Chapter 15 Promises and Prophecy
PROMISES AND PROPHECY
Cool winter air fills my lungs the moment I step outside, loosening something inside me.
Kai, Holden, Griffin, and Daire follow me out onto the expansive stone porch.
Like me, they’re all wearing jeans, but I’m bundled in a thick knit sweater, where they’re all wearing tees.
Lochlan muttered an excuse to stay that I wasn’t about to question.
“The gates are closed. No green witches are here today,” Griffin says, taking my hand and leading me to the edge of the forest.
Nerves rake down my spine, uninvited. “Is that what the dark mass was? A green witch?”
Kai’s attention snaps to me, as though taking inventory of my thoughts. “That was an Unseelie.”
“Is it still out here?” I hate how thin my voice is.
Griffin shifts a branch away from the path for me. “It’s been taken care of.”
The forest looks like it’s still hibernating. Shades of green and brown peek out beneath layers of snow and ice that send a chill twining through my muscles. The familiar scents of moss, soil, and pine fill my lungs. “What’s a green witch, then?”
“Elementals who master ground charms,” Griffin explains.
When he doesn’t say more, I prod him with another question. “What are ground charms?”
Griffin glances over his shoulder at the others, his smirk dripping with condescension.
Pride and I have never been acquaintances, but with Scarlet’s definition of a mate still fresh in my mind, his expression slices deeper than it should.
“Charms are using a borrowed element that isn’t your own,” Daire explains. “Green witches may possess any primary element, but they master charms that manipulate ground-based magic. Enough to sometimes be mistaken for a Ground Elemental.”
I step over a large rock. “Everyone can borrow magic from other Elementals or just Vestras?”
“Only bonded Vestras can share energy through their Keystone,” Daire says. “Charms work differently. It’s old magic that was left behind by the original covens that learned to be shaped. Light, wards, communication—things that don’t fit into single elements.”
My head spins with the mountain of information I’m trying to retain. “I thought we were Elementals, not witches?”
Daire matches my pace. “‘Witch’ isn’t a different being. It describes Elementals who master charms that aren’t tied to their given element.”
My steps seem to echo through the forest while theirs are soundless. “So anyone can use all five elements?”
“In a sense,” Daire says. “Though, they’re typically weaker than one’s given element—unless you dedicate yourself to mastering it.”
“What’s your given element?”
His amber eyes dance between mine. “I have all five elements, but fire is my primary.”
My gaze jumps to Griffin. “Why do you guys use charms if you have all five elements?”
“The power of charms is older. Different. Think of elements as muscle and charms as tools.”
More questions sprout from his answer, but before I can ask them, we reach a clearing. I glance back in the direction of Mysthaven as a breeze rattles the trees, reminding me how far we walked. How no one would be able to hear me scream. “Why are we out here?”
“So you have enough space for your element,” Griffin says, pulling that dark pen he’d used to conceal his imprint from his pocket again before approaching a tree.
Daire waves a hand, and the snow around us melts. Completely.
“Would now be the appropriate time to remind you that I don’t know how to control my element?”
Daire gives me a crooked smile. “Holden’s runes will prevent anything from reaching outside the clearing.”
Holden stalks along the perimeter, making marks in the earth every few paces.
Unease claws a little deeper as Kai’s gaze settles on me, reminding me how he’d eyed me similarly as a wolf.
I blow out a shallow breath, my list of excuses expiring too quickly.
“There’s no pressure. This is day one,” Griffin says. “Daire’s going to guide you through the process and see if you can draw a small amount of power to test your strength and control.”
Daire shifts closer. His cinnamon, clove, and smoke scent wraps around me, even richer out here among the trees that remind me of being home in Vermont.
“Tell me we’re not doing more visualization.”
His smile becomes so wide it ties my lungs in knots. “Once you’re familiar with your elements, this will all become second nature.” He sets a hand on my waist. “Close your eyes.”
Nerves spike through my veins as my gaze flits to Kai and Holden.
Griffin steps forward. “They won’t hurt you.”
My trust has always been frost-thin, but being out here with these men who have discussed my demise so casually, it’s even thinner.
“They’d attempt to kill us if we so much as tried,” Kai tells me.
“Attempt and succeed,” Griffin warns.
To prevent either side from validating their threats, I release a breath and close my eyes.
Daire slips his hand along my waist and then gently pushes against the space below my ribs. “Focus your attention here.” He presses a little firmer. “Do you feel your cindrel? Feel the warmth?”
All I feel is his touch.
“I don’t...” I shake my head. “I don’t think so.”
“That’s okay.” He sets his other hand on my shoulder. “Try to relax. Focus on your heart. Feel it beating.”
