44. VERSATILE MAGIC
Chapter forty-four
VERSATILE MAGIC
Amira
W e had been hiking through the Silver Moor for an hour, and it was starting to get dark, when we heard a strange, high-pitched squealing. Like wild pigs in the forest.
“Riordan—” I began to speak, trying to ask him what the hell was making that terrible noise, but he interrupted me by tugging me to his side. His immense body began to hum with his magic as it ignited under his skin, and I was pressed right up against him by Orion’s wing and back as he used his body to cover my exposed flank.
“Fuath. We are under attack,” Orion snarled, and I was instantly relieved that he had insisted I dress in the leather armour and weapons I usually wore for training.
Riordan abruptly touched my chin to tilt my head up so that he could meet my eyes. “You stay right by my side,” commanded the king, and I nodded quickly.
And then we were immediately swarmed by the ugliest fucking things I could have imagined. They reminded me of apes with too-long arms, shorter legs, elongated heads, and barrel torsos. Their skin was grey and warty with sparse patches of spiny hair, and they wore mismatching armour like they had stolen every piece of it. They could walk on two legs but seemed to prefer all fours, and they could move so fast through the trees it was terrifying.
Fuath . The name of these monsters was not unfamiliar, I’d been hearing about the battles that Riordan and Orion were fighting with them for many weeks now. They were ugly and terrifying, but I was very confident that my mate would dispatch them in seconds.
Until I felt Riordan’s confusion and concern as he came to the chilling realization that these Fuath were somehow shielded against his magic…
He released my hand and drew his sword, slipping into warrior mode instantly to kill the beasts by hand when they leaped at us from his exposed flank. If I were not so horrified at the situation, I might have been impressed by his grace and power. And by the perfect synchronicity of how he moved with Orion to defend my position.
As it were, I was busy trying to work out where I could fit into their strategy as my companions all fell into a familiar rhythm of war that did not yet beat in my bones. Helena’s training had been exceptional, and I was feeling confident in my progress. But my accomplishments were far from adequate enough to prepare me for a full-scale assault like this. And the last thing I wanted to do was get in the way of any of the fully competent warriors.
Besides, one look at the meat-hook claws and serrated teeth of our enemies, and I knew that the knives strapped to my thigh were useless to me. Even if I could get close enough to use them, I would be shredded apart.
My only other option was magic, so I sincerely hoped that the Fuath were not shielded from all types of magic.
My power surged up and steamed through my veins, and it felt glorious. Aside from practicing with Riordan, I’d been trying not to use it, since the griffins were wary of me already, and I did not wish to alienate myself any further by using foreign magic.
I knew I was completely charged up when I felt my blood pulsing with such intense heat and fury that my skin throbbed. I formed an orb of condensed fire between my palms and then hurled it into the midst of the Fuath where the magic exploded. Searing flesh from bone and warping metal armour so it screeched as it scraped against itself. The surviving Fuath screamed even more loudly when the fire began to spread unnaturally fast across the leaf litter without burning a single stick. Only the monsters.
“Sweet Mother of the gods, Amira!” shouted Helena, but I could not turn to see whether she was horrified or impressed as I focused on our enemies.
It was a spell I had perfected a long time ago, but I had never been able to use it more than once before resting because it took a lot of condensed magic to explode.
And yet it was as if my power was still ready to boil out of me. It was almost terrifying how feral it felt. Like a deep chasm of flame had yawned open inside of me that would be easy to fall into and never emerge again…
I’d heard enough horror stories of fire witches losing control and consuming themselves with their own fire that I knew to pull back. But this level of potential power was not something that I had ever experienced before myself. Since using Riordan’s magic, my own power had indeed felt hotter and fiercer whenever I tried to reach around it in search of his air magic again. But this was…
Volcanic.
And in spite of how tempting it was to flirt with magic that I sensed could decimate the whole forest, I ordered it back to sleep. I focused instead on using the fire which I’d already conjured to fight and pushed our enemies back.
“Alright, Riordan, I have had enough fun for today. Just kill all these fuckers now, please!” shouted Helena, gesturing at the Fuath pacing around my fire.
“He cannot. They are shielded,” Orion yelled back over the crackle of my flames.
