I nodded. I was still pretty tired from yesterday, and Daelon’s comment was accurate. I had a feeling there wouldn’t be much time to rest when I had evil witches to fight and whatever else I was magickally conceived to do.
“We can go in a couple days—when you’re feeling more recharged.”
“Just an energy battery to you, huh?” I asked demurely, my humor unsurprisingly lost on him.
His eyes darkened. “Only because all my power goes to protecting you.”
“Daelon, it was a joke. Trust me, I’ve seen it,” I said.
“Seen what?”
“Your magick. I saw it in the astral realm, around the property’s perimeter. It was very bright and shiny.” I smiled reassuringly. I knew how much he strained to keep me safe.
He once again looked perplexed. “Interesting. Did you see your own power?”
“Yes. It was… a lot,” I said, recalling the heavenly spotlight that shone from the roof to the stars.
Daelon steepled his fingers in front of his face. A smile played at the corners of his lips. “Yes, it is.”
“How literal is what I see in the astrals?” I asked. “Like I can obviously experience real places and see real people… but what about the more dreamlike aspects?”
I thought back to the strange scene with the altar in the forest of dead trees, and once again wondered what was being revealed to me there—and by whom?
“The astrals are easily influenced by our thoughts and emotions, much like magick, and to a lesser extent the witch realm. Not everything there is a direct reflection of reality here, which can be very tricky. Here in the physical, our consciousness is separated from physical reality to a greater extent because it’s limited to our bodies—aside from magick—but in the astral realm, consciousness flows more fluidly from the perceiver to the perceived and vice versa. It’s not separate.” He tapped his fingers absently on the table, his brows drawing together as he mused. “The astral realm is a fluid, tangible representation of the collective consciousness of all of existence—human, witch, animal, and all the rest. Dreams, visions, goals, and art… it’s all there, just as real as what we call physical reality. It affects us and we affect it, like a perfect circle of balance. Just like magick.”
I leaned back in my chair, trying to glean any semblance of coherence from Daelon’s words. Things were a lot less complicated on Earth; the laws of witches weren’t exactly accessible. From what I gathered, it seemed like this was because on the scale of magickal malleability, Earth was at the bottom—thus more rooted in the physical—and then came Aradia, and at the top was the astrals. This hierarchy made my mothers’ escape to Earth a smart move and explained why they stuck me in the least natural place in the human realm: New York City. My ties to magick were literally at their lowest point, just as they wanted for me until I was ready to return.
“I know it’s hard to understand,” Daelon said. “Even the most seasoned witches struggle to explain how exactly the astrals work. Or magick for that matter.”
“Or me?”
Daelon chuckled. “You would definitely fall into the category of the Universe’s greatest mysteries.”
“Great,” I muttered, my brow still creased in concentration. I took a moment to try to relax, massaging my temples.
Daelon inhaled, his eyes softening. “We’re going to figure it out. I promise.”
I nodded, stealing one last glance at the beach painting. I had an undeniable feeling that our trip there would help me to do just that.
At some point in the night my mind stirred while my body stayed in sleep paralysis, and I was overcome by the familiar energetic vibrations of my astral body detaching from the physical.
I’m tired. Just let me sleep, I groaned telepathically to whatever mysterious forces were afoot. Popping noises erupted in my ears right on cue, and my arms began to float upward.
Seriously. I’m not in the mood for cryptic astral road trips to creepy castles and forests.
I began to float up toward the ceiling, and as soon as I realized my energetic field had been breached somehow, it was too late to block the intruder from my mind.
Not even for me? a familiar voice answered.
In a panic, I opened my eyes, and I realized I was no longer in Daelon’s bedroom. I was lying in the same field as my previous encounters with Lucius, tall golden grass blowing in the wind all around me. The sky above was overcast and darkening.
I pushed myself to stand, looking all around for any sign of my enemy. I quickly grounded myself, building up my defensive barrier and decisively shoving him out of my head.
“What do you want now?” I asked, annoyed as ever that he’d summoned me from my sleep for more cruel games.
In a burst of thick, black smoke, a man appeared. He appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with jet black hair that had a loose curl to it, striking, light blue eyes, and fair skin with angular cheekbones. He was dressed in a dramatic black jacket and pants with golden accents, blending the modern and archaic. He also wore an intricate, golden crown.
“Always with the theatrics,” I muttered under my breath. So, this was really what Lucius looked like. He was finally done concealing himself.
His energy was undeniably dark, thick, and deadly, and I instantly recoiled, taking a step back. I breathed in deeply, blocking it from my perception.
“Now what’s this about my castle?” he asked, his voice no longer distorted. It was deep, clear, and surprisingly humored. “Not to your taste?”
I faltered. His castle?
I narrowed my eyes, trying to erase what I could only imagine was dumbfounded shock from my face. “No longer hiding, I see.”
When he took a step forward, I took one back, determined to keep a good twelve feet of distance between us.
“And no posse. Feeling brave?” I feigned warmth in my smile. I refused to give him the satisfaction of thinking his intimidation tactics had worked.
He laughed, again surprising me. We mirrored each other’s demeanors and movements, like some sort of strange, ritualized dance.
