Chapter 2 Bechora #2
Cain stepped fully into the light, grinning like sin in a tailored black coat that looked expensive enough to buy a small kingdom.
His dark hair was slightly tousled, eyes the same molten brown as Abel’s but sharper and hungrier.
He strolled closer, moving with the kind of careless grace that came from knowing exactly how attractive you were.
“I’m not wrong,” Cain said cheerfully. “You’ve had her reading dusty nonsense for weeks, and all it’s taught her is that history likes to contradict itself.
” His gaze slid toward me, slow and deliberate.
“If you want to learn what you can do, Starcaller , stop trying to decipher a dead language and start testing what’s alive. ”
Gabriel stiffened immediately. “You’ve made your point,” he said, voice tight. “You can go now.”
Cain’s grin only widened, all teeth and mischief. “Go? But I’ve only just arrived. You wound me, vampire.”
Gabriel didn’t look up from the book he was pretending to read, but the muscle ticking in his jaw said plenty. “You’ll live.”
“Debatable,” Cain said, stepping closer to the table and bracing one hand on the back of my chair. He leaned down, voice dropping to something low and theatrical. “So, little Starcaller, what do you say? Want to stop reading and actually feel what all that power is like?”
I tilted my head to look at him, unimpressed. “What I say , Cain,” I replied, “is that your flirting needs work. You sound like a motivational poster with commitment issues.”
Zypher snorted outright, failing to disguise his laugh behind a cough. Abel sighed, long-suffering. “Cain.”
“What?” Cain straightened, grinning wider. “I’m helping. You’re the one who always complains I never take an interest in your work.”
Abel gave him a pointed look. “Taking an interest and harassing my guest are not the same thing.”
“Harassing?” Cain clutched at his chest in mock offense. “I’m mentoring. Encouraging creative exploration.”
“Creative exploration,” Gabriel muttered. “That’s one way to describe you sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Cain turned that wicked smile on him. “Careful, vampire. Jealousy doesn’t suit you.”
Gabriel’s chair scraped against the stone as he stood, slow and deliberate. “Keep talking, and I’ll show you how well it does.”
The air in the Archives shifted, tension humming between them like an overdrawn bowstring. I held up a hand before either of them could start throwing punches, or magic. “Enough. Both of you.”
Gabriel exhaled through his teeth, then sat back down, though his glare could’ve carved through marble. Cain, of course, only looked more amused.
I turned back to him. “You mentioned practical application. ”
That earned me a delighted grin. “Ah, she listens. Finally.”
“Don’t push your luck,” I warned.
Cain pressed a hand to his chest, feigning innocence. “I wouldn’t dare,” he said, then ruined it by smirking. “Though, as it happens, I did find something that might actually be useful.”
Abel’s brow arched. “Doubtful.”
But Cain only winked and snapped his fingers.
A faint shimmer rippled through the air beside him, and a heavy, dust-covered tome appeared in his hand, its leather cover etched with symbols that looked half celestial, half demonic.
It was old enough that the air around it seemed to remember centuries of silence.
“I found this in the lower archives,” Cain said, brushing the cover with the back of his hand. “You really should organize down there, brother, it’s like spelunking through divine chaos.”
Abel’s expression sharpened. “That section is sealed for a reason.”
“Please,” Cain said with a roll of his eyes.
“You’ve said that about half of this place, but the only reason I’ve found is that you like to control who you share the knowledge you’ve accumulated with.
” He set the book on the table in front of me, ignoring Abel’s withering look.
“Relax. It’s just a record of conduits and celestial-born magic.
Humans who were linked to the Veil by bloodline. Sound familiar?”
I closed my eyes, rubbing circles on my temples. “Are you saying it’s connected to what Lilith told me about the Veils being created, in part, by using my ancestors’ blood?”
“Beautiful and intelligent. A deadly and irresistible combination in a woman.” Cain grinned, causing Gabriel to snarl at him.
Ignoring my vampire mate, Cain returned his attention to the book in front of me, flipping it open with a flourish.
“Look here,” he tapped the page. “The Starcaller’s power isn’t conjured, it’s borrowed. Through touch and connection.”
Zypher leaned over my shoulder, reading. “It says the strength of the borrowed ability depends on the length of contact.”
Cain nodded. “Exactly. Temporary transfer of power. The longer the touch, the longer the Starcaller retains the ability.”
Gabriel frowned before glancing in my direction. “That matches what you told me led Miles to figuring out you were a Starcaller.”
Zypher’s hand brushed mine, grounding me. “You copied my shielding ability during our group date.”
Gabriel gave a low hum, thoughtful now instead of irritated. “And I’m pretty sure you copied my strength when…” he hesitated as if he couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence before clearing his throat and continuing. “When I bit you.”
Cain’s grin turned sharp, pleased. “Then it’s exactly what this says. The Starcaller borrows power through physical contact. How long she keeps it depends on how long she holds on.”
“This is just confirming what we already figured out,” I sighed. “I’m not really sure that’s what was so important that I had to come here, rather than stay at the Academy and help my friends.”
