The Discovered

by Maggie Sunseri

  “Daelon,” I said, grabbing his arm just as we reached the circle of trees.

  “What?” he snapped, his jaw tight and forehead creased.

  I flinched, dropping my arm back to my side.

  Like he was pulled from a daze, his features softened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to talk to you like that.”

  “I would hope not,” I muttered, frowning as he reached for my hand, intertwining is fingers through mine.

  “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I was… lost in thought.”

  “I just want to make you feel better and I don’t know how,” I said. Because you won’t tell me anything.

  He forced a smile, snaking his arm around my waist. He kissed my forehead, visibly releasing some of the tension he carried in his facial muscles.

  “You make me feel better about everything all the time,” he said softly.

  I smiled, feeling self-conscious under the weight of his words. “And you me.”

  A sadness passed through his eyes, almost undetectable.

  “You still don’t feel like you deserve me,” I said. I was getting better at reading Daelon without my gift.

  “I’m not sure anyone could deserve you,” he said, deflecting my call for vulnerability.

  I opened my mouth to try again, but he released my waist and started toward the center of the clearing. I decided to drop it.

  “What’s this place called again?” I asked, struggling to remember what my mothers had told me.

  “It used to be called something that loosely translates to the Beach of the Nameless and Formless. It’s not really called anything now,” he said, his shoulders slumping as if burdened by some mournful truth.

  The name stirred something within me. Nameless and formless was precisely how it felt, even in my astral travels—like a current of something transcendent ran through its waters and blew over its sand. It complimented my own power seamlessly. But why wasn’t it called anything anymore? The thought of no one knowing this place triggered a pang in my heart.

  “Because something bad happened there,” I guessed. Something cruel perhaps? Something that had to do with my mothers’ coven and Lucius’s unnatural reign.

  “A lot of good happened there, too,” Daelon said, quieter now. His eyes darted around the clearing. “Are you ready?”

  I nodded, offering my hands. Daelon took them in his, his touch delicate as he closed his eyes in concentration.

  “You can do it this time. You have a connection, after all,” he said. “It should be relatively easy for you. Visualize, concentrate, and channel enough power to take us there.”

  “Okay.”

  I closed my eyes, then took in a long breath as I conjured up the familiar imagery of the Beach of the Nameless and Formless. The name itself seemed to hold an energy of its own—a connection, a certainty—like it was magickally spelled. I moved through this current of power, channeling it through the crown of my head, and connected it to Daelon through my fingers. A sense of deep serenity enveloped us where we stood.

  Then, I felt the spray of seawater on my cheeks, the soft sand beneath the balls of my feet, and I tasted the faint essence of salt on my tongue. My ears popped, and I felt my body jolt through space.

  After a shrill burst of static and a moment of disorientation, I opened my eyes to find the world stable once more. The sky above was a soft blue, and the ocean roared to my right.

  “Good job, Áine.” Daelon leaned in and kissed my forehead. He rubbed his thumb across my hand before releasing it.

  I looked down at the shimmering, multi-colored sand. Everything here was teeming with magick. It was also rife with connection—to who I was, who my mothers were, and possibly even who Daelon was…

  “You’ve been here before?” I asked, trying to sound casual but desperate to uncover these connections.

  He nodded absently, scanning our surroundings like a secret service agent sweeping an area in advance of a president’s arrival. Well, I guessed he sort of was my own personal bodyguard, after all. The beach was clear in both directions. I reached out for any sign of foreign energy but came up blank.

  “There’s no one here,” I murmured.

  He nodded again, but he barely relaxed.

  “Want to swim?” I quirked a brow, unable to keep the glee from my smile.

  Daelon melted a little, rolling his eyes. “The water’s freezing.”

  “Pretty sure magick can fix that.” I raised my palms in illustration, which now gave off subtle waves of heat that moved translucently above my skin.

  He cocked his head, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. His eyes darkened as I threw my jacket to the sand, proceeding to pull my top over my head next. I maintained our locked gaze as I pulled off my pants, leaving me clad in a bra and panties. He looked around the beach again.

  “No one is here!” I laughed, stepping closer to him.

  He looked back down at me. “That’s good, considering if someone was, I’d have to blind them.”

  I gulped. “Well, that’s a bit dramatic.” I bit my lip, pulling up on his shirt in an attempt to undress him.

  He gave in, pulling it off the rest of the way. He grabbed my chin, his stare intense and electric. A flash of dominance passed through his eyes. “You think I’d allow anyone else to look at you like this?”

  “Doesn’t seem like you,” I said, holding my breath. I felt caught in an invisible rip tide—one that began and ended with Daelon.

  He smiled, kissing me briefly before releasing my chin. He took off his pants, stripping down to his boxers.

  “Let’s swim.”

  Chapter 20

  As soon as I stepped into the water it was like two worlds had collided. My inner reality and my outer reality merged into one, and I was in awe of how much power swam alongside Daelon and me. It was an overwhelming bath of electricity and infinite possibility.

  “What does it feel like for you?” Daelon asked, watching as I waded in front of him.

