Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Kit
“An archmythic,” Zak repeated.
His tone fell somewhere between mild incredulity and no-nonsense consideration.
Saber had yet to comment, but her expression was as sharp-edged and serious as always.
No gasping, gawking, or “holy shit, you can do what now?” Nothing like a pair of druids used to the power scale of millennia-old fae monarchs to make an archmythic feel like a normal guy again.
The three of us were seated around a wooden table in the kitchen of their half-renovated timber house, the warm aroma of wood smoke from the fireplace mostly masking the chemical odor of fresh paint.
Lienna wasn’t with us. The moment we arrived, she’d asked to use Zak’s artifact engineering tools, and he’d led her away to his workshop.
“Ríkr, does what Kit described match those mythics from centuries ago with ‘comparable auras’ you mentioned?” Saber asked, drumming her fingers on the tabletop.
Perhaps. Ríkr’s telepathic answer emanated from the azure-eyed, snow-white ferret perched on her shoulder. Having seen the winter fae in his regal, humanlike form—and having witnessed his desert-fae-freezing power—his adorably furry face was unnerving.
I do not recall this ‘archmythic’ moniker, he continued, but mythics of such abilities may have gone by different titles. I had few interactions with humans, mythic or not, in eras past.
I swallowed a gulp of coffee, hoping for a caffeine slap in the face.
It was nearing midnight and the number of hours I’d slept in the last twenty-four was way too low.
“Kade was able to block me from powering up my archmythic abilities, and that’s a huge problem if I’m going to shuffle him off this mortal coil anytime soon.
I don’t know how he did it or how to prevent it, but I’m hoping you can help me figure it out. ”
“We aren’t archmythics,” Saber said.
“No, but the hyena fae described his archmythic pal in a way that might ring a bell for you.” Squinting as I recalled the memory, I recited, “‘A mortal who was not a druid, yet sang to the earth as druids do. A mortal who was not my kind, yet called power into himself as my kind do.’”
“Yet sang to the earth as druids do,” she echoed, her fingers halting their rapid drumming on the table. “And calling power … interesting.”
Zak leaned back in his seat. The scar that cut diagonally across his face was disconcerting, but it didn’t detract from his broody bad-boy aura.
“Power up your abilities,” he ordered me.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Okey dokey,” I muttered.
I didn’t have to concentrate hard. The moment I started paying attention to the background thrum, it engulfed my senses, uncomfortable and overwhelming in a way it hadn’t been in Bahla Fort or London. I visualized it as an effervescent green light swirling into me.
Power flooded my body, and across the table, two druids and a ferret stiffened.
My discomfort increased until it felt like the energy was full of thorns, prickling and scraping at my nerves. I dropped the visualization, releasing the energy back into the earth.
“Well,” Zak said.
Saber nodded.
I rubbed my neck. “The energy here hurts.”
Because it belongs to us. Ríkr’s voice held a distinctly unfriendly note.
“That wasn’t the same as a fae drawing power,” Saber said, her pale eyes drifting across my face. “It felt closer to a druid’s aura sphere.”
“What’s an aura sphere?” I asked.
“A druid technique where we attune the earthly energy around us to our aura. It makes the energy more potent for our fae allies and more difficult for anyone else to draw on.”
I was guessing that this aura sphere technique and the prickliness of the energy here were probably related.
Zak tipped his head back, eyes half-closed as he pondered. “When you powered up in London, were any of Lienna’s artifacts affected?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “She didn’t mention anything, but we were also highly distracted by not dying and stuff.”
“Hmm.” Standing, he swept across the kitchen and through the front door.
I hopped to my feet and followed Zak, Saber trailing after me.
Outside, the wind was twenty times colder and meaner than the breeze I’d endured at the airport a few hours ago.
It raced down off the snow-covered peaks that surrounded the valley, topography that I knew was there but couldn’t see in the pitch darkness.
Zak strode along a path of slippery, compacted snow that wound toward the only spot of light outside their home: the rectangular glow of a small window.
