20. ~Ariana~ #3
I marveled at their deep burgundy and plum petals that curled like velvet, each bloom pulsing faintly with a white shimmer.
“This is where they grow. The one place on earth.” I turned to the guys, eyeing Vorzyr in particular. “No one else is supposed to know, outside of me and my family.”
I knelt down and ran my fingers over a couple of them.
“Clearly, you were meant to find them also.” I smiled out at them.
“The energy in this forest is the living, pulsing energy of Cornelius Martel, the most infamous Fallen. Vorzyr, you were drawn here like a beacon when you left the Dracoryn Realm and set upon this plane. That’s far from a coincidence. You possess a Celestial link.”
As my heavy words hung there, and a thick silence enveloped them all, I called my power and swept my glow over the space between the peonies and an age-old tree.
It cast aside the magical veil and left roots and moss in its wake.
I carefully brushed them away to reveal a weather-worn hidden stone beneath.
I sucked in a breath as the air hummed with Celestial energy.
As my fingers brushed the stone, silver symbols shimmered across its surface, illuminating like firelight in the darkness.
It revealed Celestial Script.
Val’shuraen el’Martel. Fael’thi ka’reth nael. Shaddai ven eltharan.
As the guys gazed at it, I translated, “Here fell Cornelius of the Celestial Flame. The stars grieved, the forest remembered, and the bloom rose from ash.”
I went on, explaining, “When my grandfather was cast out and became Fallen, this is where he first landed and the forest absorbed some of his Celestial essence. It remembers him. The moment a Fallen, an Immortal, crashed onto this mortal plane, it didn’t just scar the land here, it consecrated it.
It’s why this forest is the only place Celestial Eclipse Peonies can grow.
It’s not just enchanted, it’s sanctified by a Fallen.
You told me that you believed the flowers symbolize the balance between chaos and control, and they do, because this place is a paradox of grace and defiance, of purity and punishment.
And the fact that you knew that… it meant the forest spoke to you, this consecrated land did.
It drew you here, feeling the Celestial connection in you.
You shouldn’t have known that about the peonies, and the fact that you did says a great deal.
” I gazed out at him. “That you’re more than even dragon. ”
I held out my hand to Vorzyr as I walked around to the other side of the stone, and he followed me, then stood over it, taking in the split sun and moon carved above a peony entwined with flame marks. I pressed my hand over the carved imagery and it glowed a bright white. “Try,” I beseeched Vorzyr.
He hesitated for a few moments, before drawing in a breath, then pressing his hand to it as well.
Sure enough, that same white glow emanated at his contact, recognizing him, connecting with him. And confirming that he was bonded to the Celestial Plane in some way, just like his Primal Celestial Resonance ability had suggested.
“This confirms it, beyond a shadow of a doubt,” I told him, as he eased away, his eyes wide, looking between his hand and the stone, then around at the peonies. “A Celestial link runs in your blood.”
“What are your other abilities that eclipse those of other dragon kind?” Kai asked him.
Vorzyr looked out at each of us, before folding his arms across his chest, and telling us, “When I felt your power, Ariana, it was more than just that. Thinking about it now, I know it was. It wasn’t just the magical maturity thing.
I didn’t understand it at the time, but now, knowing this, and what happened at the Unity Council, I think I was seeing between planes, between Realms, and what I saw was you. I was pulled to you.”
“That’s Rift Vision,” I told him. “You can see between weak points in the realms and alterations to the balance between them as well. It’s sort of like an early-warning system for supernatural breaches.
It’s difficult to control and dangerous if you don’t have somebody to guide you, because seeing shadows in reality, things moving in the space between the realms, things you’re not really meant to see, it could drive you mad. You need to be very careful with it.”
“Hold on,” Kai spoke. “You said it functions as an early-warning system? Then that suggests that something about you, Ari, could be warning of an imbalance, or something connected to you could be.”
“Pops told me that when I reached magical maturity, he felt the balance shift. I couldn’t because I put away a good portion of my power, so I’m not properly connected currently.
That’s one of the reasons I need to analyze that Unity Council test. Combined with the symbols from my shadow weaving that I told you about. ”
“You’re afraid that if you take it back, this warning, this imbalance could come about?” Kai asked.
“My family told me to take back my power, so perhaps it’s not about me, but something connected to me, like the True Celestials themselves.”
“What? Wanting to breach between the planes?” Nyx asked.
“They want you to prepare for a battle,” Kai breathed. “Why else would they want you fully-equipped, essentially fully-armed?”
“That’s the point, there are too many what-ifs where I’m concerned, because so much is either kept secret, or just completely unknown regardless.”
“What other abilities?” Nyx posed to Vorzyr.
“I can influence other creatures. I’ve stopped creatures from attacking me before by my will alone—accidentally. It’s been a couple of years since that happened, and I haven’t tried it since, because it was overwhelming—and it felt wrong.”
“Command of Beasts,” Kai told him. “That’s the ability.”
I nodded, impressed. “Yes.”
“If my own kind knew I had that ability, they’d reject me outright. It would be seen as a threat,” Vorzyr murmured.
