Chapter 84
Chapter Eighty-Four
Peytor
The sting of the fresh Tethering Rune inked on the skin above my heart, directly next to Torin’s mark, faded to a dull throb; the pressure that built from holding Ellowyn’s magic abated soon after.
It was different absorbing Ellowyn’s excess power than it was when I completed the tether with Torin.
Maybe because Ellowyn was my sister, or maybe because of the volatile nature of her magic.
Either way, my soul felt at ease once her tether settled, binding us until death.
There’s no other way I would have it.
Ellowyn lay prone on her and Torin’s bed, chest rising and falling rhythmically now that she was no longer fighting for her life against the deathly tide of her power. Her features were peaceful, less harsh, and not as marred with worry as they were when she was awake.
The last two years had aged her, just as they had us all, but I saw the starkest changes in my sister.
Her face was more angular, the hollows of her cheeks more pronounced.
There were deeper frown lines on her brow and by the edges of her mouth, places that should only have been marked by happiness.
My heart hurt for her, for the life she was so unceremoniously ripped from and the chaos she was unwittingly thrust into, even if she had taken to it well.
Torin shifted on the bed next to Ellowyn, pulling her on top of his chest as far as he could without waking her.
Her pale arm flopped bonelessly with a thunk as he maneuvered her head into the crook of his neck.
His face relaxed then, when he could feel her heartbeat, her small breaths against his skin.
Torin’s fingers, marred by a litany of small cuts and bruises, stroked soft, soothing patterns onto Ellowyn’s arm as he closed his eyes, finally at peace.
“Are you going to tell me what happened? How you found her and got back here so quickly?” I asked quietly, sinking down onto the edge of the bed.
We were the only ones in the room, as per Torin’s booming command when he first arrived in Alvor with Ellowyn cradled in his arms, her Destruction Magic coating her skin and sparking every so often.
Even without Torin’s harshly spoken request, no one would have dared set foot in this room; not with the way Ellowyn’s magic was blindly reaching toward inanimate and living things alike, leaving pockmarks of destruction behind. The wildness in Torin’s honey eyes was an even stronger deterrent.
I’d followed without a word, jogging to keep up with his determined strides, before closing and locking their door behind me. Minutes later, I’d inscribed the rune on Ellowyn’s sternum and over my heart, shocked that I’d remembered the intricate whorls and lines.
“It was . . . unlike anything I’d ever seen before,” Torin said, his voice a hoarse whisper. Ghosts danced in his eyes as he blinked rapidly, trying to clear his mind of whatever dark path he’d strayed down. “The cloud reached for the heavens, a swirling vortex of pure Destruction Magic.”
“We felt it even up here,” I admitted, tracing the patterns of the quilt on their bed with my finger. “There was a shift of some sort in the balance of things. Like a quick change in pressure before it became easier to breathe again.”
Torin nodded slightly, his fingers never pausing, just as his gaze never left his wife’s sleeping form.
I’d be jealous of the utter devotion reflected in his eyes if I didn’t have my own quad. Just the thought of Lex, Ilyas, and Folami chased away a soul-deep chill I hadn’t realized was there before. The same love that the four of us shared was just as potent between Torin and Ellowyn.
“The magic it . . . it sucked me in,” he whispered, eyes darting to mine for a moment as his fingers shook on Ellowyn’s skin.
He swallowed loudly, closing his eyes as his hand stilled and leaned back against the headboard.
“No, that wasn’t right. There was a . . . hand that reached out. Then a body followed. But not a corporeal form. More like the echo of a spirit, if that makes sense.”
It didn’t, but I nodded anyway, despite the fact his eyes were still closed. It felt like he didn’t need my affirmation anyway, perhaps just an ear to hear his nearly unbelievable story.
“I recognized her. Well, not her, but her people. Or who she probably was to someone I knew once.” His voice was far away as he searched for a moment in time.
His hands began to move as he told his story, reaching out as if to grab the memory of his body and pull it into the vortex of magic that existed only in his mind.
