19. Aetheria
Aetheria
Alaric’s talisman clicked off.
I found myself staring up at Bones, shocked by the sight of his flushed face coming back into focus.
It was so hard to look at him. Even with the threat of Malefic standing there, watching both of us in amusement, I couldn’t tear my eyes off him, or off the gold irises glowing from his shadowed face.
He let go of me as soon as I was visible, releasing my neck and thigh right after he swam into view. Startled, I released his hair when he stepped back, and let my hand slide out from inside his shirt when he disentangled himself from my embrace.
He was staring at me then, holding my wrists, but only to keep me from moving closer to where he stood. He turned us around, so that his back faced the opening to the corridor, and mine faced the deepest part of the crevice.
For that instant, he only stared at me, panting.
That’s when I noticed the gold ring around his neck.
I’d opened his shirt while we’d been kissing, and the ring glinted there now, reflecting light from the magical torch on the other side of the corridor. The gold markings on his chest glowed with their own light below where the ring rested just above his clavicle.
He looked completely inhuman to me, standing there, with his back to the corridor light, his eyes and chest glowing, that strange, collar-like piece of jewelry around his neck.
He also looked shockingly beautiful.
I felt our primals connect high over our heads. That connection felt somehow more intimate than sex, or maybe just more intimate than how sex had been with anyone else.
He stared at me, and his eyes grew cold, even as his magic wrapped more intensely into mine.
I felt that connection spark, making me gasp as a light bloomed over our heads.
Completely at odds with what I felt in his magic, his face lost more and more of its expressiveness as he stared, until it resembled something closer to a mask.
The glow in his gold eyes darkened, leaving nothing.
“Don’t fucking come back,” he growled.
He stared at me, emotionless, unflinching.
I opened my mouth to answer––
––when he shoved me, with all of his strength.
I was so caught off guard, I didn’t even try to fight him.
I doubt it would have done any good if I had.
Magic added kick to the increased force behind his fight-strengthened arms. I felt the difference in him, saw muscles stand out on his neck, chest, and jaw as he threw me away from him with everything he had.
He’d never aimed his strength at me like that before.
He’d never really tried to hit me, not even while we were sparring.
He used the full force of his strength against me now.
I flew backwards, briefly terrified as my feet left the ground. I knew a stone wall stood not far behind me. I felt myself flying through space.
I braced for impact, clenching my jaw––
––and my vision flashed to pure, blinding white.
When I emerged into a much darker light, I was still flying backwards.
I went flying briefly into the air, flailed my arms and legs over a mottled, white-gray expanse, and then gravity caught me at the top of the arc.
I began to fall before I could focus on where I was.
Instinct had me throw my hands and arms forward, first to keep from slamming my face into the stone, and then to grip hold of it before I went sliding down the steep edge on either side.
I gripped the top of an arched peak in a desperate hug, and then hung on for a few seconds, gasping.
My gut and chest hurt, and it took me a few seconds more to realize I’d knocked the wind out of myself when I fell.
Slowly, my heart and lungs got back under control.
My chest and stomach hurt, but that was minor compared to what would have happened if I’d fallen.
I cautiously opened my eyes.
The Eyrie stood in sharp relief in my direct line of sight, a shadowy finger reaching high above the cliff face overlooking the valley.
A nearly-full moon stood in the sky behind it, half-obscured in clouds, but bright enough to illuminate most of the valley.
The clouds whispered by and it grew even brighter, until I could seen the moonlight reflecting on the snaking Faerie River.
I swallowed, and cautiously lifted my head.
I was on the roof of the north corridor of Malcroix Mansion.
I didn’t know if Bones had thrown me there deliberately, sending me back to where I’d started without realizing what that would mean, or if I’d done it to myself.
A gust of wind cut into my clothes, and I gasped at how cold it was, despite how much the days had been warming for the past few weeks.
From the position of the moon, it had to be late. It had only just risen when I’d looked out the east-facing window of the tower earlier that night.
I closed my eyes, and put my focus on the sun primal over my head.
Could you send the monocerus to see if anyone’s awake? I asked my primal. And if any of them might be willing to come get me?
There was a silence where I just hung there, from the top of the roof, panting.