It hit me then. “That’s why your father sent you away, isn’t it? Beyond that battle that Nyx told us about? He saw you use this ability?”
“He did, but he never spoke about it… but now you mention it, his attitude toward me did change shortly after that time.”
“Can you do it to me?” Nyx asked. “My Incubus side?”
“I haven’t tried. And I wouldn’t.”
“Maybe you need to. You know, to test it and get control of it?” Nyx suggested.
“It’s a viable experiment,” Kai pointed out. “Highly-advised, too, considering the situation.”
“I get it,” Vorzyr snapped. “Those with great power who are without knowledge, are fucking dangerous.”
“Something like that,” Kai admitted. Of course. While he absolutely wasn’t wrong about it, now wasn’t the time to get into that aspect any deeper.
That was confirmed as Nyx’s voice sounded in my head.
“He’s becoming overwhelmed. Close to panicking. His dragon side is pushing to react as a sort of defense mechanism.”
I closed the distance between us and pressed my hands to his chest, feeling a tremble of awareness go through him at my touch. “It’s a lot to digest. But know this: we’ll figure it all out. All four of us together. I swear it to you. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you, but…” He pulled back and moved several feet away from me, leaning against a nearby tree.
“ But you feel your control is compromised, yes?” I put to him.
His gaze shot to mine. “You feel it from me?”
“The struggle is clear, yes, even if I wasn’t having Nyx read your emotions—both the human aspect and the dragon side.”
He eyed Nyx. Then he looked at Kai, before focusing back on me. “And Kai? He’s here to stop me from losing control when you broke this news to me?”
“No. To stop me. I’ll stop you. And it wasn’t about how you’d react to me revealing all of this to you.
It’s about giving you what you need. From me.
I wanted them here so we’re unified from here on out.
Because it’s become clear that I need you all with me, and the same goes for the three of you when it comes to me and to each other. ”
He raised an eyebrow. “Wait. What do you mean, giving me what I need? Answers?”
“No. And we’re not completely done with that anyway. More will come for the both of us when Kai and I interpret the results of the Unity Council test together. Now that he’s back at full power we can do that.”
Before he could get another word out, I opened my cloak. “ This is what you need,” I said, as I shrugged it off my shoulders. “To connect with me carnally and in a way you weren’t able to do outside Polaris with how that transpired.”
“Motherfucker,” he choked, his eyes all over me. “You wore this for me… Ariana… hell.”
He held up his hand as I went to close the distance between us, essentially stopping me in my tracks.
“The dragon is raging. His human side is trying to fight the natural instinct to devour you.”
I looked out at Nyx as he eyed me worriedly, while reporting that via our mind-link.
“You don’t understand. The primal, animal part of me has been on overload lately. It’s been difficult to control.”
“And you’re not used to even having to entertain controlling yourself at all.”
“Yeah. Well, you saw me in class that day. That’s my approach to everything.”
“Not so. Not to me. It never has been. You’ve been very careful with me, respectful. You even told me that after our first kiss, you wanted to take it further, but you held yourself back. You are capable of control, and you did it for me.”
“I…”
“But you don’t have to. Not in this sense. Not in being with me.”
“Although, I wouldn’t shift into full dragon form,” Kai said. “Biologically-speaking, it’s just not possible to be with her while you’re in that form.”
There was humor in his words, and it actually had the corner of Vorzyr’s mouth turning up, amused by it.
“I’m aware,” he told him. He stared at me then.
“Even so, if I unleash the way my primal side is pushing me to, I could still hurt you, damage you, break you. Like I told Kai, I fucked you, I was inside you, it was close to staking a claim for me. I tasted your blood. All of that… you call to me in a dangerously animalistic way.”
“A lot of this buildup and increasing strain is because you couldn’t get what you wanted when we were together in that alley. It didn’t possess the intimacy and intensity that you desired so deeply. We’re going to remedy that now.”
He swallowed hard at the sight of the dress, then looked away, shaking his head. “My strength when I’m like this, if I even actually let go… the damage it could do…”
Words weren’t working.
It was clearly time for a demonstration then.
“Kai,” I spoke, and he took my cue just from that, throwing his hands up and out and creating a shimmering rose-gold ward in the form of a dome around the entire forest.
Vorzyr started in surprise.
But he didn’t have time to do more than that, as I was suddenly right in front of him in a single burst of strength and speed.
He barely got time to blink at me in surprise before a sound like thunder being sucked in cracked the air. Light bent. A ring of silver energy exploded out from my palm the instant I connected with his chest.
He went flying, slamming backward at rapid-fire speed. Dust and air erupted outward in concentric circles, clipping tree after tree as he went, the distorting heat in the air like a sonic boom had passed through reality itself.
The shockwave ripped through everything around us like a divine pulse.
I didn’t move, watching as the air shimmered around me.
Hundreds of feet it sent him into the distance, before he came to a jarring stop thanks to Kai’s dome being in effect.
Vorzyr ricocheted off it and landed on his hands, before springing back to his feet.
Awed eyes blazed across the distance at me.
And then his lip curled.
Message received.