Chapter 25
twenty-five
. . .
Ever
“Enough!” The Usher tries again, but I still don’t listen.
The energy flows through me, rapturous and eager, storming, raging, and hotter than anything I’ve felt.
It’s addictive.
The loud smack of hands coming together pulls my attention, although I can’t see anything through the fog except the silhouette of the Usher, his arms outstretched to the sky, signalling a parting of the black seascape I’ve created and wiping out everything I’ve done, splitting the sky into a massive void and neutralising my magic. Just like he did to Fenix.
The heat and rush I’d felt in abundance are now gone. Left cold, as if he’s created his own new moon effect to Novandia’s magic.
I stagger back, and Fenix catches me, keeping me upright.
“See what you are capable of, Sister,” he whispers in my ear, but I wrench myself from his reach.
My movement is sluggish, my body is tired, and my vision is spotty for a few seconds. The world comes to rights as the Usher extinguishes my power and returns us to the light.
I reach for the stone at my neck and feel its heat, and I don’t know if that’s because of Novandia’s magic or Aslendrix’s coming back into power. My finger worries my ring, spinning it around and around, as I settle on my actions.
What I did.
Could I beat Fenix now?
Can I get the others free? Can we escape?
“Selina?” I check, my conscience also returning, wanting to see if she’s still got her power. Up until now, it’s always been temporary if I drain someone. Even with Crimson in the torture ring, she’d have her power the next day. I absorbed it. I didn’t take it.
Selina is on her knees, leaning against a craggy rock before the drop to the sea below. Her hands are cradling something in front of her. As I step closer, I see she’s mumbling to herself, talking over and over.
“Are you okay?” I push the reluctant words from my lips. “I’m sorry. I… didn’t know I could do that, but…”
“You used it. You used my magic. My power.” Her mumbling grows louder, more bereft. “The Usher said I was special. I was the first he broke the curse with, and then you come along and take it!” Her words snap at me.
Words clog my throat. Angry words, resentful words that I want to throw at her and grind her into the dirt with.
But I swallow, choosing to be better, and breathe through the urge. Kyra would be proud, although she’d also tell Selina where to go.
The thought of my friend seeing what I just did sends an icy chill through my veins, threatening to freeze any new magic inside of me.
“I want to leave,” I state.
The Usher just nods, and my brother flanks him. Neither of them lends a hand nor worries about Selina, as if she were of no importance to them any longer. Discarded.
“Hey! Don’t just leave her like that!” I shout. But they keep on walking. “Listen to me.” In a rash move, I lunge for the Usher, grabbing his arm. As my hand grips his, my fingers touch the crepey skin of his arm.
A rush of power bolts through me, and in that second, I know we have a connection. I shove my walls and mental shields up, but attack his, barrelling forward with one singular intent as the strength in my hand intensifies.
I expect to see a similar vision to Fenix’s—the dominance of power over Kirrasia and Estereah, of finding their rightful place to rule over the Orders who have dictated the way of things and interpreted Aslendrix for so many years.
But I don’t.
He doesn’t just want to rule over Kirrasia. He wants to take control of everything. Aslendrix and Novandia combined.
He wants to be worshipped as they are—as a God—a deity. For the world to grovel at his feet. And he thinks he has the key to destroying not just the curse between the sibling gods, but each of them in turn.
An image of the Transference Stone appears in my mind, the darkness and mist pulling back to reveal it. Flashes of people, all going through their ceremony. Where drops of power over hundreds of years have bled and filtered into the stone.
I remember when Ten took me there. That ancient, dark presence that I felt. The terror and fear that conjured inside of me the moment I touched the stone. The menace of it.
He wants to break the stone and take the power that’s amassed for himself, use the power of Novandia to unleash it, and consume everything and everyone in his way to becoming the ultimate god.
It takes everything in me not to react. To keep my face masked in anger that he would leave Selina on the ground and not show my hand.
If he knows I’ve seen his intentions, there’s no telling what he might do.
“Well?” I bark and turn to look at Selina, holding onto the dread that’s swarming inside me.
He lowers his head to where I have a hold of his arm, so I release my grip and take a needed step back.
Under his hooded cloak, his eyes stare through me, as if he’s testing me, looking for the lie as if it were brazenly written across my face in blood, so I hold my breath, hoping he can’t hear my stammering heartbeat.
“Fenix, help Selina,” he commands, but doesn’t take his eyes from mine.
