Chapter 62
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Herrah Celestyn, commander of orbs. To shatter or shift, a world of power, the ultimate gift.
—Lock Scroll, the Arx.
The shrieks and cries of the ashen echoed through the rocky cliffs surrounding their caged camps.
Soft breath of the Juniper Sea floated in from the east, as the bright morning light painted the cliffs in golden tones.
An involuntary twitch pushed me forward as Bayne’s hand found its way to the center of my back.
I was relieved to be reunited, to see him safe, yet over the past months, something had wedged into the connection with Bayne that I had so desperately clung to. Choices, it seemed, shaped more than simply who we were. They shaped our connections, and something had grown between ours.
My mind turned over the emotion as if it could dissect exactly what was happening to it, the Transcindiel flitting up in encouragement as I examined the change, until I came to the sad conclusion that choices could also shape love.
And though I had fallen out of love with Bayne, I still cared for him. And we needed him.
That threat… Whatever Olienna, Daimos, Saros, or Xenelpha had to say about the gods, the Embodied… we’d deal with it. Because I knew I could do anything with my family and my friends. We were all of us connected. Humans and elves.
And I would come for Queen Antares. The cunning elf remained behind in her golden castle, her powers mightier and her defenses greater since I left the Land of Light and Life.
But I’d learned patience these last few months.
And though her life was now tied to Bayne’s, I’d free him and claim hers someday.
My hand drifted to the amplifier around my neck.
I tugged it out of my undershirt and held it in front of us, running my fingers over the intricate designs etched on the surface.
Ferns and vines twisted in an elaborate pattern, bordering a small, budding flower in its center.
The nyxteria, the flower of Nivis. The lullaby my mother sang to me as a child, to Lyviánala.
I swallowed against emotion rising to the surface and the inevitable conclusion I’d come to. Eira had named me sobraen.
Cousin.
I hadn’t approached Ursa, Eira’s sister, yet to ask her. Or unraveled the mystery of how, given the impossibility of it all.
Bayne took the amplifier from me and examined it, his dark brows pinching together.
“Are you sure you’ve got this? You can rest first if you need to. Looks like you’ve been busy,” he murmured, his words fueling the growing doubt.
I shuddered, my stomach pitching at the task ahead.
A soft tug of wind drew a loose strand of hair free from my cheek. It slid along my neck, and I swallowed before turning toward Kellan, who approached alongside Tiberius. The horse’s big black head bobbed in greeting toward Bayne before he clomped to me and placed his velvety muzzle in my palm.
Ready? he asked.
I think so.
He sent a wave of calming reassurance that surrounded me in a blanket of warmth. My caeluma. My shared soul.
Nerissa stepped forward alongside Vulcan.
“We’re ready for you below,” Nerissa said, nodding at the camps.
Outside of the gates, menders stood among Rising and Lotrennian soldiers, Selvina among them. Wagons of healing supplies, including hundreds of vials of the nyxteria sleeping draft, dotted the gates.
We’d met at length last night, making plans and discussing the best way to approach this.
Because when the ashen were saved, when they were transformed back into their original forms, chaos would ensue.
A humanitarian crisis. Bayne ordered shipments of food from northern Lotrennia, and we’d found a third Aelius Orb in the Onyx Tower, allowing us to communicate with Sultira to ask for aid.
I took one last glance at the first of eight camps below, my throat bobbing.
Could I do this? I turned to our small group.
Bayne approached Vulcan, gripping his shoulder as Aquila swooped down from above.
His wings sent the dusting of snow dancing around us.
Though his emotions were blocked, I could see the pain etched across Bayne’s face as he approached Aquila and placed a hand on the giant hawk’s beak.
He’d yet to pull his mental shield down, yet to allow the true caeluma and Bellator connection to come through to ensure the queen had no access to him. My heart broke for them, for the wall that had been put up. But I’d free them if he let me. And I’d end her.
Kellan stepped toward us, his dark eyes sparkling beneath the early morning sun, and Bayne’s shoulders stiffened, turning to the pirate lord.
“After you, Bonscaíh,” Kellan murmured, lifting a hand toward Tiberius.
I nodded, and Bayne went rigid.
“It means shadow,” I explained, offering a soft smile to him.
Warning flashed in Bayne’s gaze as he stared at the pirate lord. Had he heard me?
We’d argued about this little detail. And I’d only won after I showed Bayne the oval brand at the center of my chest, next to the crescent scar Cyril had left me last year.
While the amplifier Bayne had gifted me worked, the fire in his power, the pure sunlight, somehow activated when I used it. And I had the scar to prove it.
I’d need Kellan’s help to do a job this big.
He was a living amplifier, in some ways.
Everyone kept strangely quiet about Kellan’s powers in the past day, as if fearful to speak to him.
To even speak of his power. And the pirate lord didn’t offer any explanation.
In fact, he seemed removed, his usual swagger replaced with a cold, dangerous thing.
Had it not been for the months of close contact and the air oath between us, his presence might have sent me running from the room.
My stomach twisted as I eyed the camps below, hundreds of ashen wandering mindlessly about. Could I do this? I kept turning the same question over and over in my mind. I eyed my elven friends. The superior beings, in some ways.
We are not the same.
If we had been, could I have saved them sooner? Would Bayne have believed in our soulbinding thread? Would fewer people have died? Would I have mastered these powers before leaving Lotrennia?
