Chapter Thirteen My Star #2
His grip tightened, and her breath caught. The sound might as well have been a trumpet for the way he pulled away with a groan. “I think you’ll finally be the death of me.”
“Pick up the pace, thief,” Caelan said. “We have a lot to cover before we lose the light.”
They’d agreed to train only when they had to stop anyway, either to eat and rest or allow Ash and Ciz to do the same. Caelan didn’t waste a second, calling a start immediately after they made camp that evening. As if her magic knew what was about to happen, it rumbled threateningly.
Ash nuzzled her good shoulder, and she pressed a kiss to the star on his forehead. “I’ll be fine.” Probably. She straightened her spine and jogged after Caelan.
When he was satisfied they’d put enough distance between them and the horses, Caelan began peeling the layers of plated black leather from his torso, until his chest was bared before her in all its glory.
The curse mark had swelled in size, more veins spidering up his abdomen.
One of them writhed under her attention, but when she blinked, it had gone still.
Even cursed, Caelan was a sight to behold.
“Is there a reason you need to be half naked for this?” she asked dryly.
“I know how you like to look.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong.
“So where do we start?” She tried to pose the question casually, but knew she sounded nervous.
Caelan lifted his left hand, and from his palm rose a tiny flame, popping in the air between them.
“There are five classes of magic among Sages: elementation, compulsion, transcendence, perception, and healing. Elementals can manipulate the natural world through a single elemental affinity. An elemental’s Ire manifests in shades of green.
” The flame shifted into a serpent that wound down his arm, opened its mouth, and hissed, its forked tongue flicking sparks in her direction, before disappearing in a whisper of smoke.
“Magic has a sort of… personality. My affinity comes from Pirax, the All-God of fire. It’s temperamental, almost imperious. ”
“That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
Unfazed by her commentary, he explained, “After the Fall, the Rhiterrans forbade worship of the All-Gods—destroyed every temple and text they could find. They thought if they could cut off our access to those who gifted our magic, it would make us weaker.”
“Did it?”
He weighed the question as the last of the smoke curled up into the trees.
“There is a volcanic island off the southern coast said to have been visited by Pirax. Elementals with his gift are encouraged to journey there. It took me hours to hike to the top. When I reached the edge of the crater and stared down its throat into the earth’s core, my magic sang, and I swore I heard him speak to me.
” Reya didn’t doubt it, not just because she could feel its truth but because of the fervency in his tone.
“Our gifts are a reflection of the All-Gods they came from, and at the very least, understanding their nature helps us better understand our own.” He clenched his fist, and the color of his Ire began to change.
“A healer’s Ire manifests in shades of gold.
Their gift comes from Iena, the All-Goddess of healing. ”
“You said you were a trium.” She cocked one brow expectantly.
The tilt of Caelan’s lips was her only warning.
As he clenched his fist again, his Ire turned bloodred.
And that wasn’t all. The skin around it began to darken, and the gold in Caelan’s eyes dimmed to a glittering black.
He jerked, as if in pain, then his arms splayed and bent in a blur of feathers and talons.
A raven was flapping wildly where Caelan had been standing.
Reya screamed and flew back, tripping over a fern.
Her rear hit the earth, but she kept crawling on her hands and feet, away from the bird that landed in front of her and cocked its head to one side.
It was the largest raven she’d ever seen, with ink-dark eyes and silken feathers so black they were almost blue.
Mouth agape, she stared at the creature.
It stared back.
She’d seen that bird before. On a rooftop across from her flat. The morning after she’d—oh, that bastard.
Red light seared the air as its wings spread and morphed, bending and twisting to the height of a man, its eyes flaring like coals. Blue-black feathers turned to golden skin. Then Caelan was standing over her, rolling back his shoulders, humor tugging on his lips.
“What the rotting hell?” she sputtered.
“Transcenders can shift into the form of an animal. Courtesy of Tella, the All-Goddess of wild things. Their Ire manifests in shades of red.” Caelan loosened his fist, and the black of his eyes returned to their natural gold.
He extended a hand to help her up, but she smacked it away. That was how he’d found her caches. She’d been so busy looking for the enemy behind her, she hadn’t thought to look up. Had he ever planned on telling her? “Were you watching me sleep, too?”