“Thank you.” Finally, I turn away, easing the breath from my lungs.
I have to stop him. He’s manipulated everyone. This isn’t about Fenix, or revenge on the Orders, or their power struggles anymore. He doesn’t want to support Fenix’s vision and belief. This is all about him.
If what I just did isn’t a show of strength, I don’t know what is. And I’m out of time.
We need to get back to Kirrasia and warn them.
It needs to be tonight. When Aslendrix returns, and nightfall allows for an advantage against Fenix.
I’m out of time.
It’s nearly dusk by the time we make it back to the camp. There has been little talk, the Usher leading the way, back along the same path, past the open field where I stood under Novandia’s rays, and then into the forested area I associate with Fenix and his camp.
Fenix walks next to me, and Selina follows.
More people tag along the closer we get, emerging from trees as if hiding in wait.
It gives me time to pull an idea, the start of a plan, together. We said we’d wait until I was strong enough to take on Fenix, until we have more information, but we can’t wait any longer.
What will happen at the full moon? What difference will time make now?
We have what we have, and that’s got to be enough.
As we walk through to the main camp and past the firepit near where the Usher’s tent is, Kalan is perched, tending to the fire. I detour and go and sit next to him on the log.
“Ever,” he greets, a little startled, perhaps.
“Kalan.” I hold his gaze, forcing myself to see him as the man I remember him to be. The kind man who left me in the care of Lyle, who left me his brooch… that must count for something, and I wrestle with this over all the other information I know of the man.
“Is everything… alright? You’re well?” His eyes skip over me as if checking for an injury. I don’t answer him.
“Ever has had a busy day. I suggest she rests,” the Usher’s voice interrupts.
“I’d like to have dinner with Kalan tonight. And Fenix.” I turn to my brother.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea—”
“Of course. You’ll join us, Sister,” Fenix interrupts the Usher. There’s a very small window to pull this off, and I’m running on nothing but fear, the jaws of time closing around me as sure as the night approaches.
“What happened today, Ever?” Kalan asks, looking at me with his too-perceptive eyes, before he glances across to Fenix, who’s taken a seat on the log opposite the fire.
“She finally used her power. Just like we’ve been asking of her, maybe she’s realising she could have saved everyone some pain if she’d only listened to us in the beginning.”
“How is your chest, brother?” I ask, assuming the Usher healed him.
“You’ll have to do more than that to get rid of me, Sister.”
“You’ve gone to all this trouble. It would be a shame to kill me now, before you’ve used me to take your place and rule Kirrasia.
” I smile, cross my arms, and lean forward on my knees.
It’s a risk, coming out and saying it out in the open like this, with witnesses, but I have to know if Kalan’s aware of his plan.
“You two still aren’t getting along?” Kalan asks, pulling my focus back to him.
I take his hand, dwarfing mine in his. There’s a gentle energy, a hum that sparks at our touch. And I could swear that the wind whispers to us as we make contact.
And that’s all I need as the idea takes shape. I’ve always thought that the magic between me and Ten was more his than mine. But, either way, I need Kalan to hear. “Help me. Get Ten and Crimson out.” He’s the only one who can help me tonight.
“Yes, yes, he will.” That gentle breeze blows harder this time, and in the air, that faint sound of voices, just like in the Variscite Forest.
“Can he hear me? Can he hear this?” I ask again, lost for a way to understand or comprehend this.
All I get is a gentle squeeze of my hand and a slow nod from Kalan. Nothing to raise suspicion.
“It has to be tonight.” I don’t know why, but something is telling me that. Something urgent and insistent. I have to leave tonight.
The Usher doesn’t let his gaze stray from me for more than a few seconds for the rest of the night.
We eat in relative silence, only a few words spoken amongst the men.
Selina is silent. And Marius seems to take watch.
As the hour grows late, I feel the balance of energy begin to shift inside of me, tugging and pulling back, until there’s a reassurance of calm in the centre of me again, as if Aslendrix has taken up her residency and overtaken her brother’s presence.
My eyes drift closed, and I send up a silent thanks to the Goddess for returning to me and not shunning me for whatever I did earlier. I rub my finger over my ring and touch my pendant.
“Perhaps you should get some rest, Ever.” Kalan nods to me.
“Perhaps.” I stand. “Any more training tomorrow? Will I be back in the ring with a sword?” I offer a parting spar to my brother.