Chapter 5
ARIANA
Asteady rhythmic beat welcomed me from a blissfully dreamless night.
Glorious warmth surrounded me. As I opened my eyes, I was startled by the sapphire gaze watching me.
The sound was that of his beating heart, easily heard while my head rested on Erik’s bare chest. His arm circled me, hand sliding up my spine and back down, holding me close.
The small of my back warmed by his touch.
A smirk worked its way onto his face. “Surprised?” The gravelly tone caused my pulse to spike.
I shifted to better view him. “Uh, no. I just– I suppose– I wasn’t sure whether you would still be here in the morning.”
“You rather I had left?” He arched an eyebrow, eyes gleaming.
Heat prickled the nape of my neck. “No. I’m glad you’re here.” That was when I noticed nothing separated any part of me from touching him. In fact, nothing separated me from anything. My body lay utterly bare under the sheet. And his...
“Are you blushing?” Erik asked with a growing smile.
“What? No.” I quickly gathered more of the sheets around myself. “What time is it?” I asked, suddenly desperate to change the subject.
“It’s about half an hour before your scheduled meeting with everyone.” He watched me with an amused glimmer in his eyes.
“What?” I jumped out of bed, taking my sheet with me to cover myself with. “I need to go.” I took a step away before twisting back towards him. “You need to go.”
Erik rose from the bed, wearing absolutely nothing.
Beautiful. His body was mouthwateringly beautiful.
I spun around, facing away from him. “Put something on and go! I need to get dressed.” My cheeks instantly burned. I could only imagine how red they were.
“I’m not stopping you from dressing.” He answered with a low laugh, his enjoyment of the situation clear.
I remained tense, my heart pounding in my chest, chiseling away at bone.
Following a brief shuffling behind me, he came around into my line of sight.
Erik remained shirtless; however, at least he had pants on. I tried not to look at him.
He paced towards me. “Today, you’re shy? After what we did last night?”
“Stop it,” I said and couldn’t help my gaze from wandering over his skin. Last night was remarkable. The taste of him, the feel. Desire stirred, and I forced my eyes to look anywhere but his body. “Where is your shirt?”
“No idea.” He replied without even looking for it. His focus remained entirely on me. I would recognize you anywhere. The words he said flooded my thoughts and my heart continued with its antics against my ribs. Like a calling card letting him know, very well, of the effect he was having on me.
“There’s no time.” I turned and walked towards the wall. He needed to take the passage to his room, so no one saw him leaving half-naked. With Erik staying in the compound, I doubted that the passage would remain hidden for long from the Lysians anyway.
I opened the false door and turned to Erik, “follow the narrow hall till it ends. That’s your room.”
“There’s a secret passage connecting our rooms?” His eyes brightened in surprise. “It did sound like some of the walls were strangely hollow.”
“Yes, now out you go.” I angled my head towards the dark opening. I usually needed a candle or light of some sort to see by, but I figured a Lysian with all their superior hearing and eyesight could make do in the dark.
I wasn’t sure what I felt at that moment.
Emotions surged, still all over the place.
Thoughts threatened to rip me apart and drown me in worries.
For days, my mind imprisoned me in painful torment.
Except for last night. Erik became an oasis, a drug to drown out the sound in my head.
And in the night, in the Lysian King’s arms, I finally found rest.
He strode towards me with silent steps.
The Lysian King reached out, taking my hand in his larger one. Bringing it to his lips, he placed a fleeting kiss on my knuckle, and my heart skipped an entire heartbeat.
“I’ll see you soon,” Erik murmured, eyes bright and promising.
He then left. Clearly, there was more that needed to be said, more I wanted to say, but time was not a luxury we had.
At least not yet. Perhaps someday, time would slow, and we could spend days doing nothing more than enjoying each other’s company.
My focus shifted to the task at hand. I needed to train, to prepare for my departure.
Half an hour later, I was nearly running down the halls to the meeting room.
I doubted anyone would be terribly upset by my few minutes of tardiness, but I couldn’t help this overwhelming feeling of being late.
Punctuality was chiseled into me since childhood, and it was likely something I could never shake.