The timber workshop was about the size of a single-car garage. Zak tapped on the door before pushing it open. Inside, the brightly lit interior featured a sturdy worktable and floor-to-ceiling shelves partially filled with potion bottles and other Arcana materials along one wall.
Standing at the table was Lienna, a huge sheet of drafting paper spread out in front of her and a pen between her teeth as she measured a line on the array she’d drafted.
Sections of it had been crossed out and redrawn.
Rulers, protractors, calipers, gauges, a compass, scales, a graphing calculator, and a notepad full of her handwriting were scattered across the tabletop.
Most intriguing of all were her grimoire and the Sha’ir’s grimoire sitting side by side next to the notepad.
She took the pen out of her mouth. “What’s wrong?”
“When Kit used his archmythic abilities to power up, did it affect your artifacts?” Zak asked.
Lienna’s eyes lit with intrigue. “You mean, did he drain the energy out of them? I didn’t even think of that! Do you think he can draw on Arcana power sources as well as nature-based ones?”
“It’s possible.”
“We should test it.” She plucked her wooden knife artifact out of her satchel and handed it to me. “Kit, try to draw the magic out of this.”
“Uh.” Balancing it on my palm, I stared down at the artifact. “Okay.”
Narrowing my eyes, I felt for some kind of hum or vibration of magic in the wood. I could vaguely sense something amid the lively energy emanating from the earth, and I imagined its energy flowing into me, unsure if anything was happening.
Shaking my head, I handed it back to her. “I tried, but I don’t think it worked.”
She pointed the knife at the wall. “Ori consistere!”
A bluish ripple rushed out of the artifact and swept into the wall.
“No effect on the artifact’s power,” she confirmed. “We should also test it on arcane energy that isn’t bound to an artifact.”
Nodding, Zak strode toward the far end of the workshop. On the floor was a smooth black circle made of who knew what and drawn on it was a large array. Little bowls placed on the apexes of a seven-pointed star held what looked like small piles of ash.
He gestured at the painstakingly detailed spell. “Try to draw on the power in this.”
“Won’t that ruin it?” I asked.
“Just do it.”
Since arguing would be pointless, I tuned in to the prickly background thrum. There was a new vibration I hadn’t noticed before, like a faint sound I could feel more than hear. I tried to isolate it as I visualized the energy sweeping into me. Power sizzled through every molecule of my body.
Zak crouched beside the array, and Lienna stepped past me to squat next to him. They both studied it.
“He did it,” she said, her voice hushed with excitement.
“There’s no magic left in the array.” Rising to his full height, Zak turned back to me. “This is good. You can manipulate other kinds of power besides nature- or life-based energies. That gives you more flexibility and explains how you powered up in downtown London.”
An ugly feeling bubbled in my chest. “Was I stealing people’s life energy in London?”
Such a power is reserved for those of my kind who feed on death. Ríkr hopped from Saber’s shoulder onto the nearest shelf. Humans, no matter their magic, cannot snuff out lives so easily.
“Then what was I drawing on?”
The energy they exude, he replied. All life emanates energy, as heat emanates from a flame.
“Oh.” I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “That’s good to know. None of this helps me against Kade, though.”
“No,” Zak agreed. “But Saber and I might be able to help.”
“How?”
Zak glanced at Saber, then back to me, his green eyes sharp. “Nature-based energy is likely the easiest energy source for you to draw on, and since you noticed that power in our territory is uncomfortable, that means Saber and I can do the opposite for you.”
Saber nodded. “We can use aura spheres to make the power you draw more potent and easier to access.”
“I like the sound of that.” I grinned. “And didn’t you say the aura sphere thing makes it more difficult for anyone else to use the energy—like Kade?”
Zak’s smile was villainous. “Yes.”
“What do I need to do for the aura sphere?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “We’ll harmonize with you. But the better you are at sensing energy, the better you’ll be at manipulating it. I can teach you.”
Finally, someone could teach me something related to my archmythic powers. But because the universe just couldn’t cut me any slack whatsoever, I had mere hours to learn it before testing my upgraded skills against my archnemesis in what I was certain would be a fight to the death.
“Let’s get started.”