The Arcadia Trilogy Boxed Set by Bella James & Rachel Hanna

Author:Bella James & Rachel Hanna
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Published: 2016-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

T he Plutarch's entourage reached their destination midafternoon and though she'd never been there, Julia knew instantly where they were.

She just hadn't expected the Plutarch to subscribe to such superstition.

The tiny village of Delphine existed because of the Oracle, and the Oracle existed, throughout time, because one family had found a way to make hereditary blindness work for them. That was Julia's belief and she doubted very much anything she witnessed in the next few hours would change that.

Around the Oracle's temple, flowering trees still bloomed with pink and white flowers, even this far into summer. The grass was beautifully kept, green and velvet and short up to the edges of the temple, where it was allowed to bloom free. Tall waving Pampas grass, white plumed, swayed in the easy summer wind, mixed in with three-foot-tall pasture grass, green as emeralds. Overhead the sky was a flawless blue, as if even nature, without a gardener, conspired to make the place unearthly beautiful.

The Oracle's temple was built of native stone, towering two stories high, open in design so it seemed to draw the outside in, wide arched windows and skylights letting in sunlight and the occasional stained glass panel turning that light to jewel colors.

Attendants bowed to the Plutarch as he entered, fully aware he was coming. They wore simple clothes, white pants and tunics, butterflies embroidered on the lapels. Julia only allowed herself one glance at the insignia before she looked away, shaken.

The butterfly was the mark of the Chosen One.

Livy was chosen as the Plutarch's bride.

Surely the tales of the Chosen One who would lead the world from the Plutarch's despotic rule and into sunlight were apocryphal. Only fairy stories to reassure rebels in the deeps of the night. The war was meant to be fought, and fought by flesh and blood humans who would live and die, not by heroes from myths.

But memory twitched, from her frightening days in the Institute dorms, where she hadn't been meant to go. Julia had been caught in the unexpected sweep of 16 year olds and taken to Arcadia before the rebel plan was in effect.

That she'd bunked with Livy spoke of interference with the Plutarch's rule from inside the Plutarch's cabinet. That she knew.

What she hadn't known – expected, anticipated or noticed – was the birthmark on Livy's neck. The one that now surfaced in her memory.

Moving into the sunlit depths of the Oracle's temple, Julia stumbled, biting back a smile even as she pitched off balance. One of the attendants caught her, soft words and soft hands putting Julia back to rights.

"I’m all right, thank you, all right," Julia said, her hands briefly on the attendant's forearms as the slight dark girl steadied her.

Julia was at eye level with the insignia on the attendant's tunic. There, picked out in brown thread, was the butterfly, one edge of one wing missing.

Exactly like Livy's birthmark.

Julia allowed herself a smile. It would look like nothing but gratitude for the girl who had stopped her fall.

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