Chapter 5
Iwas in a globe of golden light. It flickered like candlelight, shielding me from the man in front of me. Kenric continued to stare, the disbelief evident on his face. Then the globe faded, leaving a ring of charred grass around me.
“You’re… a lightcaster,” he said, slowly getting to his feet and striding toward me. I was about to cower when he stretched his hand out for me to take.
I hesitated before grabbing it, confused, and he hoisted me onto my feet. His usual look of dislike and superiority was replaced with something else. Curiosity and, if I read the look on his face right, apprehension.
“I don’t know,” I murmured, looking down at the spot where the globe had appeared. Shifting uncomfortably, I picked at my gloves, only to realize I no longer owned any. “What happened?”
“You were dreaming, I think. Woke me up with your screaming. I tried shaking you awake, to make you shut up.” He sounded annoyed for a moment before continuing. “Then, you conjured the globe.”
I shook my head; surely, he was messing with me. But one look into those hazel eyes told me he wasn’t.
His gaze snagged on my midnight-blue fingers, the sight making his eyebrows crease.
“This is so… strange,” he murmured, scratching his chin. “You can’t go to the prison.”
His eyes scanned me up and down as he considered what to do. “I have to take you somewhere else,” he decided finally, meeting my gaze.
I stared at him in disbelief. I wasn’t going to prison after all? Even if the uncertainty left me with an uneasy gnawing in my stomach, anything had to be better than Orken. “So where are you taking me?”
His eyes flickered from me to the burned circle on the ground. “I’m not telling you. Come on.”
My mind was racing as we continued our journey. He’d removed the cuffs from my wrists, and I could finally move freely. I sat in the back, enjoying the break from my companion’s persistent stares. The sun turned the sky pink as it descended, making room for the moon to shine.
Never in my life had I heard of a caster wielding from both the sun and the moon.
It was illegal for light- and darkcasters to marry and procreate, and it had been ever since the war over a century ago.
Even when it was legal, you’d only inherit magic from one parent, if you were lucky enough to inherit any at all.
Until now, I’d thought I’d only inherited my mother’s.
I looked around for anything to distract me from the stinging in my eyes, but all I saw was sand. The green grass had been replaced with the small golden grains during our journey last night. It was ruthlessly hot; my sensitive fingertips had been burnt when I touched it.
At first, I thought it was beautiful. The waves of soft gold as far as the eye could see. But with time, the beauty faded compared to the constant irritation. The stuff found a way into every nook and cranny in my body.
Kenric refused to teach me anything about light magic, saying he’d get in trouble if it was decided I was still going to prison.
“When will we get there?” I asked, more impatiently than I intended because my tongue felt like I’d licked the ground beneath us.
He looked back at me with irritation. “Noon tomorrow.”
I tried counting how many days we’d been out here.
Six days. “So, this unknown place you’re taking me to…
” I started, testing the waters before diving in.
His silence urged me to keep talking. “Are you going to tell me where it is? Are you going to take me to someone who can teach me how to use my powers?”
He shrugged, pulling the reins to stop the horse. I jumped off, an easier task with my hands free. The evening breeze had cooled the burning sand to a more comfortable temperature, so I kicked off my shoes and walked around, my feet digging into the sand.
Kenric tied the horse to a tree, then grabbed two buns from the bag, passing me one. I took a grateful bite, even though the bread was now stale.
“I don’t know if they’re going to teach you, or how, as I’ve never taught anyone before,” he said with a stony expression, though his voice was close to a sneer.
I sat down, keeping a safe distance from the man that still seemed to hate me, even after I’d displayed similar powers to those he found so superior. “You’ve gone to school, I assume,” I said, mimicking his sneer. “Though it would explain a lot if you haven’t.”
His body jolted as if he was about to lunge for me, but he redirected his hands to grab at the sand instead. The grains ran smoothly through his fingers to blend with the desert ground once more.
I studied his face cautiously. His luscious curls looked flattened, the locks flecked with tiny golden dots. The satin skin had gone tanner, and freckles had appeared on his straight nose.
His eyes shot up to meet mine so fast I startled. “Don’t think that just because you aren’t my prisoner anymore, that we’re equals.” His voice was low, eyes flickering between my eyes and my throat. “So watch your mouth. I can and will still hurt you, darksome.”
