Chapter 24
Elianne’s whole body screamed in pain, her muscles spasming, despite the hours she’d spent in the lava bath.
Her vision was lightly clouded, no matter how many times she blinked, like a pane of frosted glass that resisted all wiping.
Her skin, at least, was no longer blackened after her time in the lava, but it still hurt, shockwaves ripping all along her body without warning.
Her head ached too, but she couldn’t be sure if that was from the shock that surely would have killed someone who wasn’t already Aflame or the glare that Dae had been leveling on her ever since she screamed her way back to awareness…whenever that had been. Hours ago? Days?
He’d yet to speak, but she knew it would be coming soon.
So she shifted, wincing as yet another burst of pain detonated and radiated over her entire body.
This time, at least, she kept from screaming.
She managed to get into a position closer to sitting, edging herself up the half-molten pillow she’d long ago formed to fit her body in her basalt bed.
“Go ahead.” She looked not at his blazing eyes, nor at the muscle ticking away in his jaw, but at the scrollwork in the leather on his shoulder. “Tell me how stupid I was.”
Dae never could resist a good dressing-down. “That monster is free again, Elianne. Set loose on Fjordlandi. All because you couldn’t control your anger for a few blazing minutes.”
She only meant to curl her fingers toward her palm, but even that small movement sent her muscles into spasms, and the digits contracted, went so tight she had to bite back a groan and wonder if they’d ever loosen again.
“He. Took. My. Son.” Every word felt like it had to be pulled from her mouth with pliers.
Dae jerked to standing, though he didn’t tower over her, just strode toward the others gathered at the back of her chamber.
Those familiar faces of her family, all set in grim lines that she could just make out through the blur of her vision.
Then a face she’d never have expected to see down here.
How had Perla even made her way into the mountain?
Not through the mouth of Helviti, obviously.
Lava tubes. Probably the one where the ice wall had been, through which Isidor had always come. They were cool enough, especially since Dae could have pulled any streams of magma away to give her safe passage.
“He took you from your son. Twenty-six years ago.” Dae’s words came as a growl, right before he spun back to face her, condemnation in his gaze.
“No one is saying Isidor isn’t a monster.
He sold his own daughter into the hands of the Ellesian king.
But he is not responsible for Nik’s leaving this time.
The agreement Isidor made was for Kyrja.
We all know if Nik is gone too, it’s because he insisted on going with her.
Stefanos may be his own kind of monster, but he wouldn’t start a war by taking Nik against his will. ”
Her gaze fell to the ground. She’d already known, of course, that Nik would choose Kyrja over her. That had been the whole point of her decision. Even so, it sliced to hear he’d done it.
Even so, it was Isidor’s fault, all of it. “But—”
“Stefanos was right to refuse you.” Now he barked the words, not quite a shout but far louder than before, slashing a hand through the air. “If you cannot control the flames within you, how do you ever expect to control the ones without? You are weak, Elianne, weak by choice, a liability.”
“Daemon. Stop.”
It wasn’t Logi or Ember who chastised him, nor Eldrid. Of course not—he was their leader. It was Perla who stepped away from the wall, hands on her brown-leather-clad hips. “You’re not helping.”
He spun on her, and the room warmed. “Stay out of this, Princess.”
Perla lifted her chin. “And let you bully a grieving mother while she’s still in pain from a shock that could have stopped her heart? I think not.”
“I am not bullying—”
“What else do you call it? Leading?” The princess scoffed. “A leader who has to resort to insults and derision is no leader.”
“Stating the facts, making someone own up to them, is neither insult nor derision. And how I lead my family is none of your business.”
Elianne blinked, wishing the blazing clouds would leave her eyes so she could better see the expression on Perla’s face as she went toe to toe with him.
“You think facts alone are enough to build someone up? Then here are some for you.” Perla lifted a hand and poked a finger into his shoulder.
“When my mother was Awakened, new magic surging, my father and all the people recognized at once what she was—a queen. A queen in her own right, not because of the magic in her veins but because of the heart that would sacrifice anything to help others. But you? You’ve had a century and a half to learn who you are, and you still aren’t worthy to do anything but bend the knee to one more deserving to lead Fjordlandi.
