Chapter Three #3
Bel only shook his head and smiled gently. “Las, kem’falla, we know that.” Far more forgiveness than she deserved shone from his cobalt eyes. “Your magic is awakening, and that is never a tidy process.”
“Bel is right, Feyreisa,” Kieran said, smiling as he glanced down at the tiny white kitten perched on his shoulder.
Love had decided that Kieran’s shoulder was a much more comforting place than her hideout under the icebox.
She stuck out her chin for a scratch and regarded the Fey Earth master with a look of pure feline adoration.
Her stubby tail flicked his ear, her tiny claws curled into his leathers to secure her place, and despite the powerful magic shields still in place around the house, she was purring so loudly, Ellie could hear her all the way across the room. “You are not to blame in any way.”
“Aiyah,” Kiel agreed. “Besides, no one was hurt, and no real harm was done.”
“I’ll wager there’s many a man who’d pay for such .
. . invigoration,” Rowan pitched in helpfully, “if you catch my meaning.” He grinned.
Rowan had a sense of humor that Ellysetta was coming to realize was pure mischief.
He was the kind who would poke monsters with a stick and laugh when they roared.
“In fact,” he added, “our lads Kieran and Adrial started a few new Fey legends in the brothel district last night.”
“Kieran Blue Eyes, they called him,” Kiel said, sidling up to Kieran’s side and giving him a simpering, syrupy look of adoration. “One look had them swooning.”
Kieran flashed his charming smile, fluttered his now-famous blue eyes, and caught Kiel when he pretended to faint. Love, un-amused, swatted at the blond Fey.
“And baby brother was Adrial the Unstoppable,” Rowan added proudly. “He had them swooning, too, but for a different reason.” The Fey waggled his brows and grinned again with wicked, roguish humor.
Ellysetta covered her blazing cheeks with her hands and sank weakly on the arm of a settee. “This is not helping.” She couldn’t believe they were laughing about what she’d done. She didn’t find anything funny about it at all.
Adrial apparently didn’t either. Instead of laughing with the other Fey, he had retreated to the other side of the room and stood there, staring into space and trembling as if some great emotion gripped him.
“Adrial?” Concerned, she went to him. His Fey-pale skin was even whiter than the others’, his brown eyes dilated and unfocused.
She reached up and pressed a hand to his forehead.
His skin felt clammy, and she gasped as blinding despair battered her senses.
Adrial lurched away from her, and the emotion faded.
“Don’t touch me.” His voice was weak, thready.
Ellie was aware of the sudden alertness of the other Fey warriors in the room, but she ignored them, focusing her attention on Adrial. “You’re ill,” she said. “You should be in bed.”
“Nei.” He rubbed his face with trembling hands. “I’m all right. I’ll be fine.”
“Adrial. Little brother.” Rowan approached. His laughter was gone, replaced by worry. “Listen to the Feyreisa.” He reached out to grasp his brother’s arms, but Adrial threw him off.
“Nei.” White sparks flashed in Adrial’s eyes. “Don’t touch me, Rowan. I said I’m fine.”
Love the kitten hissed furiously, jumped off Kieran’s shoulder, and went racing for the kitchen. A globe of light sprang up around Ellysetta as Bel, Kiel, Kieran, and the five warriors of her secondary quintet leapt forward to surround her.
“Then why are you summoning Air?” Kieran asked.
Adrial frowned. “I . . .” The sparks in his eyes faded. “Was I?” He pressed the heels of his palms to his temples and squeezed his eyes shut. “Perhaps I should lie down.” He allowed Rowan to lead him to the couch.
“Talk to me, Adrial,” Rowan urged. “You’ve blocked me out. I can’t reach you with Spirit. You must talk to me.” He spared a brief, fierce look at Bel. “We need Marissya.”
Bel nodded, and his eyes lost focus as he reached across distance with a weave of Spirit. He was calling Marissya. “She comes,” he said a moment later.
?Shei’tani.? Rain’s voice sounded in Ellie’s mind, strong and clear, but with an underlying tone of concern. ?We are on our way. Stay away from Adrial.?
Stay away? She looked at Adrial and bit her lip. But he was in such pain. Her every instinct demanded that she help him. She stepped towards Adrial, only to find her way blocked by Belliard.
“Nei, Ellysetta. You must not defy the Feyreisen on this. Until we know what ails Adrial, you must not go near him.”
“But—”
?Ellysetta, obey me!? There was no hint of the kind, courting suitor now. Only pure, autocratic king, accustomed to obedience, demanding it without question.
She flinched and glared at Bel, mostly because Rain wasn’t there to be glared at, but also because she knew Bel had told on her. “I only want to help.”
“You can help most by doing as your shei’tan tells you.
” Bel glanced at Rowan and Adrial, then added silently, ?Ellysetta, listen to me.
You saw Adrial summoning Air without realizing it.
He wields Earth, too, and some Fire. He could hurt you, badly.
The shei’dalin in you wants to help him.
But you are also the Feyreisa. You cannot put yourself at risk. ?
With every muscle in her body protesting, Ellie backed away from Adrial.
She hated the Fey’s rigid belief that the Feyreisa must be protected from all harm, hated watching Adrial’s pain and being refused even the chance to try to help him.
The one thing she’d always been good at was easing the wounds and emotions of those she loved.
“Talk to me, Adrial,” Rowan urged again.
“I can’t think.” Adrial pressed his hands over his eyes.
“It’s so flaming hard to think. My mind is going in a thousand different directions.
” He leaned his head back against the couch and gave a soft, despairing groan.
“Last night it was as if there was someone else in my mind, and now it’s as if part of me, part of my soul, is missing.
I keep searching but I can’t find it. I’m lost. Gods, I’m so lost.” His eyes opened.
Hollow, devastated eyes. He grabbed his brother’s tunic. “Help me, Rowan.”
Rowan was weeping. “I will, Adrial. I’ll help you. On my soul, I swear it.”
Ellie was weeping too. She had done this to him. Whatever now tortured Adrial, it had entered his soul because of her, because she in her ignorance and drunken daydreams had spun a weave that left him vulnerable.
It was too much. She couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
Adrial’s pain was ripping at her, tearing her heart.
She stared hard at him, took a deep breath, and for the first time in her life, deliberately tried to use her magic.
She thought about the shining threads she’d seen Marissya weave.
Imagined glowing ribbons of light and power, weaving together in a net of healing magic.
Imagined the net settling over Adrial. She concentrated, trying to turn the images into reality.
Nothing happened.
She tried to remember what she’d done last night, emboldened by pinalle and keflee, but it was all still so hazy.
She hadn’t intentionally woven magic, she’d just let her mind wander.
Ellie cleared her thoughts and tried letting her mind wander now.
She took deep, calming breaths and thought soothing things, calming thoughts, trying to project them onto Adrial.
Again, nothing happened.
What good was magic if she couldn’t use it on demand? Frustration and empathetic pain beat at her. Adrial’s Fey-beautiful face was carved with lines of anguish, his warrior’s body shaking as he clung to his brother and wept, pleading for someone, anyone, to help him.
Biting her lip, desperate to repair the harm she’d somehow done him, Ellysetta closed her eyes and prayed. “Gods, please, help him. Make it stop. Take away the pain.”