I swallowed hard but didn’t drop his gaze as we continued to stare each other down. For only a moment, his hazel eyes went shockingly gold, and I finally had to look away.
I reached for the water bottle between us, taking a big gulp to drown the lump in my throat. My reaction seemed to satisfy him. He tore into the bun with his pearly teeth. The golden ring on his thumb caught in the settling sunlight as he took another bite.
“They’ll most likely teach you some basics, to see if you can even wield on command, or if you were just lucky once,” he said derisively, challenging me with his unflinching gaze.
I tore into my own bun to stop myself from retorting something back to him. Like telling him he was probably thanking his God Helio that no one saw how easily I made him fly away from me. In. My. Sleep.
He continued to stare at me as he bit into the bun again and again. It made me uneasy, which was probably what he hoped for.
“Keep that up and I’ll sit with my back to you for the rest of the night,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
He let out an involuntary chuckle, the sincere grin on his face taking me by surprise. His handsome features stood out when his face wasn’t contorted into a scowl or a mocking smirk. “Would you really dare turn your back to me?”
I scoffed, leaning back on my free hand to make the distance between us greater. “What made you become a Defender?” I asked, surprising myself a little as the question slipped from my lips. “It can’t just be because of your hatred for my kind.”
He lifted his brows, staring at me with his mouth still half-full of bread. “Getting personal, are we?” he mused.
I rolled my eyes, looking into the distance.
“Forget it.” My feeble attempt to hate this man less, now that we had to work together, had failed.
All I wanted to achieve was to see another memory every time I looked at him.
One that didn’t remind me of how much he’d already cost me.
Something that wasn’t a constant reminder that he was the reason Annora was dead.
That Lili and I were apart. That I’d never see Archie again.
My jaw clenched tight, my hands balling into fists in the sand.
“Fine,” he said, clearing his throat to make me look at him when I didn’t immediately respond. “Because my father was a Defender. He didn’t die on duty… your kind hasn’t been able to kill any of us since the war. But I wanted to honor his memory.” His tone was superior as he told his story.
The anger inside me suffocated me. His mouth tugged into a knowing smile. He tilted his head, making my veins boil. “Are you not enjoying story time?”
“Piss off,” I sneered, releasing the sand from my fists. Kenric leaned against the dead tree he had tied the horse to and closed his eyes. Did he die of shame over having a pretty-boy, brainless idiot like you for a son?
“You and your sister are alone,” he said. “Why?” His voice sounded indifferent, but curiosity showed in his eyes as he opened them to look at me.
“Why do you care?” I muttered.
“I still have time to take you to the prison, Prudence. Tell me,” he demanded. He was going to play that card a lot.
I sighed loudly to show my displeasure but told him anyway. “I guess you’ve figured out that my parents broke the law when they had my sister and me. My father was a lightcaster, and my mother… Well.” I glanced down at my darkened fingertips.
“What happened?” he asked, a little more eager this time.
“When my father was killed by Defenders breaking into our home, she didn’t handle her grief very well.
Her magic just… exploded.” I closed my eyes to try to block the images as I kept talking.
“It revealed their secret to the whole village. A secret they’d kept hidden for over a decade.
I still don’t know how the Defenders found us. ”
“No one in the village knew that she was a darkcaster?” he asked, and I nodded.
“No one,” I answered, opening my eyes to look at him. He was fuming and I couldn’t figure out what part of my story had caused this reaction. Surely, he didn’t feel the same injustice I felt.
“Keep going,” he urged, dropping the indifferent attitude. He sat up straight, leaning his arm on his bent knee.
“Then she told my sister and I to go to Erobred before she was captured.” The memory sent a twinge through my chest. “My sister was five, I was twelve.”
“Did your mother survive?”
“I don’t know,” I said, honestly. He scoffed, the displeasure clear on his face.
“Why do you hate us so much?” I asked. “Do you even know why?”
“Didn’t your pathetic father teach you about the war before he died?” he snarled.
“I know there’s two sides to every story. I’ve heard the story of King Erebos.”
“He started the war!” he shouted. I tried not to let my anger rise with his, but the injustice got the best of my temper.