43. Chapter 43
Chapter forty-three
Iwake the next morning to the blessed relief of no aches and pains, blinking with the expectation of darkness only to be greeted by a bright beam of sunlight, which means it’s not daybreak.
I jerk to a sitting position to find Micah in a chair by the fireplace, dressed in fresh black fatigues with a steaming cup of coffee in hand.
“Morning, sweetheart,” he says. “How do you feel?”
A memory of him wrapping the robe around me, my naked body between us, has me checking my robe to discover I’m all but flashing him. I yank the silk closed, and amusement dances in his eyes. “You still haven’t told me how you feel.”
Butterflies flutter about in my belly, and I swear I’m like a teenager with a crush right now. I think I’m actually nervous, but I manage a steady voice as I say, “Much better. Like new. Thank you for taking care of me. What time is it?”
“Ten. I let you sleep to allow the soto to work.”
My jaw goes slack. “No.”
He chuckles. “Yes.”
“No!” I throw away the blankets, kick my feet to the floor, and quickly find my footing.
The schoolgirl is gone. The warrior has taken her place.
My heart is racing. I have no time. I feel that in some cavernous part of me.
Jeremy is coming for me and him. No one else dies for me.
Micah will not die for me. It’s as he said, there’s one way to fix all of this.
Kill Jeremy. I have to be ready. “Why did you let me sleep, Micah? I have to train. We have to go to the Diviner and the river and—”
He’s already in front of me, his hands on my shoulders, my nipples puckering beneath the silk with his nearness, with his touch. Apparently, the warrior in me is still a woman very much in need of this man. “You needed the rest. We’ll eat at the bay again, and then go to the forest.”
“You’re really taking me to the forest?” I ask incredulously.
“Every day until you’re ready to graduate to bigger things,” he vows. “Go get dressed. I’ll be here waiting.”
But I don’t move, and his hands stay pressed to my shoulders, the air thick and rich with all that transpired between us last night.
I was naked in his arms. And right now, I want him.
I want him desperately, but I’m terrified of us for so many reasons.
What happens when he’s too attached to kill me if it becomes necessary?
What happens if I kill him? What happens if our bond actually unleashes the serpent?
I rotate out of his arms and walk to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me and panting out a breath. He fears everything I do, too, or I’d be naked right now. I need this damn serpent out of me. Now. I need to go fight. I push off the door and head to the shower.
Brunch consists of omelets and some kind of muffins made from the nutty grain I remember Micah mentioning. “Tell me about the Fray,” I encourage, feeling drawn to this event as the ultimate survival test that I have yet to prove I can survive.
“It’s held in the wastelands where magic and demons run freely, and not gently. It’s almost impossible to prepare for. You fight each other. You fight the elements. You fight demons.”
I laugh without humor and at myself. “And yet, I’m nervous about facing whatever is in the forest.”
“You are the Aza, Ember, and a certainty I know from the books is that you have powerful magic inside you. Reach for it and your dagger. You’ll be stunned at how those things overcome time and training.”
A butterfly floats to the edge of my plate, the glowing shades of blues in its wings breathtakingly beautiful.
I hold out a hand and watch as it almost hops in the air and settles in my palm.
I can feel magic tickling my skin, and to my utter shock, a sliver of power slides inside me, a zip of electricity darting about my hand.
My eyes lift to Micah. “The butterflies—”
“Are a part of this place and a part of you, and so is their magic,” he replies, proving he’s noticed what happened.
“I feel as if they ignited something inside me.”
“You’re waking up. Your magic is waking up, and feeling a connection to Elysium helps that happen.”
“I’m excited to train and apply my awakening to kicking Silas’ butt. What’s the overall schedule today?”
He sets his napkin down. “Gabriella is meeting us to work on your fire early evening.”
“No.” I push my chair back, and I stand up, somehow certain we’re headed to battle. “I’ve decided there will be no fire for me. In fact, I want you to help me bind that asset.”
The table disappears as Micah steps in front of me. “Fire is how you kill the serpent.”
“Or you. I do not want what will kill you.”
“You might be able to kill me, but you can also save worlds.”
“And I do that by way of whatever powers choosing the light gives me.”
“Those powers are already inside you. You have to claim them.”