“She emerged from the magic and begged me to come with her. I relented, allowed her to pull me in—I thought for sure I was going to die. That Ellowyn’s magic would consume me completely.
But . . . it didn’t. As long as I held tight to the spirit, my body was unscathed.
“We drifted for a while through the storm of magic, so dense and volatile in parts that I couldn’t see anything except for the strands of ashes and embers around me.
The smell was completely overwhelming, like the magic was all that was and all that ever would be.
” He shuddered, the motion causing Ellowyn to snort and stir.
Torin stilled, eyes flicking open to rest on Ellowyn once more as he waited for her to settle completely.
“There was nothing left in the Valley, Peytor,” Torin said, finally making eye contact with me. I gasped slightly at the haunted yet awed gleam in his eyes. “She is more powerful than I could ever imagine. It was like she was rewriting the very fabric of reality in that specific spot.”
“So how’d you find her?” I asked, enraptured by his tale.
“The spirit led me to her. Told me it was as promised. The magic had eaten away at Ellowyn’s clothes and was starting to consume her from—from the inside out,” he whispered, pain lancing across his face.
He shuddered again. “It was something I never wish to see again. I was able to make a sort of block, I guess? I’m not even really sure how it worked or what it was, but my magic just poured from me into her.
The vortex halted before the storm retreated enough for me to release my hold on the ghost and pick Ellowyn up.
Then we rode back here as fast as my horse and magic would allow,” Torin finished with a shrug.
“What happened to the spirit?”
“I’m not really sure, she just kind of—”
“She’s gone. They’re all resting once more,” Ellowyn’s groggy voice thick with sleep interrupted Torin’s statement, causing both of us to jump.
“How do you know that, sweetheart?” Torin asked, attention firmly back on the woman in his arms as he gently pushed her messy blonde hair off her sweaty forehead.
Ellowyn stretched languidly with an indulgent groan before she settled once more.
Her steel-blue eyes blinked lazily open, some flutters longer than others, until she was awake and aware, shrewd gaze softening when she saw me. I smiled and pat her leg underneath the quilt.
“Hello, sis.”
“Hello, Peytor,” she said softly. “I missed you.”
I returned her grin, squeezing her leg slightly in acknowledgement.
“How do you know about the ghosts?” Torin asked lightly, brow furrowed in thought.
“They were part of the Valley, tied to it and its boundary. Solace forced them from the ether, I think, when she and Kaos returned as a way to ‘protect’ her ancestral place. I guess she didn’t expect that they’d return a bit angry about everything,” Ellowyn said with a wry laugh.
“They were returned with Creation Magic, and only the power of the Destruction God or Goddess could return them. So that’s what I did. ”
She shrugged, like banishing spirits to eternal rest was an everyday occurrence.
A laugh of disbelief choked its way out of my mouth, and Ellowyn shot me a wink at the sound before turning over to press a quick kiss to Torin’s mouth.
“Thank you for saving me,” she muttered.
I turned away, moving from the bed to give them privacy as their kiss deepened and turned more heated.
A loud banging on the door had me jumping, nearly falling over in surprise. Torin’s masculine groan was long and painful, though Ellowyn’s accompanying laugh nearly drowned it completely.
“I’ll get it,” I called as the banging continued. Heart racing from the scare, I gripped the handle and pulled the heavy oak door open, the hinges creaking slightly with the motion.
I barely had time to register the identities of the man and woman standing in the hallway before the woman rushed past. The man closed his eyes and shook his head even as a small smile graced his normally stoic face.
“I didn’t know you could smile, General,” I teased Rohak. His grin fell once more as he grunted a greeting at me.
“Mention it again and see what happens,” Rohak warned as he clasped my shoulder good-naturedly, striding into the room as if he owned the building. I closed the door with a slight shake of my head, following Rohak to the bed that was now occupied by Ellowyn and Faylinn as they whispered together.