Cain reached forward, flipping the next page with the care of someone who understood exactly how valuable it was. The script glowed faintly gold, curling around an illustration of two figures. One haloed in light, one shadowed.
“When a mate bond is completed,” he read, his voice losing its usual teasing lilt, “the Starcaller no longer borrows from her mate. She copies one of their abilities permanently. A reflection of power, shared through love, loyalty, or fate, whichever comes first.”
Abel exhaled slowly, folding his hands behind his back. “Borrowed through touch… permanently mirrored through bond. Of course. I should have recognized the pattern.”
“Don’t feel too bad,” Cain said, smirking again. “You’re brilliant, brother, but you’ve never been good at seeing what’s right in front of you.”
Abel shot him a look. “And you’ve never been good at minding your own business.”
Gabriel, still watching me, finally spoke. “That means each of us—each mate—will change her magic. Expand it. No wonder your brother was so insistent on you completing your bonds.”
I tilted my head back against my seat with a groan. “Again, I’m pretty sure we already figured that part out. I’m not seeing anything here that was worth me leaving the Academy for.”
“Sometimes simply confirming a theory is worthwhile,” Abel replied. “Though the tome my brother found reminds me of something.”
Abel slipped from the room without further explanation, leaving me staring at the open book in front of me, in growing frustration.
Nothing we’d found felt worth leaving my friends and dragon mate behind.
Abel may have thought confirming our suspicions should be worth it, but I vehemently disagreed.
There was something seriously fucked up going on in the realm at large, and the prophecy weighing on my shoulders meant I needed to be where I could actually learn to use my abilities to stop it.
Before I could completely spiral, Abel returned with a smug smirk on his face and a crumbling scroll in hand. He strode toward the table, stopping as close to me as he could with Gabriel and Zypher flanking me on either side, and carefully unrolled it.
“My Averieli is rusty, but this roughly translates to an instance with the original Starcaller, where she was able to pull magic through the air without touching anyone. It happened during her final showdown with the Elven King. The power from her bonded mates wasn’t enough, and somehow, when all seemed lost, she managed to call power from across the realm into herself, long enough for his queen to beg her for mercy on his behalf.
It’s why the realms were separated rather than the Elven King being destroyed entirely. ”
I perked up, straining my neck to look at the unrecognizable text scrawled across the ancient scroll. “ That would be something worth knowing how to do.”
“Indeed,” Abel agreed. “But this is the only mention I have of it in my entire archive.”
Disappointment crashed over me. Yet another dead-end, wasting time that could be spent at the Academy working with my friends to figure things out, starting with whatever had been off about the magical broadcast that led Lucifer to portal me to Morningstar Citadel.
“This has been a complete waste of time,” I groaned.
“Has it, little Starcaller? Or are you impatient to have all the pieces before fate is ready to give them to you?” Cain asked, a cocky smirk on his lips.
Abel gave a low hum of agreement, though his expression had gone grave. “Yes, I believe my brother, though tactless, is correct. You’ve found all you can here. It’s time for the three of you to return to the Academy.”
“I–” I started, shocked by the abrupt insistence that it was finally time to return to Blackthorne.
“I was more of the mind that she should practice borrowing and controlling power stronger than her mates can offer,” Cain interjected.
“Maybe test whether she can control which ability she borrows, since she has access to beings with many gifts while she’s here.
” He turned to wink at me. “I, of course, mean myself.”
Abel held up a hand, silencing him, his attention still pinned on me.
“I’ve given you everything I have in my archives.
Whatever it is you were meant to find here, you have found it.
You simply don’t know how to use it yet.
You’ll be better able to test what we’ve found at the Academy.
And if you need help, you can ask the Academy itself.
It is sentient and has access to knowledge far older than any I’ve managed to collect. ”
Cain let out a disappointed sigh. “Always ruining my fun,” he grumbled.
Abel ignored him, instead motioning for him to usher us out before I could decide whether to be relieved or to argue with his logic.
Cain led us into the violet-tinted dusk of the courtyard where a carriage was already waiting.
Zypher climbed in first, offering his hand as Cain ushered me inside.
Gabriel followed, expression unreadable, eyes on the horizon as though he was already watching for danger.
I took one last look back at Abel and Cain, brothers I’d only ever imagined to be myth.
Abel inclined his head in silent farewell.
Cain only grinned and mouthed ‘ Try not to die, beautiful’, with a saucy wink.
I smiled despite myself. Zypher and Gabriel hadn’t been amused by Cain’s flirtatious antics, but they’d been a welcome reprieve from slaving over ancient texts.
The carriage door closed with a quiet click, and we jolted forward as I watched out the small window.
I wasn’t confident in Abel’s assertion that I’d found my answers and simply needed to wait to understand them, but at least now, I was headed back to where I was meant to be.
Back to the Academy where my life had been turned inside out.
Back to my friends who could help me find the answers I truly needed if I wanted to survive what was to come.