“You reacted to the idea of me possessing fire badly for a reason,” I counter. “Neither of us wants me to hold such power when I’m not yet rid of the serpent or the temptation the darkness is supposed to represent.”
“There is no in between. You either claim your power and you fight to win, or you give up.”
“What if I just don’t do this? Then what?”
“The moment you came of age, the demons began to grow stronger. Every day that passes, they grow stronger. Think of it like a kid growing into a man. Every day you exist that you do not claim the light, that process continues, and they grow stronger.”
“Okay, talk about pressure. You didn’t tell me that.”
“I’m telling you now.”
I press my fingers to my temples and then drop my hands. “It’s a lot of pressure.”
“I know.”
“How do I even claim the light?”
“There’s a book, and that book is power. When you hold it, it will call to you, tempt you, play games with you. It will ask you to make your choice and will test you in the process. You have to be ready.”
“I don’t understand a word that just came out of your mouth. Will it try to make me choose the darkness?”
“One of the books I gave you suggests it will.”
“Where is this book?”
“Locked away in the kingdom vaults, and until the Judgement Tree rids you of the serpent, you can’t risk touching it.
You need your fire, Ember, and before you bring up my reaction to you having it, I won’t lie and say it didn’t concern me, but we’re all dead if you turn to the darkness anyway.
The fire can kill a hell of a lot of demons. ”
“Something is telling me not to use it, Micah. I can’t. Maybe later, but right now, it’s a mistake, and I think we have to listen to my gut. And I remind you that it was what you felt, too. I know it was.”
“You’re right. It was.” He considers me for a moment. “All right, then. No fire.”
“Can we bind that asset?”
“We could be wrong. We might need it. We hold for now, but trying to suppress it is a dangerous action.”
“Fine,” I say, not in full agreement. “Take me to the forest.”
We stand at the edge of the forest, and the trees whisper, the collective voices making me crazy. I can’t hear their words, but I can feel them mocking me. They do not think I belong in this forest, even if Micah does. “How do you tell the forest to shut up?”
“You don’t. It never shuts up. It still mocks me.”
I glance up at him. “I bet it doesn’t cross you.”
“Oh, the trees are wicked. They love to play games, even with me.” He motions me forward, and we enter the forest, my hand settling on my blade as we do.
For a good mile, we travel in silence, and I scan the area around me, looking for the forest version of the giant crab.
Another half mile in, there’s a growling sound that I’m fairly certain, from my slight obsession with National Geographic, is a big cat.
I rotate as a white tiger leaps from a giant rock, and by the time I start running, he’s on the ground and on my heels.
I rift back to the rock where he’d been moments before, only to find a second cat join me so close I can see every muscle in his lithe, agile body, his teal blue eyes fixed on me, and I’m fairly certain he sees me as dinner.
My heart leaps, and I rift back to the edge of the forest. Micah appears by my side. “Running won’t kill a demon, and if you let it live, it will kill someone else.”
“Okay, but those are not demons. I’m not killing those tigers. This is their home. I’m the intruder in the forest. Did you see how beautiful they were?”
“You are not making your training easy.”
“If I didn’t care about those tigers, I don’t think you should want fire in my hands.”
His lips press into a fine line. “Fair enough. Let’s try something else.” He catches my hand and rifts us back into the forest to stand in front of a cave.
“What is this place?” I ask.
“Why don’t you go inside and find out? I’ll wait for you here. And remember, rifting doesn’t teach you to fight, Ember. You have to stand and face the danger.”
Okay, I’m officially nervous. “What’s in there?”
No sooner do I ask that question than a giant, hairy spider comes crawling out of the cavern, and the damn thing locks its attention on me. Micah disappears. Asshole, I call out in my head. I hate spiders.
Then kill it, he replies.
It’s the size of an elephant, and it has fangs like the crab. Why is that a thing here?
Big means a bigger target.
The damn spider lets out a scream that sounds like an old lady who smokes, and it charges at me while the forest taunts me with an onslaught of whispers.
I yank my dagger from my sheath, but the creature is so fast, it’s already almost on top of me.
I now have the joy of a close look at creepy, beady eyes accented by those ridiculous long white fangs.
I dive underneath the spider.