a massive briar bush jutting out from a big rock. Even after waiting a few minutes, the ladybug didn’t return. I blinked a few times, looked around, but still couldn’t find him again.
    The little clearing looked odd and somewhat eerie. Circular, with stones on the edges, nothing grew in it. Yet the stones gave off a creepy glow. Stepping closer made my skin tingle as though there were ants crawling all over me. I put my paw to the edge of the ring and immediately saw flashes of human things bloody and dying. Their screams pierced my brain like a stream of bullets, causing pain and fear. I jumped away, shook my head until the image cleared, and moved at a safe distance around the space. The earth told me this place was very wrong. It begged me to fix it, but I couldn’t fathom how.
    A light flicked on, and a man sat in the middle of the circle, a glowing tube in his hand. His hair was dark, face hidden in shadows, but he smelled familiar. He got to his feet, approached the edge of the circle, then stopped when I bounced farther away. He leaned against one of the giant stones, then slowly sat beside it, just outside the ring.
    “Didn’t take you long at all to find this. We all had bets going. Some said you’d never find it. I knew you would. You’re a lot like your father was, Seiran Rou. Such untarnished power. The Dominion is clueless about what power truly is. There aren’t five levels of power. There are hundreds. And you are at the very top.” He stretched. “It calls to you, doesn’t it? Begs for help. The earth is a very vocal element.”
I watched the man, wondering how he knew my name, but since he wasn’t moving closer I let him go on.
     
“Won’t you change and speak to me?” He pulled off his coat, tossing it away from him. “For your modesty, perhaps?”
    Changing would make me vulnerable. No paws to run on, claws to fight with, or teeth to defend my life. Yet something about him drew me forward. He knew my father. My stunted little brain said that was important. I needed to know. The shift took only a few seconds, then I pulled the jacket around me, keeping far enough away that I would hopefully have time to change back and run if needed.
The fog cleared away quickly enough. “Max?”
    He smiled. “So much like your father. He’d completely forget who he was in his cat form. It’s harder to keep the human side of yourself when your power is so high. Tell me, Seiran, do you recognize the ring now?”
    My heart skipped a beat while I processed it again, this time as a human and as a witch. A fairy ring. That was the only possible explanation. All the studying I did in college meant nothing in that moment. This very item was supposed to be something of myth. Yet the power pulsed so hard it made my skin crawl in not a good way.
“I can tell from your expression you know what it is.”
    “It’s evil,” I told him. The images of death still lingered inside my head, tainting something in me I hadn’t known was still pure. I felt like I had taken part in the rituals, killed people, fed on their power. Even at this distance, the pulse of power made my skin crawl.
“True. It’s been made that way by those who use it.” “Including yourself.” He had been sitting in the middle of the awful thing.
    “I suppose.” He shrugged. “When you’re as old as I am, you’ll do a lot to feel anything. Love, anger, pain, pleasure, it’s all a balance that humans experience so easily. Time, however, wears away the emotions of any creature. This circle has been misused, but the memories make me feel. It is a nice change