Chapter 20
Sixth Sense
Iwasn’t afraid of heights, but this was a new level of insanity that my human side refused to get behind, and I couldn’t blame it for not wanting to walk on air—literally.
Artton stood—no, floated—a few paces in front on me on the see-through bridge that appeared to be nothing more than a magical sheen that shimmered below each of his steps like a lily pad of light I could only see when it caught setting sun at a certain angle.
Nope. That was a hard no.
“Are you coming?” the summer fae asked.
My brows shot up to my hairline. “Are you insane?”
“Haven’t you used a bridge before?”
I looked at him like he was, in fact, crazy. “Yeah,” I half-laughed, half-stuttered, “I’ve used a bridge before. You know, wood, brick, things of substance—not whatever the fuck this is.”
“Scared?” he goaded, mouth quirked.
“Yes, Artton. Where I come from, you’d have to be crazy to believe you can walk on air. But no one would know that you’re crazy, because you’d be dead at the bottom of the godsdamned canyon.”
He stifled a laugh, and I took a step back from the ledge, hand on hip.
Laughter still in his voice, he said, “It’s built from magic, you can trust it.” He bobbed up and down as if proving to me it could hold his weight.
“Well, let’s agree to disagree on that one, because my track record with magic is sub-par at best.”
His head tilted in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Gods, do you guys ever talk to each other?” Seriously, how hadn’t he known that Thaddeus tried to pull from me or that the spark failed to protect me?
“We do, but when someone sends us away, we’re not exactly getting information in real time, now are we?”
Damn, he had me there.
I let out a sigh. “When we were attacked in the woods, I tried to use my powers, but nothing happened.”
Anger flickered over his face before a wave of stifling heat hit me as if I were sitting too close to a bonfire.
For each stern step he took toward me, I took another step back.
Now on solid ground, he stopped a couple of paces from me, hateful eyes bearing down into my soul.
I would have cowered at the menace if I wasn’t frozen by fear.
“You have no control over your powers?” he barked.
I flinched, giving the truth away.
“Fuck,” he bellowed in frustration. Taking a step away, he ransacked his hair with his hands as if taking it out on himself.
I didn’t dare say a word, heat still radiating off of him at an ungodly temperature.
He whirled and faced me, looking slightly crazed with wide eyes and disheveled hair. I was too shocked at his reaction to muster any of my own thoughts.
No sooner had his eyes locked back on mine than they formed into slits, the temperature now plummeting, and I held my breath, knowing that somehow this side of him was more dangerous. Shivers rippled across my skin, his presence feeling eerily close to Amos’.
“Artton,” I choked out.
“Fuck,” he said again, only this time it was lower as he scrubbed a hand across his face. Now looking more stressed than angry, he turned the full weight of his gaze on me. “So, the mercenary didn’t catch you by surprise.”
I shook my head, knowing where his train of thought had gone.
“What can you do?”
I looked down at my feet, suddenly ashamed.
“Nyleeria.”
Swallowing, I forced my gaze back to his and raised my hand, releasing a festival of colored embers that I’d been able to do even as a human.
His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as his face turned red, anger stirring again. I closed my palm.
Taking another pace toward me, he took in a deep breath, jaw now set. “I could have sworn it was your magic that damaged the hallway that day, not Endymion’s.”
“It was,” I admitted, voice low.
“Well, whatever you just showed me is a far cry from what it would take to create that kind of damage.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Why do Endymion and Caius think you need to dispel if you can’t muster more than a tiny light show, then?”
“Honestly, I don’t know, Artton. Sometimes, like with Endymion, it just builds up and I can’t keep hold of it.”
“And do you feel that now?”
I took a moment to feel for it, but like it had when I was facing a bolt to the chest, the spark was nowhere to be found.
Feeling deflated, I shook my head.
“What are you feeling right now?” Artton asked, voice low and kinder than I’d heard from him so far.
“Nothing,” I said. “It just won’t answer me.”
“No, Nyleeria. I meant what emotions are you feeling?”
I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly very aware of how much I was loath to answer his question. Swallowing I said, “I’m afraid and—” I cut myself off, not wanting to offer him so much, to be vulnerable with him.
“And…” he coaxed.
My eyes darted down to the ground. “Ashamed,” I whispered. Feeling like such a failure. The Fates had made a mistake in giving me this power.
“And in the hallway, with Endymion. What were you feeling then?”
Again, the kindness in his words shook me. Raising my focus back to him, I thought back, focusing on the emotions. “Anger. He’d pissed me off.”
Artton smirked for a split second before his face turned serious again. “And when he helped you dispel, how was that different?”
“It was…” A shiver rippled across my skin from the memory, his touch, his magic. And damn if that hole in my chest didn’t pulse with an ache at the memory. “It wasn’t even close to the same. I’m not sure how to describe it other than ‘his magic called for mine to release.’”
A deep V formed between Artton’s brows, and I didn’t miss how his eyes darted down to Endymion’s gift and back up. His shoulders rose as he took in a taut breath before sighing as if resigned.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, I’m going to have to confer with Caius and Sidrick, but it appears your powers go dormant when you’re afraid—which is less than fucken ideal.
We’re going to have to come up with a game plan to help you access your powers at all times, no matter how terrified you are.
And”—he drew out the word as if not wanting to tell me—"you’re going to need full-time protection until you get a handle on it. "
I opened my mouth to object, but he put his hand up to stop me.
“It’s not negotiable, Nyleeria.” His words were nothing but pure command, and while I wanted to argue, I shut my mouth still feeling unsure of this male.
He reached a hand out to me. My eye darted to the floating sandy platform behind him to the right, then down at his hand, and back to him. “Aren’t we going to dispel?”