“I have no need to conceal myself any longer,” he sneered. “You’ll be seeing me in the flesh soon enough.”
I tried not to let the dread seep into my disposition, even if his words brought every ounce of it into my body. I chose to ignore the comment, pretending it didn’t faze me. “See yourself as a king, do you?” I nodded to the silly golden crown perched on his head.
He glared. “Your king, foolish girl,” he spat. “The king of every witch.”
I racked my brain for any mention of him in my mothers’ stories but came up blank. They never spoke of any monarchy, or any ruling hierarchy for that matter. Daelon had never mentioned any kings or castles either, which was even more strange. As usual, I was fighting a war wearing a blindfold, and it was increasingly frustrating.
“You just have no idea,” Lucius chuckled, his anger quick to dissipate. “About anything. It’s adorable, really.”
I clenched my fist at my side. Yes, I was well aware that after over a month in Aradia, I still had no idea what the hell was going on.
“Has Daelon not been forthcoming?” He smiled, goading me.
I clenched my jaw, my power awakening and shifting to the offensive. I knew Lucius’s game was to intimidate and confuse me. He tried to shake my trust in my protector before, and I nearly shuddered at the memory of Daelon’s grip around my throat.
It made sense that Lucius would want to drive me away from Daelon and his shielding. How else would he be able to find me? He wanted me vulnerable for attack back in the physical—because he saw me as a threat to whatever power he had here, a power that I knew in my gut was inherently unnatural and stolen.
“I’ve hit a nerve,” Lucius purred. He stepped closer, his light blue eyes dancing with a malevolent humor.
“How could you when I don’t believe a single syllable that comes out of your mouth?” I fired back. My palms tingled with electricity.
>
“You should.” His lips curled upward, his eyes alight. It was like I was the punchline of a joke I wasn’t privy to. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh. His energy didn’t lie, that was for sure. It was so dark and suffocating that I couldn’t tolerate reading it for more than a couple seconds.
“He will betray you,” he said, quiet and insistent, watching me closely.
My stomach dropped at those words, my greatest fear and most haunting doubt. I tried to maintain impassivity, but I knew I’d failed when Lucius smiled again.
He looked confident now, staring at me with his head slightly to the side. “Has he seduced you yet, little witch?”
I couldn’t hold back any longer, wind whipping all around us. Lucius reveled in my unraveling, and I was unable to stop myself from unleashing a shockwave of energy out from my body. It spread out over the tall grass and slammed into Lucius, and I watched as he struggled against the force.
He stumbled backward but caught himself, a flash of shock quickly transforming back into his menacing grin.
“Well, that’s surprising,” he called out, still toying with me.
Why did he act like he knew Daelon? Dread swam in my gut, threatening to take control over my power. I fought against it, reminding myself that this was all a game to him. He probably saw Daelon’s thoughts when he possessed him, and now he was using them as ammunition.
This realization soothed me, and I held fast to the trust I had just placed in Daelon hours ago. I wouldn’t let Lucius’s lies change that, especially after seeing the pure, white energy field surrounding our little house in the woods, after feeling how much Daelon worried and cared for me—no, I would not let Lucius pollute these facts.
“Why are you so threatened by me?” I asked, throwing him off guard. I watched his eyes darken.
“I think I’ve proved on multiple occasions that I have no reason to be threatened by you,” he spat.
“Then why am I here?” I raised my voice, planting myself firmly in the soil. I sensed the earth’s energy beneath my feet, strong and grounding. I closed my eyes, picturing my body in Daelon’s bed, feeling the warmth of his body wrapped around mine, the silkiness of the sheets, the pressure of the comforter…
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll see you soon, foolish girl, he said telepathically as I snapped back into my body.
Chapter 19
My return to my physical body was jolting but welcomed. I was still fuming, enraged at Lucius’s attempts to drive a wedge between Daelon and me.
Has he seduced you yet, little witch?
Those words somehow stung even more than the promise that Daelon would betray me. My stomach soured, and I rolled over on my side into a fetal position. I breathed in deeply in an attempt to self-soothe. I failed to block out the frenzied, dark thoughts that rolled in like a storm cloud.
Daelon stirred at my shift in position, moving onto his side so that his chest was to my back. “Are you okay?” he asked, brushing his fingers through my hair.
I leaned into the pleasurable tingles along my scalp, and I allowed myself to melt into the safety of his body so close to mine.
“Bad dream,” was all I said, and much to my relief, he didn’t ask for elaboration.
He just wrapped his arm around me and kissed me above my ear. I wanted to ask him if he knew Lucius more than he had let on. I wanted to ask him about kings and castles.
I wanted to ask him if he was going to betray me.
But I didn’t.
The next couple of days were uneventful, and I welcomed the reprieve. Daelon helped me cast circles around the bed at night to ward off unwanted astral summoning. I kept my mouth shut about my recent encounter with Lucius, content to bury it in the back of my mind until I was forced to confront it again.
Daelon and I carried on our potentially disastrous affair in between training sessions, and I fell deeper for him despite it all. There was a sense of naturalness and inevitability between us, like we each reflected our desires back to each other. We reminded each other of where we came from, and that meant something that was hard to put into words. It was sacred.