Each staccato strike seems to shake my ribs.
“Now your lungs. Feel them expand as you inhale.” He pauses, allowing me to pull in a deep breath. “Good. Now do you sense a rush of warmth here?” he presses against that spot on my stomach again.
Faintly—so faintly—something stirs. A tickle of heat. A whisper.
“Try to dip into that warmth,” Daire encourages, reading my pause as an answer.
My heartbeats turn sticky as coldness seeps through my muscles.
“That’s okay,” Daire says. “Try again.”
I do.
Again.
And again.
And again.
“What triggered her elements at the healing center?” Kai asks from where he’s standing, a dozen feet in front of us, arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Tarkan threw a water orb at her. Then Loch showed up, acting like a fucking lunatic,” Daire recounts.
“Was Loch using one of his elements?” Kai asks.
Griffin frowns. “You think she’s reacting to power?”
“Maybe?” Kai shrugs. “It’s worth testing. Are you two going to be able to keep your cool if I toss some air at her?”
“Loch’s still breathing, isn’t he?” Daire says.
Kai grins, and the look is so beautiful it feels like he’s just stolen my breath. “Good. So you’ve been stewing on shit.”
“Brielle,” Griffin turns to me, “are you comfortable with this?”
Kai directs his light blue eyes to me.
Slowly, I nod.
Kai rolls his shoulders, and then something that resembles a blurry, translucent baseball shoots toward me.
I duck instinctively.
“For fuck’s sake!” Daire yells, throwing both hands up.
Kai shrugs. “If self-defense triggers her, I can’t very well lob it at her feet.”
“Do that again, and you’re going to be regrowing teeth for the next month,” Griffin warns.
“I’m fine,” I say. “Let’s try again.”
Kai barely shifts his fingers, and another orb barrels toward me. The warmth in my stomach flares, and my heart races, but my only impulse is to move out of the way again.
Griffin swears.
“I felt her power spike,” Holden says.
I did, too. “Let’s try again.”
“Don’t think about it,” Griffin suggests after my fifteenth failed attempt. “Let instinct take over.”
But instinct tells me to duck, not fight back.
“Maybe if the threat felt more real?” Kai suggests, his next orb coming faster, closer.
The warmth flares brighter this time, almost promising, but still no flames emerge from my fingertips. No protective barrier springs to life.
We repeat the drill for what feels like hours.
Each attempt follows the same pattern—Kai’s orb hurtling toward me, that faint stirring in my cindrel, then… nothing.
I try reaching for the warmth Daire described, but it’s like grasping smoke. The harder I focus, the more elusive it becomes.
I don’t create a single spark, air shield, or drop of water.
Instead, it feels as though my cindrel slumbers, while Daire and Griffin curse and issue threats every time an orb gets too close.
Despite Griffin’s threats against Kai, his optimism is nearly infectious. “You’ve got this,” he assures me again.
It’s been so long since someone believed me—believed in me—that I have to find that familiar cave of numbness and jump in with both feet before I do something crazy like swoon over the man.
His palm finds the back of my neck, warm and solid. My eyes meet his, and something shifts—something I don’t have a name for.
I want him to kiss me more than I want my next breath.
The foreign thought has me tearing my gaze away and taking a step back.
“Loch messaged. Scarlet’s awake,” Holden says.
I take another step and run a hand over my brow, not daring to look at Griffin. “Are we done?”
“For now,” Daire says. “Later, you and Kai will work on shielding again.”
Clouds pass overhead, darkening the sky as a cool breeze blows across my arms and cheeks, making me absently huddle into myself, once again reminding me of Vermont. For a breath, I almost feel at home.
We trek back to find Scarlet in the kitchen, talking excitedly to Gwen over a mug of steaming tea while Lochlan sorts through a sheath of papers, wearing another pair of dark dress slacks. Today, he has a light blue button-down with a black tie.
“How was training?” Gwen asks. “Lunch is ready, and I’ve made more tea.”
I tug my sleeves up, warm from the heat of the kitchen.
“You haven’t imprinted?” Scarlet looks from my arm to the guys, frowning. “Are you a true Vestra?”
Awkward silence chases her question.
“We’re abstaining from the imprint until we learn more,” Holden says.
“Abstaining?” Scarlet repeats before turning to me, guilt brimming in her eyes.
No one says anything.
Scarlet turns to Kai. “That makes no sense.”
“Tell us what does,” Kai says, grabbing a glass bottle from the fridge that he tips back, guzzling half the contents in one swallow.
“We’re abstaining because we know she isn’t our Mate,” Lochlan says.