75. Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Even the bedroom is not as intimate as the training grounds. Nowhere else do you learn the ins and outs of a person’s mind as well as the sand. You see their strengths, their anger, their persistence. They are raw, with none of the ballroom niceties. If I were to teach my son to court women, I would hope he’d do it on the sands rather than the court. At least he’d know he wasn’t being lied to there. Plus, what’s to dislike about fighting for control with the woman you’re interested in?
~Cole Cyrus, personal journals
Maeve
I grit my teeth as I explode from the sand and spin. Pride, joy, and anger flow through me. Pride at my ability to do what no one else could do. Joy that I can feel Cole beside me, pushing me harder. Anger that I can’t feel him.
And desire for his touch.
Shadows splay from my fingertips as my wings shoot from my back, passing through the shadow armor that I wear. The shadows flow into massive pillars and crystalize . It takes a fraction of the energy that creating pillars of stone had when I was trying to find my Da in the Nothing. Blending the powers of multiple houses makes everything easier.
My steel-coated body moves faster than anything in the world as Earth strength blends with increased muscle strength from Steel. Wings made of shadows, weightless and impossibly strong, carry me higher, and then they disappear, letting me fall to the sand below.
Flames jet from my back, pushing me faster toward the ground. So fast that nothing could keep up with me. Stone crystalizes below me into a ramp, and I fly across the training grounds. My crystal spear moves just as fast as I do as I repeatedly stab, shattering training dummies faster than the eye can see.
The flames stop, and shadow wings appear behind me, becoming wind breaks and slowing me down until I settle to the sand.
An entire row of twelve training dummies have exploded. Nothing but wood chips are left on the sand, and I smile at them. I’m faster than anyone or anything in Nyth. I’m sure of it. Four Houses’ powers combined into something out of either a nightmare or a fantasy depending on which side of my spear you’re on.
It’s been twenty-four days since Casimir began watching me. Twenty-four days of constant training to teach my body the basics of combining all four powers.
Maeve, it’s too much. It’s…
“You’re wrong. You told me to train. You told me to become the strongest so that I could protect the world. But you’re my world, Cole. Everyone else…”
I shake my head, and his voice is sad in my mind. I meant the people who couldn’t protect themselves. The drakelings. The humans. The Lesser Fae.
“I’ll protect them when I have you back.”
Maeve…
I pick up the piece of wood that barely shows any black anymore, and without hearing another word from Cole, I fall into the void.
For the first time since my husband died, I don’t rush to leave the void. I let the darkness flow around me, comforting me. There’s a temptation here that nothing else can ever compare to. Not even the training grounds offer the same serenity.
I could give into the void, and quickly enough, all my pain would fade away. It would devour my emotions and my body as quickly as it would swallow up any other person.
Just that bit of temptation is enough to make the tally mark on my arm burn. I feel like I can breathe again. Even here in the void, I can smell spiced amber and feel his flames flicker over my body. I’m not alone when his flames are on my skin.
“I’m coming for you, Cole. I’m going to do what no one else has.” The void swallows the words and leaves no echo.
Pain flows through me, no less intense than the moment that I felt the tear in my soul. I’ve just learned to embrace it. It feeds me. It feeds the anger and pride and joy and desire because that pain is Cole. His entire life was pain, and he’s given it to me to keep safe.
So I smile as I send my shadows out to pull me away from the safety of that transition area between this world and Nyth. I know what’s waiting for me in deeper shadows. I know the creature that I narrowly escaped from before. The Darkness. The Eater of Worlds. An eel with no eyes that’s larger than a dragon.
I do something that’s unheard of. It’s something that no one else could do. I send my shadows out, and then I change them into fire . It’s a fire so bright that it would blind anything here in this world full of darkness.
A flash of power unlike anything that’s common here. The void devours the fire almost instantly, but I know that The Darkness will come to me. It won’t be able to resist the explosion of power that’s so unusual here.
Daughter of Stone and Darkness . The voice in my head is loud and full of simmering anger. It’s been more than a month since I last saw the creature.
“Darkness,” I shout. “I am here to give my answer to the question you asked me before. I would like to honor Vyran’s agreement. I have questions.”