Today I watched the sunrise with a cup of coffee in hand, curled up on a couch on the back deck. With the snap of my fingers, I lit the firepit, and because I was alone, I couldn’t help but smile with childlike glee. That would never get old.
I leaned back into my oversized sweater, my hands warming against the hot mug. Daelon was inside working out, refusing to let me watch like I’d very much wanted to—because apparently that would have been distracting.
The snow had melted, but its smell lingered in the air. The atmosphere was sharp and frosty, and because of Lucius’s threat of seeing me soon, I scanned the surrounding energy for anything out of the ordinary. As usual, I came up blank. All I could sense was the strong energetic wall around the property’s perimeter—along with the wall of a human being that was Daelon in the next room.
The sun had risen over the distant mountains by the time my mug was empty. I thought of my mothers in the stillness of the morning, remembering their soft-spoken prayers in the early hours each day. I now understood they were also magickally charged spells.
Goddess protect us, they had said.
And when I came into my power, they said: Reveal to us the right path to keep Áine safe.
My heart was heavy at the thought of this prayer, as I knew now that the path required their death. If Lucius had something to do with their murder, then let him come.
I would destroy him.
“Áine?”
Daelon pulled me from my inner diatribe, and I turned to look at him as he stepped onto the porch. His skin shone with sweat in the soft morning rays, his dark hair tousled and clinging to his forehead. He spotted me and his face visibly relaxed.
I smiled, waving my hand over the firepit to extinguish the leaping flames before walking over.
“Hey,” I said, stealing a very long glance at his chiseled frame. The veins in his arms protruded as they coiled around his muscles.
He shot me a sly grin. “Ready for your workout?”
I gazed at him quizzically, raising a brow. “What workout?”
I squealed as he lunged at me, throwing me over his shoulder in one swift movement.
“Ew. Put me down. You’re sweaty,” I protested, squirming against him.
He swatted my ass playfully. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with that when you were just undressing me with your eyes.”
“Okay. Fair enough.”
He set me upright, and I steadied myself against him after a wave of dizziness. I ran my hands along his chest, looking up to meet his heated, possessive gaze.
“Take off your clothes,” he commanded.
And I obeyed.
“Okay, now we really should go. I want to get there soon so we can be back before dark,” Daelon said, slightly out of breath.
His hand cupped the side of my face, both of us nude on the carpet in front of the fire. We had barely made it out of the shower and into the kitchen before we ended up getting tangled in each other once more. Over the past few days, our escapades had only gotten even more intense and all-consuming, if that was even possible. Daelon seemed desperate to make sure I knew I belonged to him.
And I was desperate to believe him.
I groaned, unwilling to peel myself away from him. But I was quick to rise when I remembered our destination, and the same mysterious pull from before arose in my gut. We were finally going to visit the ocean my mothers told me about in bedtime stories—the ocean I used as a metaphor to make sense of the vast, infinite pool of energy that lay at my fingertips.
“Your excitement is quite endearing, as usual,” Daelon chuckled, picking up my clothes from the floor and handing them to me.
He stooped to lock his lips with mine, moving slower now, less urgent. He moved his hand to rest at the side of my neck, his thumb softly stroking the sensitive skin
of my throat. It was a move of subtle authority, and I felt myself still and calm under his touch.
He smiled down at me, dropping his hand and kissing my forehead. “Get dressed.”
I hurried back into my sweater, slipping away to the bathroom to fix my mess of hair. After trying in vain to make my long, tangled hair cooperate, I threw it into a messy braid instead.
“It’s not a warm beach, right?” I asked as I emerged from the bathroom. I realized I’d never really paid attention to its temperature in the astrals. It was always just sort of pleasant.
“No. It’s northern, so it’s mild all year long,” he said. “You’re dressed fine. You can take your jacket off once we make the jump.”
I frowned at his demeanor, which had shifted decisively in the last few minutes to the more moody, guarded, and stressed Daelon I knew all too well.
“What’s wrong?”
He hesitated. “It’s just a… complicated place. In terms of its history,” he said. “And while we should be in the clear, it makes me nervous to leave here. We will be a lot more vulnerable. I think it’s important for you to see the place that has called to you so strongly, but at the first hint of foreign energy we’re out of there, okay?”
I nodded. “What happened there?”
He shook his head, giving me the familiar look that meant a topic was off-limits. I knew in my gut that it was something I needed to find out. There had to be a reason I was so drawn to this place—why my mothers spoke of it so often, why I used it as my metaphor, why I kept ending up there in the astrals—and most importantly, why Daelon couldn’t talk about it.
“Fine,” I muttered indignantly. “Let’s go. Stop worrying. You have an ultrapowerful witch on your side, after all.”
Daelon laughed dryly, leading me to the door built into the glass paneling. “You are exactly what worries me.”
As we walked to the clearing, I watched Daelon’s tension build. He didn’t seem as sure of himself as usual, nor as present with me as he had been this morning. He was distracted, and as I cast glances in his direction, he often looked strained—like he was fighting a battle I couldn’t see.
The Discovered Page 20