Chapter 5 #2
“Pft. Let’s hope I can even harness them.
I have no idea what to expect.” Tying the end of my braid off with a ribbon, I then reached my arms behind my neck, stretching one to the side.
My generally elastic tissue screamed during the act, Venay’s healing job on them having been fulfilled almost too well. The muscles were tight as shit.
“Why wouldn’t you be able to? At our meeting, you made it sound like you were successful.”
“I was successful—I incinerated a ton of Draemornians into stardust. I just don’t know if I was successful on purpose or by coincidence.”
“That’s super reassuring, Maeve.”
I didn’t tell her that I hadn’t felt even a spark of my magic since I woke up in Lumosia.
I was sure that it was still there, but I usually felt some sort of twinge in my jewels on the daily, and that ache had been absent since I had encountered Beaumont.
In addition, I hadn’t felt an ounce of weakness after summoning the starlight that night.
And for me, wielding typically resulted in vomiting or blacking out, so that was… strange.
“Let’s just give it a try, shall we?”
When she nodded, I moved to stand across from her. “So is Dad how you remember him?” Delani, unlike myself, actually had some memory of the man who helped create us.
She widened her stance, spreading her feet apart in preparation to be on the receiving end of my power. “I guess so. I was only three when he died, so I can’t say for sure. But so far, he’s as fatherly as I’d always dreamed. Is he who you thought he’d be?”
“I don’t know what I expected, but he’s a stranger to me.” I shrugged off the disappointment. “I don’t expect that to change any time soon. It’s not like I’m going to have much time to bond with him.” I had a king to kill.
“Give him a chance, Maeve. I mean, he had your back during the meeting today. Even when your boyfriend tried to argue with him, he stood up for you.”
Boyfriend.
Frustration fueled a raging fire inside me, indicating that it was time to utilize my favorite coping mechanism. Avoidance.
“Give me your hands.”
My words came out as a demand as I clasped my palms around Delani’s dainty fingers.
Though it took a bit of force, my mind traveled to the deep—considerably deeper than normal—quarters of peace within it.
With my eyelids walling off my vision, I ordered Delani to, “Jump up and down as high as you can.”
Her hands broke free of mine and relief coated my skin at the familiar feeling of static in my cheekbone. Magic flared within my constellastones, prickling at my flesh as unrestricted power released into the air. Upon opening my eyes, I became witness to my sister fulfilling my command.
Her bronze hair, significantly longer than when I’d left her last summer, tangled in response to her slim frame’s vigorous bouncing. I released her before the knots became too unruly, fighting the entertained smile that tried to make its way onto my lips.
“I am so beyond relieved that I can still do that.” At least I knew that one aspect of my magic worked as expected.
“That’s so weird.” Delani ogled, her eyes wide with pure wonder as she strummed her fingertips through the webs in her hair.
“I think amazing, is the word you’re looking for.” The unmistakable crudeness of Kade’s voice echoed from behind us.
I whipped around to him strolling into the arena. He ran a hand over his black, buzzed hair before positioning himself between Delani and I.
“My turn.” His tone was dead serious, but a taunting smirk forged his lips upwards.
“No way,” I lipped amidst a scoff.
“Why not? I want to have the Maeve Willawood experience for myself. Make sure you aren’t full of it.”
“I don’t think Sebastian would be too keen on that idea,” Delani muttered.
“I don’t even know you,” I replied to Kade with a snap of my tongue.
“Your point? Do you need to know someone to use your powers on them?” he questioned, bending his neck to the side until it crackled.
Though my height had nothing on him, I stood further upright. “No. I just don’t want to waste my magic on you.”
Kade nodded slowly, fighting back his ever growing grin. “Ah. I see.”
My brows sank into the creases of my eyelids. “What?” I snarled, my teeth clenched.
“You’re scared.”
A singular snort of laughter filled the space between us. “Scared? Of you? Fat frickin’ chance.”
Kade took a step back, spreading his arms out wide like he was an open target. “Then what are you waiting for?”
Something along the lines of a growl poured out of my throat.
“Fine,” I spat, tempestuously giving in to his coercion. I had never been too good at denying peer pressure.
“I’ll command you to leave the arena. How’s that sound?”
Kade’s head tossed back as he laughed with a palm spread across his stomach. “Sure. Go ahead. I have things to do, anyway.”
Delani masked herself by using my body as a shield. “You could compel him to leave Lumosia all together,” she encouraged with a whisper in my ear.
“Do you think Daddy dearest would have a problem with that?” I breathed back.
On the cusp of summoning the god-granted forces within me, another voice terminated my focus.
No privacy in this damn place.
“Kade?” Venay’s harmonious voice flowed into my ears like a vocal waltz. “Your presence is requested at the stables.”
“Too bad. I was really looking forward to seeing what you're capable of.” A heavy sigh of disappointment charged Kade’s disdainful words.
