30. Inside
30
INSIDE
JADEN
“ W hat’s happened? Where am I?” I ask as I open my eyes, gazing at the ceiling. My mind is hazy with confusion. Then I recognize the ceiling of the mage temple.
How did I get here?
Next to me, Oakes grunts and shifts while attempting to sit up.
Shuffling noises and the sounds of a struggle alert me to danger. Disoriented, I sit up and witness Neven and Abela fighting not far in front of me.
I turn to see Merlara standing over Idril’s bloody body. She pulls her sword from the mage’s chest.
On the ground too, Eldrin shakes his head, looking as dazed as I feel.
Corwin and Daylor hurry to help us to our feet.
Baelen sits on the floor, cursing and holding Wyn’s limp form.
Goddess, no, please.
My guard looks up in despair and sees that I’m now standing and fully awake. She locks eyes with me and yells, “Sir! Something’s wrong with Wynstelle!”
My stomach twists, and my heart stutters. Without regard for the damage my body has suffered, I race over to my mate, limping badly. I glance around again at the chaos in the room as I stumble over to Wyn, making sure there isn’t another unseen threat.
On the other side of the room, Merlara catches Abela’s long golden-white hair in her hand, pulling her off Neven. She holds up the still bloody sword to Abela’s neck. “Your master is dead. Stand down!” Merlara orders.
“Never!” Abela cries.
Merlara swiftly slides the blade across Abela’s throat. She tosses Abela aside, then glares at Mage Neven, rage simmering in her eyes. “Sometimes metal works better than magic.”
“What’s happened to Wyn?” I demand.
By the time I stumble over to my mate, Eldrin has taken Wyn away from a distraught Baelen to cradle our mate in his arms. The prince holds on like she might float away.
“Neven, tell us now!” Eldrin shouts.
Rubbing her head where she has taken a blow, Neven answers, “She overwhelmed her body and mind when she stole back your magic and souls from Idril and returned it to you.”
“Fuck!” I curse and carefully brush loose locks of hair from Wyn’s face.
“How did Wyn steal magic from a mage like Idril?” I shake my head, baffled.
“Wyn reversed the flow of magic, thwarting her plans,” Neven explains. “Idril manipulated everything in the last twenty years to bring you all together here on the temple’s ley line—a natural power conduit—so she could easily and quickly steal your souls and magic by using Wyn’s changeling spell.”
“I don’t understand why target Wyn?” I ask. “Why us?”
“It’s about what your futures will bring about together, but right now, we must save your future with Wyn,” Neven says.
With Eldrin and I on either side of our unconscious mate, Oakes kneels down by her head and uses his senses to assess her condition. He closes his eyes, using his healer and empathic magic. After a long moment, he says, “She’s struggling to stay alive. Neven is correct. It feels like she moved too much magic, too fast.” He closes his eyes and assesses Wyn a bit more. “Goddess! She has Idril’s magic inside her now. Her human body can’t handle this much. It feels like she’s being torn to shreds.”
“What can we do?” I ask, looking at Oakes and then to Neven for answers.
“I don’t know,” Oakes says as he presses his forehead to Wyn’s in a desperate hope to connect.
Neven moves closer, scrutinizing each of us with an intense stare. “Do you feel it?”
“Feel what? ” I snap. I’m in no mood for guessing games.
“All three of you have more power, more magic than before.” Neven taps her mouth with a long, elegant finger.
“What good will that do us now?” I ask angrily. Yet, I desperately hope that Neven will give me some task to do, anything to help fix the situation. I would give my life to heal Wyn.
“With Oakes’ psychic abilities, Eldrin’s influencer magic, your newly unlocked power, you can help Wyn handle this energy coursing through her body.”
“What new power?” I shake my head. “I don’t feel anything new.”
“Transmutation. Transformation,” Neven says, her eyes distant as though seeing a thousand years ahead.
“I don’t understand,” I say, encouraging the mage to explain.
“Shifting something from one form to another. Like water becomes ice or steam.”
“I can make ice?” I huff. The mage makes no sense. “How does that help Wyn?”
Neven moves her gaze to my eyes and studies me further. “Your new magic is more involved than that. You can alter living things,” Neven says, her voice growing with excitement. “Using your connection with Wyn, you can help her change her body to handle the power. You can help her become more Elven. Oakes can heal the damage that has been done. Eldrin will use his influence to control the swirling magic and call her back to consciousness.”
