Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
We worked under the security lights around the house, barely speaking.
It took us less than ten minutes to build the salt obelisk and tie it into the house ward.
My skin tingled from the gentle brushes of our hands and working closely when we weren’t touching.
Our magic was more fluid and less intense than last time—like we’d relaxed.
Or maybe it was because I wasn’t fighting against working with him.
I wasn’t sure when that had changed, but it felt good.
I trusted him. Appreciated both his knowledge and his delicate touch.
He was an incredible wizard. Powerful and sensitive.
“I think that should work,” I said, dusting salt from my hands.
He nodded appreciatively at the structure.
We silently walked beyond the rim of light surrounding the house and into the maze of raised kitchen garden beds.
Bud had planted early. I trailed fingers through the rosemary, inhaling the crisp air, and instantly feeling stronger and more normal.
Ranth sampled thyme and basil, fingering the tops of the baby tomato plants.
The uncertainty of what I’d lost at the house clung to me. I’d have to trust some part of the charms had saved some of the rarer things. Ant mattered most, and she was safe. Everything else, I would rebuild or salvage or both. My friends would help me. I exhaled.
Stopping beyond the line of the floodlights from the roof, I studied the heaven of stars. We were so insignificant. So small.
Ranth was looking at the sky. He still hadn’t said a word.
“Can you see Draco?” I asked.
“I love the stars, but I don’t know their names. There was an Ahknim mentor who studied them and guided us. The sky out here is very clear. It brings back memories of being on the mountain when I was young. We would star walk, and the cooling of the night would refresh us.”
“Star walk?”
“Just be with the sky at night. Nothing before or after. Only the moment.”
“That sounds beautiful,” I replied.
Ranth turned toward me. His eyes were liquid, catching shadows from the spotlights around the house. His skin was warm with tomato leaf and basil.
My breath caught. “So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked.
“I… I think you will react badly to what I feel compelled to say, and it makes me afraid to start.”
“What do you mean?”
Ranth’s cheek twitched. “This is hard for me to say to you, but it needs to be from someone who cares for you.” He took my hand.
“But I will say it, and you can be angry. You pull away when someone points out something about you which could use improvement. You almost died fifteen minutes ago.” Ranth’s voice was firm and distant, as if he had taken a step back, but he hadn’t moved.
His rigidness pierced my heart. “I know, but I didn’t.” My gut twisted. I knew he was right. The risk had been for more than me.
“In a different circumstance, or with a slight error, you would have. If you only rely on your instinct, without training and practice, you will eventually fail, and someone else will suffer because of it.”
There it was. My biggest challenge laid out for me in stark dissection.
Without training, I would screw up at some point and maybe die because of it.
Still, he was edging on being judgy. “Yeah, but this is my life, and that is literally what I do every day. Well, not every day because, until you arrived, I didn’t have portals popping all over the place. Once a month maybe.”
Ranth shook his head. “You aren’t hearing me.”
“I’m listening. I know I have things to learn.
I also know right now, if I die, you die—but if the Essifers decide my friends are extra crunchy, they could die too.
So, us or them, there is no middle ground.
And none of this matters because none of that is going to happen.
Fabra is locked in the cemetery, and we’re handling the Essifers.
We know where the third item is, so as soon as you and Juke set up… ”
“When I leave—”
“When you leave, everything should go back to normal.” The words rang hollow because what I said wasn’t true.
Like my mom, Ranth would be gone forever.
I should be sitting him down and learning everything he knew right now.
But I would need a lifetime with him, and maybe that wouldn’t even be enough.
I hugged myself. I wanted that. I wanted to explore what he knew and get to the place where we’d learn together, grow together…
He ran fingers through his hair, his scar undulating with the movement. “Things are different now that you’ve touched earth. You know it inside of you, and the risk is greater because that barrier is gone.”
“That’s obvious. I’ll build a new barrier like I did before. I’ve got this.”
He stiffened, straightening up as if his extra height would hold more weight or make a greater impression.
“You do not have this, and you know it.” He placed a hand on my chest above my heart.
“You must be here with the stars and the sky. Learn from them. From here.” The touch was featherlight as his eyes searched mine.
The world dropped away. It was like I was breathing his air.
“What will you do about the Sisters? About your mother?” he whispered. The heat burning inside didn’t fade as his hand dropped away.
“I’ve never told you about the Sisters. How do you—”
“I was in your head long enough. I recognized the whispers. They are sentient and minacious.”
“You know them?”
“I know of them. They were respected in my time, and those who sought them met their end with them. But many wished that, and that was the purpose of visiting them.”
“Wait, the Sisters were alive in your time? Are you saying they were death bringers then?”
“Not alive, but touching earth’s plane in some greater form. Perhaps stronger then, or the veils were thinner where they resided. They sped death, and a leaving with them was serene. Humans sought them to ease their passing. The Sisters draw power from the earth, and that power feeds them.”
I ran a hand through Bud’s newly planted basil. “The Sisters are earth workers, then?”
“Singers of the earth.”
“What is that?”