  We were well out from the shore now, but still a safe distance. I was struggling not to get lost in formless as it pulled at me from all directions. I wasn’t sure how to put the feeling into words that would make sense to him.

  “You know how when you’re young and learning about the phases of matter, and you’re taught that liquids take the shape of their container?”

  “Sure,” he said, his tone skeptical. Maybe that wasn’t a lesson at witch school.

  “Well normally, the power I have available to me feels outside of myself for the most part. And it’s so great, so vast, that it expands limitlessly. It’s nowhere and everywhere at the same time. No beginning and no end. But here, it feels as though the ocean has become a container for this power. It’s taken its shape.”

  I reached for his hand. “I want to see if I can let you feel it too.”

  I concentrated, searching for a means to let Daelon in. I wanted him to experience what I experienced. It was just too beautiful not to share.

  “Whoa,” he said, faltering.

  I watched as he grimaced at first, his eyes widening. As I let him in, he shifted into a dumbstruck awe. Suddenly his shielded aura shone through the cracks, like a blinding white light. But soon I realized it wasn’t only his—it was mine, reflected in him—and it was breathtaking.

  “I—” he stuttered, his brows pulling together. He muttered something in a language I didn’t know but felt familiar. “This isn’t witch,” he said, his tone grave. “This is literally divine, Áine.”

  “I know, right?” I said, excited that someone else could finally feel it too.

  “No, I mean seriously. I—I’m not very religious, but this is something more.” He frowned. “I don’t know what.”

  You are a gift from the Goddess, my mothers had said. To them, the Goddess seemed like more of a representation of the Universe, embodied in a conceptualized deity. They gave form to the formless, just as the infinite landscape of magick took shape in these waters and inside of me. T
his gift I’d been given meant something bigger than any of us. It was indescribable, inexplicable.

  “I don’t know either,” I said. “But I will find out.”

  Daelon reached out for me, running the back of his hand across my cheek. The way he looked at me made me falter from self-consciousness—like now that he’d seen the depths of my power, he couldn’t see anything else.

  I wanted to remind him I was still me, and contrary to what this magick would have him believe, I was still very much mortal, but before I could open my mouth something pulled me underwater.

  I thrashed against this force, and in doing so sucked in a mouthful of water that burned its way through my lungs. The more I struggled the deeper I was pulled. So, I gave in.

  I opened my eyes, relaxing my body so that I could concentrate on forming a pocket of air to extend past my mouth and nostrils. I coughed up water, breathing in the oxygen I’d spawned.

  I looked up, confused to see that the surface was nowhere in sight. All around me was clear blue. I was unable to detect any energy pollution, which meant whatever had pulled me under had come from the ocean itself. I floated, waiting, and after a few long seconds a vision began to take shape.

  It was of my mothers again, dressed in white and standing on this very beach. The waves crashed into them as they held hands chanting, tears streaming down their cheeks.

  Let us be of service, they said, the meaning translating seamlessly in my mind from their native tongue.

  Show us a way to return balance to the realms. We dedicate our lives to this end. We dedicate our hearts not to revenge, but to salvation, to goodness, light, and truth. In return, we ask for hope.

  Goddess bring us hope.

  They walked further into the water, disappearing into the waves, and the vision turned hazy. A disturbance in my surroundings made me spin around, my heart leaping out of my chest as I saw the younger versions of my mothers swim toward me.

  They looked like angels, their white dresses floating around them among the currents. Momma Celeste’s golden hair flowed around her like silk, and Momma Jane’s pale skin was clear and heavenly. As I looked at them, a lump formed in my throat as they stared back, smiles on their lips.

  In my stupor I lost my hold over my magick, and water broke through the air bubble and into my open mouth.

  Oh, bloody hell. Not this again.

  My lungs heaved and burned as they rejected the salty water. My mothers vanished, and I gathered up all my strength to propel myself toward the surface as my oxygen level plummeted.

  I shot upward, my vision blurring as I breached the open air. My limbs thrashed as I forced more water from my lungs.

  I felt a presence at my back, grabbing my torso and pulling me toward the shore.

  “Shit, Áine, where the hell did you go?”

  I continued choking up water, my body weak from all the exertion. I was grateful for Daelon’s support as he dragged me back to shallow water.

  He released me once we could stand, and I turned to face him. I was just finally starting to breathe in pure, unadulterated air. The taste of salt in my mouth was pungent.

  “You’re okay.” He rubbed my shoulders. “I couldn’t see you anywhere. And you were gone for so long,” he said, panic still lingering in his tone.

  “I found a way to breathe. I don’t know what happened. Sometimes those unknowable forces want to show me things in the water,” I was struggling to explain, my brain not working at its usual capacity.

  “Like what?”

  Daelon’s lips were blue, and I realized that I was shivering as well. My warmth magick must’ve been snuffed out in the panic.

  “Like… my mothers. Praying or doing magick—it’s hard to tell the difference. I think it was the spell they cast to conceive me.”

  Daelon reached for my hand, his eyes still carrying the wonder and awe that they had when I let him into my power. It was reverent and… unnerving.

  We walked back ashore to where our clothes lay, both shaking in the cool air. The sun was starting to descend in the sky.