“What the fuck do you mean that they are shielded?” Helena demanded, and I saw her spin toward him out of the corner of my eye. Turning her back on the enemy just the way she always told me not to ever do, so I guessed she must trust my magic pretty deeply.
“It is like my power bounces off a wall of air magic in their minds,” Riordan admitted.
“You are sure it is air magic?” she asked.
“Without a doubt,” Riordan answered with certainty. “This is the work of another Imítheos. A powerful one.”
“Who else knows we are here?” Orion asked.
Rhea , I told Riordan, my stomach sinking in guilt that I had not told him about my conversation with her before the coronation, but I felt him reject this possibility.
My sister would not do this.
“I will show you more later, but I had a very strange conversation with her before the coronation,” I insisted to him aloud. It was mentally taxing to concentrate both on speaking to him mind to mind and keeping control of my magic that was holding off the Fuath. But I did manage to send him several snippets of that conversation that had stuck out to me as particularly strange.
There was silence as he absorbed the information.
“Nikos then. She told him,” suggested Orion after my mate evidently shared what I had said with him as well.
“Who are we talking about?” called Helena before she snagged a spear thrown over my wall of fire and flipped it over to launch it right back at the enemy.
“Amira’s magic clearly still works against them which means that someone is specifically targeting Riordan…”
Orion trailed off so dramatically that I risked a glance of concern at him.
“Orion?” I called his name when I saw the tip of his sword lower slightly and was briefly terrified that he had been struck by an arrow or something.
“This is a test,” he seemed to realize suddenly aloud before he met Riordan’s eyes in horror. “This is a test to see if whatever spell they are crafting is working on you. At the coronation… They were not really targeting Amira, they only wanted you to use your magic so they could absorb some of it for this spell.”
Understanding swept through my mate as he realized this as well, and then his sheer determination swelled.
“Cover me,” Riordan ordered before he stepped back into our midst with his head lowered.
I had never seen him need to focus on his magic the way most witches needed to channel. But I saw the air magic actually shimmering around him as if there was an invisible force vibrating off him. I could feel it impacting me in my very bones, teeth clattering and ears ringing. Bolts of electricity leapt between his fingers with hissing snaps, and the air swelled, heating and growing thin.
I tried to focus on my own magic and our enemies to protect him while he tried to break through whatever shields had been set against him.
At first I thought he was shaking the ground under our feet as well, but then I heard a crash behind us.
“Troll!” shouted Orion suddenly, and he snagged me around the waist to jerk me out of the way of a falling tree that had been knocked out of the troll’s path.
My wall of fire extinguished when I lost concentration, plunging the forest into darkness save for the silver light of the moon and stars.
I turned and looked up at the enraged beast that came tearing out of the forest, undoubtedly disturbed by all the noise from our fight. It was easily ten feet tall and ripped trees out of the earth with its swinging hands that seemed intent on tearing everything apart. The head was flat on the top with large, pointed ears that stuck straight out and angled down. The greenish hair blended into a beard like Spanish moss dangling down its barrel chest. The face was short and flat with a broad nose, a wide mouth, and a massive underbite with two tusks protruding high over the upper lip. It hunched over and seemed to prefer walking with its knuckles on the ground in a way that was similar to the Fuath. It was unclothed aside from a loincloth made from vines and bark.
It roared, and even the Fuath screeched as they tried to get out of its way. It sent a good many of them flying with a mighty swipe of the branch in its hand.
I had learned there were many different kinds of trolls, and some, like this Carnauch Troll, were not higher fey. That essentially made this poor thing little better than an animal that didn’t know any better, and I hated to harm it. Especially when we were the ones who upset it.
But I also couldn’t allow it to hurt my companions.
I flung my magic at it instinctively when it charged toward us, beating its fists against the earth. Only for my power to roll harmlessly off the troll’s thick skin before I recalled that they were naturally impervious to magic.
It came on so fast, and I knew Riordan was distracted, so I reacted on instinct again. I threw a blast of magic behind me that would be hot but did not burn, and it threw my friends out of range of the troll.
“Amira!” shouted Orion furiously, but I was already diving sideways and rolling out of the way when the troll swung its tree branch at me. The strike was far too close, and now I was in easy smashing distance for the creature and separated from my friends.
