Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
Imbuement
The sun beat down without mercy, pulling beads of sweat from my skin. After spending the night tangled up with the Commander, my energy felt renewed. Waking up in the Commander’s arms had felt like a gift I didn’t deserve.
He’d kissed me lazily, lips soft and warm, pulling an orgasm from me with nothing but his fingers and a low murmur against my throat.
But when I’d tried to reach for his hard length, he had chuckled.
“As much as it pains me,” he’d murmured against my ear, “I need to make preparations for the Mortals’ and Fae lords’ arrivals. ”
I’d pouted and made him promise not to stay away too long.
We’d shared a quiet breakfast in his bed, knees brushing, his thumb stroking idle circles on my thigh.
It had been… intimate. Comforting. Except for the intense heartbreak that oozed down the bond, dousing my quiet contentment with questions. What wasn’t he telling me?
Now, not even an hour later, my chest ached. I could still feel him through the bond, a faint simmer of frustration on his end, like he was fighting the urge to come straight back to me.
I had been led through open hallways lined with floor-to-ceiling windows that revealed breathtaking views to a training field carved into the side of the mountain.
Bright green grass extended through the clearing despite warriors sparring, launching arrows, and using magic. Fae magic lit the air like sparks off steel. They called lightning, flame, and wind. Sanctums were nothing compared to this.
I was in awe, and suddenly I understood the need for the Iron Guard, without them, the Mortal Kingdom stood no chance against this.
Solas beamed down at me as I approached him, his smile almost as blinding as the sun. A kindness I didn’t deserve after yesterday.
His nose crinkled once, and his eyebrows raised. His gaze crashed to my left hand. The mark had grown last night, during our bonding. Intricate lines wove just past my wrist and extended down over my fingers around the original wave and pointed stars.
“You bonded!” His arms wrapped around me in a tight hug. “Oh, I am so happy right now.”
His voice sounded warm, genuine, but worry creased his brow and his smile slipped.
“Does Cerilla know?” he asked as he stepped away from me and passed me a sword.
I dropped into a fighting stance. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. Considering she was offering to help me escape yesterday, I didn’t think she would be thrilled about it.
Solas swung his sword, expertly twisting it and clashing it against mine.
“Aren’t you upset with me?” I asked, drawing back and sidestepping his advance.
He pivoted, blade slashing so close to my neck it nicked my skin.
“Deron was a good male. He didn’t deserve to die. But you were frightened. Cornered animals lash out.”
Deron. The male who had died by the Commander’s blade yesterday. It made it worse somehow, knowing his name.
Solas did not relent, his blade crashing against mine until my arms felt weak. But neither did I, because I was upset with him, too. He could have told me about the Commander, about the mating bond.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I yelled, lunging and swinging my sword. Steel flashed. In one smooth motion he caught my wrist, twisted, and my weapon was gone. His sword was suddenly at my throat, not touching me but close enough that I felt nervous.
It wouldn’t be the first time someone I had thought was my friend tried to kill me. I stood there, unflinchingly staring into his warm hazel eyes.
“I gave you so many hints, Lyra,” he said, throwing the sword against the grass.
He stepped towards me, arms open and I took a small step back. He advanced anyway and wrapped his arms around me in a gentle hug.
“I am your friend, Lyra. I tried my best without betraying the Commander.”
The fury drained out of me all at once, leaving something hollow behind as he released me and stepped back.
He had tried to tell me. I saw it again in my mind—the way he’d traced his mark absentmindedly, before his gaze shifted to my own. The weight in his voice when he’d explained what it meant, what it cost.
“You tried to help me,” I whispered, the realisation settling heavy in my chest, shame threading through the remnants of my anger.
“Always,” he responded with an easy smile.
A throat cleared and Caelum walked towards us in the same black armour as yesterday, arms clasped behind his back. “You fight well for a princess, my lady.” He bowed his head in greeting.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand and leant against my sword.
“I am sorry for how our meeting went yesterday,” he said. “I am the Commander’s mage.”
“I didn’t realise mages still existed,” I said carefully, trying to school the surprise on my face. I thought they only existed in books; in the tales I had read as a girl. They were always the villains.
