CHAPTER SIXTEEN #3
“Tempting.” Eyes alight, she lowered herself to the ground, resting on her knees while she dipped a hand into the water. Watched every ripple shimmer under the soft light of the flowers.
“Your clothes will dry eventually,” I offered, resting my back on the lip of the pond.
I’d spent years selfishly hiding it from the rest of the world. But the wisteria tree continued to hum, its tone steady.
Telling me it was okay, just this once.
Only because it was Theia.
Theia, who promised not to tell anyone where we were. Who had treated me like an equal since the beginning.
Just this once. “And I might know someone who could conjure up enough wind to dry your hair,” I teased.
Her eyes snapped up to mine in surprise. And if I wasn’t so well versed in capturing the barest changes in one’s features, I would’ve missed the way her smile held the ghost of sorrow. But she quickly replaced it with mischief, unaware that I saw through it all.
“You’re right. I’m coming in.”
She unlaced her boots in record time, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I lifted my hands to shield myself from the splash of her less-than-graceful dip into the pond.
“You said you would explain what you did to Darion once we got here,” I started when her head breached the surface of the water. “We’re here. So, explain.”
Her hand shook slightly as it pushed back strands of copper hair from her face. Shifting so her back rested against the opposite lip of the pool, she hesitated before blurting, “I can manipulate peoples’ minds.”
“That much is obvious.” My eyes fought the urge to roll. “But how? What element are you using?”
“None of them.”
“Impossible. You’re lying.” Only Maverick had access to that kind of magic.
“You asked for the truth. That is what I’m giving you,” she replied, her voice unwavering. “I can plant images into people’s heads. Incite pain, as well as hear their thoughts. I did the former to Darion and his friends, and the person that attacked Kodhan during Strength.”
They’d all had a certain glassiness to their eyes. Acted like they were seeing something—like they were terrified—of something others could not. It had been her. Her magic. Planting things into their heads. Planting pain.
Hard earth pressed between my shoulder blades. I couldn’t back away any further.
“Please, don’t be afraid.” Rivulets of water fell from her hands as she raised them carefully.
“Have you ever tampered with my head? My thoughts?” I choked.
She shook her head vehemently. “No! No—I would never! I only… I only took away your pain. During Strength.”
It clicked then. The reason why I could move so easily during the final part of Strength despite my burnt and shredded thigh. Theia’s magic had served better than any tincture or salve.
Swallowing thickly, I pushed myself out of the water, only to sink against the trunk of the wisteria tree, its hum wrapping around me like an embrace. I wouldn’t run. It wouldn’t matter, not when Theia could grip my mind faster than I could escape.
Theia did the same, but kept her distance, sitting on one of the roots a few feet away. She wrapped her arms around herself, thick droplets of water pelting the grass beneath her.
“The king must know. He has to know.”
“He does not. And he will not.” A confirmation melded into a warning. No matter what Kodhan claimed, I knew what her tone implied. This was the kind of information one took to their grave, willingly or not.
“Kodhan’s father pulled many strings for me to be here,” she said, her words careful, deliberate.
“The king believes my element is water. Not too far of a lie—the human body is mostly composed of water, after all.” She pretended not to notice my shudder.
“Truth be told, I came to find you earlier because I overheard Darion’s thoughts as he passed by our rooms. He and his friends were planning on breaking into your room and killing you for what you did to Leyah. ”
I wrapped my arms around knees. Not entirely surprising. But my fingers pressed hard into my skin, likely hard enough to bruise. “Why would you even bother?” I now owed her a life debt, too.
“Bother with what, protecting you?” Theia scoffed. Like my question was ridiculous. “Perhaps because I simply want to.”
“Never mind, I shouldn’t have asked,” I sighed, shaking my head. “I know well enough it is because Kodhan told you to.”
Her expression quickly hardened. “I make my own choices, Eloise. So does Brannon. We love Kodhan—but he’s hardly one to tell us what to do.”
I laid a frank stare onto her. “So you will simply turn a blind eye when he decides to take my life.”
“Is that really what you think? After everything, you’re still convinced he’ll kill you?” Her ensuing laugh had me wishing I could disappear underneath the wisteria’s roots.
“He came inches away from slicing my neck open on the first night we met, Theia,” I seethed.