I felt Riordan in my mind as I rolled up to one knee and braced my hands readily under me. His concentration had been broken by my blast that had thrown him and the others beyond the troll’s reach. Now his awareness was rushing through me to ensure I was not hurt.
The troll whirled on me, brandishing his tree branch like a club as I tried to focus and work out a weakness. Which was when I realized that although the troll may be impervious to magic… his club was not.
I got this, I assured Riordan, urging him to calm down so his fear was not clouding my thoughts, and he could focus on protecting himself. And the rush of confidence he felt in me was a beautiful thing as I drew power faster and harder directly from the earth under my hands.
My next strike was aimed at the tree branch the troll was about to bring down on my head, and I willed the flames to sweep across the wood. The troll made a furious roar of surprise and threw the club away, shaking his hand with an offended snort before he roared at me angrily.
But now I knew that although he could withstand a direct magical attack, he could still be burned.
I felt Riordan’s pride swelling through me in response to my thinking as I set my sights on the dry grass and branches beneath the troll’s feet. Steam began rising from the earth under my hands as fire erupted around the troll. He roared in confusion and terror, leaping back from me until he finally turned to retreat into the forest along with the last of the Fuath.
Someone hauled me up to my feet. I knew it was Orion before he began dragging me back to our companions by my arm. Both of them appeared so horrified and confused by his behaviour that they did not move until Orion shoved me at my mate. Riordan had to react quickly in order to catch me or the force of Orion’s push would have knocked me right off my feet.
“Your mate !” Orion snarled furiously, and I turned to gape at him in utter disbelief.
“I told him I had it!” I shouted back, straightening and squaring up with Orion as steam began billowing off my clenched fists. “I am a fire witch, you know, I’m not some helpless damsel who needs to be—”
“Could have fooled me,” he interrupted, all rage and clearly no capacity for reasoning.
“She drove off a troll,” Helena argued, and her voice sounded subdued from her shock and discomfort.
“And almost died doing it. Just… Fuck !” Orion yelled before he turned and tried to stalk away from us.
Only to be instantly brought to his knees by a crackling wave of magic that rippled over his body and drew out a cry of pain from him.
“He was scared for her!” Helena tried to tell Riordan, but my mate tugged his arm out of her grip. He bumped against me as he stepped forward to slowly walk toward his skiá with menace in every stride.
“Amira!” hissed Helena, pleading for my intervention, but I was too shocked to move right away. He had put hands on me. He threw me at Riordan like I was trash.
Helena saw my uncertainty and turned to stalk over to put herself between Riordan and where Orion knelt.
“He was scared! Riordan, just think !” she urged him.
“There can be no excuse for handling Amira like that,” said Riordan lowly, his voice deadly. “Not for anyone.”
“He cares for her! Please, Riordan, just—”
“That is not how anyone will ever care for my mate!” Riordan shouted, losing his temper this time, but Helena held her ground with him admirably.
“He is an ilíthios who cannot get out of his own way, much less make sense of his own stupid feelings, but this will not fix anything,” she maintained.
I knew she was right, but fuck , I was not sure I would ever forget how his rough hands felt mishandling me.
“Get out of the way, Helena!” Orion begged, his voice strained from the pain of the king’s magic that was still holding him down. Electricity hissed and arched between the pinnacles of his wings.
The desperation in his plea hurt my heart. It was more than just physical discomfort, but a soul-deep anguish…
I was moving before I had thought it through beyond an instinctive desire to shield him from any further harm. But interestingly enough, it was his evident desire to be punished that also made Riordan finally hesitate.
Helena saw me approach, and she looked immensely relieved as she stepped out of the way. I met Riordan’s eyes and an understanding passed between us quickly that things with Orion were very… complicated. And I was prepared to grant him grace. At least until we determined whether we could help support him through things.
But I would not be a punching bag. I did want to help him if we could, but my heart could not take his abuse.
I will not accept that either. I will be the punching bag if that is what he needs right now, Riordan reassured me as he knelt slowly in front of Orion who glowered at him in resistance. As if he would defy Riordan’s mercy.