It’s Elianne’s son who will stand beside Kyrja and usher your people into the future, not you, because you can’t look at people and see potential, Daemon.
You still look at them and see where they’re weak. ”
“I see the cracks that need strengthened.”
“You see your own weaknesses, reflected in them.” This time the poke was more shove. “You’re still just a hurt little boy, upset because no one has ever chosen you.”
Flames leapt. Wind and water fought them back. Eldrid and Logi chuckled, of all things, and edged Ember out into the corridor that connected Elianne’s room to the shared living space.
Elianne almost wished she could stand up and go with them. Almost. “Stop it, both of you.”
Dae didn’t even glance over his shoulder at her. “You think you can fly into Fjordlandi and tell us what we need? Who we are? You think you understand me just because I was made like your mother was? That it gives you some great insight?”
“I think while you’ve been hiding under this mountain forging your little family into a group of resentful slaves focused only on deposing one tyrant, I’ve been learning how the world works and where I fit in it.
Geysers, Daemon! You’ve had centuries, decades at the least with these people, and you never even told them about your Awakening!
They didn’t know they were your family. What have you talked about all this time?
” She gestured broadly, and water sizzled as it turned to steam somewhere in the room.
“You don’t know me—”
“Who cares if I don’t know you? They don’t know you!” Perla motioned toward the door, empty now. “She doesn’t know you, even though you clearly think she’s your only shot of ever finding someone who could learn to love you.”
Elianne focused on relaxing her fingers from the claws they were still locked into. That pain was easier than the other. Than thinking too hard about what Dae wanted from her, what she could never give him. Of wondering why he wanted it, when she could never do anything right in his eyes.
And he wasn’t wrong, she knew that. Not just about her weakness, but about the blame she’d earned with that foolish step into Isidor’s cell.
She’d known he could kill her, once she put herself in arm’s reach. Part of her had wanted him to. Especially if, somehow, she could have taken him out with her. Set him ablaze and turned him to cinders while he stilled the blood in her veins and froze it or filled her lungs with water.
“…if she hadn’t gone into that cell.” Daemon had clearly been following the same path that she had in her thoughts.
“No, he wouldn’t have gotten out if you hadn’t followed her in.
” Perla brought water bursting from the spring Kyrja had sent them, right at Dae’s face.
It turned to steam before it could hit him, of course, but a few drops made it past his wall of heat and landed on Elianne.
“You’re the one he used to short out the prison bars.
Your magic, not hers, that he touched his to and made that lightning. ”
“What was I supposed to do? Let him kill her?”
“You were supposed to trust her, Daemon, just like you were supposed to do when Stefanos baited you into responding the other night. Your overreaction is what made him think she wasn’t strong enough.
Your overreaction is what gave Isidor the chance to make his move.
You. Not her. Stop blaming everyone but yourself. ”
“You think I’m going to apologize for inadvertently keeping that snake from taking her to Ellas?”
Perla stepped back. Snarled. “No. In fact I don’t. And that’s the problem.”
Elianne had done her fair share of making Dae growl over the years, but she had to hand it to Perla—the princess had actually made him lose his temper.
His veins glowed—something she’d seen him do purposefully, sure, for effect.
Like when Isidor had come the last time, or even to show her his feelings the other day. But that had been controlled, careful.
Now she felt the magma boiling and surging in the mountain around them, its pulse no doubt matching his.
“Dae, stop.” The temperature in the room climbed higher and higher, and while she didn’t mind, Perla would.
“If you boil the princess of Daryatla alive, I’m pretty sure it would be an act of war. ”
Wind and water whirled around the princess, who smirked. “Let him try it.”
Dae lifted a hand, flame dancing over his palm. Then he went utterly still.
The magma returned to its usual courses. The temperature dropped abruptly back to normal, so fast it gave Elianne a chill. The fire in his palm guttered out.
Perla’s posture didn’t relax, but it shifted. “What? What is it?”
Elianne pushed herself up a bit more, clenching her teeth against the pain.
Dae spun, wide eyes focused on her again. “He’s free.”
She frowned. “Yes, I know, and it’s my fault. I—”
“Not Isidor—Nik.” He cocked his head to the side, as if listening to a faraway whisper.