Shaking his head, he said, “No. You wouldn’t be able to right now.”
I hated just how right he was, and a new wave of shame filled me as I slid my hand into his, valenning back to the palace.
The white sand of the Clarian Sea was already warm by mid-morning as I nestled in on a sheet of fabric, one of Endymion’s tomes in hand.
I hadn’t sought out company for breakfast and had asked Kai to leave a tray for me at the door when she’d come to check on me last night.
Twice now my training had been abandoned, and I couldn’t help feeling that if Endymion were here, none of this would be an issue.
He just seemed to get me. Or maybe my powers. Perhaps both?
I wasn’t sure if it was Artton’s intensity, Endymion’s absence, or the fact that the clock was now ticking down on when I’d see the twins again, but I was restless. And not in the way my powers pooled for release. No, this was in my bones, making me feel on edge.
Artton’s words played on a constant loop last night, meaning I hadn’t slept well.
You’re going to need full-time protection until you get a handle on it.
He hadn’t made good on that promise yet, and I was glad to have slipped away to the beach before he could.
Maybe he’d overreacted. Caius had to have known what happened, and he hadn’t shown the same concern. Then again, he’s never seen me wield.
Forcing my muscles to relax, I took in a deep breath. Leaning back on the balls of my palms, I closed my eyes, tilted my head to the sun, and soaked in her warmth. Gods, Eithan would have loved it here. The thought of him was bittersweet, and a smile dusted my lips.
Placing the tome on the types of fae magic to the side, I lowered down onto my elbows and let myself get lost in the melodic cadence of the soft waves lapping at the shoreline as I watched the sunlight dance across the mass of water that seemed to fall off the horizon.
My focus meandered to the cresting waves scattered across its deep belly like white scars, and I let myself get lost in it.
The brush rustled behind me, and I came back to myself. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been staring out sightless, but apparently it was long enough that I was idly twirling the dagger Endymion had imbued. Stars, I hadn’t even realized I’d drawn it.
Another sound came from the canopy behind me before a sharp whinny followed. My blood went cold in my veins. Luca.
Sheathing the dagger, I bolted through the forest.
Another sharp whinny.
“Luca, I’m coming,” I called.
The second I laid my eyes on him, my heart began to race. I’d never seen him this agitated, not even when the na’li had attacked.
“What is it? Are you hurt?” My hands were already on him, frantically looking for injuries or heat where it didn’t belong.
He pulled back from me, pinning his ears behind him as if hearing something. I listened, but even with my fae hearing, there wasn’t anything in that direction. Or at least nothing that should be upsetting him this much.
He raised his head and hoofed the ground before he whinnied again.
“Luca, let me help.” He reared back slightly when I tried to offer him a soothing stroke.
What the hell happened?
He snorted loudly and partially turned away from me in the direction his ears were pointed.
“You want me to follow?”
He stomped as if annoyed.
“You want me to ride you?”
He chuffed softly.
Confused, I looked back to the beach, knowing I’d left my belongings there. Luca scoffed at me again as if to say, “Don’t even think about it.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, then mounted him.
No sooner had my hands grabbed onto his mane then he bolted.
I held on tighter to Luca than I’d ever held on to another horse in my life, knowing that if I were still human, even if Luca was tacked, I would have fallen off.
He was a horse possessed as we crossed the land in record time, the sound of his hooves second only to the blood pounding in my ears.
Luca stuck to wide open areas where he could run free and only went into the trees if he absolutely had to.
Making our way through heavier brush only seemed to agitate him further, like every second counted. Righting myself as he picked his way through, I stroked his neck with long soothing strokes. “It’s okay, boy. It’s okay.”
He let out a sound between a huff and a whinny as if letting me know it most certainly wasn’t okay. Then when I went to soothe him again, he kicked out his back legs letting me know he wasn’t interested.
I kept to myself after that.
The second the treeline broke into meadow, Luca bolted at full speed. About halfway through the meadow toward another forest, Luca pulled up short and reared. The movement was so sudden he threw me. I hit the ground hard, narrowly missing a boulder.
Seething, I pulled myself up and whirled on Luca. “What on this gods’ green land is wrong with you?”
His eyes were wild, and his tail whipped in short, quick movements as he paced back and forth along what seemed to be an invisible line to him—looking utterly crazed.
Glancing around, I saw nothing.
Hands up, I carefully approached him, careful to avoid where he paced.
“Whoa,” I soothed.
Then I felt it—an energy stronger than I’d experienced before. The second I turned to face it, Luca settled beside me, tail still twitching as he watched what I’d do.
Taking a step closer toward the energy source, I reached a hand out to touch it. As my fingers brushed it, my mind flashed back to when Endymion had run his fingers along the dark dome that ensconced us.
“It’s a barrier,” I whispered, running my fingers across it in the opposite direction.
Instinctively knowing whatever Luca wanted me to find was on the other side of the barrier, I walked a few paces in each direction, confirming that it continued down the valley.
We’d hit a border. Which one? I had no idea.
The hardest thing to reconcile was the illusion the barrier spun that showed an entire horizon’s worth of land past it, land I doubted I’d see once I crossed over.
Placing my hands on the barrier, it rippled as I press against it with all my might, but nothing happened.
“Let me through,” I gritted before pounding against it.
Luca huffed, clearly just as frustrated.
Stopping to think of a better solution than brute strength, I took in a deep breath, and then it hit me.
Bile rose to the back of my throat, and I started to feel as panicked as Luca from the coppery bite of blood filling my lungs.
A lot of blood. And whoever it belonged to was on the other side.