Chapter Fifteen #3
She waited patiently until he inclined his head, then laid one hand just below the injury. Her fingers rested lightly on the skin stretched taut over his ribs, but something almost like pain flared as her touch grew . . . electric.
He caught a single glimpse of her eyes, glowing pink, just before her lashes fluttered and the lids drifted down. The air around her deepened, gradually spinning up into the usual colors of Inga’s aura—purples and greens, reds and pinks, blues and yellows.
All the colors of the Witchwood. But at the moment, all Aleksi could think was, All the colors of a bruise. Then the colors shifted until no one shade stood out, and iridescent light danced in their place.
Inga always glowed brightest when she was helping someone she loved.
A tugging sensation overwhelmed him, and Aleksi clenched his fingers on the wooden arm of his chair.
For a fraction of a heartbeat, his mind rioted, because he’d felt this before—magic that meant to draw, to take.
In that moment, it did not matter that this was Inga, and all she wanted was to help him by taking on his pain as her own.
In that moment, he saw Sorin’s witch, grinning madly as she ripped away his connection to the Dream.
No. Aleksi forced his eyes open and focused his swimming gaze on Inga’s face. A hint of sweat had begun to sheen on her forehead and upper lip, and her brow furrowed lightly—the only outward indications that she had claimed his injury for herself.
He shuddered, and it was over.
Inga swallowed hard, and she released a shaky breath before finally opening her eyes once again. “I’ve never felt anything so . . . hateful. It didn’t touch Einar or Naia, did it?”
He nearly shuddered again. “No. Einar shielded her, and the spikes could not penetrate the skin of his . . .” Aleksi paused. “He calls it his demigod form.”
Fascination seemed to distract her from whatever lingering pain she had stolen from him. “I always heard the rumors that he could become a giant sea creature, but I’ve never even heard whispers of any other form. He’s always kept his secrets close, hasn’t he?”
“Yes, and for good reason.” Aleksi offered her a rueful smile. “What is it Elevia says? If you can, always maintain the ability to surprise your enemies?”
“A lesson you learned better than any of us.” She pushed herself to her feet and dropped into the chair across from him. “Sorin always underestimated you.”
“And I don’t think he’ll ever stop.” An experimental stretch resulted in only a mild twinge in his side, a sensation very much like the vague soreness that lingered after a long recovery. “Inga? May I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
He studied her for several long moments. She did not fidget the way most people would, and his silent, prolonged gaze did not make her uncomfortable. She merely stared back at him, waiting.
“Back on the mainland,” he said finally. “Has it been like that? With all the new Dreamers and Voidlings?”
She frowned, tilting her head slightly. “What do you mean?”
He wasn’t even sure. He just knew that the man on the beach, for all his power, had seemed . . . small somehow. Narrow and violent.
The violence, Aleksi understood. Inga’s own awakening had been horrific, as many were. It seemed part of the process, almost a requisite. Life-threatening danger—or pain—seemed to trigger the metamorphosis. But their attacker on the beach—
narrow and violent
All the Dreamers that Aleksi had ever known had awakened to something he could only describe as expansive. Possibilities that were both beyond and precisely of the realm of mortals. But that man had taken in the power of the Dream, and, although it had transformed him, he’d become lesser, somehow.
He had turned himself from a person, a being with all imaginable glories and flaws, into a mere weapon.
He didn’t realize he’d said the words aloud until Inga hummed in agreement.
“Yes, I see what you’re saying. They haven’t all been so violent, but .
. .” Her gaze drifted past him, eyes focusing on something that wasn’t there.
“There’s a reason Sachi’s heart has been breaking.
In some ways, those who awakened to the Void are easier to deal with.
So many of them are furious at what has been done to them.
Their cravings for destruction are righteous.
But the others . . . Sorin stole their dreams. They never had the chance to understand all the glories of the world, or to imagine the things that do not yet exist in it. ”
The thought saddened Aleksi. It had never occurred to him that someone could awaken, either to the Dream or the Void, and immediately relinquish everything that made being a person so beautiful.
Though perhaps it should have, the very moment he’d faced their kidnapper’s lovely, empty eyes on that ship.
Then again, he knew from Sachi and Zanya that not everyone on the mainland had been like this. So Inga must be correct, and these were the people who’d never known the beauty of life in the first place, not even in the smallest of ways. They had been lost long before they were ever found.
“One more thing that Sorin has to answer for,” Aleksi murmured.
“The list is depressingly long at this point.” She rested her elbow on the arm of the chair and propped her chin up on her hand. “Do you still think that Elevia’s evil twin is the one behind all of this?”
“Eirika,” he supplied. “They call her the Stalker. And yes, I do. I’m not absolutely certain, but I’d wager my vineyards on it.”
“This was a little subtle for Sorin, I suppose.” Inga’s lips pursed. “She was testing you. Taking your measure.”
“Yes.” Aleksi wished that he knew what Eirika had learned from the altercation. “Which means the worst is yet to come.”
Inga let out a gusty sigh. “We should tell the others.”
Though he was reluctant to agree, Aleksi nodded.
“But we must be careful what we say. If they think we’re in danger, even for a moment, they’ll come back.
For all we know, that’s exactly what Eirika wants.
No, we’ll have to be circumspect. Perhaps just .
. . Say that we’re handling things here on the island. ”
She studied him for so long that he thought she might be mounting an argument.
But, in the end, she only nodded. “I’ll tell them we have it under control.
There is power enough here—power that might surprise Eirika.
” Her lips curved in a sudden smile. “I suspect your Naia has secrets, too. And that Eirika has gravely underestimated her.”
Aleksi sincerely hoped that she had.