Chapter Twenty-Eight Adela #2
I stand there staring at her. At the cage. At the creature inside, shaking and stomping. Terrified. I am bolted to the ground. My hands curl into fists. I cannot—I will not—put the phoenix on and just do as I’m told.
The high priestess’s voice sharpens. “This next part is your doing, little bird.”
She nods at Ulric.
He flinches. It’s subtle, but I see it. Still, he obeys. He raises a hand and twists it. A small ball of fire blossoms in his palm. He holds it closer to the creature.
A threat.
Kian takes my hand. “Adela. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
I pull away.
But not because I agree with High Priestess Sarai. Not because I will just do as I’m told.
Because I am burning with anger. Livid that High Priestess Sarai believes threatening me with the life of a helpless creature—of Etana’s baby—is an acceptable way to encourage me to access to my power.
Furious that Ulric goes along. That he burns when he’s told to burn, with hardly a pause.
Irate that I have no other way to protect her.
“Don’t let me kill anyone,” I say to Kian. Not that he could stop me.
I turn away from the cage. My chest is tight and my breathing is shallow and too fast. My nails dig into my palms. I plant myself in front of the crooked old building with my shoulders back and my legs braced as if I’m about to start a fight.
Perhaps I am.
I stare at the rotten, moldy wood, the peeling paint, the torn-up porch, the half-fallen-in roof. But I don’t see the building. I see the high priestess’s cool, condescending expression. I see Ulric, obedient and dangerous. I see the creature, shaking in her cage.
I erupt.
Fire blooms, hot and bright. I thrust my palms away from my body, surprised but not afraid.
This fire is mine. It answers to me.
Etana’s baby screams again. I don’t blame her. How dangerous and unpredictable I must seem.
How dangerous and unpredictable I am.
I hear High Priestess Sarai begin to laugh—a delighted, frothy, full-throated joy. The flames snuff out as despair floods through me. This is what she wanted. Me to lose my temper to access my magic. And it worked.
“I told you that you only needed the right incentive, little bird.” She loops her arm through mine, as if we are still friends. Her touch repulses me, but if she notices me grimace, she doesn’t react. She guides me closer to the crooked building and points at it.
Practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, she says, “Now, no more fire. After all, we have a dragon for that. We’re going explore what only you can do.”
As if we’re in a simple magic lesson. I am the pupil and she, my mentor. But she is not my mentor. I have had a mentor. A mentor who even when grouchy and mean, still taught me to the best of his ability, who guided me toward the best methods and pushed me toward excellence.
This woman wants to push me, but not because she cares about my ability to learn or wants the best for me. She hurt me, and the foal, and she enjoyed it.
“We’ll start small.” She points to a window of the building. “Break it.”
Behind me the foal cries out, and I can hear her wings hitting the bars again in her panic.
All I want is to let her out; to wrap her up in my arms and take her home.
Not that she wants the comfort of my arms. She is a wild creature, not a human child or some domesticated lamb.
Still, ignoring her cries physically hurts. I will attend to her soon.
This is almost over. Only I will not be starting small and breaking a window.
The high priestess of the Order of the Huntress wants me to be destruction?
I will be destruction.
Maybe Sarai is right. Maybe I am dangerous. But if I am, then she should be afraid. She has crossed a line.
I look at the crooked building, and I want it gone. I want this day, this moment, everything gone. The pressure inside me builds until I think I might explode.
“Now,” Kian says, softly urging me. “Let it go.”
I do.
The building vanishes. Not collapsed boards and shattered glass. Not bits of rubble. Not even piles of ash. Just a plain field with a patch of dirt where a building once stood.
Behind us, Ulric sighs in relief and I twist to see him absorb the flame. Etana’s baby trembles in the corner of her cage.
Something a bit like fear flickers behind High Priestess Sarai’s eyes. She’s pleased, but also uneasy. Good.
“Wonderful,” she says. “I knew you could do this. Prepare to do more soon. Now come. Let’s go home.”
I ignore her. I hate the self-satisfaction in her voice. She is proud of this monstrous act of hers. Of mine. With a shrug, she turns and walks away. I think I hear her laugh as she climbs inside, but I am too busy hurrying over to the foal to listen closely.
The carriage rolls away, leaving us. I do not care that we’ve been left. We can walk, or return with the foal and Ulric.
Ulric. Who threatened a defenseless creature. Who caught and caged her. This is why he returned to the valley.
“How dare you.” I shove at Ulric’s chest. “How dare you. I thought you were my friend.”
“I am.” His voice cracks, but I have no space inside me for his feelings. Sarai, and Ulric as her accomplice, woke this rage, and it will not quietly slip away. I want to argue. I want to fight. I want to destroy.
Kian moves to stand between me and Ulric. I scowl at him. I know he loves Ulric, in his way. They’re important to each other. But surely Kian is not going to defend him to me now.
“He stole this creature. He caged her. He went to the valley and he—”
“Look at him, love,” Kian interrupts.
His voice is too even. He’s trying to calm me.
I do not want to be calmed. Cautiously, he steps slightly to the side so I can see Ulric.
Ulric has removed his dragon skull and he stands, swaying slightly.
His eyes are empty, haunted. He looks like I feel deep down, below my simmering anger—defeated, utterly depleted.
“Am I wrong?” I demand.
Ulric shakes his head.
“Adela, that is not the look of a man who did something willingly, or with any kind of pleasure.” Kian’s voice is gentle, as if I am the terrified creature in the cage. “He’s been harmed as well. For Sarai to get what she wants.”
“I’m sorry I let her use me,” Ulric says. “I hate that I did. I wish I were stronger, like you.”
Stronger. I’m no stronger than Ulric. Someone stronger would have refused to do as she demanded. They would have fought back. They wouldn’t have just capitulated.
All of us failed this creature today.
“Can you take her home now?” Kian asks, his hand on Ulric’s shoulder. “Back to the valley?”
“The high priestess wants her close—” Ulric slides his eyes to me, then glances away guiltily. “Just in case.”
In case I need a reminder. Of her power.
Kian is quiet for a long while, but I can tell he’s thinking through something by the way he shifts. Finally he says, “I know some people. Who might be able to help get her home.”
Who would Kian know who could get a foal back to the valley? Ulric is a recent addition to only a handful of people who know the path.
But before I can ask, Ulric says, “She has a place in the stables. If you need to find her. The little alicorn.”
“Alicorn?”
“That’s the type of creature she is.” He’s still tense, but he’s starting to relax.
I see the edges of my friend in his posture.
“Cecelia told me. She’d been out by the remains of the matching hut and saw me creeping out of the forest. She brought me the packet to give to you, and made me promise to keep the alicorn safe.
In exchange, she offered me a ten-minute head start before alerting the elders. ”
My anger at him seeps away. “And have you, kept her safe?”
“I have done my best. As safe and comfortable as possible. When she’s not so scared, she is a menace. A tiny agent of ecstatic destruction.” Ulric’s voice is thick with affection. “There are a significant number of barn hands who would love to have her shipped back to the valley immediately.”
“I hope she wears the mantle of destruction better than me,” I say.
“She wears it with the confidence of a youth who’s never been told she needs to make herself small to fit into this world.” I can tell he wants to hug me, as does Kian. But I cannot handle any more feelings. Not Ulric’s kindness, not Kian’s sympathy.
I need action.
“Alright.” I turn to Kian. “Take me to these people who can get her back to the valley.”