“A great plan… except we don’t know how to do any of that!” Eldrin rubs his face in frustration.
I grab Eldrin’s arm and shake him, hoping to rattle the chaotic emotions out of him. “We have to try.”
“What if—” Eldrin protests.
“She’ll die if we don’t try,” Oakes interrupts. “I know that much.”
“Mage Neven, can’t you just take on the extra magic?” Baelen asks.
“I can’t.” Neven shakes her head and steps back. “And I don’t believe I am meant to. Ironically, it looks as though Idril has set up everything she feared. It’s your destiny to help your mate. She will be the future, if or when you succeed.”
“Alright. Alright.” Eldrin takes a deep breath. “I’m just spinning with the idea that we could fuck this all up. That I already fucked it all up.”
Ignoring the prince’s pessimism, Oakes suggests, “Let’s focus on our mate bond, and feel our connection to her. Then let’s see if we can sense her energy. I’ll help you go inside her mind, similar to what I do with our telepathy. Once there, I will fix what is broken. Eldrin, you try to call her back and help her calm the chaotic magic.” He looks at me and thinks for a moment. “Jaden, perhaps think of your new power like my healing ability. You know how that feels to receive… mimic that. But envision her as Elven. Hopefully, her body will realign to become more Elven and can contain the power of a mage.”
Eldrin nods vigorously, gathering his wits about him. “We can do this… we have to. For Wyn.”
“Yes, we do,” I say, my voice gravelly.
We close our eyes and place our hands on Wyn’s mark. Focusing on our bond with her and our love for her, we try to reach out with our very essence to get through the tornado of magic to Wyn.
I feel my consciousness being pulled toward her, and I follow the tug.
I lose my awareness of the room and find that I’m back inside the castle, but this castle exists in her mind.
It’s dark and foreboding. I hear a soft sniffing. Following the sound, I discover Wyn curled up in the corner of her old room, crying.
“What’s wrong, my love?” I ask as I slowly approach and kneel next to her. Instinctually, I reach out for her to pull her into an embrace.
She flinches away from my touch and curls up tighter. It breaks my heart to see her reject my comfort. I don’t wish to agitate her, but I need to know why she doesn’t find comfort in me being here with her.
“Wyn? Why are you crying?”
“I couldn’t save you. I wasn’t strong enough.”
“You did save us,” I assure her, my tone soft.
Eldrin and Oakes appear next to me.
“We’re alright,” I continue. “But you’re the one that needs our help now.”
“No. I’m just a weak human. I couldn’t stop what happened with Eldrin’s father. And I couldn’t help you when Idril stole your souls. I failed you all. Now, you’ve all come to haunt me and remind me of my failings. I couldn’t help anyone in the end. Leave me alone and stop torturing me.”
“ Fuck ,” I mumble and look at Eldrin and Oakes. “She’s stuck in her mind like I was, feeling all the failures I ever had, all at once.”
Eldrin and Oakes nod, their eyes gazing sadly down at Wyn sitting on the floor, wishing we could easily convince her she hadn’t failed.
“We need to remind her how much we love her and shift her consciousness,” Oakes says to Eldrin. “Calm her.”
“Somehow, I need to shift her entire being to adapt to the magic she now possesses.”
I feel inadequate to accomplish this task. How am I supposed to change a person’s entire being? What if I do more damage than good? Before, my only magic was my enhanced senses. I don’t know how to wield proper magic, and now I have complicated transmutation magic. I’ve never even heard of it being used to change another person’s form. Why me? The goddess should have bestowed this gift on someone else.
“Do you feel the sheer amount of energy within her?” Eldrin whispers.
“I do,” Oakes says. “But I need to focus on healing her body.”
I do too. It’s my duty to change Wyn enough for her to survive it. But I don’t want to change a single thing about Wyn. What if she isn’t the same loving mate when I’m done?
“That leaves me to heal her mind.” Eldrin grimaces. “Fuck. I don’t think I’m the right one for the job. I’m the damned failure here. I killed my father, not seeing what was really happening. Wyn was smart enough to figure it out.”
“I was too late,” Wyn mutters.
Oakes inclines his head toward Wyn, silently telling Eldrin he needs to focus on helping her now.
“You’re exactly the right person to convince her,” I say, cupping his shoulder in a show of support and approval. “We are all just doing the best we can. You aren’t a failure. You acted on the information you had at the time. Now, bring our mate out of her nightmare.”