I waited for my monocerus to reform out of blue and white particles.
It didn’t.
I waited a few minutes longer before I realized it wasn’t going to happen.
Could you send something up there? I asked.
That time, I felt my primal agree.
I’d scarcely completed the request when blue and white particles of magic swirled visibly in front of me.
The magic clearly flowed down from the primal over my head, but I never saw what they became, or if they transformed into anything at all.
The indefinite cloud of magic hovered right in front of where my hand gripped the top of the roof’s arch, and I felt a friendly, inquisitive, strangely intense presence there, seemingly looking at me.
Whatever it was, it felt different from how the monocerus usually felt.
“I know,” I told it, feeling a question, or maybe a comment there, despite the silence.
My words got torn from my lips by the wind, but I could feel it hear me.
“I know. I shouldn’t have come back alone.
I’m not happy about it, either. But I couldn’t get him to come with me.
” I clenched my jaw when my eyes stung. “Next time. Okay?”
The cloud just hovered there, silent.
Even so, I felt more meaning from it, and then I was fighting tears.
“I don’t know how,” I said. “I’ll think of something.”
The cloud pulsed with blue and green light.
“It’s not my fault,” I said, struggling against a closing in my throat.
I felt like I was lying, although I couldn’t decide if I was.
Whatever the truth of things, it one hundred percent felt like I was to blame.
Luc came to get me.
As it turned out, that cloud of blue light didn’t have to travel far to find my friends.
When they saw me disappear through the stone roof of the northwest corridor, Luc, Nyx, Alaric, and Jolie all opted to stay in Bones’s tower for the night, and wait for me to return.
Seconds after the blue cloud floated up to the window and passed through the glass, a light turned on that illuminated all of the windows around that floor.
Then I heard the screech of the metal hinge and looked up.
Luc popped his head out the window, his long red hair whipping in the wind.
I saw him look around, maybe expecting a drakai with a message, until he finally looked down, and did a double-take.
His facial expression, which I could only just make out in the distance, abruptly changed, right before he froze.
He stared at me, eyes wide, his mouth ajar.
By then, I had pulled myself up from my face-down position on the roof.
I sat gingerly on the arched peak instead of lying on it, and looked up at Luc, so he could better see my face.
Still gripping the stone tightly in one hand to counteract the strong gusts of wind, I waved up at him, doing my best to smile in a semi-normal way.
Luc waved back, but I didn’t see him smile.
His dark red head disappeared back through the dark opening, and I shivered.
By the time he reappeared, wings strapped to his back, gripping the iron edge of the window for balance, my teeth were chattering.
He swooped down on where I was, and alighted unsteadily on the slanted sides of the arch.
I watched him struggle to keep his balance, flapping the large, black wings he must have found in Bones’s closet.
Once he’d steadied his feet and upper body, he held out his arms, motioning for me to come closer.
I climbed gingerly to my feet and walked carefully over the top of the tiles.
He grabbed me when I got close enough, and took off at once.
I thought he’d take me down to the balcony outside the northern corridor.
Instead, he flew me up to the window, where Alaric, Jolie, and Nyx were waiting, holding out their arms and hands to catch hold of me and pull me over the window sill and back into the room.
I was relieved, honestly.
By then, all of the adrenaline had drained out of me.
I was cold, exhausted, shaking, and I just wanted to get inside. My teeth were chattering so hard it actually hurt, and my legs wobbled once my feet were firmly planted on the floor. I think climbing up all of those stairs might have killed me.
I had already found my way to the couch by the time Luc was climbing through the window after me. His face was flushed with wind and cold, but his mouth was hard, and he looked like he was caught between relief and the strong urge to strangle me.
He was still taking off the wings when he turned a glare in my direction.
“You are fucking insane,” he growled, waving Nyx off when she tried to help him with the wings. “I mean it, Leda. You’re gods-damned certifiable…”
He finished shouldering off the wings, and stomped over to the kitchen, where he immediately put on a kettle, and a small saucepan.
I watched numbly as he filled the saucepan with milk.
He added chocolate a few minutes later, and didn’t look at me as he stirred.
I was still staring in the direction of Bones’s small kitchen when someone cleared their throat next to me.