  “Sit,” Daelon ordered, laying out his shirt on the sand for me. He closed his eyes, chanting something under his breath.

  I knew instinctively that it had something to do with fire, and right on cue flames sprung up on the piece of driftwood to our right. They were golden and mesmerizing, their energetic imprint a reflection of Daelon’s protective energy.

  I sat down on the shirt, the sand warm on my skin from soaking up heat from the sun.

  Daelon pulled on his jeans and reached for my jacket, kneeling to drape it over my shoulders before sitting down beside me.

  “I feel like the waves are telling me a story,” I said, still staring at the flames, even as Daelon pulled me into his lap and held me close to his chest. I reveled in the soothing heat from his body. “But it’s so fragmented, that it’s impossible to see the whole picture. I think because magick doesn’t seem bound by linear time, or by any sort of order at all.”

  “Timeless,” Daelon murmured.

  “Timeless and nameless and formless,” I echoed, suddenly feeling as though we were speaking in a secret language, one that we understood on a level deeper than could be vocalized.

  “I have a dear friend who speaks often of these things—the mystical. You two would have a lot to discuss,” Daelon said unexpectedly.

  My heart sped up a bit. Daelon never talked about anyone he knew, or his past. Thinking about how much of a mystery he still was led me right back into my persistent doubts and confusion about whether I could fully trust him. So, instead, I drew no attention to it in the hopes he would divulge more.

  “So, you do have some good friends,” I tried, pulling some humor into my voice in an attempt to disarm him.

  He stiffened slightly. “This is true.”

  Oh, come on.

  Just when I thought he wasn’t going to say anything more, he clasped my hand and started again.

  “We can never be normal, and I can’t express enough how sorry I am for that. But I vow to you that no matter what our lives look like, I will never lie to you. I will never stop protecting you and fighting for you… as long as you still want me to. I will never stop—caring for you.” He faltered, and I wondered if he wanted to say something more but stopped himself.

  My heart beat wildly in my chest, but I felt a wave of calm wash over me. It was like he knew exactly what I needed to hear in this moment.

  I knew what I wanted to say—what he no doubt wanted to hear—but I wasn’t going to say it. I leaned into him, breathing deeply. “I hope I never want you to stop,” was all I could manage for now.

  He sighed, kissing the top of my head. We sat in silence for a while, but it was a comfortable stillness—the kind shared between two people who were always destined to be here in this moment. There was never any other outcome.

  “I’m glad we’re here for the sunset. It’s the most beautiful in the realm—well, anywhere, I’d say,” Daelon said.

  “That’s what my mothers said.”

  As the sun began to descend, the sky’s deep blue slowly transformed into a swirl of delicate purples, pinks, and oranges over the rolling waves. The sand sparkled and the water shimmered. There was so much magick here. I could see now why Momma Celeste said the waves washed the badness away.

  This land felt like Daelon did. It felt like home.

  Here in his arms, I’d never felt closer to him. The loneliness I’d felt before dissipated, replaced by a profound sense of connection. I was glad he was a part of this cosmic story with me.

  I shifted around to straddle him, snaking my arms around his neck.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he said, smiling.

  “No, you,” I said, leaning forward to meet his lips. I was desperate to be as close to him as possible—for this moment to be even more perfect than it already was. I wanted to say with a kiss what I couldn’t with my voice.

  He met my intensity, his hands trailing down to rest low o
n my back. Our lips moved hungrily, devotedly, getting lost in each other. Soon there was nothing but us. Everything else faded away.

  We were so absorbed in each other, in fact, that I almost didn’t notice the atmosphere shift with the presence of foreign energy. I pulled away.

  “What’s wrong?” Daelon asked, stroking my cheek.

  “I—I thought I felt something,” I said.

  Daelon stiffened. “Fuck.”

  My eyes darted all around, my stomach lurching when I saw a figure off in the distance among the dunes.

  Daelon all but threw me off of him as he leapt to his feet. I reached out to feel the figure’s energy, which I immediately discerned as sinister, but nothing close to Lucius’s distinctive presence. He just stood there, watching us.

  “I need you to do as I say, now more than ever before,” Daelon said, his tone sharp as a blade. In an instant, he’d shifted into someone entirely different than the man who’d just held me in his arms.

  I pulled my jacket closed over my exposed body, still clad in underwear.

  “Zip up that jacket, put on your pants, and do not move from here,” he ordered, his tone like ice.

  “But—” I needed to tell him about the man’s energy.

  He cut me off with his glare. “Do not follow me, Áine.”

  He was seething, cursing under his breath as he began to walk toward the figure, leaving me reeling behind him.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I rose and slipped into my jeans. I felt vulnerable, and at the tone of Daelon’s voice paired with the intruder’s voyeurism, ashamed. Why didn’t he want me to come with him? What if he needed me?

  I watched Daelon approach the threat, who also moved closer to meet him. He was dressed in dark clothing and appeared to be young and athletically built. He had sandy blond hair, and his energy was sneaky and teeming with ego. The aura slithered toward me like a wriggling snake, hued bright red, grayish, and black.