Chapter 8
Ava sat beside Casimir in the dining hall, relieved to have him back in Mosshaven. His hand rested on the back of her chair, twirling his fingers through her hair.
Thorne entered and took his seat at the head of the table. “We have a lot to catch you two up on.”
After they awoke yesterday, they’d spent most of the day in bed, alternating between holding each other, pouring out their hearts, and desperately making love as if they feared they’d never see one another again. They’d allowed themselves just one day to hide from the world.
But now it was time to get back to work.
“Ava,” Thorne began. “You will continue training with weapons, but your main focus will be portal magic with Jorrar and practicing control of your earth abilities with Raine.”
“Have you learned anything about the portal Andras opened?” she asked, slicing a piece of roasted pork on her plate.
“From what I’ve gathered,” Jorrar explained, “the amount of magic you use, and the length of time you feed it into the portal, coincide with how long it remains open. Based on what you told us, he likely wasn't able to get a large force through before it closed.”
Thorne sipped his wine. “Though it isn’t ideal, as long as we can secure our alliance with Caelestia, I don’t believe it will make or break our victory.”
“What if they refuse to help?” Ava asked, dipping her meat in gravy.
“Then, we will figure it out.”
“Thorne…I—”
Her brother held up his hand. “If you apologize one more time…” His tone softened. “Ava…none of us blame you. Focus on the task at hand. We cannot go back and change the past. What’s done is done.”
“Alright,” she said, taking a bite.
“That’s not all.” Thorne gestured to Isolde, her silver eyes intense.
“Do you remember when I refused to leave the camp with you?” she asked Ava.
Ava nodded, swallowing.
“I knew they wouldn’t kill me if they learned it was I who helped you. I was too valuable to them.”
“How so?” Casimir asked.
Isolde took a breath. “There’s an area of camp where they’re doing experiments.”
“What kind of experiments?” Ava asked. “And what does that have to do with you?”
“They were learning how to pervert their creatures, giving them the ability to nullify magic. I heard you were bitten by one, general.”
“I was.” Casimir took a bite of his roll.
“Due to my healing abilities, they forced me to help, keeping the monsters barely alive as they injected them with whatever concoctions they’d created. But I sabotaged as many as I could.”
“That’s why you wouldn’t leave? You were undoing their work?” Casimir asked.
“Yes. I couldn’t do it to every creature, or they’d get suspicious. But certain ones, I would purposely let die or I’d use my magic to negate the effects, then claim they weren’t strong enough. I’m not sure how much it helped, but I believe I was able to decrease the number by a third.”
“How many do they have?” Casimir asked.
“Hundreds…perhaps more.”
“Are they all those giant black insects?” asked Ava, shivering at the memory of fighting those monsters in the woods.
“No. There are many different types. Honestly, if it’s a creature of theirs, it’s safe to assume it has that capability. There’s no telling which ones do or do not.”
“That’s…” Ava didn’t know what to say.
“Very concerning,” Thorne finished for her, wiping his fingers on a napkin.
“Yes,” she whispered. “What else have we missed?”
“We leave soon to begin our campaign to take back Igneothenia,” said Thorne.
“Do we already have enough tonics for everyone?” Casimir asked.
“It took longer than expected, but we’re getting close,” said Kai. “We’ll have enough to last about a month.”
Ava gasped. “A month? We’ll be fighting for a month?”
“It may turn into a siege," Casimir explained. “Where we’ll be waiting them out and wearing them down with the goal to invade. They likely won’t surrender.”
Ava nodded, though she still struggled to wrap her mind around it.
She was new to war and didn’t know all the ins and outs of battles and sieges and war strategy.
The thought of camping outside of Igneothenia’s capital for who knows how long in a land filled with lava and volcanoes was terrifying.
And what if it took longer? They needed to drink tonics in order to tolerate the hot environment and if they ran out, they’d have to retreat.