“Do not look so shocked,” he scoffed as he tilted his head at me. “I am not the first mage you have met.”
I frowned, waiting for him to enlighten me.
“Cerilla was my apprentice.”
The pieces clicked. The teas she brewed. Her healing abilities. Why her powers were blocked by the storms. The way she seemed to know things about me.
He smiled, watching me with intrigue. “My Lord has requested we start imbuement.”
“Close your eyes,” Caelum instructed, circling me with slow, steady steps.
Caelum had pulled a table made of stone from the ground of the training yard with sheer magic and laid a sword on top of it.
My eyelashes fluttered closed despite my nerves.
“Mind if I watch?” Riven strolled through the training yard lazily, smirking as if he belonged amongst these warriors.
Before I could answer, Solas had blocked his path. “You must be Riven,” he said, extending his hand. Riven eyed his hand for a moment too long but clasped his hand around his.
“I am Solas.” He smiled down at Riven with warmth, dwarfing him with his height. “If I stab you, it won’t be because you are Mortal. I love Mortals. It will be if you step out of line.”
Riven chuckled, eyes lighting up with challenge. “That makes me want to step out of line just to see you try.”
Solas laughed, ushering him over to a wooden bench at the edge of the cliff face.
Riven shot me a wink as he sat down, and I couldn’t help but smile. I had missed him.
Caelum cleared his throat and I turned back to my stern teacher, closing my eyes.
“Focus on where your power comes from. It will feel like a well inside you. Find it.” I focused inwards, feeling the pull in my chest. Power swirled there, a steady wave of energy.
“Pull at that power,” Caelum said, voice steady as steel. “Tug on it. Gently. Take just a thread. Imagine it’s something you can see. Something you can feel.”
I drew in a slow breath, the training yard suddenly too quiet, too watchful. I reached inward, tugging. It seemed to be stuck. It looked like a pool of shimmering blue light in my mind, with darker threads that glittered almost mesmerizingly. I tugged at it. The cage around it groaned.
My eyes snapped open. My spine jolted straight. “I can’t,” I gasped, breath catching like barbed wire in my throat. Let it free, a voice carried to me on the breeze. Her voice. Maraveth. It slithered across the ground, skimming my skin like a thousand cold fingers. You are complete now. Save him.
I clutched my head, nails digging into my scalp as if that could claw the voice from my head. Something felt different, inside me. Something had changed and it wasn’t just the bond tethered to my soul.
“No!” I cried.
“Refocus yourself,” Caelum’s voice wove through the chaos, low, grounding. Real.
“Let your power surface, or it will consume you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. The world pulsed around me.
I reached towards that shimmering light within me again.
Deeper. The cage groaned again, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
I could feel its anticipation. That dark part of me I had suppressed begged to be free.
It had grown stronger with each Soul Relic, and for some reason, after bonding the Commander it felt, complete.
My heart pounded, but I pulled harder. My veins blistered with magic, splitting me open from the inside as if it was poison.
It felt like my very soul was tearing, reforming.
Her whispered voice grew louder in a crescendo, mingling with the haunting melody that had plagued me for most of my life.
My throat was raw; I wasn’t sure if I was screaming or if she was screaming for me.
Agony tore through me like lightning in a storm. I dropped to my knees, the earth biting into my skin.
The cage shattered. The shimmering well of turquoise burst from the cage like a dam wall breaking, flooding my system.
Energy pulsed through me like it was a living thing, and every nerve ending in my body burned in response as though I had been set aflame.
“Good, let it run through you.” Caelum’s voice grounded me again, reminding me that I wasn’t being torn apart, I was in a clearing in the forest. The burning ebbed to a dull warmth with every frantic beat of my heart. “Now pull a piece of your magic.”
I grasped at the raging waves of power surging through my body, pulling a thread of turquoise that rippled with that shimmering darkness.
“I have it,” I yelled. My hands were tingling with a strange warmth, and I cupped them together as if I were holding something real.
“Yes, you do. Open your eyes.”
My lashes parted to searing light. I gasped. The shimmering glow I’d imagined was real, pulsing between my palms like the tide.
“Hold it above the sword and push it into the blade. But slowly.”