I entered the room, evidently the last to arrive. “Sorry everyone, I seem to have overslept this morning,” I said, making my way to my seat, trying not to let my wet hair drip on anyone as I passed.
“Beauty sleep suits you,” Erik commented with a smirk pulling at those devious lips of his.
My face instantly warmed. He sat before me, looking so well put together as if he had all the time in the morning to come to the meeting while I was a mess.
Next to him sat Kole, his icy gaze moving from me to Erik before narrowing.
“Kole.” I was eager to ignore Erik’s remark.
“Erik told me you went to send word for Iver to join us. I take it that your trip went without trouble?” I hid the surprise of even seeing him at the meeting.
He must have traveled half the day and the entire night to deliver the message to the Lysians at the border before returning.
“Yeah,” he said, still looking suspiciously between Erik and myself. Those analytical eyes showed no trace of exhaustion.
“Great. We are about to go over a training plan for me for the rest of my time here. Feel free to share any thoughts you may have on it.”
“Right,” Willis spoke, pulling attention from me.
“We have set a path for you to run through the forest to a clearing. Along that path, the sparrows will be waiting and firing their arrows which you will need to block. If one hits you, then you are considered dead and will restart the entire course. Following their assault you will need to fight me to get by. Eventually, you will make it to the clearing with Erik. He will use his conjuring to a certain distance. Once you cross that threshold, both you and he are not to conjure. At that point, Erik is essentially standing in for Clause, and since your conjuring does not affect Clause, your goal is to subdue or eliminate Erik without letting him touch you.”
The obstacles created for me were going to be difficult to overcome. “Great. I am to fight a Lysian without being touched by him.”
“Not just any Lysian.” Kole chimed in. “He is one of the best fighters among us.”
“You wanted a training,” Willis said. “We are not going easy on you. I’d rather this be unnecessarily difficult than not enough to properly prepare you.”
“This is certainly not unnecessarily difficult.” Edda finally spoke up. “It may not be hard enough,” she mumbled.
“We can adjust the difficulty and reformat things as we go, but this is our starting plan.” Willis turned to Kole. “You can fight Ariana on foot with me.”
“Is she to use her conjuring against us?” Kole asked.
Willis viewed me. “You are not to touch our lungs, but you can conjure. If you progress quickly, then eventually, we will try you not conjuring at all.”
“I brought you something.” Kiora stood, picking something off the ground and placing it on the table. A long shirt made of a chain material and a helmet. “We will use flat-tipped wooden arrows, but I am afraid they will still hurt. This will ensure nothing vital gets punctured.”
I frowned. “I’ll accept the shirt, but not that helmet.”
“I insist,” Kiora pressed.
“I won’t be able to see or move well with that thing on my head blocking my peripheral vision. Plus, you and your archers should be able to avoid firing at my head. Unless you think you are incapable of it?” I raised an eyebrow in challenge.
She rose to my bait, folding her arms over her chest. “We certainly are capable of something as simple as that.”
“Even when she is running?” Kole asked, earning a look of disgust from Kiora.
“Do not insult me, Lysian,” Kiora said, pursing her lips. “We are Sparrows. You’ll see soon enough what that means.”
“When will all of this be set up and ready?” I turned to Willis.
“We spent most of yesterday laying out the plan and scouting an area. We are ready now if you are.”
“Well.” I stood from the table. “No time to waste.”
They led me out of the city to where training would take place.
Kole and Willis alternated how far up the trail they waited for me to help keep an element of surprise.
Everyone took their positions, and then we began.
It took me several attempts before I could finally get a decent distance before being hit by one of the Sparrow’s arrows.
My sides and back hurt from the previous blows while I ran forward.
A thick wall of mist surrounded me, forming a barrier.
Unfortunately, it also obscured my vision.
I tripped, the dense fog fracturing enough for an arrow to cut through the cracks, hitting my lower back.
“UGH!” I fell, rolling onto my side and panting.
Erik appeared out of nowhere, holding his hand out to help me up.
I flinched, startled by his sudden presence.
“What are you doing here?” I asked while still on the ground, trying to catch my breath.
“It seems like you will never make it to me at this rate,” he commented.
I grunted, rolling over and getting to my feet without his help.