The planning continued throughout the remainder of the meal. Ava listened intently, committing as much information to memory as she could. Because war was here. At their very doorstep.
The sun beat down on Ava the following afternoon as she sat with Jorrar in a grassy field not far from the training rings. Blue flowers flecked the emerald grass swaying in the breeze and the chatter of squirrels chasing each other wound its way through the treetops.
“I studied the book while you were recovering,” Jorrar said. “Most of it is in old fae but the end is in an ancient dead language.”
“That’s strange. Can you read it?”
“Unfortunately, no. But most of what we need to know, we’re able to read.”
Ava picked at a blade of grass. “Why would the end be in a language different from the rest of the book?”
Jorrar rubbed the back of his neck. “That, I do not know…”
“But the portal to send Deidamia back to her realm…that part has been translated?”
“Yes.”
It was odd the entire book wasn’t in the same language. Perhaps there was something more that needed to be hidden. But why?
“So how does portal magic work?”
He leaned back on his hands, stretching his legs in the grass. “Well, you’ll have to study the book regularly and memorize the different symbols needed for each type of portal.”
“That, I can do.” Ava had been an excellent student in her old life. She loved studying and the rigor of graduate school when she was earning her Master’s degree. Memorize symbols? Piece of cake.
“We’ll start with the easiest ones and work our way up.” Jorrar opened the book between them and pointed at a page. “This portal allows you to move between spaces, but the location you want to go must be visible to the naked eye. For instance, you could move across this field.”
“What do I do?”
“Draw these three symbols on the ground.” He handed her a stick.
Ava studied the shapes in the book, tracing them with her finger. Using it as a guide, she carefully carved each one into the soft dirt.
“Now what?”
“Cut your palm, place it on the symbols, and visualize the location you want the other portal to be.” He gestured to the other side of the field beneath a large tree.
“Why don’t you put it over there? Memorize what it looks like, then close your eyes and will the portal to appear when you place your hand. ”
Ava unsheathed her dagger and cut her hand with a wince. With a final glance at the location, she closed her eyes and laid her palm atop the symbols.
A sting worked its way up her arm, followed by immense pressure and a brief wave of nausea—then nothing. She opened her eyes, breathing heavily. There they were. Two portals. One before her and one on the other side of the field, swirling abysses of darkness with a hint of blue light at the edges.
“Why do they look different from the one at my grandfather’s farm? It had an archway of stone around it.”
“Portal magic is…peculiar. According to the book, you can manipulate the magic to leave an archway when moving between realms, making it easier to return if necessary. In that case, all you have to do is use just enough power to activate it, making it less draining. My assumption is that your grandfather had intended to bring you and your mother back at some point.”
“Does that mean when I make one to Deidamia’s realm, there will be an archway?”
“Not necessarily. But you will still need to immediately place your hand back on the symbols to close it. That will ensure it is sealed permanently and no other beings can sneak through. It’s best not to risk leaving it open longer than absolutely necessary.”
“The portal Andras forced me to open back at the camp…it didn’t have an archway…”
“You were able to escape in time,” Jorrar said. “Didn’t feed enough magic into it.”
“Good. That’s good.” Ava’s mind reeled, trying to understand the nuances.
“How do you feel?” Jorrar asked.
“A little tired.”
“Portal magic is quite draining. Feed your magic into the symbols slowly, like Raine taught you with the light and your earth magic.”
“Is it possible to completely drain myself?”
“Yes. With the more complicated portals, you must use the utmost caution. Your abilities with portals come from your blood—different from how we access most other magic. If you use it up, there could be dire consequences.”
She remained on the ground, numb, staring at the portal before her.
“It’s why your grandfather was unable to banish Deidamia back to her realm. He didn’t have enough magic and would have likely died trying.”
“But he had enough to open a portal to the human realm?”
“Apparently. Each realm takes a different amount of power it seems. The realm of Taurtarius must have required more than he had.”
“But I have enough?”