Then he shook it. “Gone now, but it was him. I have no doubt about it. He was pulling lava to the surface at…I don’t know exactly, somewhere at the edges of my range.
Which means on Fjordlandi. He’s free of Stefanos. ”
“If Nik’s free, then Kyrja must be too.” Perla made for the door. “I need to get outside, where I can better sense the sea.”
Elianne tried to swing her legs over the edge of her bed, to stand, to get out there, to wherever Nik was.
Her head spun, the world tilted. “Fire and ashes,” she hissed.
Hands landed on her shoulders, one moved to cradle her head, and Dae eased her back down. “You need to rest, Elianne.”
Nearly thirty years she’d known him, and he’d never used that soft tone.
Maybe she would have welcomed the familiarity before.
Maybe, if he’d shown her this soft side of himself earlier, it would have helped her let go of the memories of Tristan.
But now? “I need to go. Stop Isidor. I need to help Nik.”
“You’ll do him no good like this. You’d collapse before you made it out of the mountain.” This time, the words didn’t sound harsh. Just true. “Isidor is no match for his daughter, she already proved that. And Kyrja and your son together? Unstoppable.”
That also rang of truth. But this truth only made her heart ache more. Her son didn’t need her. Maybe he had when he was a boy, when she’d been taken from him. But he didn’t need her now. She squeezed her blurry eyes shut. “You should have let him kill me.”
“No.” He pressed warm lips to her forehead, but then his heat retreated.
When she opened her eyes, she saw he had moved halfway to the door.
“But I should have let you fight your own battle. The wind wielder was right about that.” He hesitated, throat bobbing.
He took a step toward the door. “I’m sorry.
She’s right. This is my fault, all of it. Every flaming thing.”
She shook her head, regretted it. Winced as she reached out a hand toward him. “It’s not. You’ve been a good leader to us all. The best you could have been.”
“No. I relied on myself, my own strength, when I knew that was futile.” He huffed out a breath and rubbed a hand over the tattoos on the side of his head.
Then let it fall to his side. “I believed Axel’s lies.
Isidor’s. I let them tell me who I was, what I was.
And then I resented you for not letting me do the same to you. ”
Her brows drew together. “What?”
“I wanted to dictate your identity—you always refused.” He clenched a fist, and she felt a pulse of lava go out from the heart of Helviti, through the underground pathways, out beyond her senses.
“As you should have. You were right to hold your son in your heart all these years. You’re his mother, and you never forgot it.
Perla’s right—I resent it. Resent that no one ever loved me that much.
No one ever fought for me like you fight for him. ”
It had never once occurred to her that Dae wanted someone to fight for him. He’d never shown a moment’s vulnerability, never let any of them in closer than arm’s length.
Maybe she should have known. He was a person, beneath the scowls and gruffness. And everyone needed love.
Yet even as she thought it, she knew she wasn’t the one he needed it from, not really. She’d just been the only one nearby. Perhaps she should have made more of an effort, become a real friend. But more?
The memory of his kiss hadn’t lingered. Oh, it had obliterated the shudder-inducing thought of Isidor’s, and for that she was grateful. It had been pleasurable and warm and conjured images of what could be.
But it wasn’t the could-be that she wanted. She’d already known the kind of love that branded itself onto her soul. Tristan, yes. He’d been the other half of her, and she hated that he’d died, just six short weeks ago, without knowing that she still lived. Hated that they’d had no reunion.
Not only Tristan, though. Nik. The daughter she’d never met before death claimed her tiny form.
Their family had branded her heart, and though she’d forged a new one down here in Helviti, it wasn’t the same.
Ember was a sister, the men were brothers.
But there was no other husband for her here. No other child.
She dragged a shaking breath into her lungs, and it felt like fire. “I’m sorry, Dae. Sorry I could never be what you needed.”
“Don’t apologize. You’re who you needed to be.
” He offered that half-smile he so rarely deigned to give her, the one that turned his face into something breathtaking.
“Let me worry about my own heart. It isn’t your domain.
” He moved to the door, pausing in the threshold, a hand on the smooth stone.
“Rest up. Your son will return to you soon.”