Chapter 41 Wavering Trust
Wavering Trust
It was well past dusk by the time Sidrick rejoined us. Evidently, Caius had not taken the news of what happened well, which meant his third-in-command took the brunt of his ire and had to convince him that, the mission was still viable—as he put it.
If the shadow that crossed Artton’s features while reading the note from his High Lord before burning it in the dying fire was any indication of just how angry he’d been, then I was very, very happy to be outside his chain of command.
“Are we still a go?” Kaelun asked as he watched the last vestiges of Caius’ note turn to ash.
Artton’s head tilted down once in a nod, his hard gaze still fixed on the fire.
“What’s the plan then?” Tarrin asked from the other side of Kaelun.
“Same as before,” Sidrick said, “Only—”
“Only, it’s not the fucken same,” Artton finished for him, then finally looked up at the rest of us. His attention landed on his commanding counterpart. “Has your magic recovered enough?”
“As long as the two of you don’t set her off again,” he snipped back, and it was the first time I’d ever heard Sidrick speak in a tone that was anything but calm and collected.
I didn’t know what Caius had said to him, but Sidrick was clearly pissed off at how things went down.
Not that I was any happier about it. Judging by the look his kid brother gave him, it wasn’t a common occurrence.
“It won’t,” Artton gritted out, then stared Tarrin down.
Throwing up his hands, he said, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t start it.”
“Tarrin,” I chided.
“Fine.” He sighed. “No ruffling of feathers, rocking boats, waking hounds, stirring pots, or whatever other things you fae prefer to leave alone.”
“Cute,” Artton said and cut a warning look to Kaelun, who was holding back a smile, which faded instantly the second his uncle’s no-nonsense look landed on him.
“Artton,” I said, “let’s not re-escalate things. Besides, you can’t really get mad when you get a taste of your own medicine.” Tarrin’s shoulders shook with silent laughter from the corner of my eye as the three fae looked at me like I’d grown a second head. “What?” I said.
Brow now cocked, Artton crossed his arms. “Taste of my own medicine? What does that even mean?”
“I think it’s a human saying,” Kaelun said, though his tone held zero confidence.
Rolling my eyes, I let out a sigh as I leaned down and swept my rucksack up off the snowy ground. “It means,” I said, sliding the pack on, “that now you know what it feels like to put up with your smartass remarks.”
Thoroughly unimpressed, Artton kicked snow over the remnants of the fire, snuffing it out. “Humans,” he grumbled under his breath, slipping his own pack on.
Catching my attention, Tarrin mouthed fae and crossed his arms in a perfect imitation of Artton.
Behave, I mouthed back, the corner of my mouth pulling up despite myself, which had a genuine smile blooming across his face.
Without another word—silent or otherwise—we slipped into our single-file line and followed Artton toward the Autumn Court border.
I’d been fine with the silence throughout the day.
Honestly, it gave everyone a moment to collect themselves.
Besides, other than training, the quietude of nature was my favorite thing in any realm.
But now, the sounds of the fresh snow compacting under our steps was deafening, or maybe it was my thoughts.
Not for the first time over the past hour I was rubbing my sternum, like something was missing, or calling for me, or…
I don’t know. Then, without warning, a wave of crushing anxiety rushed over me, stealing my breath.
I gasped and reached to my right to grab at something, anything, to help me stay upright, only I was met by air.
“Nyleeria,” Sidrick called from behind. In a blink he was there, hands on my shoulders to support me before I fell, and something in his deep-brown eyes had me flashing back to the other night when I’d lost control.
I grabbed his wrists and pushed him off me as I stared into those eyes that would forever remind me of the fertile soil at the base of the Nettorian Mountains where the farmers tended never-ending rows of crops.
The rush of anxiety was still making me dizzy, but I blinked at him as the memory replayed again and again.
“Ny,” Tarrin’s concerned voice asked from close by. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t respond. I just stared at Sidrick with disbelief.
“You stole my powers,” I whispered.
He didn’t flinch. He didn’t blink. He’d known the second I’d pushed him off that I’d remembered.
“And you.” I turned to Artton. “You said nothing happened.” Refocusing on the fae who tried to steal my powers, I moved toward him, my fingers deftly releasing a magical blade from its sheath before my left foot had hit the ground, and the cool metal resting comfortably between my fingers was ready to strike.
“Caius claimed that you didn’t learn anything from my shared memory, that you couldn’t steal my magic,” I seethed.
“What did you do to me? Why did you have to go back to the Summer Court? To report back to Caius, let him know that your secret mission of stealing the spark was unsuccessful? And what was in the note? Orders that your court has also allied with my enemies, that you’re going to hand me over to save yourselves, but not before draining me of my powers? ” I raised my blade to his throat.
“Whoa!” Kaelun said, slipping between his brother and me so that the dagger came to his neck instead. “Whoa,” he said again, hands up, eyes dropping to the very deadly blade to his throat.
“Nyleeria,” Artton ordered.
“It’s okay, Uncle Artton. She’s not going to hurt me.”
My eyes narrowed in challenge, and I leaned a little more of my weight forward so that the blade pressed against the olive skin he shared with his brother. Kaelun’s hazel eyes were alight with endless emotions, but the most predominant one was sadness—for me.
“Speak,” I said to Kaelun.
“I know you have no reason to trust us, Lady Nyleeria.” I bristled at the honorific. “But I need you to reach for the spark for me, okay?” His heart was pounding so hard that the vein on his neck pulsed under the blade I held there.