“According to the prophecy you do,” he answered.
“Is there a way to share power between fae?”
“Only among blood relatives.”
“So…Thorne could help?” A spark of hope flickered.
“Only with your earth magic. You could cut your palms and share power, but it would do nothing for your portal abilities since he does not have that.”
“Oh. Well, it was worth a shot.”
“It was. Now, why don’t we go ahead and walk through the portal? These only last a little while.”
Ava stood alongside Jorrar. With a deep breath, she stepped through, memories of the pain she experienced when she first went through the portal to Eorhan fresh in her mind.
Nothing significant happened. There was a slight sensation of weightlessness before she and Jorrar came through the other side, but nothing painful. That must only happen when traveling between realms. “Wow.”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” said Jorrar.
“Impressive, little frog.” Raine appeared through the portal behind them, sweat glistening along his brow as if he’d just finished his own training.
“Where did you come from?” Ava asked.
“I was on my way to meet you for our training session, then I saw the portal and wanted to try it. It felt strange, didn’t it? Like a tingle. I’d like to do that again.” He gave her a wink.
Ava rolled her eyes as the portals shrank and disappeared. “Well, time’s up. I guess you’ll have to find your pleasure elsewhere.”
“Good work, Ava,” Jorrar interrupted. “We’ll practice this one more tomorrow and begin to learn the others. I’ll leave the book on your desk.”
“I can’t read the language.”
“I’ve slipped in notes where I translated it.”
“Thank you.”
Jorrar left and Ava turned back to Raine. “What have you been up to while Cas and I were sleeping this last week? Have you talked to Maeryn any more?”
Raine whipped his head to her as they walked to one of the training rings. “Why, did she say something?”
Ava narrowed her eyes. “No…I haven’t really seen her since I woke up. I was just curious if you’ve tried to talk to her like a normal person since we rescued Cas.”
“Actually, I have. We had some good conversations on the way back to Mosshaven.”
“Really? No more awkward fumbling?”
He put his hands on his hips as they stopped in the dirt ring. “No.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “May I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Will you promise not to tell anyone?”
“Hmm…Not sure I want to keep anything from Cas. Secrets haven’t done us any good.”
He sighed. “You can tell him. But you must swear him to secrecy.”
“This is all very dramatic. What’s the question?”
Raine took a deep breath and scanned the field for eavesdropping ears. “How did you know Cas was your soulbond?”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
Raine clamped his hand over her mouth. “Shhh.”
She licked his palm and he immediately pulled it away. “Get your hand off my mouth.”
“Disgusting.” Cringing, he wiped his hand on his pants. “Be quiet.”
“Are you saying you think you and Maeryn are…”
He paced. “I truly have no idea. I just feel so drawn to her. I’ve never felt like that before. Even with Finnick. It’s like I need to be around her. I have to.”
Ava grasped Raine’s shoulders, grinning widely. “I didn’t know…remember? You were the one who told me.”
“Oh…right.”
“But that was because I was still human. You’ll have to ask Cas, but the way he described it to me was similar to what you’re saying. A need to be close. A need to protect.”
Raine bit his lip. “I can’t believe it.”
“Do you really think she is your Miraêl Li’ra?”
“I don’t know. But it’s beginning to feel like it.”
Ava lunged and grabbed Raine around the waist, pulling him into a hug. “I hope she is, because if anyone deserves to find their soulbond, it’s you.” She pulled away. “Are you going to tell her?”
“Fuck, no. At least not right now. I’m not even positive she is. Besides, we’re going to war. I don’t think now is the best time. And I have a feeling she’s been through a lot. I don’t want to push…I want to get to know her first.”
“Whatever you think is best.”
“Are you upset Cas didn’t tell you sooner?”
“No. I understand his reasoning.”
“Well, alright then.” Raine gestured before him. “Now make some of those massive vines I heard about that you used to rip The Scourge in two,” he said delightedly.