Relief surged within me. “I bet you were.”
“Next time,” he called over his shoulder with a simple wave.
Fully relaxing in his absence, my arms free fell to my sides. “I don’t know how I feel about him.”
Delani rubbed her forehead. “He was okay when he brought me to Lumosia. We actually had some decent conversation.”
“Really? I find that hard to believe.”
“Yeah. He told me how he arrived in Lumosia—maybe twelve years ago now. He used to live in Caelestis with his grandparents, but when they both passed, his sister and him were placed in Craterra’s children's home.”
“So how did he end up here?”
“I guess they tried to escape one evening. A day later, they found themselves lost in the mountain ranges bordering Caelestis. Fortunately, Dad happened to be exploring nearby land and heard Kade’s sister crying. He brought them both here.”
“That's…tragic.” I forced down a teaspoon's worth of sympathy before reminding myself of how standoffish Kade had been thus far.
“While we’re here and while we're presumably alone, I kinda want to try summoning starlight again. Are you okay with that?”
Delani’s throat bobbed. “Don’t you think someone more experienced should be here for that? I don’t know the first thing about magic, let alone magic as complex as that.”
“I’m only going to summon a little bit, just enough to make sure it really works.” I stole a quick glance out the nearest window to ensure the evening was upon us—I assumed summoning starlight during the day wouldn’t work.
“From what you say you did to the Draemornians, it works.”
Ignoring her concerns—and my own, for that matter—I ushered her back and steadied myself on the mat.
With both hands flexed, my fingertips grasped at the heavens.
Utilizing the same tactics that were required to harness my mind compulsion, I focused intently on only the things that calmed my inner soul.
The ocean.
Chocolate.
My friends.
Delani.
Sebastian?
Unsure.
Going back to thinking about the ocean.
Reasonably relaxed, I clutched the tingling magic inside of my bones, tugging at it with every ounce of my willpower. Within seconds, my face began to prickle. After a few more seconds, a new sensation made my face scrunch.
The celestial markings on my arms warmed like they were ablaze—sparking with the charm of the cosmos. The marked skin emitted a glimmering glow, lighting the space surrounding me in a bright white radiance.
I hardly made out Delani’s whisper of awe, coercing myself to instead focus on retaining and controlling the rumbling power.
The sensation was hard to pinpoint, but I could feel the surge of power building up inside of me. Towering over every single bodily sense, cascading through my veins and darting straight into my psyche.
Before I could do anything more, an excruciating noise reverberated through my inner eardrums.
I plunged backward, a blinding blast of pure starlight pushing me onto my ass. My head bounced on the padded mat beneath me, and the air quaked as it tried to recover from my power.
Crumbling bricks filled the arena with a deafening blast.
“Maeve freaking Willawood! What did I tell you?” Delani shrieked, a look of panic pasted on her face as she pushed back to her feet. She approached with her hand outstretched and pulled me up.
“Shit.” There was a gigantic hole blasted through the wall, the evergreen treetops now visible through the onyx sky. “Nice view out there.”
“I thought you could control it!” Delani yelled, as if the blast wasn’t already loud enough to draw a potential crowd to us.
“I never said that.” Scratching my head, I observed my mistake with perplexity.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that I’m definitely the one responsible for knocking down the castle in Caelestis. Not the Draemornians.
“You just blew a hole through the wall!”
“Shut up!” A silencing finger found my lips. I stepped towards the pile of brick, still shimmering with residual stardust.
“I don’t understand.” My forehead cinched. It had seemed so natural back in Caelestis that I clung to the possibility that my body would subconsciously remember what to do.
This must have been a fluke.
Kicking a chunk of brick aside, I turned to Delani. “I’m going to try again.”
“Um…no!”
“Oh, come on. I was just warming up.” I shook my body out, loosening up the limbs that had tensed from the rush of adrenaline.
Before she could counter, I drew in more starlight, repeating my calming routine precisely.
Unfortunately, I also repeated the same result. Although I made a slightly smaller hole this time around—more like an extension of the previous one.
A string of curse words flew from my lips.
Delani placed a hand on my shoulder, settling my angst. “Maeve, this isn’t a dig at you by any means, but you clearly need help learning to control this.
And I’m not the one who can do that. This is brand new magic to you.
And it’s magic directly from a goddess. Magic that previously could only be harnessed by that goddess.
It’s very likely going to be more difficult to wield than your normal power. ”
With a discouraged sigh, I refocused my attention to the oblong hole of missing brick. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t really see a way to hide all of this.” She stepped in front of me, vaguely waving her arms around the stallion-sized crevice.
She was right, but I pleaded my case anyway. “Please. It would just prove Kade’s point about me being a liability.”
“Who gives a shit what Kade thinks?” Delani scoffed, folding her arms.
The look I gave her was all she needed to understand that the person I really didn’t want to know was Sebastian.