Bayne’s brows pinched as he examined me, but it was Kellan’s voice that sounded from my side.
“Don’t for one second lower yourself, Lyvia. You are every bit their equal. Every bit as important, as incredible. I’m with you,” Kellan said once again, holding out a hand.
I’m with you… I blinked, turning to him, and in that glimpsing second, his dark eyes held the promise of hope and memory. The tendril of air connecting us stilled for a moment as his words found their mark, and for the first time, I looked at myself through my own eyes, and no one else’s.
I was imperfect. My choices shaped who I’d become, and though I was dark and shadowed…
Though I’d killed out of necessity and out of brutality, I’d also saved.
I was human, and I was strong. And though I had changed, one critical piece of me remained the same.
A power that existed within me long before I harnessed either of the godlike forces now swarming inside me.
The one that made it possible for the two not only to coexist, but to thrive together.
The power that drew Enya and Ordell together in the first place.
Love.
I could accept and love myself for the person I was today, and I could do this. I was ready. I took the hand Kellan offered and slung my leg over Ti’s back before giving a firm dip of my chin to the others.
“Let’s go,” I said to the group.
Kellan pulled himself up behind me and settled into place. Tawny, copper feathers lifted Vulcan and Nerissa into the skies above, and Tiberius took off at a gallop along the edge of the cliff, his black wings beating twice before his hooves touched only air.
“Rise up, Lyvia,” Kellan murmured against my hair.
We soared over the camp, the rush of wind drowning out the shrieks of the pale creatures below.
I’m ready, I said to Ti, who relayed the message to Aquila. The hawk soared south, to where the line of menders and soldiers stood, ready to intervene.
“Take what you need this time,” Kellan said into my ear, his breath warm against my cheek. “I’ll give you a taste and then take what you need. I’ll pull back if it’s too much.”
I nodded my understanding and blinked against a tunnel of frigid wind as we swept over the northern ridge of the camp and circled back. I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing myself to dive deep into that chasm of power.
I passed through rivers of darkness and death, nodding my greeting to the Obscura. I soared deeper and deeper until the Transcindiel’s lilting tune announced its presence. I grabbed hold of that tune and pulled it up with me, higher and higher until a wave of golden light had gathered around me.
Kellan’s hands slid over my leather jacket and beneath my arms, lifting them to either side of me as Tiberius soared through the clear skies. I kept my palms facing down toward the ashen as we began the first sweep over the camp.
Keeping my eyes shut, I nodded, and Kellan’s rough hands slid beneath my palms, and he laced his fingers between mine.
My back pressed against his chest, and the tip of his nose grazed the side of my head as he took a long, slow inhale.
His spark followed, and I sent that golden Transcindiel light soaring toward the ashen below, a tune of triumph and redemption eclipsing the monsters’ shrieks.
Shimmers of golden light erupted below as Tiberius added his own Transcindiel power to the mix, and I blinked my eyes open. Kellan’s power poured into me as we made sweep after sweep, the transformational power devouring the pirate lord’s magic.
Ravenous shrieks turned to moans and cries of agony. Human cries. Elven cries. My eyes drifted closed as Tiberius took us back and forth, and I leaned into Kellan Astraeus as he kept his hands clasped around my own, our powers a healing caress to the souls below.
Time didn’t exist in this place. This place of transformation, of rebirth. The wind continued to whip around us before fatigue finally stretched through me. I slumped against Kellan. His hands were around my waist as Tiberius banked hard and descended, aiming outside the gates of the camp.
“We did it,” I mumbled, fighting against the claws of exhaustion.
“You did it,” he murmured against my hair.
My feet hit the frozen ground for a mere moment before they were swept up, and Kellan cradled me in his arms. I groaned, ready to protest, when he set me down on the cliff’s edge, my back against its small, rocky face. He plopped down next to me and his shoulders slumped back.
We watched silently as menders knelt next to bodies, and cries floated up from the camp. Selvina’s shimmering blue Ramadiel light twined through the crowd, encircling some entirely, others sending tiny sparks to heal minor injuries.
Bayne’s dark head bobbed as he moved through the camp, searching.
She was here, I’d realized, in that strange, dream-like state I’d entered moments ago above the camp.
My lips tugged up as he stopped halfway through the camp and knelt next to an emaciated, tall elf.
Her dirty hair was golden and brown like the stalks of wheat.
Lida’s thin arms shook as she wrapped them around Bayne’s neck.
And those fears, those insecurities, I’d harbored all those months ago in Lotrennia.
The fear of losing him… Such a small, insignificant risk amidst all that we faced.
All we had yet to face, and I smiled at their reunion.
“Well damn, would you look at that.” Kellan sniffed.
I shook my head, eyes still on Bayne and Lida, my grin widening.
“Getting sentimental, Astraeus?” I murmured, turning to find him staring at me.
My grin fell as my eyes landed on him. Kellan’s face was pallid. His head rested against the rocky line of the cliff, dark eyes boring into mine.
Two lines of crimson dripped from his nose.
“You’re bleeding,” I murmured, inching closer and pulling a rag from my jacket.
His eyes followed my hand as I leaned in and paused.
The blood dripped over the soft curve of his lips, pooling between them before sliding alongside the white scar. I stared as it dropped to the cropped dark beard on his chin.
My gaze floated up to meet his.
“I will bleed for you, Bonscaíh.”