“It wasn’t much of a view.”
Reya rolled her eyes. “Do you turn into other things? Please say no.”
Again, that almost-smile. “Just a raven.”
This time, she accepted Caelan’s offer up.
His warm fingers tightened around her forearm as he pulled, but when she was on her feet, he didn’t let go.
With unnerving focus, he peeled up her sleeve and ran a finger over her skin, tracing a familiar design, one he seemed to have memorized.
Her Ire. She shivered beneath the touch.
A familiar confusion wrinkled his brow, but disappeared just as quickly.
“You’re a perceptor. Your gift comes from Maris, the All-Goddess of wisdom. ”
“I’m a what now?”
“Perceptors have power over the mind. Their Ire manifests in shades of violet. I can’t teach you much about that particular gift, but I know someone who can.”
A snort. “Caelan, I can’t read minds.”
“It’s more complicated than that, but yes, you can.”
“I would know.”
“I think you do,” he said. “Or is there some other reason you always take my words at face value? Is it because you know I’m telling the truth?”
Reya reared back. No one had ever confronted her about it before, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about him knowing. It tainted everything he’d ever told her.
“You don’t even have to use your magic for that, the instinct is so ingrained.” Reya’s neck flushed. He went on, “You’ve never asked someone to repeat themselves, sure they said something out loud, when in fact they only thought it?”
As a child—often. “If I can read minds, then why can’t I read yours?”
“Because I have no interest in you being in there.”
Reya crossed her arms. “So you can stop me.”
“In a sense. It’s called Misting. It’s a technique anyone can employ to protect their mind, human or magic-born.
You would do well to learn it, too. As far as I can tell, you’re a duo.
Your other gift is… raw. A class of its own kind.
I’m not positive yet what All-God granted it.
Thankfully, the theory for all magic is the same. ”
A familiar, barely there tug in her gut. Not a lie but not quite the truth, either. “But you have your suspicions.”
His expression never wavered. “Yes. But that is something you have to figure out for yourself, thief.”
The more he called her thief, the more that moniker changed. Softened.
“Then the Sage I set free…,” Reya dared ask. “She’s an elemental like you?”
He watched her expression for a long time before answering. “If her Ire was green, then yes.”
“So the king had it wrong.” She didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned by this information.
“Not necessarily. As you just saw, Ire can change. A Guardian’s Ire is white.
” He ran a finger down his arm. “Magic changes a body. This is what it did to ours. The color is just a hallmark of whatever All-God gifted the magic when we drank from the Pool of Life. A signature in the language of creation.”
Reya wondered why the king hadn’t just killed Stellene. He’d had her in his grasp, and if the God Power was as dangerous as all the stories claimed, why risk transporting her to the prison? He had gone through a lot of trouble to keep Stellene alive.
She considered all the whispers she’d heard about Bladestone Prison.
Whatever the king was doing in there, he was collecting magic-born to do it, and not just any magic-born.
Sages. Powerful ones. The Blood Watchers had taken one look at Caelan and said he would fetch a high price.
Why? Because he was so large? Because he was male?
Caelan’s voice tore her from her thoughts.
“You’ve been suppressing your Sage half all your life.
We’re going to start by challenging that.
I can’t hide and summon my Ire at will like you can.
But as a demi-Sage, you have the ability to disappear wholly into your human skin, which you’ve done for years.
” He took a step toward her, eyes sweeping her slowly from head to toe in a way that might have made her toes curl, if only he wasn’t looking at her like the world hinged on what she did next.
“I showed you mine, thief. Now you show me yours.”
Reya swallowed. “I can’t make my Ire appear on command.”
“You can, you just don’t know how.”
“So explain it to me.”
“I haven’t the slightest idea. I told you, mine never fades.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m awed by your teaching, oh ancient one.”
That got the slightest reaction. A spark in one eye. Not that Caelan acknowledged it. “When does your Ire usually appear?”
She answered without hesitation. “When I’m being threatened.”
He rubbed at his jaw. “Would it help if I threatened you?”
“It would hardly be a convincing threat.”