He wanted the punishment. The realization made me ache even more for him, and I could feel Riordan’s anger cooling even further. I felt the intensity of their mental conversation like a busy freeway on the other side of a brick wall. Heated and private and separate from me and my bond with my mate, and yet I could not help but be drawn toward it as it hummed in my mind.
I watched as the tension gradually melted from Orion’s wings and arms. I had not realized just how primed with violent fury he was, all directed at himself, until he had eased and slumped onto his forearms. I did not know what Riordan was saying to him, but I suddenly recalled how much love and patience my mate had shown to me even when I was being ugly.
When I was not easy to give love and patience to.
Orion
I was drowning.
The fear and panic of seeing that troll swing a branch at Amira’s head made it feel like a trapdoor had collapsed under my feet. Plunging me into that pit of devastating guilt and shame that lurked in my subconscious. A place that was dug the night I lay inert under the table that my older brother had hidden me beneath.
Frozen as I had watched him beaten to death when our drunken father came after him for the last time…
So I welcomed the anguish of Riordan’s power ripping over me, ripe with the same betrayal and fury exploding down our bond from him. I had failed him in the most fundamental way that any skiá could when I mishandled his mate. When I abused what was most precious to him.
Failed him like I failed my brother, and my mother, and now Amira too.
But the punishment never came.
The magic restraining me gentled as Riordan knelt in front of me, and I was infuriated to see concern beginning to overshadow the anger in his eyes.
No! Punish me! I shouted down our bond at him.
First tell me what purpose the pain serves, and then I will decide whether it is warranted , he replied calmly.
I lowered my head, unable to maintain our eye contact when the frustration threatened to overcome me wholly.
I hurt her. Of course it is warranted!
Yes, you did. But I want to know why, he insisted.
I could not put it into words. How could I explain this hijacking of my person in a way that would not belittle its consequence? How could I make him understand how I so often did and said such awful things without meaning to without seeming to excuse myself?
I had always been careful to keep this poisonous part of myself away from him, but there were not adequate words to convey the depths of what I was feeling. I could not make him understand how vicious this thing was that was forever ripping me apart inside. Could not convey how deeply its claws would sink into my mind.
So I allowed him to feel it just this once. I allowed him to witness that moment when the club had come down for her head. Let him know the vague face of my nightmare.
I watched his face tensing, and I knew he was trying to conceal the horror. He looked at me as if he did not know me anymore, and it would break my heart anew…
I am so sorry, I told him.
Do not be sorry. I am the one who is sorry that you did not feel like this was a burden you could share with me.
Stop. Please do not excuse what—
I am not excusing you, Orion. Your fear is acceptable. Your reactions to it certainly are not, he insisted.
I know, I assured him.
This is rooted… in your youth, he observed cautiously, and I felt him prodding at me to know the whole truth.
I immediately shut him out of my memories.
Yes. That is all you need to know, I said, but he merely raised his brows at me with that tenacious expression that I usually loved… when it was directed at other people.
I will need to know everything if I am going to help you to overcome this. And I will help you overcome this.
You cannot. Riordan, I have tried, it is… monstrous.
I can be a monster too when I must be, he assured me, before he stood again. I am not afraid of your demons.
I thought I might cry at his feet as a toxic mixture of relief and shame and self-loathing curdled in my stomach and made me want to be sick.
When I thought I might have my emotions somewhat under control, I raised my head and was surprised to find Amira standing near.
She was ready to step in front of you, Riordan revealed, and I almost wanted to be sick again at the thought.
That is wrong. She should not feel protective of me.
Try and tell her that, Riordan challenged smugly.
I could barely bring myself to look at her, but when I finally did, Amira’s amber eyes held nothing but concern. She glanced at Riordan as if seeking reassurance before she stepped forward to hold out her hand for me.
I stared at the unexpected offer, uncertain how she could extend any courtesy to me after how I had behaved. But after a moment’s hesitation, I reached up to take her hand and allowed her to help pull me back to my feet. Riordan put a strong and grounding hand on my shoulder, and they both held onto me until I finally felt like I could breathe again.
“We need to get home and figure out who is attempting to undermine my power,” Riordan announced once he could sense that I was well enough to travel again.
But I was focused on Amira who was still holding my hand as if she knew I needed the lifeline.