“He dangled me over the edge of the platform like it meant nothing. Like my life meant nothing.” With a calming breath, I willed the humming at my back to keep me from exploding.
“He has made his motives very clear since the beginning.”
She was convinced of her false narrative, and I couldn’t blame her. If someone thought as poorly towards Gideon as I did towards Kodhan, I would defend Gideon until my final breath.
The hardness in her face softened. She shuffled down the tree’s root until her leg almost brushed mine.
Shoulders drooping, she admitted, “Kodhan is prone to saying things he doesn’t mean.
He’s also prone to acting before thinking, and turns to anger before anything else.
His magic can do that to him, that impulsivity.
That anger. Though he’s been an idiot—that much I can agree on. ”
Silence followed. Her eyes left mine, the petals around us too tempting not to admire.
Letting my head fall back, I gazed up at the stars peeking through slimmer branches. “I won’t argue with you. Not here.”
“All I’m saying is that there is more to the story.”
“Clearly.”
“Talk to him.”
“As if talking to him is so easy.”
“I mean it. Just try.”
I hummed half-heartedly. “We’ll see how the next trial goes.”
If we all make it out alive.
“Speaking of the next trial, the king didn’t happen to hint at what the next trial would entail, did he?”
“No. He gives me hints as he sees fit.” I let my arms drop. Ran my fingertips along the smooth bark surrounding my legs.
“How ambiguous of him.”
“Says the woman who could slaughter us all and win the trials with a mere thought.” An empty laugh involuntarily slipped past my lips.
“Why put yourself through this willingly? Why put yourself right under the nose of the king, with the kind of power you have? Of all things you could have done,” I finished softly.
Of all the things her magic could do against a man like Maverick.
What it meant for the gods to have bestowed it upon her to begin with.
She finally looked up from the flowers, eyes filled with too many emotions for me to sort through. “I have no thirst for power. Only to stop the suffering of the ones I love.”
Again with that acute naiveness. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but if that is what you are searching for, then you are in the wrong place.”
She shook her head, the heaviness in her gaze deepening into something darker. Sadder. “I don’t think so, Eloise.”
Uneasiness crawled along my shoulders like hundreds of tiny insects. I tore my gaze away from hers, unable to bear the intensity of it any longer. “Suit yourself.”
Silence stretched between the both of us, save for the humming of the tree. I let it weave its fingers through the mess of my mind like a comb.
Lifting my face towards the sky once again, I was slightly surprised to find it empty. Guardians of the Temple streaked across the stars routinely around this time. Their wingbeats would normally echo across the forest, shushing the animals and insects nearby.
But they hadn’t passed overhead a single time since our arrival.
What prompted them away from their usual patrol? I wondered. During the Starlight Trials, no less. What exactly prowled out there, in those ravaged lands, that could pull their attention away from those who threatened them the most?
Theia’s words jolted me out of my thoughts. “I told you one truth. Now tell me one of yours—tell me about your relationship with the king.”
A grimace pinched at my features. Thousands of answers danced across my tongue, several of them complicated, twisted by years of hatred and anger. But others, I kept tucked close to my heart, like precious gemstones coated in poison.
“He’s been the King of Aedreath for centuries.
Any immortal being will grow bored eventually.
It makes sense for him to want to pick me apart like some puzzle sent from the gods themselves,” I decided on saying.
“Especially if one day other people might be born with the same curse. A blight in the making, perhaps.” Bitterness laced my words. “But for now, I’m one of a kind.”
Theia didn’t seem convinced. “I saw you two speak before the beginning of the trials. It looked like more than curiosity from his part.”
“At that moment, perhaps.” Another humorless laugh. “His eyes are darker than the purest shadow. And yet, they also hold more color than his treasury. You just haven’t seen him on one of his bad days.”
She tilted her head, considering. “That must be exhausting for you. Never knowing where his moods might take him.”
“It is,” was as all I managed to answer.
Neither one of us said anything for a long while after that. And neither one of us seemed to mind, content to turn the page and leave the next one blank for the time being.
I snuck a sideway glance at her as she plucked a flower from the ground and gently slid it behind her ear, the petals a stark contrast to her copper hair.
No, not terrible company.