Chapter 6 - Ariana
ARIANA
Enormously powerful flames surrounded me. Fierce fire surged, pressing against the mist I shrouded myself with. My senses overwhelmed by it. A loud hissing formed from where flame met fog.
My body grew weary and tired with every moment that I funneled all my strength into my conjuring.
This was the first time I got past Willis and Kole, only to be stopped cold by Erik’s flames.
As the fire climbed higher, it fueled the raging storm within.
Anger melded with pain before condensing with disappointment for not getting past this point.
I screamed in frustration, throwing every bit of energy I could at breaking through the relentless blaze. The sound of my voice lost itself amongst the hissing.
Fire converged above, closing the last bit of blue sky that there was.
I couldn’t breathe in enough oxygen.
The world spun as my head pounded angrily against my temple.
Mist evaporated as the well I pulled my conjuring from ran dry. Instantly the flames vanished, Erik noting the weakening on my end. Cool, delicious air made its way into my lungs once more.
Panting, I folded over, placing my hands on my knees for support as I gulped down breath after breath.
Despite the cold of the day, sweat wet my brow, dripping down the side of my face. The heat of the inferno Erik controlled was severe enough that I had no idea how my skin had not melted off the bone.
“You okay?” Erik asked from beside me.
“Fine.” I straightened, only for the world to tilt as my head stubbornly continued to spin. I was so weak. How could I even hope of standing against the Sidhe?
An arm came around my waist, pulling me towards him, his body supporting mine. A few breaths later, the world stilled, and I pushed him away.
“Stop it,” I snapped.
Confusion touched Erik’s features, softening them. “Stop what?”
“The hovering.”
“This is basically the first I have seen you all day,” he stated, observing my face as if looking for a hint as to what thoughts were running around in my brain.
I released a sharp breath. “If I fall, I can get up on my own. I don’t need your help.”
He scanned my face. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing.” I turned, marching away.
“We should take a break,” Erik said from behind me.
“No.” I continued forward.
A hand caught my wrist, halting me. “You are exhausted. We all are tired and can use a break to eat and rest.”
“I need to keep going.” My gaze dropped to his hold on my arm. “Unhand me.” Suddenly desperation came over me, pushing me to go, to keep moving. I couldn’t break. Not when I needed to improve. Not when resting threatened my mind from crumbling in on itself again.
I could hardly manage the mess I had become.
My life had turned into a nightmare I could not wake from.
Landin was gone. There was no recovery from that.
The cold within settled deep into my bones, one that could smother even the hottest of flames.
I did not know whether this was something I could ever heal from.
Even in the daylight, with my eyes wide open, I found myself too deep in the nightmare.
My only hope was to keep moving, to never stop. To not think.
Erik’s gaze searched mine. “Pushing yourself without rest will only worsen the quality of your performance and growth. You will push yourself into the ground right where you stand if you keep going like this. Not moving forward in any way.”
His words were sound, but I was not in a place to hear him. I tried to turn and leave, but his hold remained. “Let. Go. Now.” I demanded.
Erik’s jaw clenched, yet he released me.
Spinning around, I didn’t even get to make a single step before a wall of fire formed, barring me from going anywhere.
“You are hurting, and you are using this training as a desperate escape from that pain. It is not constructive, nor is it helpful,” he said from behind me while I stared at the flames.
Pivoting, my glare clashed with his. Determination etched into his handsome face. There was no lenience in his stance on the matter, but this was not his home, not his lands. It was mine. I did not follow his orders.
My muscles tensed, my body growing rigid. “You seem to forget where you are. I will drop you to your knees if you do not drop the flames.”
Erik’s gaze narrowed, and he took a single deliberate step towards me. “If that is what you need to do. Then go ahead.” There was not an ounce of uncertainty in his tone.
“You think I won’t?”
Midnight blue eyes scanned my face. “I am certain you would if I were an actual threat.”
He was wrong.
I smirked just before shoving all my strength into the mist that filled his lungs in the blink of an eye.
Erik’s hands flew to his throat moments before the Lysian King dropped to his knees before me. The flames keeping me cornered dissipated.
I withdrew my power, allowing him to catch his breath as he coughed while still kneeling in the dirt.
Slow clapping pulled my attention to the side, where Iver came into view. “My, my, that was certainly fun to watch.” He casually approached, eyes dancing with mischief before landing on me and hardening. “But incredibly foolish of you.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise at seeing him. How was it he arrived so quickly? He would have only recently gotten the request to come to the Bavadrin lands, and the trip would have taken days.
“It’s fine,” Erik rose to his feet, face red, expression completely unreadable.
Iver tisked softly before turning to me.
“When attacked, is it not the instinct to fight back? When one cannot draw a breath, does the body not respond of its own accord in an effort to overcome the threat? You are lucky he didn’t burn you out of existence.
Lucky that he has that amount of control over himself. ”
“I said it’s fine,” Erik snapped at his brother.
“What the hell is going on?” Kiora’s voice shook the forest.
“We are done for the day!” I yelled back. There were still a few hours till sunset, but with the way tensions were running, it was not going to end well if we continued. And I had a new distraction. There was a conversation I needed to have with Iver.
The Sparrows came out of their hiding and the forest was briefly alive with hungry archers making their way back to the city.
Iver turned to his brother. “You mind if I have a private chat with our Bavadrin Leader Superior?”