“What are they whispering about?” I asked.
Rohak shook his head as he crossed his arms, another grin twitching at the edges of his mouth.
“About a thousand different things at once. They keep switching topics in the middle of discussion, and it’s making my brain hurt,” Torin grumbled, shuffling to stand by Rohak and me.
Fay’s expression was lighter than I’d seen in months as she gestured manically to an enraptured Ellowyn.
My sister gasped and laughed at the right points in Fay’s story before placing her pale hand on Fay’s light-brown arm, leaning toward the other woman to whisper something conspiratorially that had the Rune Master throwing her curly head back in a soul-lightening laugh.
“It’s good to see them happy like this,” Rohak muttered to Torin. The latter hummed in agreement, adopting Rohak’s posture to watch their women talk.
“We need to make adjustments to our plan,” Torin said, rubbing a hand down his face tiredly.
Rohak grunted, and I hummed in agreement.
“The loss of Solace’s immortality is not a small thing. It’s going to either send her into a frenzy or force her into hiding. Either way, we need to prepare for when she finally decides to launch her attack,” Rohak intoned quietly.
“It’ll be sooner rather than later,” I interjected, forcing both commanders’ eyes to me.
I sweated under their intense scrutiny. “The Bondsmith left to retrieve Itanya. The loss of that asset, in addition to losing her immortality?” I shook my head, curls brushing the top of my tunic.
“There’s no telling what she’ll do, but I would be willing to stake my life on the fact she won’t let those two combined slights rest without retaliation. ”
“I agree,” Torin said.
“So, what do we do about it?” Fay asked, her conversation with Ellowyn dying without the three of us noticing.
“You will do nothing,” Rohak grumbled, and fire flashed in Faylinn’s eyes.
“Want to try again?” Venom soaked her words. Even Ellowyn’s face flashed with anger.
Great. An angry demi-goddess and an even angrier goddess.
“Careful, friend,” Torin muttered out of the side of his mouth, quiet enough only we could hear it.
Rohak blew out an audible breath.
“All I’m saying is that you are no longer immortal. Protecting you is my top priority. Even if that means keeping you locked in a room somewhere while the rest of us—”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that, no matter how well-intentioned it is,” Faylinn bit with her hand raised in the air, halting Rohak’s words. “We’ll discuss my personal involvement later in private.”
“Good luck,” I muttered, much to Torin’s amusement. Rohak’s emerald eyes flashed for a moment before he shook his head.
“Yes, Faylinn,” he acquiesced, his words relaxing the Rune Master incrementally.
“I think you should leave for Vespera soon,” Ellowyn said quietly, rubbing her sternum where the Tethering Rune sat.
“Why is that?” Torin asked, concern drawing his eyebrows together.
Ellowyn shook her head, bright blonde waves rustling with the movement. “Just a . . . feeling.”
Torin hummed in understanding as Rohak nodded.
“I was thinking the same thing. We need to prepare our forces in Vespera and reinforce our protections surrounding the city.”
“Before you leave, make sure to grab a communication stone from Talamh,” Torin said, eyes still glued to Ellowyn as she embraced Faylinn, clutching her tightly.
Rohak grunted in agreement, exchanging his own farewells as Faylinn extracted herself from Ellowyn’s hold.
Once the door closed behind them, Ellowyn fixed Torin with a look that was equal parts adoration and exasperation but underscored with the most intense display of love I’d ever seen.
“Thank you,” she whispered before turning her gaze to me. “Both of you.”
I grunted as Torin smiled, inching his head slightly. “Anything for you, wife.”
Ellowyn blushed prettily as her fingers wound into a stray thread on the comforter.
“What can I do to help now that I’m . . . awake?”
Torin paused for a moment, an unspoken conversation passing between him and me before he spoke again.
“I have a favor to ask of you, Ellowyn.”
“Anything,” Ellowyn intoned vehemently, tugging at the roots of her hair as she ran her hands through it.
“I need you in Hestin.”