“When they touched earth, they drew song from it, and with that, power.” He ran a hand over the tattoo, gazing up at the sky.
“Is that the whispering? Their song?”
“I haven’t experienced it. Low and repetitive would make sense.”
My heart did double beats for a second. Was I wrong then? Had they asked my mother to go with them? No. She would have told me.
“Sorrel?”
“I was thinking about my mom. When we get the third gold piece, then what happens?”
“We can create the ritual, and I should return to the Garden of the Trees. Some of the finding elements can be reused for the sky opening. The ritual isn’t as important as the intent and the gold.
Once I return to the Garden, Rei, Kelis, and I should be able to redo the spell to keep the plane stable and heal any rifts.
Then, we can return to our positions as Keepers until the next are chosen. ”
I toyed with the end of my braid, thinking. “But that’s the thing. We are generations past yours. There are no Ahknim to choose new Keepers? This time thing makes no sense to me.”
“That’s because it’s not parallel. Once I was taken, the bracelet changed hands and eventually came to you.
That’s linear time, and you can trace that like a family history.
But the Trees are in a place where time doesn’t shift.
The three of us were connected to the Garden before the bracelet moved.
When I return, it will be like I never left. ”
“But wouldn’t your return erase the time associated with the movement of the bracelet? They call it the space-time continuum, I think?”
Ranth stroked the hair on his jaw. “If new Keepers were chosen and sent to the Garden, they wouldn’t be able to enter. When I return, the next Keepers may enter as they should, but their fate on this timeline doesn’t change. The Ahknim aren’t aware I am not in the Garden.”
“Wait, WHAT? That’s impossible. Why didn’t you mention that before?”
“What’s impossible?”
“If the Ahknim don’t know you aren’t there, then how can they be looking for you?”
“They must have some knowledge they should not have. Perhaps the record keeper failed his duty… Or the Marahk are not actually part of the Ahknim, which is what I now suspect. They know the words, but their methods are not our way. Perhaps they were the ones who destroyed our temple. But they don’t know the Garden is locked. Unless one of the elders went to look…”
“What does that mean?”
“After death, the elders, our Amum, can briefly visit the Garden before they journey to the spirit realm. If someone spoke to an Amum spirit, they might have learned information they should not have. There must have been some notation that my place was in the Garden. Unless…” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Unless what?”
“Harold has the knowledge of the Garden, and he recognized me. He could have told the Marahk.”
I sniffed the basil on my fingers. “But why would he do that and then rescue us?”
“It is mystifying, but we don’t know his goal. It could be he seeks to enter the Garden again, and he’s misguided. But without the Ahknim knowledge, the Marahk would not know it’s impossible to go to the garden and remain alive.”
The wind picked up, and I moved closer to him, resting my hand lightly on his arm.
Electricity crackled over my skin. He shifted as if he felt it too.
I stilled. My power prickled and rose, recognizing his.
He was part of the same threads, and my body knew that.
I wanted more. His hands slid down my sides, and mine roved under his shirt.
The hard, solid planes of his chest. smooth and silky as I’d imagined.
But the flash of the lich form was ever present.
Touching him felt right, like I’d known him all my life. But he’d be leaving soon…
“Sorrel, I… I’m not sure I should say this, but you’ve made me think about things in a way I have never done before. To dream impossible dreams.”
“What dreams?” My voice was a whisper, as if speaking louder would break something.
“What you have here, with your friends and family, I see the value in the connections and the feelings between you—like how you love and care for Antimony. I have never had… I was not allowed to have that kind of life. I am friends with Kell and Rei, but that is different. I didn’t see the value in connecting with others until you released me. Until…”
More tingles of power crawled through my fingers, like his skin was humming with it, and he was sending it to me. I sucked in a breath and held it as his hands laced through my hair. “I shouldn’t. It’s not fair.” He licked his lips, heating my belly downward.
“Then don’t think,” I said, sliding my hands around to his neck and tugging his head down.
His lips crashed against mine, hungry and wanting.
Wet and hot. Creating an ache that there was only one solution for.
His hands seared over my belly and chest. I pulled his shirt up, kissing down his chest. I wanted every inch of him exposed. It was so right, here under the stars.
“Sorrel? Are you out here?” Ori’s voice called from the front door. A wire pulled taut inside me, and I dropped my hands and stepped away, suddenly freezing cold.
Ranth and I exchanged glances.
“Not done with you,” I mouthed, tugging my shirt down. I smoothed my hair and walked around the corner. “Hey, Ori,” I said as Ranth came up behind me. His presence now felt like it was actually tethered to me. “We went for a walk. What’s up?”
“The police called and want to talk to you.”
“Right. Okay.” The fire already seemed days ago, but it was only hours.
The loss of my life’s work and all the memories of Mom sent shivers through me.
“It’s freezing out here,” I said, starting back to the house, not daring to look back because Ori would read any look I gave Ranth.
My heart raced at the scent of amber and sandalwood that clung to me.
I wasn’t sure how we were going to steal another moment, but I was so not done with him.