Erik’s gaze leveled at me. “Fine by me,” he said to Iver without breaking eye contact. A ripple of tension moved between us, thick and strangely uncomfortable. A pang of guilt rushed through my stomach for the way I had just acted towards him. “I’ll see you later,” he said before leaving us.
I watched him as he strode away, not once looking back before disappearing into the forest.
Iver and I walked to the edge where forest met with grassland and sat underneath a tree.
“You impress me,” Iver stated simply.
“For some reason, I do not think you often give such high compliments.” I viewed him, wondering what specifically he might have found impressive.
He smiled. “I do not.”
“Is it because I took back my freedom from the Lysians?”
Leaning against the tree, he angled his face towards me. “It’s that you managed to take it back with zero bloodshed. And then still offered us a hand in standing against the Sidhe.”
I shrugged, watching the breeze push the blades of dry grass like living art. “I had little choice, for I do not plan to live out my life under the command of another.”
“You did have a choice. You did not have to tell us that Clause reached out to you. You owed us nothing. Yet you shared the information because you wished to help us even after we took you from your home and threatened your people. You also helped before you even took your freedom back.”
I turned to find him already looking at me, his gray eyes glimmering. “Helped how?”
“Kole and Eislyn. Whatever you said to him has changed his life.” Whatever expression he saw on my face caused him to chuckle. “Kole didn’t tell you, did he?”
“What happened?” A nervous tendril wrapped around me. That night, after talking to Kole, when he destroyed the sitting room, my heart ached for him. I was afraid to have done more damage than good.
“He apologized to her. She apparently briefly fell apart in Erik’s arms. Which is significant, for she never lets others see her cry or exhibit anything that may be portrayed as a weakness.
And now the two of them can exist in the same room without hostility.
” His gaze remained entirely focused on me, and there was a weight to it.
Something about Iver’s presence was heavier than normal.
Troubled. Though not about what we were currently discussing.
“I didn’t do anything, only talked to him a little.”
He tilted his head. “You used your Bavadrin mind magic for good. And for that, I thank you.”
I nearly laughed. “There is no magic there. Only a friend.”
He squinted at me. “It was magic.”
I shook my head, accepting the fact that it was an argument I didn’t even want to try and have with him. “Well, perhaps you can repay me then.”
“What do you have in mind?” His tone grew serious.
I licked my lips. “Are you a conjuror?”
He was not quick to reply. “Why do you ask?”
“Erik thought you may have abilities that could be helpful with what’s to come.” He held my gaze without responding. “I have been to the Sidhe city for a single dinner, and I already know just how over our heads all this is. I am asking for your help, Iver. If you are willing to give it.”
He viewed me, studying my face. “Are you certain you wish for my help in this?”
“Do you not want to save your sister?” I didn’t understand his question, his hesitance.
“Perhaps she may be saved without my need to conjure.”
“Perhaps. But I do not think we will ever win without everyone giving it their all. Clause has armies of conjurors at his disposal. Even alone, he is incredibly powerful.”
Iver nodded before looking out at the grasslands. His gaze moved towards the horizon. “How much do you trust Erik? Do you trust him with your life?” Those cunning eyes returned to me. “True unflinching trust.”
What did that have to do with anything? I was thrown off, prepared to ask him why that was important in the situation, but instead found myself saying, “I think so.”
He shook his head, the movement barely there yet somehow loud at the same time. “You need to be certain.” The warning, which I realized this was, caused something to tighten within.
“Why?”
“Because he is my King, and my conjuring exceeds his,” Iver stated simply.
“Once he knows what I am capable of, then I will be at his disposal. He could use me against anyone he wishes. And if I ever truly oppose him, then it will be seen as a challenge. If I fight him, it would end in someone’s death, and I do not wish to kill my brother.
Despite how it may seem, I am relatively fond of him.
” He paused, letting the gravity of his words sink in before he continued.
“So, Ariana. I will ask you again, how much do you place your trust in my brother?”
“Do you not trust him?” I asked, in shock at what he was divulging.
Iver shrugged a single shoulder. “He has always been somewhat power-hungry. I did not want for him to use mine for his own goals. To more easily control the world around him.”
“Your goals do not align with his?” For all I knew, they had the same intentions of freeing the abducted conjurors.
“Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t.” His head moved side to side before stilling with a sigh. As if this conversation was burdensome.
“And you are willing to bring your powers to the light now?” I stared at him in disbelief.
“Depending on your decision.”
“Why me?”
A small smile tugged at his lips. “My brother seems to have grown more than I had ever given him credit for. If you trust him not to abuse the power I have, then I trust your judgment.”
I shook my head, hardly believing what I heard. “But you know him so much better than I do. And you don’t even truly know me that well to place such weight on my opinion.”
“I never knew him as his prisoner,” he stated simply.
Iver was right. A lot could be said about how a person treated their prisoners.
Erik had been kind to me then. He still was.
Whatever this power Iver had, I trusted Erik with it.
And suddenly a new wave of guilt settled over me for what I had just done to him.
Erik was trying to help me, and I lashed out.
Iver then added, “Perhaps I have already made my decision, and am only curious as to what you would choose, given the option.”
I forced the thought of my remorse out of my mind and focused on the prince before me. “I trust him. Show me what you can do.”
Iver nodded, rising to his feet. “Very well.”