A smile tugged at those talented lips, and the thought of it warmed me from within. “You disagree with my assessment?”
“Get lost,” I said through clenched teeth. I needed to maintain my focus, and he wasn’t helping.
Kiora’s voice came from somewhere amongst the trees as she yelled out. “Hey, loverboy, we are in the middle of training!”
“Loverboy?” Erik’s eyes sparkled as he turned from the forest to me.
Exhaustion and irritation protected me from feeling an ounce of embarrassment.
I turned to leave and go back to the start of the course. Staying too long in one place without a distraction, and my mind wandered back to thoughts of Landin. The pain would again encase me in its stiff embrace.
“I can help you,” Erik said from where I left him standing, his tone losing all its amusement. Something about his voice drew me, the finality of that statement.
“How?” I turned.
“Your conjuring. You can use it to sense the arrows while not hindering your sight so much as creating a solid wall around yourself.” His eyes harbored such certainty that I didn’t even question whether it was possible.
“Show me.”
He smiled, closing the space between us. “The archers, how do they land their marks without having to see them with their eyes?”
“Their conjuring.”
“They use the breeze to help carry their arrows, but that also allows them to see through feeling. I can do the same with my flames, and so can you. At the ceremony for Landin, you used your gifts to clear the mist path for the Bavadrins carrying the pallet without even looking at them. You did that by feeling. You need to sense the world and not think so hard.”
I shook my head in disappointment. “I don’t know if I have time for this, to learn this.”
His eyes sparkled with the way the sun hit them. “You are already doing it. You just haven’t realized it. Close your eyes.”
I stared at him.
His lip twitched. “Go on, I won’t bite.” Something about how he said it caused my heartbeat to pick up its pace. He winked at me.
I suppressed a smile and obliged.
“Now release your conjuring. Let it spread naturally. Do not form a wall, do not solidify it. Instead, just reach with it.”
My chest grew warm with power, and I let it seep through me before falling from me and out into the world.
“That’s it. Now feel it, the way your mist moves over the ground, the way it reaches for the trees, climbing ever so slightly. Explore your surroundings.” He remained quiet as I pushed myself to move without actually moving, to touch the world as he instructed.
“I’m going to step away now, and I want for you to tell me where I am in relation to you.”
“Okay.” I agreed, keeping my eyes shut.
If he moved, then I did not know it, for his steps were soundless. I searched down the thread, tethering my powers to me, and stretched through it. I nearly gave up before noticing the smallest of disturbances. As if I built a spider web around me and could feel the movement in the distance.
“To my left,” I said.
“Good.” I heard the smile in his voice. “Again.”
Silence settled once more before I sensed that tug on the web of mist. I felt the disturbance shift. “Behind me.” He did not answer, but I discerned the transition, him changing direction until he stood somewhere ahead. “In front of me.”
Something else entered the web of mist. Where Erik’s movements were gentle, a soft tug on my conjuring, this was different.
It flew incredibly fast. It did not tug but cut, momentarily severing my ties to the mist wherever it passed.
Its trajectory angled towards my ribs. The mist solidified into a thin edge and sliced like a blade, cutting off the object.
I opened my eyes in time to see the arrow fall at my feet before ever reaching me.
Kiora yelled out, “WOOOOOOHOOOO! That’s my girl!”
Erik stood before me, a proud smile on his handsome face. “You did well.”
“Thank you.” A smile matching his found its way to my lips.
“Atta boy loverboy! I knew there was a reason I liked you!” Kiora added from her position amongst the trees.
I was going to kill her.
Erik’s smile grew, laughter touching his eyes.
“Get back to your position.” My cheeks grew hot.
“Loverboy will do as you command.” He dipped his head, turned and left. A soft chuckle escaped him as he went.
On the next attempt at the course, I finally made it past the Sparrows, only to be taken down by Kole and Willis. Several attempts later, the sun was setting, and the day’s training was at its end. Still, I could not get past the two of them.
I likely could not have gone much longer that day, anyway.
My body nearly broke, muscle and bone thoroughly abused. Near the end, my pace slowed, legs wobbling with the strain to keep me up and moving. The entire day took a toll, and I was still so far from the goal.