“Why?” I ground out. “So he can steal it again?” I pointed my chin behind him toward his older brother, who didn’t dare move.
“No,” Kaelun said, the word holding more softness than I thought possible, “because you’ll be able to feel that it’s all there. He never touched it. I promise. I watched the entire thing. I can see it nestled in you now.”
My brows pulled together, unsure if it was a trick, but I was compelled to listen by the honesty with which his hazel eyes stared back at me. Before I dared reach for my magic, I wrapped my fingers around the hilt of Eithan’s dagger and released it from its sheath with my left hand, just in case.
It took less than a heartbeat to find the fullness of my power tucked away, as if content to rest until she was called into action. Kaelun was right—there was no turmoil, and nothing was fractured. As if knowing I’d found this truth, he said, “Now, reach for your elemental magic.”
I looked for the threads… only there weren’t any.
At least not in a discernible way. To say that I could see them would be like saying I could see someone on the other side of a powerful waterfall—sure, I might glimpse them when the light hits right, but had I not known they were there in the first place, I would’ve never noticed them.
“He tapped my elemental magic?” I asked, my voice a mere whisper.
“Yes,” Kaelun said with a nod, wincing at himself for forgetting he had a blade to his throat.
I looked over his shoulder to his older brother. “How?”
“If you put the blades away,” Sidrick coaxed, “I’ll explain.”
I didn’t move, somehow afraid that the onset of anxiety was the spark’s way of warning me about something.
“Ny,” Tarrin said, stepping up to my left.
“It’s okay. Kaelun had to explain the same thing to me.
The second you passed out, I lost it on them, pulling out my sword and demanding answers.
What he’s telling you is the same thing I witnessed.
It was so different than before. I promise.
” Gingerly, Tarrin wrapped his gloved fingers around Eithan’s beautifully etched blade and guided it back down toward my hip. “Now the other one,” he whispered.
“You promise?” I said, my voice weak with all the emotions coursing through my veins.
“I promise,” he said again.
Slowly, I lowered the blade from Kaelun’s throat, and the indentation it left refilled with color within seconds. Putting a hand on his shoulder, Sidrick pulled his brother back, and the instinct to put himself between me and his sibling did not go unnoticed.
“My unara is shielding,” Sidrick explained.
“And it’s one of the reasons Caius sent both of his commanders.
” He looked at Tarrin, offering him a small nod of recognition, no doubt because my human friend had said the strategy didn’t add up.
But if Sidrick was like his brother and had a top-secret unara, then it made sense.
“Essentially, my unara can cancel out Kaelun’s ability to sense emotions and magic.
It also shields us from a High Lord from noticing when those of us without the spark cross their borders—especially with extra wards.
Had I not been around when your power surged, Wymond would’ve been able to detect it.
Doesn’t matter that we were in the human realm or that it was arcane magic.
A disturbance like that would be felt along his border like the Clarian Sea lapping at her shores.
That said, I want to be perfectly clear, Nyleeria, I cannot steal someone’s powers.
What I can do is call your power back to the Mother through my shield that grounds through her.
Because your body was surging with so much raw power, your elemental magic yielded almost instantly—which was something I did not expect.
That sudden drop shocked your body, which is why you passed out.
Though it happened, I used a substantial amount of magic, which forced me to valen back to the Summer Court and take a day to recuperate so that I could rejoin you with enough strength to shield us when we cross over into Autumn.
As for the note from Caius,”—he took in a deep breath—"it gives Artton and me direct orders to send you back with Kaelun as soon as you get us through the border. "
His brother and I opened our mouths to protest, but Sidrick put a hand up. “Which,” he said, stealing a glance at his friend and commander, “we’ve decided to disobey.”
Shock shivered through me. Sidrick? Artton? Disobeying a direct order? Re-sheathing my daggers, I gave Artton a questioning look.
He let out a long, deep sigh. “Technically, I have battlefield priority, which means I can make this decision, but I’m still going to get my ass fucken handed to me when we get back.
The truth is, the likelihood of Sidrick and I accomplishing what Caius has asked us to do—over and above getting the twins out,” he added before I could jump in, “is already slim. Without you or Kaelun—and fine, yes, the human—we may as well all turn back now. So, if we’re all fucken done not trusting each other, can we just get this mission over with already, because it hasn’t even begun and I’m already out of patience. ”
I looked at Kaelun and Sidrick, guilt weighing heavy on me as I searched for the right words to say.
“I swear to the gods above and the hells below, Spark,” Artton snapped, “if you so much as think about apologizing for protecting yourself, I’ll fucken lose it.
You’re under strict orders to choose your safety over all else.
The way I see it, if any of us are dumb enough to make you question it, then don’t just pull your blades—fucken use them. Got it?”
I blinked at him, not knowing what to say or how to feel.
I’d never truly felt justified in protecting myself.
More accurately, I’d never not had to defend it with everything I had.
And this empty space where words of justification and apology were normally overflowing felt strange being vacant.
Mouth partially open, I nodded, unable to speak.
“Great,” he said, clasping his hands together. “Now let’s get back on fae land. These burns are chafing against my leathers, and I’m over trudging through the snow.”
“I think it’s his patience that’s chafing,” Tarrin whispered to me with a wink.
“I heard that, human.”
“It’s not a secret, Commander.”
With that, we continued past the last bit of forest to the Autumn Court.